Multicultural Education

Wadham, Pudsy and Boyd (2007) define culture as an ongoing process of interpreting and making the world around us. This definition of culture demonstrates that as we grow and develop during school years, we continue to understand more about the cultures of our peers, classmates and also our teachers. Therefore, our interpretation of these people evolves and we begin to acknowledge them based on their cultural background.

Multicultural education is designed for an educational system that is comprised of cultures of several different races. I think this type of education is a fundamental aspect of all schools and educational bodies. It allows students and teachers to facilitate consensus building, respect for other cultures and ultimately, cultural fluency within different racial communities and in the classroom. This can be achieved in various ways such as social activities, staff training, and administrative support. Multicultural education can further help to abolish the nasty stereotyping, prejudice and racism that occurs on a daily basis within school communities. Hence, multicultural education is the potential catalyst to bring all cultures together in harmony.

On a more negative note, multicultural education may have undesired consequences such as terrorism and racial riots. These unfortunate events may occur because multicultural education can enhance feelings of being different and therefore atypical. However, Ho (2011) debates that the media typically focuses on “moments of crisis and points of anxiety around cultural diversity”.

I can recall many past experiences during school that involved countless stereotypes and generalizations of different cultures. This eventually led to each different culture “sticking together” as a result of a failure to understand and adjust to the different cultural communities they were constantly surrounded by at school. Asians would stick with Asians, Lebanese would stick with Lebanese and Whites would stick with Whites. Since each cultural group would form a cohort and stick with each other, bonding only usually occurred between people of the same cultures and traditions so the opportunity to learn about these other cultures was very restricted. This is an example of when multicultural education is needed, to encourage cultural fluency amongst different cultures within a shared community and to enhance feelings of positivity and understanding towards their customs, beliefs and traditions. It is through multicultural education that students are taught to accept one another regardless of religion, sex, age or heritage.

Christina Ho (2011) describes schools as ‘micropublics’, “a space where engagement and negotiation across cultures are unavoidable.” However, Australian private schools consist of predominately Anglo-saxon Australians. This can be an issue for young Australian students, as it reduces the opportunity for students to engage and become familiar with the differences of other cultures and backgrounds. Hence, these students are NOT in micropublics and therefore may lack the ability to to “negotiate across difference and come to respect the legitimate presence of the other,” (Ho, 2011, p. 616).

In conclusion, it is evident that the advantages of multicultural education far outweigh the disadvantages. Multicultural education should therefore be encouraged across all educational systems to promote harmonious school environments.

References

·Boyd, R. Pudsey, J. Wadham, B. (2007). Culture Education. Pearson Education Australia

·Ho, C. (2011). Respecting the Presence of Others: School Micropublics and Everyday Multiculturalism, Journal of Intercultural Studies, 32:6, 603-619