The Contributions Approach vs The Transformation Approach

Multicultural Education

Multicultural education is a philosophical concept in the field of education that is founded on the ideals of equality, justice, equity, freedom, and human dignity. The origin of this philosophical concept can be traced back to the 1960s during the civil rights era (Burnett, 1995). This concept was developed to help ensure that educational strategies and practices in the United States reflect the increasing diversity of America’s population including in the classroom setting. Since its inception during the civil rights era, multicultural education has continued to grow as reflected in the development of multicultural curriculum, textbooks, and teaching strategies. As this concept continues to grow, there are various approaches to multicultural education in the modern educational setting. This paper compares and contrasts two approaches to multicultural education i.e. the contribution approach and the transformation approach. The analysis also includes a discussion on the compatibility of the approaches with a Christian worldview.

Approaches to Multicultural Education

Even though multicultural education has become a major philosophical approach in today’s educational setting, there is a lack of a universal definition of this approach. According to Gay (1994), the concept of multicultural education means different things to different people. This is primarily because multicultural education is defined based on the cultural attributes of different groups. Moreover, the differences in definition of multicultural education is attributable to emphasis on different things including social problems, focus on people of color, allocation of financial resources, and limiting definitions to characteristics of local schools. Nonetheless, this concept basically refers to educational strategies and approaches that are geared toward promoting equity and equality in the classroom regardless of the students’ ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The concept is an attempt to ensure the field of education reflects the racial, ethnic and cultural diversity of the American population including in the classroom. As the racial crisis in the United States emerged in the 1960s, the nation’s student population changed significantly and generated the need for reforms in schools and educational approach (Banks, 1995).

Efforts towards integrating multicultural education in the United States’ educational setting have existed since the civil rights era. These efforts have included the focus on establishing a multicultural curriculum that reflects the diverse learning needs of students from diverse ethnic or racial backgrounds. Since the 1960s, educators in the United States have focused on integrating the school curriculum with multicultural content as part of the shift from a mainstream-centric and Eurocentric curriculum (Banks & Banks, 2010). Different approaches have been utilized to help integrate multicultural curriculum including the contributions approach and the transformation approach. The contributions approach is regarded as Level 1 while the transformation approach is Level 3 framework for integrating multicultural content.

Contributions Approach vs. Transformation Approach

The contributions approach and the transformation approach are two of the four approaches for integration of multicultural content into the school curriculum. These approaches have some similarities and differences in their use toward integrating multicultural content into the school curriculum. One of the similarity between these two approaches is that they both focus on generating changes in the educational curriculum. The two approaches are based on the idea that changes in the curriculum is critical toward establishing multicultural education in today’s learning environment. While the approaches utilize different strategies in initiating the changes, the both focus on modifying school curriculum. Secondly, these approaches to multicultural education are similar in the sense that they involve dealing with ethnic content when integrating multicultural content in the school curriculum. The approaches seek to ensure that school curriculum reflects diversity in student population through incorporating ethnic content into the educational curriculum.

Apart from these similarities, there are some major differences between the contributions and transformation approaches to multicultural education. The transformation approach differs from the contributions approach in how ethnic content is added to the mainstream-centric curriculum. The contributions approach entails adding ethnic heroes/heroines and distinct cultural artifacts into the curriculum. When adding this ethnic content into the curriculum, the mainstream core curriculum remains unchanged in terms of salient characteristics, basic structure, and goals. On the contrary, the transformation approach is characterized by changing the fundamental perspectives, structure, and goals of the mainstream curriculum when adding ethnic content. Under this approach, the basic assumptions of mainstream curriculum are changed to enable students have more than a single viewpoint or perspective for examining issues, concepts, themes, and problems.

Secondly, since the contributions approach does not entail making changes to the basic structure, goals and salient attributes of mainstream curriculum, it’s characterized by minimal prerequisites for implementation (Banks & Banks, 2010). In this case, teachers need to have basic knowledge of the American society as well as knowledge of ethnic heroes/heroines and their contributions and role in the American culture and society. On the other hand, the transformation approach is characterized by numerous prerequisites for implementation. The approach goes beyond mere addition of a long list ethnic contributions, heroes and groups and includes infusion of several perspectives, content, and frames of references. These multiple prerequisites are critical to help enhance students’ understanding of the development, nature, and complexities of the American society.
Third, transformation approach enhances students’ understanding of ethnic cultures through making changes to the basic assumptions of mainstream curriculum. On the contrary, the contributions approach trivializes ethnic cultures and only provide students with a remarkable one-time experience of ethnic heroes or heroines. Unlike the transformation approach, contributions approach usually fails to help students understand the role and impact of the ethnic hero or heroine on the American society, history, and culture. Additionally, the contributions approach only enables students to view ethnic content from one perspective whereas transformation approach enables students to view content from various perspectives.

Compatibility with a Christian Worldview

The Christian worldview focuses on promoting unity between people from different cultures, races, languages, and customs. Based on this worldview, the goal of education is to provide students with the opportunity and instruments to succeed in the modern world with those around them (Peariso, 2010). Therefore, pedagogy that is centered on division and oppression is not compatible with a Christian worldview. An evaluation of the two approaches to multicultural education shows that transformation approach is compatible with the Christian worldview while contributions approach is not. This is because contributions approach tends to avoid issues like oppression and racism while transformation approach addresses them and promotes unity.

In conclusion, multicultural education is a common concept in the modern educational setting because of its focus on promoting equity and equality in the classroom. The concept emerged in the 1960s during the civil rights era to help promote changes in education in light of the changing characteristics of the student population. One of the essential measures toward realizing multicultural education is integrating multicultural content into the school curriculum. There are various approaches utilized to integrate multicultural content into the mainstream core curriculum including the contributions and transformation approaches. These approaches have some similarities and differences in terms of how multicultural content is added into the curriculum. An analysis of these approaches shows that a transformation approach is compatible with a Christian worldview while contributions approach is not.

References

Banks, J.A. & Banks, C.A.M. (2010). Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform. In Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (7th ed., chap. 10, pp.242-264).

Banks, J.A. (1995). Multicultural Education and Curriculum Transformation. The Journal of Negro Education, 64(6), 390-400.

Burnett, G. (1995). Varieties of Multicultural Education: An Introduction. Retrieved from https://www.ericdigests.org/1995-1/multicultural.htm

Gay, G. (1994). A synthesis of scholarship in multicultural education. Urban monograph series. Oak Brook, IL: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED378287.pdf

Peariso, J.F. (2010). “No More Strangers and Foreigners, but Fellowcitizens:” Multicultural Education and Conflict. Christian Perspectives in Education, 3(2), 1-25.