Becoming an Effective Multicultural Educator

While there exist many definitions of multicultural education, the following is a concise and yet comprehensive definition. Multicultural Education is: “Comprehensive school reform that challenges all forms of discrimination, permeates instruction and interpersonal relations in the classroom and advances the democratic principles of social justice.” (Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education, Sonia Nieto, 1992)

Following is a list of characteristics of teachers who are effective multicultural educators. They:

• Have clear sense of their own ethnic and cultural identities.

• Communicate high expectations for success of all students, and a belief that all students can succeed.

• Are personally committed to achieving equity for all students and believe that they are capable of making a difference in their students’ learning.

• Have developed a bond with their students and cease seeing their students as the “other.”

• Offer an academically challenging curriculum.

• Focus on creating an interactive and collaborative learning environment.

• Help students see learning tasks as meaningful and relevant.

• Include in the curriculum the contributions and perspectives of the different ethnocultural groups that compose the society.

• Explicitly teach students the culture of the school and seek to maintain students’ sense of ethnocultural pride and identity.

• Encourage community members and parents or guardians to have a significant voice in making important school decisions.

• Are involved in the community and in political struggles outside the classroom that are aimed at achieving a more just and humane society.

From: Multicultural Competence Factors/Variables for Teachers,  Kenneth Zeichner, 1992 and Educating Citizens in a Multicultural Society, James A. Banks, 1997)

What Can I Do Now?

• Explore one’s own culture including biases and values;

• Develop knowledge about and respect for the characteristics and contributions cultures other than own’s own;

• Learn about the ways in which culture is connected to curriculum content, learning styles, teaching strategies, communication and language, testing, and school/classroom climate;

• Learn about how institutional and individual racism and other forms of oppression (at both the conscious and unconscious level) impact education.

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