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Multiculturalism and Education

London T. Bondurant
Ivy Tech Community College

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Abstract
Multiculturalism, the practice of allowing minorities to keep their cultural identities while being
a part of a dominant culture, is becoming more and more relevant in todays society. This is
because the demographics of the population are becoming more diverse, even in public schools.
Multiculturalism benefits the dominant culture as well as the minority. When aware of diversity
and the importance of learning about other cultures, students within the dominant culture can
learn acceptance. Students of a minority culture who are allowed to keep their cultural identities
while within a dominant culture have a better chance at succeeding academically and socially.
Even if the dominant culture practices multiculturalism, barriers such as language can interfere
with the interaction with minority students. Within classrooms in public schools there is much
diversity, which is why teacher education programs are putting a large amount of focus on how
to design teaching strategies that help students understand multiculturalism. Understanding
cultural diversity and how to address it in the classroom will help teachers grow and be
successful in the teaching profession.

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The United States is a country that is becoming more and more diverse as people migrate
here from other countries. Because of this, there is an increasing amount of diversity within our
school systems. Teachers now have to be trained to teach effectively while adapting to the
various needs of each individual student. Multicultural education is an approach being used in
schools to help support diversity in the school setting. A teacher can have a classroom with
students whose cultural identities differ by ethnicity, race, gender, socioeconomic status, and
more. Understanding and designing a curriculum so that students understand multiculturalism
will benefit students of minority ethnicities academically and socially, as well as benefit the
teacher by helping them improve as an educator.
Multiculturalism, as defined by Gollnick (2013), allows different cultural groups to
maintain their unique cultural identities while participating equally in the dominant culture (p.
12). This means that those in the dominant culture realize the importance of cross-culture
relations and strive to acknowledge and value the advantages. With this idea, students from
diverse cultures are allowed to maintain their unique identities, while still being accepted into the
dominant culture. For example, imagine a classroom in the United States with all white students
and one day they gain a new student who is from Europe. This student might speak the same
language as all of the other students, but his culture is very different from most in the classroom.
He dresses, interacts with others, and even eats different than the other students. Acceptance of
those differences is what multiculturalism is all about. Teachers should strive to teach their
students that becoming aware of culture diversity is essential to the understanding and
appreciation of the behavior of others (Coker-Kolo, 2002). The new student should be allowed
to keep his cultural identity, while also participating in the classrooms dominant cultural
practices. The students of the dominant culture will learn about the new students diverse culture,

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while the new student learns about the dominant culture. This is an example of diversity
awareness within the classroom, which has many benefits.
Multiculturalism is important to have within the school system for many reasons. One
reason is that with schools becoming more diverse, dominant cultures are finding that they are
interacting and associating with minority cultures more. If teachers integrate practices of
multiculturalism into the classroom, there will be less chance of controversy and more positive
outcomes with the diverse students. The example in the previous paragraph shows how
multiculturalism benefits everyone. The dominant culture learns to accept the traditions of the
diverse students culture because the student is allowed to keep his cultural identity. He is not
forced to adhere to the dominant cultures practices completely and forget his own identity. This
teaches the students in the classroom a very important word: acceptance.
Another reason why multiculturalism is important to incorporate into the school setting is
to help ensure that those from the minority cultures will be able to succeed academically and
socially. According to research by Ogbu (1992), Some minorities are more able than others to
adjust socially and do well academically in school (p. 290). Students who have never been
around people of minority cultures may not know how to interact with them. Allowing the
students of minority cultures to keep their cultural identity at school will help them feel more
comfortable. If the school tells them they have to completely forget about their cultural identity
and practice the traditions of the dominant culture, the students of the minority culture may feel
resentment toward everyone in the school system. Not having a good relationship with the
teachers and others students would make it harder for the minority student to succeed. Social
acceptance and academic success will be more likely to happen for the minority student if the
other students learn and practice acceptance. Even with acceptance, though, a huge barrier that

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could interfere with a minority students success is having a different first and dominant
language.
Students who speak a different language than English may find that school in the United
States is harder for them. This could be because they cannot keep up with the pace of the
classroom. Teachers have standards to stick to and they cannot always slow down for one student
who has a hard time understanding. Also, students who speak a different language may not want
to adapt to the dominant culture. According to Ogbu (1992),
Involuntary minorities tend to distrust school personnel and White people (or their
representatives) who control other societal institutions. Their cultural/language frames of
reference lead them to interpret the cultural and language differences they encounter in
school as symbols of their group identity to be maintained, and to consciously and/or
unconsciously avoid crossing cultural and language boundaries. (p.291)
If a student of minority is not willing to cross cultures by speaking the native language of those
in the classroom, a boundary will form that will not allow for them to be as successful as
possible. This also creates a social boundary because the student will not be able to communicate
with the students who speak English, making it nearly impossible to make any friends. If
teachers are trained to deal with diversity in the classroom, things like this can be avoided.
The changes in the demographics of students in public schools has made it imperative
that teacher education programs produce teachers that understand diversity and can deal with
diverse student populations effectively (Coker-Kolo, 2002). Standard two of the Interstate
Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) multicultural standards states, The
teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to

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ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards
(Gollnick, p. 29). This means that teachers should try to get to know their students on a more
personal level to be able to connect with them in the classroom and help them be successful. A
teacher who is more in-tune with his or her students will be more able to teach in a way that is
effective for all of his or her students. It is important that cultural diversity is addressed in
teacher education programs, with a focus on how to design a curriculum and/or instructional
strategies so that students understand multiculturalism.
Integrating multiculturalism into a classroom curriculum is necessary, but can be kind of
tricky. A great teacher is able to incorporate ideas from diverse cultures that are accurate and
important. Coker- Kolo (2002) explains that schools should avoid the food and festival
approach, because this approach, if done in isolation, perpetuates stereotypes and waters down
issues of racism and bias (p. 35). The important information about diverse cultures is not just
what kind of food they eat or how they celebrate holidays, but these things can be incorporated
into the curriculum as long as the important information is included as well. Some pertinent
information may include the geography of the culture and any historical information including
wars, accomplishments, and past leaders. Students need to be aware that those are the things that
really matter about diverse cultures because it will help them get to know the minority students
better and understand their cultural identity.
It is important to understand multiculturalism and how to integrate it into the classroom
curriculum for the students, but is also important for the teacher. Teachers are surrounded with
students from all different types of backgrounds every day, and knowing how to interact with
them all will help the teacher grow and become a better educator. Teachers spend a large amount

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of time with students and play a huge role in their lives. Making everyone feel welcome and
accepted will have a lasting impact on their lives.
After researching multiculturalism and its importance, it is clear to see that it is an
essential part of education. Schools are becoming more and more diverse, and students need to
understand and learn acceptance of other cultures. Integrating multiculturalism into the
curriculum is a great way to open up students minds to other cultures and beliefs while also
helping the teacher grow as an educator. In the end, minority cultures will benefit from being
included and feeling important, while the dominant culture will benefit from learning about other
cultures and becoming more aware of cultural diversity.

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References
Coker-Kolo, D. O. (2002). A systems analysis approach to integrating cultural diversity into
colleges of education. Multicultural Perspectives, 4(2), 35-39.
Gollnick, D., & Chinn, P. (2013). Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society (9th ed).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Ogbu, J. U. (1992). Adaptation to minority status and impact on school success. Theory Into
Practice, 31(4), 287.