Multiculturalism in American education and society

¶ … Multiculturalism has become a very important concept in our United States, and in afairs that touch upon government, academia and business. This approach helps one look at other cultures with mutual respect, freely and in a sharing fashion. Without it, we would be not be able to fulfill the mission of this society, which is to extend the blessings of liberty to all in our society. Multiculturalism allows strong, binding alliances and coalitions across international boundaries and gives the stakeholders ownership in having relationships continue and to grow, although for such stakeholders to feel they own a place, constitutional solutions may be necessary, what scholar Harry W. Arthurs calls constitutionalizing multiculturalism. To the extent that it is, stability eventually results.

What Multiculturalism is Not

Unfortunately, because of the packaging, many people confuse race and culture. Needless to say, most of us were introduced to this concept in an educational context. In an article in Educational Researcher, Nina Asher claims that although multicultural education is well established in education, stereotypic representations still persist in the educational discipline and in the sphere of educational discourse. For instance, she notes that preservice teachers preparing to work with diverse students found that the cultural gap between teachers and students was found to be growing. According to Asher, this lag has an origin. Until recently, we have focused upon race and class, ignoring differences of sexuality, gender, and class Unfortunately, in her view, multicultural education has been framed in "white man's eyes" (Asher, 2007, 65).

Therefore, Asher advocates breaking the chains of these characterizations. If the multiculturalism continues to be seen through the white man's eyes, it will be limited to race and class and will be parochial and limited. It simply maintains the status quo. In her analysis, she interweaves postcolonial and feminist theory with her own reflections that have emerged from her multicultural teaching experiences. With this in hand, she documents the tensions of multicultural teaching. While a great concept, this multi-pronged approach to teaching about the humanities harbors great problems. She openly discusses how the silencing forces have operated freely even in seemingly "open" micro and macro contexts in order to limit her ability to discuss sensitive issues (ibid, 66). To illustrate the problems, she describes in detail two areas that have received only very limited attention in the multicultural discourse itself. These included descriptions of representations of Asian-Americans and in the differences of sexuality. She then recommends that the multicultural teacher classroom serve as a site for the modeling of critical and self-reflexive engagement with the difference and democratic participation emphasized. This is the case even as she acknowledges the limits of teacher individual efforts in the process of educational and social change (ibid, 71).

The Emergence of Multiculturalism

Of course, these problems that Asher points out were did not come out of a vacuum. Margaret Alison Gibson in a 1984 scholarly literature review in Anthropology & Education Quarterly commented identified four approaches to multicultural education. Had approaches like these be implemented, the problems that Asher in 2007 might not have occurred.

First, there is the view of education as the transmission of cultural information relieves educators from assuming primary responsibility for students' acquisition of cultural competencies . This suggests that there is a need for multicultural education proponents to consider more carefully the relationship of school programs to cultural informal school and out-of-school learning that students absorb. Secondly, individuals no longer are restricted to the view that tends to equate culture and ethnic group. This might have prevented some of the stereotyping that Asher complained about. In the third approach competence in a new culture usually requires intensive interaction between the participant and people who already are competent with regard to multi-cultural education. Clearly, efforts to support ethnically separate or policies that hinder integration of groups is counterproductive. Fourth, concerns that multicultural education proponents have with the fostering of their students' cultural identity as well as fears that mainstream schools will those out of step with the normative culture result from a confusion of social identification with the concept of cultural competence. (Gibson, 1984. 113).

Injecting History into Multiculturalism

The many benefits of multiculturalism cannot be communicated without looking at the history of different cultures in the United States who brought new ideas with worthwhile benefits. Whether food, sports, inventions, or in other areas, history itself is multicultural whether we know it or not.

As Alana Lentin points out in her journal article that placing multiculturalism in a historical context sets out to contextualize a discourse of multiculturalism in the post-Second World War period. Culture is presently almost universally used to differently categorize distinct human groups and to refer to the differences between them. This translates into the liberal acceptance of multiculturalism as universal recipe for contemporary living as affirmed in American culture. The use of culture as a viable idealization of human differences often goes unchallenged in present-day scholarship.

Lentin is seeking to use culture as a way to bridge the divide of race that separates groups in he country. She shows how multiculturalism originated within the anti-racist movements and has resulted in the depoliticization of the anti-racism movement in order to avoid being a target. The knowledge of history and its application empowers the group to fight off such attacks (Lenkin, 2005, 379-380) .

Conclusion

If we did not have the diverse blend of people and cultures, America would be much different. It would not have been able to accomplish as much as it has. We would not have grown as a people and would have accomplished far less than we have. We would be stuck and would never grow and develop.

America still must come a long way before we are multiculturalism works. In many schools, teachers still teach a very Eurocentric curriculum. The argument has been made that the content of classes in history, social studies, literature and many other areas has come to reflected this bias. Most children in the United States learn about European and American history but precious little about other countries and cultures. There are few people or women of color teaching. The American government and other U.S. institutions are made up of mostly white men. We have grown up learning about only white men with European backgrounds. America is basically of, by, and for rich white men. Class and race coalesce in an oppressive mass of Western culture that is presented as accomplished fact in the classroom.

Children from other cultures frequently have trouble during their high school years. They are almost always forced to find a group and to fit in. If they are from different backgrounds, it is difficult for them to find somewhere they can fit in. Young children have a hard time understanding another child if they are different from who they are. Once they grow up, these youngsters start to understand exactly who they are and feel to good about where they came from. However, their education did not do this for them. They had to get this from outside of the school system.

Mixed culture children are growing in population. They need to be taught to appreciate who they are, to be proud of that and then because they feel secure to exchange cultural knowledge on an equal basis with peers in a multicultural society. In addition, as it has been necessary so often, it is likely that the best way to make this tolerance permanent is not just to enshrine it in law, but also the highest law of the lands, as is happening in the UK, Australia and Canada as well.