The second section of Rethinking Multicultural Education: Teaching for Racial and Cultural Justice focuses on the idea that multiculturalism education must be done is a certain space for it to be authentic and legit. This is a space set up by the teacher that is completely student-centred and allows for dialogue over monologue.
This student-centred classroom must be a space where the teacher does not let their own beliefs contradict “student knowledge about communities, cultures and diversity” (Au, 2014, p. 84). This means giving the students a voice to talk about their own culture which makes it more authentic and real. This type of classroom environment where you have the students lead the discussions and talk about their backgrounds, culture and family “honors students identities and experiences” and helps to “draw on the knowledge, perspectives and the voice of the actual communities being studied” (Au, 2014, p. 84).
Another theme this section touches on is connecting multicultural education to the real world and to the real social issues that exist in society, rather than ignoring them and pretending they don’t exist. This is important because of the political bias that takes place in schools and classrooms. The authors note that in the U.S. (and similar here in Canada) books portray society as fundamentally harmonious (Au, 2014). This type of education does not inform students on the injustices in our society and is a blatant form of racism. It does not allow for a space for students to think critically and stand up for social change.
One other theme in this section is that if history is going to be taught, it needs to include all histories – not just European. This is seen locally with Indigenous content and how only now it being pushed in our curriculum. Teaching history without any sort of bias empowers that culture to feel proud, instead of ashamed or isolated (Au, 2014).
The section begins by comparing/contrasting two history teachers. The first teacher is portrayed in a way that makes me think of someone who thinks they are doing the right thing but is blatantly wrong. It was about a white teacher doing lessons on Chinese history who would not admit his errors when pronouncing words (even when corrected by Chinese students). The second teacher is portrayed as someone who built a student-centered environment where each student brought something to the table and were given the “mic” so to speak to share to the rest of the class about their background. This description of the teacher made me think about the teachers I had growing up and which ones really allowed for multiculturalism to take place in the classroom.
Some actual photographs in the section include ones of Indigenous and Latino teachers. I think this is significant because having an Indigenous teacher teaching about Indigenous perspectives is much more valuable since it comes across as more authentic. It is much more likely for that person to be able to share personal stories and prove alternative insight that students may not be able to receive from white American/Canadian teachers. This goes for the Latino teacher as well.
The most powerful image of students in this section where ones who were fighting back laws in Arizona regarding which books and content were allowed in the classroom. This is important because it shows how valuable this information was for these students and their beliefs in what a true multicultural education involves. Removing this content and books is a way of disregarding certain cultures and is nothing more than oppression for control.
This section does great job in making the reader analyze what social literacy means to them. IT makes the reader think back on the education experience they had in school and what sort of common themes there were in the classrooms. In my experience, I was taught mainly about European history and all other content was taught through white-European lenses. To me, what I was taught growing was the norm and the only literacy I knew. Social literacies prevalent in other cultures had little to no meaning to me since I was never taught them, or taught them in an authentic way. Instead, with a real multicultural education one should be able to be more familiar with other social literacies from other cultures. They should not consider them Alternative or weird but instead things that help make up the social literacy of our nation.
The section talks about teachers creating a space where students engage and interact with each other. Here, they can debate, be critical, etc. By doing this, students actually think about the content deeper and can decide how it makes them feel. As the book notes, multicultural education is to “provide critical and alternative perspectives on history” (Au, 2014, p. 86) which moves away from a Eurocentric mindset. This is a mindset most students here are accustomed to so when presented with alternative facts they are hopefully guided to think critically about them. To me, taking a critical stance means allowing discussion about social issues and not shying away from them. Talking about current social issues (both in the past and present) is more relatable to students and pushes them to think critically of our world. This opens up a space for them to take. Critical stance on a variety of issues and debate and explore them with their peers.
As noted above, the book touches on the idea that “multicultural education needs toe be based on dialogue” (Au, 2014, p. 84). This means having the teacher create the space for learning while the students are given the majority of the voice. Particularly, in a classroom with minorities, doing so makes them feel more included and allows for a richer cultural education when they are given the chance to talk. This section also pushes for the idea for classroom to “provide critical and alternative perspectives on history” (Au, 2014, p. 86). This will make many teachers rethink and go back on their lessons and how to execute them. A “normal” classroom literacy is one that goes by the book and starts with Europe and ends with how we ended up here in Canada. Teachers need to realize there is much more to history than this and open up to the “alternative”. This books provides student accounts where this type of inclusive and open environment to all cultures made them feel more empowered which pushed them to ask more questions and think more critical.
-Gianluca B.
Reference: Au, W. (Ed.). (2014). Rethinking multicultural education: Teaching for racial and cultural justice. Rethinking Schools.
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