Multicultural Curriculum Essential for Advancing

¶ … MULTICULTURAL CURRICULUM ESSENTIAL for ADVANCING EDUCATION?

The objective of this work is to research the question of whether multicultural curriculum is essential for advancing education. According to Nash (1992) the answer is yes however Ravitch (1990) states no as an answer.

Differing opinions exist among educators as to whether the multicultural element in curriculum is essential for advancing education. Gary B. Nash is a historian who paints the development of American history over the past 100 years "as the research of a new generation of historians sheds light on issues such as class conflict, labor relations, gender roles and race relations." Teaching history using a multicultural emphasis is in the view of Nash to be a positive advance in education in America. Another historian of education, Diane Ravitch expresses fear that the common-knowledge in American history taught in schools in the United States will become weakened due to multiculturalism.

Ravitch and the Sanitization of the Textbooks

Ravitch (2004) states that she continues to read textbooks, especially history textbooks, and to be deeply dismayed by their abysmally dumb and oversimplified content." (2004 Ravitch speaks of censoring of educational material as well as."..innumerable instances of similar censorship in children's trade publishing, in college textbooks, in hymnals and other arenas of publishing as well." (2004)

III. Nash and History

In the work entitled "History on Trial in the Heart of Darkness" written by Rich Gibson and published in Theory and Research in Social Education (1998) it is stated by Gibson that: "Nash wanted to enact his brand of history, one which elevates the relativity of standpoints over the bleak collection of falsely objective facts. He wanted, above all, to promote his form of nationalism, the idea that we are all in the same boat -- despite remarkable differences of culture. Clearly, an element of his nationalism is designed to bolster national economic development.."..established democracies that lacked highly skilled and literate populations might do poorly indeed in the dog-eat-dog arena of international trade." (p.129)

III. Ideological Differences a Recurring Theme

According to the work of Margaret Smith Crocco entitled: "Dealing with the Differences in the Social Studies: A Historical Perspective": stated is the fact that the: "Multiculturalists advocate a polyvocal and multilayered set of stories about American history and government rather than the nationalistic and triumphalist narratives that have dominated social studies to date. Within the last decade, progress towards these goals has met serious resistance from the standards and testing movements that have largely codified more traditional views of history." (Crocco, 2003-2004) Crocco additionally relates that over the last century the differences in culture and ideology: "... have played a large role in defining how Americans interpret citizenship education, the hallmark of social studies, and in informing notions of what is educationally worthwhile as related to citizenships. Ideological difference has, of course been a recurring theme in textbook censorship battles and curriculum dis8utes over the course of this history " Curriculum is described by Croc o as being "an educational tradition providing 'culturally constituted tools for understanding and reforming the world'. (Crocco, 2003-2004)

IV. Vinz: Competing Versions of How to Educate for Cultural Understanding