Schools, Societies, and Multicultural Education

             Multicultural education is a term used to describe a wide variety of programs and practices. It relates to "educational equity, women, ethnic groups, language minorities, low-income groups, and people with disabilities" (Banks, 6). The major goal of multicultural education is to improve academic achievement among all students of various backgrounds and cultures.
             Multicultural education is an idea or a concept that all students should have an equal opportunity to learn in school regardless of their gender, social class, and racial/cultural characteristics. Multicultural education is also an educational reform movement. It involves total school or educational environment reform, not just curricular changes. Multicultural education is also an ongoing process because its goals can never be completely achieved.
             Rising from the civil rights movement of the '60s, the early attempts at educational ethnic diversity were first started with lack of careful thought and planning. These courses and programs were developed quickly and focused mainly on one ethnic group, an approach referred to as a "single group study." Since they lacked careful planning, they were not "educationally sound," and depending on which ethnic group they focused on they were taken mostly by students who were of that particular group.
             From these programs and courses arose multicultural education. In practice, multicultural education is a term that describes a variety of programs related to women, ethnic groups, people with disabilities, etc. School districts may use the term to describe a curriculum that includes the experiences of ethnic groups, of ethnic groups and women, or a "total school reform effort designed to increase educational equity for a range of cultural, ethnic, and economic groups" (Banks, 6). Multiculturalism, from a functionalist point of view, can create disorder in society. Our society is divided along lines of social class, race, ethnicity, ...

More Essays:

APA     MLA     Chicago
Schools, Societies, and Multicultural Education. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 04:23, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/4298.html