Multicultural Education

Multicultural Education 

The article begins by glossing over what multiculturalism has come to mean in the Western world, where it is seen as the more equal representation of all denominations and cultures. Wherein there is a tolerance or mutual recognition of the the multiple cultures. It then presents the opinion of an American politician, Newt Gingrich, in that this multiculturalism is eroding the idea of the American nation. As the article states, this statement does seem blatantly fascist, it is to some degree true. From the perspective of the Nation-State, multiculturalism erodes the idea of belonging to the homogeneous identity of being, in this case, 'American'. And with the recognition of the multiple cultures within the society, individuals are no longer identified as being simply 'American' but rather a sub-denomination of an American. This alters the traditional monocultural view of the Nation-State in that all its citizens are 'American' but rather things like an 'Asian-American', or 'African-American' and so forth. This presents the clash between different definitions of multiculturalism. Under the Nation-State view, it seen as everyone merging into on unified culture, but the contrasting view sees it as the coexistance of different cultures within a society with clear differentiation.


The article then continues in saying that “multi-cultural education is about transcending the text of nationalism and creating a new type of globalism”. This continues on in the presented globalised view of multiculturalism in saying that a national identity is a restriction on a multicultural society by acting as a forced identity or homogeneity, which is a contradiction to the previously mentioned meaning of this as equal representation of all denominations and cultures. A nationalist identity, in the provided case, of being 'American' is hardly an equal representation of all contained cultures when there is an inherent majority of a certain culture or denomination and thus, covert stereotypical association of a certain culture with the 'American' identity.


The article then moves on to defining 'Multi-cultural education' specifically in saying that it is not just about the material itself, but rather “Multi-cultural education is about creating structures and processes that allow for the expression of the many civilizations, communities and individuals that we are”. The specific emphasis on having appropriate structures and processes for expression can be related to the aforementioned library analogy. Simply having the 'books' on the metaphorical shelf is not enough, the 'books' must be presented equally and be as accessible as the other 'books' in the library. Those 'books' might not even be books, but rather resources of another nature such as a support staff in a school dedicated to servicing the education of a certain cultural group.



The article from the Renaissance Universal website can be found here:
http://www.ru.org/education/the-multi-cultural-challenge-to-the-future-of-education.html