Essay Instructions: The research paper should be 15 pages.
The class is a graduate Education class called Multicultural Education. The topic chosen for my paper is Multicultural Education in the NYC school system and the need to improve literacy instruction of students of diverse backgrounds. (This topic can be changed slightly. The paper does have to be on Multicultural Education with a focus on Literacy.)
I will be teaching in a NYC elementary school. Most of the students are underprivileged Hispanic, African Americans. I am a white female.
Course description:
The course will provide the student with and understanding of the cause and nature of multicultural education. If will provide an opportunity for students to explore and discuss the complex and varied issues of: culture, race ethnicity, gender, curriculum concerns, literacy, cognition, knowledge transfer, bias, and power relationships (Social, political, economic) in context of a pluralistic society. Historical background pertaining to colonization, immigration and other forms of cultural contact and its impact, in a culturally diverse society will also be presented.
What is Multicultural Education? (Combination of all described below)
Some discuss multicultural education as a shift in curriculum, perhaps as simple as adding new and diverse materials and perspectives to be more inclusive of traditionally underrepresented groups. Others talk about classroom climate issues or teaching styles that serve certain groups while presenting barriers for others. Still others focus on institutional and systemic issues such as tracking, standardized testing, or funding discrepancies. Some go farther still, insisting on education change as part of a larger societal transformation in which we more closely explore and criticize the oppressive foundations of society and how education serves to maintain the status quo -- foundations such as white supremacy, capitalism, global socioeconomic situations, and exploitation.
Despite a multitude of differing conceptualizations of multicultural education (some of which will be laid out more fully below), several shared ideals provide a basis for its understanding. While some focus on individual students or teachers, and others are much more "macro" in scope, these ideals are all, at their roots, about transformation:
?h Every student must have an equal opportunity to achieve to her or his full potential.
?h Every student must be prepared to competently participate in an increasingly intercultural society.
?h Teachers must be prepared to effectively facilitate learning for every individual student, no matter how culturally similar or different from her- or himself.
?h Schools must be active participants in ending oppression of all types, first by ending oppression within their own walls, then by producing socially and critically active and aware students.
?h Education must become more fully student-centered and inclusive of the voices and experiences of the students.
?h Educators, activists, and others must take a more active role in reexamining all educational practices and how they affect the learning of all students: testing methods, teaching approaches, evaluation and assessment, school psychology and counseling, educational materials and textbooks, etc.
Some discussions we had in class:
?h Empowerment of minorities in schools and society.
?h Whites are born privileged.
?h preparing students to function in a more diverse society.
?h Critical educational theorists argue that teachers must understand the role that schooling plays in joining knowledge and power in order to use that role for the development of critical and active citizens.
?h Bilingual education today often sets children up for failure (in both schools and in society).
?h The role of schools in our society.
?h Standard and Standardized testing-disadvantages to minorities.
?h More diverse teacher work force is needed.
Some resources that might be useful.
Required readings for the class:
Life in Schools, An Introduction to Critical Pedagogy in the Foundations of Education, by Peter McLaren
Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World, by Patricia Ramsey (chapters 1-9)
American Education, An Introduction to Social and Political Aspects, Fifth Edition Joel Spring
Some useful websites:
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/index.html
http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/education/multi/define.html