JoLIE 8/2015

INTEGRATING MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

IN PRE-SERVICE TEACHER TRAINING COURSES

Ioana Todor
1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia

Abstract

Multicultural education aims to reduce ethnic, gender and social-economic differences

providing for all students equal opportunities to learn. Multicultural approaches in
education involve a set of strategies designed to help all students to develop “knowledge,
skills and attitudes they need in order to become active citizens in a democratic society and
participate in social change” (Valdez 1999). In a world with a rapidly changing
demographic structure, multicultural education has become a priority. It is a tool to enhance
cultural awareness and respect for diversity, to consolidate peoples’ social identity, to
reduce stereotypical thinking, prejudice and discrimination. The multicultural education
approach is a student-centred one, with a particular focus on using the students’ familiar
contexts as learning opportunities, integrating their cultural background in the learning
process, promoting critical thinking and diversity of opinions. In this paper, multicultural
education is analysed in the teacher training context, using a multidimensional model
developed by Banks in the 90’s. Banks (1995/2004a) describes five critical dimensions of
multicultural education: content integration, knowledge construction, equity pedagogy,
prejudice reduction and an empowering school culture. Critical issues and methodological
aspects related to the integration of multicultural education in pre-service teacher training
are discussed in the paper.

Key words: Multicultural education; Pre-service teacher training: Equity pedagogy;

Empowering school culture.

1 Introduction

Multicultural education promotes values such as respect for diversity,

understanding of other cultures, tolerance and equal opportunities for every
member of society. This approach is a student-cantered one since it assumes that
people with different cultural backgrounds will learn differently, the way they learn
being deeply influenced by their cultural heritage, linguistic particularities, cultural
identity, values and patterns of thinking, personal history. The term culture is
defined in a broader sense, encompassing not only ethnicity or language, but also
gender, social-economic status, religion, special needs or ethical orientation. In
school practice, a critical point is abandoning one general/national curriculum and
214 Ioana TODOR

offering to students’ particularised curricula that recognize and reflect their cultural
identities. Classroom activities and teaching processes should be contextualized,
encouraging diversity of opinions and critical thinking. The students coming from
traditionally disadvantaged groups benefit from a particular focus. Teaching
implies understanding the students' own culture and personal experiences and using
them as a foundation for learning. The multicultural approach aims to contribute to
equity in education, and ultimately to learning improvement and school success.
Another main goal of the multicultural approach in education is to enhance
cultural awareness and respect for the others, for different people and cultures, to
consolidate peoples' social identity and to build a harmonious multicultural
environment. It attempts to transform individuals and society as well. In a world
with a rapidly changing demographic structure, “multicultural education seeks to
ensure educational equity for members of diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, and
socioeconomic groups, and to facilitate their participation as critical and reflective
citizens in an inclusive national civic culture” (Banks, & Ambrosio 2011).
Historically, multicultural education has its roots in the 1960s and 1970s in
the U.S.A., with the emergence of the civil rights movement when ethnic groups
demanded that their cultural contribution be presented in the curricula in schools,
colleges, universities. In the 1970s, James A. Banks was one of the first scholars to
argue for the benefit of a multi-ethnic approach to the curriculum and the author of
a comprehensive theoretical model of multicultural/ethnic education. If in the
1960s-1970s the main focus was on the inclusion of the African-American cultural
heritage in the curriculum, form the 1980s the “ethnical” perspective has been
extended to other groups or social categories, such as language, gender or social
class.
In a comprehensive definition “multicultural education refers to any form
of education or teaching that incorporates the histories, texts, values, beliefs, and
perspectives of people from different cultural backgrounds” (c.f. Abbott 2014). In a
more pragmatic formulation “multicultural education is intended to decrease race,
ethnicity, class, and gender divisions by helping all students attain the knowledge,
attitudes, and skills they need in order to become active citizens in a democratic
society and participate in social change” (Valdez 1999).
In a society growing in mobility and diversity, multicultural education
plays an increasingly important role. In order to ensure equal opportunities of
learning for all children in a democratic society, multicultural education should
gain its place in the teacher training programs. Starting from a pilot investigation,
opportunities to include multicultural education in the primary school curricula are
explored in this paper.

2 Dimensions of multicultural education

Banks (1995/2004a) describes five critical dimensions of multicultural education:

content integration, the knowledge construction process, an equity pedagogy,
 Integrating multicultural education … 215

prejudice reduction and an empowering school culture. Although for explanatory

reasons each of these dimensions is conceptually distinct, in practice they overlap
and are highly interrelated (Banks, & Ambrosio 2011).

Fig. 1. The Dimensions of Multicultural Education (c.f. John Weisenfeld, Wordpress Blog)

Content integration refers to different approaches and didactic tools which

teachers use in order to integrate content form a variety of cultures and groups
within their subject areas or disciplines (Banks 2010). More concretely, one teacher
could use various ethnic songs in her/his music lesson, or another one could
integrate biographies of successful people from different cultures as illustrations in
a history lesson. In fact, teachers are instructed to identify and exploit the
opportunities to integrate multicultural content in their every-day teaching practice
(relevant examples or case studies to illustrate key concepts, stories, songs and
cultural productions, historical facts, cultural perspectives, biographies of famous
people etc.). Banks (1997; 2010) describes four distinct approaches to integrating
multicultural content in the curriculum: 1) The contribution approach when
teachers integrate isolated facts, short stories, examples of success from the culture
of ethnic or cultural groups into the curriculum without changing the structure of
216 Ioana TODOR

their lesson plans; 2) The additive approach which implies the integration of
special units of knowledge about ethnic and cultural groups into lesson plans while
the organization and structure of the curriculum remain unchanged; 3) The
transformative approach enable students to view a particular topic from multiple
and diverse cultural perspectives. This approach implies a complete transformation
of the curriculum and in many cases a conscious effort of the teacher to deconstruct
her/his own cultural beliefs, frames of reference or preconceptions. The positive
result is an expanded view and a deeper understanding of the topic (c.f. Cumming-
McCann 2003). 4) The decision making and social action approach is an extension
of the transformative approach: it includes the elements of the transformative
approach but it does not end with the exploration and understanding of the topic, it
requires that the students take decisions and take action to change the social reality.
For example, it is not enough that the students explore and understand the causes
and social expressions of discrimination against an ethnic group, they need to have
decision taking abilities and they need to act in order to change the society.
The knowledge construction process consists in teaching activities that
help students to understand knowledge in context. The multicultural approach in
education claims that knowledge production is significantly influenced by cultural
perspectives, cultural assumptions and schemata, frames of reference, personal
history, values, attitudes, implicit biases or idiosyncrasies of the author. As a
consequence, a pertinent critical analysis of a textbook sequence, story, artistic
work or scientific theory should be performed in relation to the above mentioned
variables. Multicultural education involves not only inserting ethnic content into
the school curriculum but also changing the perspective of the learners, reshaping
their frames of references, changing their attitudes - towards the minority or
traditionally prejudiced groups in particular (Banks, & Ambrosio 2011).
The equity pedagogy is a core guiding principle of the multicultural
approach that aims to ensure equal opportunities in education for all the students
from diverse ethnic, racial, linguistic, social and socio-economic groups. The
equity pedagogy refers to pedagogical means, strategies and classroom activities
designed to facilitate academic achievement for socio-culturally diverse students.
The theorists of multicultural learning emphasize the existence of frequent
discrepancies between the values, expectancies, life experiences, behavioural
patterns or learning styles of the students coming from marginalized groups and the
expectancies, beliefs, communicative and relational styles of their colleagues and
teachers. The equity pedagogy rejects the assimilation of the members of the
minorities or the marginalized groups in the mainstream school culture, arguing
that the majority should respect and support the others’ cultural identity. A brief
analysis of current empirical data from educational and social psychology suggests
that the following strategies support equality in learning for the students from
vulnerable/discriminated/marginalized groups: positive patterns of communication
and social interaction; valorisation and respect for the cultural identity, cultural
heritage, learning experiences and learning styles of the others; cooperation for
common goals; equal status for inter-group interactions and a positive in-group
 Integrating multicultural education … 217

climate; valorisation of cultural content and previous experience as a resource in

knowledge construction; promoting critical thinking.
Prejudice reduction includes strategies and techniques used in order to
help students to develop positive/egalitarian attitudes towards members of the
racial, ethnic, cultural or marginalized groups. Negative attitudes about different
social or ethnic categories exist in every culture, social actors being prone to
perceive themselves more positively in relation with others, a coping strategy that
will enhance their self-esteem (e.g. Alicke, & Sedikides 2011). Prejudice reduction
aims to eliminate students' preconceptions and negative stereotypes about minority
groups and help them to develop more positive intergroup attitudes. The use of
multi-ethnic materials in teaching in a consistent and sequential way, the promotion
of a positive image of ethnic groups using examples of successful people and good
practices as well as the use of mixed teams of students that should collaborate for a
common goal are useful strategies (Banks 2004b).
An empowering school culture is created when students from diverse
groups experience an equal status with members of the majority and when they
have equal chances for success. The implementation of this dimension requires
important transformations of the culture of the school, important changes of
attitudes, beliefs and behavioural patterns of the students, teachers and school
administrators as well as transformation of the curriculum, teaching strategies and
assessment methods (Banks 2004b).

3 The pilot study

3.1 Aims

At the Teacher Training Department of the “1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba

Iulia I conducted an exploratory investigation that aims: 1) to identify the students’
knowledge about multicultural education; 2) to investigate their opinions regarding
the opportunity of curriculum development in teacher training programs with a
special focus on multicultural education; 3) to explore pedagogical actions that
could lead to equity in education for students with different ethnic and socio-
economic background.

3.2 Participants
A sample of 10 students, all women, aged between 18 and 31 years were included
in a focus group. All the participants were students in the 3rd year at the Primary
and Preschool Teacher Education undergraduate program.

3.3 Methods

I conducted a focus group discussion and I used a semi-structured questionnaire.

The discussion took place in a room at the University main building and the
218 Ioana TODOR

allocated time was 1 hour. The participants were selected on a first-come first-
served basis, after the scope and the topic of the study had been announced at a
previous mandatory course. The semi-structured questionnaire included
introductory demographic information such as age, ethnicity, years of experience in
the teaching profession (because some of the participants had also graduated from a
Pedagogical College). The questions that followed pertained to completed
coursework or training in multicultural education, and the participants were asked
to define multicultural education and to explain its importance in school practice
(an adapted version after Menchaca 1996). The discussions were conducted
according to a short semi-structured interview with the following topics: 1). the
importance and benefits of multicultural education; 2). which are the most
marginalized groups in our educational system; 3). difficulties in implementing
multicultural education and critical aspects; 4). solutions and potentially successful
strategies.

4 Results and interpretation

The results indicated a positive attitude towards multicultural education declared

by all the participants. All of them were able to give a more or less comprehensive
definition of multicultural education and they also identified several benefits.
Unfortunately the participants were not able to demonstrate more advanced
knowledge about this approach. They had learned about multicultural education in
an academic context in a single course (Social Pedagogy). This approach was only
mentioned in other courses and the participants had no idea about theoretical
models, fundamental literature or research in field. Only 4 students had read a
methodological guide about multicultural education (Bernat 2006) and the most
part of them knew that multicultural education could be an optional subject in
primary school.
A student with two years of experience as a teacher in a primary school in
a periphery neighbourhood where the majority of the students were Roma had “a
remarkable voice” in the focus group. She pointed out the fact that in that case a
good teacher should be familiarized with the Roma culture. A teacher who are
familiar with the particular thinking patterns and who respects the cultural
specificity of the students she/he also facilitates the learning process. Intercultural
knowledge and intercultural understanding were presented as essential conditions
for an optimal didactic communication, enhanced learning, efficient classroom
management, development of collaborative relations with the students’ families
and intervention in the community. She argued for the multicultural education as a
necessary component in the teacher training programs. But she also expressed the
opinion that multicultural education is not necessary in primary or secondary
school because the general curriculum should be culture specific. More concretely,
children should learn primarily about their own cultural tradition in primary school
not about other ethnic groups. The development of an egalitarian attitude and
 Integrating multicultural education … 219

acceptance in relation with the others this is a more realistic aim for the primary
school education. This statement polarized opinions in the group: several
participants agreed with the idea that multicultural education in primary school
should be focused on prejudice reduction and the development of social
acceptance. Other participants argued that in order to develop an egalitarian
attitude in relation with a minority group, children should know and valorise their
culture. Some students viewed multicultural education primarily as a necessary tool
for optimizing the teaching and learning processes in a multicultural environment,
and for the others multicultural education mean a path toward an harmonious and
diverse society.
All the participants identified Roma children as a marginalized group and
the most part of them appreciated that children coming from rural areas or from
families with low socio-economic status were vulnerable and they needed a
particular focus in school. The special needs children were also identified as a
vulnerable category. As strategies to teach multiculturalism, the participants
described the contribution and the additive approaches of content integration and
they also pointed out the necessity of prejudice reduction (the participants
identified these strategies after a reflexive effort, without knowing the Banks model
in particular and, of course, without using the terms presented in the above
mentioned model).
For the most part of the participants prejudice reduction is the first obstacle
in the implementation of the multicultural education in the Romanian schools.
Roma people, other several ethnic minorities, women and children with
mental/behavioural disabilities are frequently the subject of negative stereotypes
(and discrimination in many cases) in our society. The participants illustrated this
affirmation with the fact that the gender role stereotypes are present even in the
primary school textbooks. They know from their own school practice that if the
most part of a classroom is composed by Roma children, other parents avoid to
enrol their children in that classroom. They also know several situations when the
parents’ comities tried to exclude a child with behavioural problems from
kindergarten or primary school. Unfortunately, situations when stereotypical
thinking is expressed by teachers are not exceptional. The participants in the focus
group appreciated that the reduction of stereotypical thinking and discrimination is
a good starting objective and a critical point as well in the implementation of a
multicultural education program.
The most frequently identified difficulties in the implementation of
multicultural education in kindergartens and primary schools were the following:
1) difficulties to challenge or to reduce the robust stereotypes and misconceptions
endorsed by a part of the parents and teaching staff; 2) difficulties to find a place
for multicultural content in a very rich and complex curriculum; 3) difficulties to
maintain a balance in the school curriculum between the cultural traditions of the
majority and the cultural content of the various minority groups.
220 Ioana TODOR

5 Conclusions

The integration of multicultural education in the teacher training programs could be

a starting point toward equity in education. At the “1 Decembrie 1918” University
of Alba Iulia we included multicultural education in the curriculum of the Primary
and Preschool Education Faculty several years ago. Students had one discipline
where they learned the theoretical foundations of this approach; then they analysed
the teaching process from a multicultural perspective in other disciplines and
during the practical activities performed in schools. As a consequence the pre-
service teachers are sensitive to this topic and they know its importance.
Multicultural education is viewed from a more comprehensive perspective,
overcoming the ethnic dimension. The students that formed the study sample were
able to identify the benefits of multicultural education and some difficulties
regarding its implementation in school practice. The optimal balance between the
cultural diversity and/or cultural specificity of the general curriculum is still a topic
of debate in the literature in the field (Banks 2010). The presence of cultural
stereotypes in our educational system has been illustrated in a large number of
studies (e.g. Grunberg 1996; Farkas 2014). The prospective teachers from the study
sample proved reflection and critical thinking skills which are very important in
school practice.
In the near future, our pre-service teachers need to expand their knowledge
about multicultural education. They need to be trained according to comprehensive
theoretical models or frames of references, in order to be able to implement the
multicultural approach in their practice. Banks' (1995/2004a) model of
multicultural education has been presented in this article in order to illustrate the
didactical value and practical utility of such an approach. Any theoretical frame of
reference which teachers use in school practice should be associated with the
development of reflexivity, sensitivity to the students’ needs, the ability to calibrate
teaching style in context.
A particular focus should be on the empowering school and social culture
dimension. Multicultural education is more than a set of social values, teaching
methods and curriculum transformations, it implies social action, change of cultural
beliefs and stereotypical thinking, prejudice reduction, development of tolerance,
acceptance of those who are different, valorisation of diversity and pluralism.
In an essay suggestively entitled “Multicultural Teacher Education:
Toward a Culturally Responsible Pedagogy”, Chou (2007) appreciates that the
curricular reform of the teacher education programs is a critical aspect that plays a
determinant role on the progress of multicultural education in a country. At this
point, Chou (2007) brings more arguments for a critical observation initially
formulated by Banks (Banks, & Banks 1997): that the curricula of the most teacher
education programs is usually additive. This means that in most cases heroic
historical stories and biographies of famous people from diverse ethnic groups are
simply included in the curriculum, without any attempt to challenge the students'
pre-existing stereotypical thinking or without any critical reference. This kind of
 Integrating multicultural education … 221

strategy would be probably inefficient for future use in school practice because it is
focused only on the knowledge transfer and not at all on attitude change.
The above mentioned author (Chou 2007) described several
conditions/attributes of the successful multicultural teachers in a pluralistic society
(p. 151). (1). They have to become reflective. On the one hand, reflective teachers
are able to develop awareness of their own thinking patterns, cultural beliefs and
stereotypes, expectations, implicit assumptions underlying their attitudes and
behaviour. On the other hand, reflective teachers are able to develop meta-
cognitive competences, evaluating and adjusting continuously their teaching and
pedagogical practices. (2). Prospective teachers have to valorise student diversity.
They should appreciate the opportunity to live in a rich and multicultural society
with people and groups with different traditions and perspectives. They should be
aware that if the social diversity is not taken into account and respected in the
educational space, this will lead to serious social and economic inequalities. (3).
Prospective teachers have to be able to self-evaluate, to adjust and to manage the
teaching process. They should examine their teaching practices, to use available
feed-back and to adjust them accordingly in order to obtain the desired positive
results. (4). Prospective teachers have to be able to incorporate the students' diverse
cultures into curriculum. They should learn the students cultures and to find
optimal modalities to integrate cultural elements in the teaching process. (5).
Prospective teachers should be sensitive to students’ individuality/diversity, to their
particular learning needs, cultural backgrounds, thinking patterns and learning
styles.
Working in a panel of interdisciplinary scholars, J. A. Banks (Banks et al.
2001) summarized the relevant research and experiences in the field and they
formulated 12 “essential principles” of multicultural education, organized around 5
domains: teacher learning; student learning; intergroup relations; school
governance, organization and equity; assessment.

Table 1. The essential principles of multicultural education (Banks et al. 2001)

Teacher Learning
Principle 1: Professional development programs should help teachers understand the
complex characteristics of ethnic groups within U.S. society and the ways in which race,
ethnicity, language, and social class interact to influence student behaviour.
Student Learning
Principle 2: Schools should ensure that all students have equitable opportunities to learn
and to meet high standards.
Principle 3: The curriculum should help students understand that knowledge is socially
constructed and reflects researchers’ personal experiences as well as the social, political,
and economic contexts in which they live and work.
Principle 4: Schools should provide all students with opportunities to participate in extra-
and co-curricular activities that develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes that increase
academic achievement and foster positive interracial relationships.
Intergroup Relations
Principle 5: Schools should create or make salient superordinate crosscutting group
memberships in order to improve intergroup relations.
222 Ioana TODOR

Principle 6: Students should learn about stereotyping and other related biases that have
negative effects on racial and ethnic relations.
Principle 7: Students should learn about the values shared by virtually all cultural groups
(e.g., justice, equality, freedom, peace, compassion, and charity).
Principle 8: Teachers should help students acquire the social skills needed to interact
effectively with students from other racial, ethnic, cultural, and language groups.
Principle 9: Schools should provide opportunities for students from different racial, ethnic,
cultural, and language groups to interact socially under conditions designed to reduce fear
and anxiety.
School Governance, Organization, and Equity
Principle 10: A school’s organizational strategies should ensure that decision-making is
widely shared and that members of the school community learn collaborative skills and
dispositions in order to create a caring environment for students.
Principle 11: Leaders should develop strategies that ensure that all public schools,
regardless of their locations, are funded equitably.
Assessment
Principle 12: Teachers should use multiple culturally sensitive techniques to assess
complex cognitive and social skills.

Multicultural education has considerable advantages/aims (Levinson 2009):

preserve cultural diversity and minority group culture; foster children's critical
thinking and development of autonomy by exposing them to alternative opinions,
beliefs, values and perspectives; promote social values like mutual respect, civic
cooperation, open-mindedness, tolerance; promote social justice and equity; aims
to assure equity of chances and opportunities in education even for the students
coming from the most disadvantaged groups; aims to eliminate social injustice;
increase self-esteem of non-mainstream students; promote an authentic learning by
teaching in a culturally congruent manner; enable students to integrate themselves
and to succeed professionally in an harmonious and multicultural environment.
Several decades of research convinced a large part of educators around the world
about the advantages and strengths of multicultural education. Today we find in the
literature several comprehensive theoretical models, frames of analysis, strategies
of action/implementation in academic context and examples of good practices.
However, a review of the literature in the field reveals that the concept of
multicultural education still needs future exploration. There are still contradictory
theoretical and methodological aspects that needs future clarifications. Several
examples of questions with controversial answers are the following: What cultural
groups we should take into account and what criteria of distinction can we use?
How credible is a teacher who speaks about a foreign culture? What happens if one
cultural group have representative traditions or practices that are in conflict with
the values of the majority? According to Banks (2001: 22), “to implement
multicultural education in a school, we must reform its power relationships, the
verbal interaction between teachers and students, the culture of the school, the
curriculum, extracurricular activities, attitudes toward minority languages, the
testing program, and grouping practices. The institutional norms, social structures,
 Integrating multicultural education … 223

cause-belief statements, values, and goals of the school must be transformed and
reconstructed” (c.f. Levinson 2009).

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252 Notes on contributors

al. Wojska Polskiego 69

65-762 Zielona Góra, nr 100
Tel.: 68328 32 79
Email address: m.smoluk@in.uz.zgora.pl
Marek Smoluk is Associate Professor in the Institute of Modern Languages at Zielona
Góra University, Poland. For the last twenty years he has been lecturing and conducting his
research in British Life and Institutions as well as British history, with the emphasis on the
Tudor Age and Stuart times in particular. Prof. Smoluk is an author of numerous papers and
articles especially in the field of British history, published both in English and Polish. His
recent post-doctoral book (2011) is entitled Niższe warstwy angielskiego społeczeństwa w
pierwszej połowie XVII wieku: ich status, życie rodzinne, tradycje i edukacja / ang.: The
lower classes of English society in the first half of the 17th century: their status, family life,
traditions and education.

Ioana TODOR
1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia, Romania
No.15-17, Unirii Street, Alba Iulia
Tel.: 40-0258-813994; Fax: +40-0258-802802
Email address: ioanatodor@gmail.com
Ioana Todor is an Associate Professor in Psychology at the 1 Decembrie 1918 University
of Alba Iulia, Romania, Department of Teacher Training. She received a MSc in
Psychological Counseling and Psychotherapy from Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca,
Romania (in 2003). In 2009, she defended her Ph.D. dissertation at the Babes-Bolyai
University on Directed-Forgetting of Social Stereotypes. She was awarded a research
scholarship by the University of Copenhagen, Center of Visual Cognition (September 2005
– March 2006). She has published articles in The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary
and Applied, The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Cognition,
Brain, Behavior, Annales Universitatis Apulensis - Series Paedagogica-Psychologica etc.
She conducted workshops and training programs for teachers on topics like: socio-
emotional education, new approaches on learning, school counseling. Her current research
interests include: cognitive inhibition and mental suppression of unwanted thoughts, social
stigma associated with mental disorders, stereotypes in education and, generally speaking,
applications of cognitive psychology in education.

Artur URBANIAK
Lecturer
Poznan University of Technology, Poland
Pl. Marii Skłodowskiej-Curie 5, 60-965 Poznań
Tel.: +4867 352 26 00
Email address: ar.urbaniak@interia.pl
Artur Urbaniak holds a PhD in applied linguistics from Adam Mickiewicz University in
Poznań. He is a lecturer in the Center of Languages and Communication at Poznań
University of Technology and a lecturer at European University College of Business. His
main field of interest is the development of communicative competence in different
linguistic and socio-cultural contexts. He is an experienced language teacher, academic
developer, and researcher with particular interests in teaching language to adults and
implementing the latest trends in language teaching.
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