Multiculturalism is an extremely important issue in education today. This is demonstrated by the fact that there are so many different opinions regarding how the issue should relate to education. Education itself is becoming increasingly inclusive of the many cultures not only within the United States, but also across the world. This is even more so with the increasing importance and popularity of online education. Multicultural education is particularly important in the lower grades, as these represent the formative years of children. In these classrooms, a heavy responsibility lies upon the shoulders of the teacher: to empower children for their future as adults within a multicultural world that is more often than not unfriendly, unequal, and biased.
Personally, I would base my teaching paradigm upon the fact that knowing one's roots is important. To bring this home to children, I would give each child the opportunity to make a study of his or her original heritage and culture. This will then be presented to the class, who will be allowed to ask questions or make comments on the presentation.
Secondly, it is also important that children should recognize the inequalities and biases currently existing in the world. Tasks based upon this understanding are probably more appropriate for higher grades. To teach this, I would prefer to let students work in groups. I would assign to each group a type of action research task, where they will be required to research a particular culture, and the challenges faced by this culture in the social, economic and cultural world. As a basis for this, each group will also be required to research the history of the culture within the country. This is then also offered to the class in presentation format, with a question and answer period at the end of each presentation.
In conclusion, I believe that there should be a balance between the understanding that culture is important, but also that different cultures face different challenges in the world.
