Fernandez 1

Rita Soledad Fernandez

Dr. Recendez

Culture and Inclusion

1 November 2017

Multicultural Checklist

Since I am a secondary mathematics teacher, I created a multicultural checklist specific

for a mathematics lesson. Though I considered creating a more extensive multicultural checklist

as shown on the website http://www.educationalquestions.com/qa4a.htm , I felt that my short

checklist requires mathematics teachers to address the five dimensions of multicultural education

identified by Banks. I used the article Multicultural Mathematics: A More Inclusive Mathematics

by Marilyn Strutchens to evaluate how my checklist exemplified 1) content integration, 2)

knowledge construction, 3) prejudice reduction, 4) equitable pedagogy and 5) empowering

school culture and social structure. Criteria 1 – 10 came from the research documented in the

article How Do I Teach Mathematics in a Culturally Relevant Way?: Identifying Empowering

Teaching Strategies by Omiunota N. Ukpokodu. Criteria 11 came from the research documented

in the article The Multicultural Mathematics Classroom: Culturally Aware Teaching through

Cooperative Learning and Multiple Representations by Limin Jao

Links to Articles

• Multicultural Mathematics: A More Inclusive Mathematics by Marilyn Strutchens

https://www.ericdigests.org/1996-1/more.htm
• How Do I Teach Mathematics in a Culturally Relevant Way?: Identifying Empowering
Teaching Strategies by Omiunota N. Ukpokodu
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/84ee/b1f09761f8d41af7fc32e95723bdfaa33915.pdf
• The Multicultural Mathematics Classroom: Culturally Aware Teaching through
Cooperative Learning and Multiple Representations by Limin Jao
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1001529.pdf
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Multicultural Checklist for Mathematics Classroom

Criteria Evidence Comments

1. Lesson activities promotes students’  Present
mathematical identity  Not Present
2. Content is relevant to students’ lives  Present
 Not Present
3. New content is introduced to students with word  Present
problems that are culturally familiar  Not Present
4. Lesson is connected to a unit project that  Present
addresses social issues relevant to students’  Not Present
communities
5. Scaffolding mathematics instruction through peer  Present
support learning  Not Present
6. Teacher encourages divergent thinking and  Present
problem processing style  Not Present
7. Teacher expects all students to master the lesson  Present
objective  Not Present
8. Teacher engages students in content with the use  Present
of cooperative learning structures  Not Present
9. Lesson integrates students prior-knowledge,  Present
interests, and/or traditions into lesson of his/her  Not Present
students
10. Teacher prepares students for standardized exams  Present
 Not Present
11. Teacher promotes the use of various external  Present
representations i.e. numerical tables, physical  Not Present
materials, pictures, symbols, graphs and algebraic
formulas in lesson

Links to Articles

• Multicultural Mathematics: A More Inclusive Mathematics by Marilyn Strutchens

https://www.ericdigests.org/1996-1/more.htm
 Fernandez 3

• How Do I Teach Mathematics in a Culturally Relevant Way?: Identifying Empowering

Teaching Strategies by Omiunota N. Ukpokodu

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/84ee/b1f09761f8d41af7fc32e95723bdfaa33915.pdf

• The Multicultural Mathematics Classroom: Culturally Aware Teaching through

Cooperative Learning and Multiple Representations by Limin Jao

http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1001529.pdf