Cultural Identity in Public Schools: Education and Multiculturalism

Introduction: Schools and Cultural Identity

Whether they admit it or not, schools promote cultural identity. Promoting cultural identity in an ethnically and religiously diverse country like the United States poses significant political and ethical problems. Beyond the basic tenet of religious tolerance and freedom of expression, the United States government does not officiate pedagogy. State and national educational standards may mention curricular objectives but rarely address the importance of how cultural identity is imparted in schools, or how cultural identity should be promoted in a multicultural nation.

The American cultural identity is generally promoted through social events like the Pledge of Allegiance and through curricular content in history, social studies, and literature courses. In public schools, children develop a cultural identity in a constructivist manner — gathering pieces from peers, family, and teachers. Constructivist theories therefore explain cultural identity development best. The "radical relativism" that constructivism entails can be used to stimulate multicultural dialogues (Mazzotti, 1999). Educators should therefore become aware of how their classroom environments, curriculum, and teaching styles impact cultural identity formation. Inclusion, tolerance, and multiculturalism enrich the curricular framework, promote positive social values, and stimulate enriching dialogue for students.

Ultimately, educators cannot deny their political role. Teachers are not merely instruments that deliver prefabricated curricular content. Similarly, students do not simply absorb facts and figures in school; they construct their identities and their worldviews from what they learn in the classroom. Educators are not robots who recite names, dates, rules of grammar, and mathematical formulas, even when they are required to meet state assessment standards.

The Political Role of Educators

Teachers, like parents and peers, play an instrumental role in child identity development. As a result, teachers also have the ability to change culture itself. Culture is not an objective reality like a physical object that can be investigated by science. Rather, culture is created through social institutions, and public schools may be the most significant social institution in the construction of culture. The educators who select curriculum material possess considerable power — the power to shape values, norms, and ways of seeing the world. Educators foster social values, teaching beyond the strict boundaries of their curriculum.

The social and political role of the public school teacher rests on the ability to effectively promote cultural identity through dialogue. Dialogue enables critical and creative thinking, allowing students to take part in their own identity construction. When public schools encourage dialogue, they acknowledge their role in creating and constructing social change and cultural realities (Giroux, 1999).

The kind of cultural identity schools should promote is dynamic and multifaceted. It must be changeable and adaptable, and it must be viewable from many different angles and perspectives. However, public schools have become too concerned with absolutes — true/false realities that are easy to measure and grade. Standardized testing is rigid, but culture itself is not. Schools should better reflect the organic development of culture. Similarly, a cultural identity is not static; culture is an amalgamation of impulses that shift throughout time.

The Dynamic Nature of Cultural Identity

The process of finding the common thread of what is American, or French, or Chinese must therefore be open to debate and discussion. Culture is also highly relative: cultures view themselves differently than they are viewed by others. Any cultural identity promoted in public schools should avoid xenophobia while at the same time acknowledging the unique histories and artistic expressions that distinguish one culture from another.

Cultures are also viewed differently by various groups of outsiders. Political, historical, and philosophical differences may exacerbate stereotypes, biases, and other distorted lenses through which culture is sometimes portrayed. The selection of historiographies used to create school curricula and to inform pedagogy should therefore be carefully chosen and drawn from as many perspectives as possible. Cultural identity does not have to be created in opposition to others. Too often, cultural identity is based on boundaries and divisions rather than on commonalities.

Conclusion: Toward a Critical and Multicultural Education

If constructivism explains how cultural identity is formed, then humanism offers the goals toward which educators should strive. Assuming their critical role in cultural identity construction, educators begin to promote "a fundamental respect for all humans by virtue of being endowed with freedom of will, rational thinking, moral conscience, imaginative and creative powers" (Aloni, 1999). Humanism can inform pedagogy at all levels, permitting dialogue that eliminates antagonism, bias, and all forms of inequity. The cultural identity that public schools promote should be one that celebrates intelligent and critical debate.