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James banks multicultural education definition

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Multicultural Education

Multicultural Education Issues and Perspectives

SEVENTH EDITION

Edited by

JAMES A. BANKS University of Washington, Seattle

CHERRY A. McGEE BANKS University of Washington, Bothell

VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Jay O’Callaghan EXECUTIVE EDITOR Christopher Johnston ACQUISITIONS EDITOR Robert Johnston PRODUCTION MANAGER Dorothy Sinclair SENIOR PRODUCTION EDITOR Trish McFadden ASSISTANT EDITOR Eileen McKeever MARKETING MANAGER Danielle Torio EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Mariah Maguire-Fong SENIOR DESIGNER Madelyn Lesure SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR Lisa Gee

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Preface

B oth diversity and the recognition of diversity have increased in nations around the worldwithin the last two decades (Banks, 2004, Banks, 2009; Castles, 2009). The near zero population growth in many of the Western nations and Japan and the rapid population growth in the developing nations have created a demographic divide and a demand for immigrants to meet labor needs. The growth of the population of ethnic, racial, linguistic, and religious minorities within the Western nations is also increasing at a much faster rate than are mainstream groups. The percentage of the non-Hispanic White population in the United States is projected to decrease during the 2030s and 2040s and comprise 50 percent of the population in 2042, down from 66 percent in 2008 (U. S. Census Bureau, 2008). Ethnic minorities are projected to increase from one-third of the nation’s population in 2006 to 50 percent in 2042 (cited in Roberts, 2008).

The election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States in 2008 is a significant marker of important demographic changes in the United States as well as the promises and challenges of diversity. Obama received significant support from young people, many of whom worked in his election. His support among the college-educated population, Asian Americans, Hispanics, and Jewish Americans was also significant. Obama was supported by 63 percent of Asian, 67 percent of Hispanic, and 77 percent of Jewish voters (Nichols, 2008). Forty-two percent of White voters also voted for Obama, which exceeded the percentage who voted for John Kerry in 2004 (Boynton, 2009). Despite the impressive support he received from many demographic groups, Obama was the victim of veiled racial attacks that tried to depict him as an ‘‘Other’’ who would not be an acceptable American president. Massing (2008) states that the attacks on Obama were ‘‘perhaps the most vicious smear campaign ever mounted against an American politician’’ (p. 26). Consequently, the campaign and election of Obama illustrate both the promises and challenges of diversity in the United States.

Because of worldwide migration and globalization, racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity is increasing in nations around the world, including the United States (Banks, 2009; Castles, 2009). Diversity in the United States is becoming increasingly reflected in the nation’s schools, colleges, and universities. In 2006, 43 percent of the students enrolled in grades one to 12 in the public schools were students of color (Planty et al., 2008). It is projected that 66 percent of the students in the United States will be African American, Asian, Latino, or Native American by 2020 (Johnson, 2008). In 2007, 20 percent of school-age youth spoke a language other than English at home (Planty et al.). Consequently, a significant percentage of students in U.S. schools are English-language learners. It is projected that by 2030 about 40 percent of the students in the United States will speak English as a second language (Peebles, 2008).

Many of the nation’s students are poor. In 2007, 37.3 million people in the United States were living in poverty, including 17.4 percent of students (DeNavas-Walt, Proctor, & Smith, 2008). The gap between the rich and the poor is also widening. In 1980, the top five percent of

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Americans owned 15.8 percent of the nation’s wealth. The top five percent owned 21.2 percent of U.S. wealth in 2007 (DeNavas-Walt et al.).

These demographic, social, and economic trends have important implications for teaching and learning in today’s schools. As U.S. students become increasingly diverse, most of the nation’s teachers remain White, middle class, and female. In 2004, approximately 83 percent of the nation’s teachers were White and 75 percent were female (Planty et al., 2007). Consequently, a wide gap exists between the racial, cultural, and linguistic characteristics of U.S. students and teachers.

The increasing diversity within U.S. schools provides both opportunities and challenges. Diverse classrooms and schools make it possible to teach students from many different cultures and groups how to live together cooperatively and productively. However, racial prejudice and discrimination are challenges that arise when people from diverse groups interact. Teachers need to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to maximize the opportunities that diversity offers and to minimize its challenges. Teacher education programs should help teachers attain the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to work effectively with students from diverse groups as well as help students from mainstream groups develop cross-cultural knowledge, values, and competencies.

Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives, seventh edition, is designed to help current and future educators acquire the concepts, paradigms, and explanations needed to become effective practitioners in culturally, racially, and linguistically diverse classrooms and schools. This seventh edition has been revised to reflect current and emerging research, theories, and practices related to the education of students from both genders and from different cultural, racial, ethnic, and language groups. Exceptionality is part of our concept of diversity because there are exceptional students in each group discussed in this book.

Chapters 8 and 9 are new to this seventh edition. The coauthors added to Chapters 14 and 16 have brought new information, insights, and perspectives to the revisions of these chapters. Chapters 2, 6, 12, 13, and 14 have been significantly shortened, which enabled the authors of these chapters to focus them more tightly as well as to revise them substantially. All of the chapters from the previous edition have been revised to reflect new research, theories, census data, statistics, interpretations, and developments. The Multicultural Resources in the Appendix have been substantially revised and updated. A new section on Sexual and Gender Minorities has been added to the Appendix. The Glossary has been revised to incorporate new census data and developments in the field.

This book consists of six parts. The chapters in Part I discuss how race, gender, class, and exceptionality interact to influence student behavior. Social class and religion and their effects on education are discussed in Part II. Part III describes how educational opportunity differs for female and male students and how schools can foster gender equity. Chapter 8—which is new to this seventh edition—describes how race and gender are interacting rather than separate and discrete variables. The other new chapter to this edition—Chapter 9—examines the role of queer studies and sexual and gender minorities in multicultural education. The issues, problems, and opportunities for educating students of color and students with language differences are discussed in Part IV. Chapter 11—on the colorblind perspective—highlights the importance of race even when it is unacknowledged by teachers. Part V focuses on exceptionality, describing the issues involved in creating equal educational opportunity for students who have disabilities and for those who are gifted. The final part, Part VI, discusses multicultural education as a

PREFACE vii

process of school reform and ways to increase student academic achievement and to work more effectively with parents. The Appendix consists of a list of books for further reading, and the Glossary defines many of the key concepts and terms used throughout the book.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to a number of colleagues who helped with the preparation of this seventh edition. First, we would like to thank the authors who revised their chapters in a timely and professional way and for incorporating our editorial suggestions. We would also like to thank Annette Henry and Cris Mayo for taking time from busy schedules to write and revise new chapters for this edition. Lisa Albrecht and Mary Kay Thompson Tetreault prepared perceptive prepublication reviews of Chapter 8 that enabled the author to strengthen it. Kevin Kumashiro and Nelson Rodriguez provided insightful comments on Chapter 9 that the author used to improve it. Mollie Blackburn, Kevin Kumashiro, Cris Mayo, Erica Meiners, Nelson Rodriguez, and Mary Kay Thompson Tetreault recommended books for inclusion in the Appendix. We appreciate their recommendations. We would also like to thank Ricardo Garcia of the University of Nebraska, Raynice Jean Sigur of Kennesaw State University, Martha Lue Stewart of the University of Central Florida, and Marva Solomon of Texas State University, for their thoughtful feedback on the sixth edition.

We thank Dennis Rudnick, Kosta Kyriacopoulos, Yuhshi Lee, and Adebowale Adekile— research assistants in the Center for Multicultural Education at the Univeristy of Washington—for helping to update the statistics in this edition and for their work on the chapters to make them consistent with APA style requirements. We used a modified APA style in the previous editions of this book. In this edition, the style was changed to make it completely consistent with APA.

James A. Banks and Cherry A. McGee Banks

References

Banks, J. A. (Ed.). (2004). Diversity and citizenship education: Global perspectives. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Banks, J. A. (Ed.). (2009). The Routledge international companion to multicultural education. New York and London: Routledge.

Boynton, R. S. (2009, January 18). Demographics and destiny. New York Times Book Review, 11.

Castles, S. (2009). World population movements, diversity, and education. In J. A. Banks (Ed.), The Routledge international companion to multicultural education (pp. 49–61). New York and London: Routledge.

DeNavas-Walt, C., Proctor, B. D., & Smith, J.C. (2008). U.S. Census Bureau, current population reports: Income, poverty, and health insurance coverage in the United States: 2007. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved January 8, 2009, from http://www.census.gov/prod/ 2008pubs/p60-235.pdf

http://www.census.gov/prod/
viii PREFACE

Johnson, C. (2008). Meeting challenges in US education: Striving for success in a diverse society. In W. Guofang (Ed.), The education of diverse student populations: A global perspective (pp. 79–95). London: Springer.

Massing, M. (2008, December 18). Obama: In the divided heartland. New York Review of Books, 55(20), 26–30.

Nichols, J. (2008, November 5). Barack Obama’s many majorities. Nation. Retrieved January 7, 2009, from http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/380552/barack_obama_s_many_majorities

Peebles, J. (2008). The identification, assessment, and education process of special education limited English proficiency students. ESL Globe [Online]. Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://faculty.chass.ncsu .edu/swisher/VOL%205%20NO%202%20SPRING%202008/issue_peebles.html

Planty, M., Hussar, W., Snyder, T., Provasnik, S., Kena, G., Dinkes, R., et al. (2008). The condition of education 2008 (NCES 2008-031). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved January 8, 2009, from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2008/2008031.pdf

Planty, M., Provasnik, S., Hussar, W., Snyder, T., Kena, G., Dinkes, R., Hampden-Thompson, G., et al. (2007). The condition of education 2007 (NCES 2007-064). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved January 8, 2009, from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007064.pdf

Roberts, S. (2008, August 14). A generation away, minorities may become the majority in U.S. New York Times, A1, A18.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2008). An older and more diverse nation by midcentury. Retrieved October 20, 2008, from http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/012496.html

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/380552/barack_obama_s_many_majorities
http://faculty.chass.ncsu
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2008/2008031.pdf
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007064.pdf
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/012496.html
Contents

Part I ISSUES AND CONCEPTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 1 Multicultural Education: Characteristics and Goals James A. Banks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

The Nature of Multicultural Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 High-stakes Testing: A Challenge for Social Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Multicultural Education: An International Reform Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 The Historical Development of Multicultural Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 How Multicultural Education Developed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 The Nature of Culture in the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 The Social Construction of Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The Dimensions of Multicultural Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 The School as a Social System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Chapter 2 Culture in Society and in Educational Practices Frederick Erickson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Culture: An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Cultural Issues in Education, in Society, and in Persons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Multicultural Teaching and Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Conclusion: On Diversity of Tongues and Their Educational Potential . . . . . . . 49 Afterword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Chapter 3 Race, Class, Gender, and Disability in the Classroom Carl A. Grant and Christine E. Sleeter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Race, Class, Gender, Language, Disability, and Classroom Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Approaches to Multicultural Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

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Ms. Julie Wilson and Her Approach to Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Part II SOCIAL CLASS AND RELIGION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Chapter 4 Social Class and Educational Equality Caroline Hodges Persell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Educational Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Educational Beliefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Teachers, Curriculum, and Teaching Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Consequences of Social Class and Educational Inequality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Recommendations for Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Chapter 5 Christian Nation or Pluralistic Culture: Religion in American Life Charles H. Lippy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Europeans Plant Christianity in North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Early Signs of Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Common Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 The Spread of Evangelical Protestantism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Religious Freedom and the Separation of Church and State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Diversity, Religious Freedom, and the Courts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Pluralism Becomes the Norm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 New Faces of Pluralism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Summary and Educational Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Part III GENDER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Chapter 6 Gender Bias: From Colonial America to Today’s Classroom David Sadker and Karen Zittleman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

The Hidden Civil Rights Struggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Report Card: The Cost of Sexism in Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Gender Bias in Today’s Classroom: The Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Gender Bias in Today’s Classrooms: Student-Teacher Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Trends and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Strategies for Creating Gender-Fair Classrooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

CONTENTS xi

Chapter 7 Classrooms for Diversity: Rethinking Curriculum and Pedagogy Mary Kay Thompson Tetreault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Feminist Phase Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Chapter 8 Race and Gender in Classrooms: Implications for Teachers Annette Henry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Race and Gender as Interlocking Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 What Is Race? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 What Is Gender? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Race and Gender as an Inseparable Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Race and Gender in the Lives of Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Race, Gender, and School Alternatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Single-Sex Schools: Lessons About Good Pedagogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 Recommended Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Chapter 9 Queer Lessons: Sexual and Gender Minorities in Multicultural Education

Cris Mayo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Sexuality and Gender Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 Overlapping Histories of Multiculturalism and LGBTQ Movements . . . . . . . . . . 211 Challenges to Homophobia and Heterosexism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Why Homophobia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 Dilemmas of Queer Inclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Part IV RACE, ETHNICITY, AND LANGUAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Chapter 10 Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform James A. Banks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

The Mainstream-Centric Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Efforts to Establish a Multicultural Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Levels of Integration of Multicultural Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Guidelines for Teaching Multicultural Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

xii CONTENTS

Chapter 11 The Colorblind Perspective in School: Causes and Consequences Janet Ward Schofield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 The Research Site: Wexler Middle School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 Data Gathering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 The Colorblind Perspective and Its Corollaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 The Functions and Consequences of the Colorblind Perspective

and Its Corollaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Chapter 12 Language Diversity and Schooling Tom T. Stritikus and Manka M. Varghese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

The Immigrant Population in the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 Historical and Legal Overview of Language Policy in the United States . . . . . . . 290 Programmatic Responses to Linguistic Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 Views on Language Learning and Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 Language Learning and Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Part V EXCEPTIONALITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Chapter 13 Educational Equality for Students with Disabilities Sara C. Bicard and William L. Heward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Identification of Students with Disabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 History of Educational Equality for Students with Disabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 The Individuals with Disabilities Act: A Legislative Mandate for Educational

Equality for Students with Disabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 The Americans with Diabilities Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 The No Child Left Behind Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 Educational Equality for Students with Disabilities: Progress Made but

Challenges Remain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 Regular and Special Education Partnership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 Early Intervention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 Transition from School to Adult Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332 Special Education in a Diverse Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

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Chapter 14 School Inclusion and Multicultural Issues in Special Education Luanna H. Meyer, Jill M. Bevan-Brown, Hyun-Sook Park, and Catherine Savage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Special Education as Exclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344 Parent Participation and Working with Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348 Culturally Competent Teachers and Inclusive Pedagogies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353 Culturally Situated Schooling and Inclusive Pedagogies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 Diversity and Caring Communities: Outcomes for the Social Good . . . . . . . . . 360 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Chapter 15 Recruiting and Retaining Gifted Students from Diverse Ethnic, Cultural, and Language Groups

Donna Y. Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 Assumptions of the Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372 Recruitment Issues and Barriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374 Recruitment Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380 Retention Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383 Summary and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Part VI SCHOOL REFORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Chapter 16 School Reform and Student Learning: A Multicultural Perspective Sonia Nieto and Patty Bode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

School Reform with a Multicultural Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396 Conditions for Systemic School Reform with a Multicultural Perspective . . . . . 397 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Chapter 17 Communities, Families, and Educators Working Together for School Improvement

Cherry A. McGee Banks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417 Reasons That Parent and Family Involvement in Schools Is Important . . . . . . . . 419 Historical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420 The Changing Face of the Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421 Teacher Concerns with Parent and Family Involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425 Steps to Increase Parent and Family Involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434 Questions and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

xiv CONTENTS

Appendix Multicultural Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449

Photo Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

A key goal of multicultural education

is to change schools so that all students will

have an equal opportunity to learn.

P A R T Issues and

Concepts

T he three chapters in Part I define the major concepts and issues in multiculturaleducation, describe the diverse meanings of culture, and describe the ways in which such variables as race, class, gender, and exceptionality influence student behavior. Various aspects and definitions of culture are discussed. Culture is conceptualized as a dynamic and complex process of construction; its invisible and implicit characteristics are emphasized. The problems that result when culture is essentialized are described.

Multicultural education is an idea, an educational reform movement, and a process whose major goal is to change the structure of educational institutions so that male and female students, exceptional students, and students who are members of diverse racial, ethnic, language, and cultural groups will have an equal chance to achieve academically in school. It is necessary to conceptualize the school as a social system in order to implement multicultural education successfully. Each major variable in the school, such as—its culture, its power relationships, the curriculum and materials, and the attitudes and beliefs of the staff—must be changed in ways that will allow the school to promote educational equality for students from diverse groups.

To transform the schools, educators must be knowledgeable about the influence of particular groups on student behavior. The chapters in this part of the book describe the nature of culture and groups in the United States as well as the ways in which they interact to influence student behavior.

1

2

CHAPTER 1

Multicultural Education: Characteristics and Goals

James A. Banks

THE NATURE OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

Multicultural education is at least three things: an idea or concept, an educational reform move- ment, and a process. Multicultural education incorporates the idea that all students—regardless of their gender, social class, and ethnic, racial, or cultural characteristics—should have an equal opportunity to learn in school. Another important idea in multicultural education is that some students, because of these characteristics, have a better chance to learn in schools as they are currently structured than do students who belong to other groups or who have different cultural characteristics.

Some institutional characteristics of schools systematically deny some groups of students equal educational opportunities. For example, in the early grades, girls and boys achieve equally in mathematics and science. However, the achievement test scores of girls fall considerably behind those of boys as children progress through the grades (Clewell, 2002; Francis, 2000). Girls are less likely than boys to participate in class discussions and to be encouraged by teachers to participate. Girls are more likely than boys to be silent in the classroom. However, not all school practices favor males. As Sadker and Zittleman point out in Chapter 6, boys are more likely to be disciplined than are girls, even when their behavior does not differ from that of girls. They are also more likely than girls to be classified as learning disabled (Donovan & Cross, 2002). Males of color, especially African American males, experience a highly disproportionate rate of disciplinary actions and suspensions in school. Some scholars, such as Noguera (2008), have described the serious problems that African American males experience in school and in the wider society.

In the early grades, the academic achievement of students of color such as African Americans, Latinos, and American Indians is close to parity with the achievement of White mainstream students (Steele, 2003). However, the longer these students of color remain in school, the more their achievement lags behind that of White mainstream students. Social-class status is also strongly related to academic achievement. Persell, in Chapter 4, describes how

3

4 PART I ISSUES AND CONCEPTS

educational opportunities are much greater for middle- and upper-income students than for low-income students. Knapp and Woolverton (2004), as well as Oakes, Joseph, and Muir (2004), describe the powerful ways in which social class influences students’ opportunities to learn.

Exceptional students, whether they are physically or mentally disabled or gifted and talented, often find that they do not experience equal educational opportunities in the schools. The chapters in Part V describe the problems that such exceptional students experience in schools and suggest ways that teachers and other educators can increase their chances for educational success.

Multicultural education is also a reform movement that is trying to change the schools and other educational institutions so that students from all social-class, gender, racial, language, and cultural groups will have an equal opportunity to learn. Multicultural education involves changes in the total school or educational environment; it is not limited to curricular changes (Banks, 2009; Banks & Banks, 2004). The variables in the school environment that multicultural education tries to transform are discussed later in this chapter and illustrated in Figure 1.5. Multicultural education is also a process whose goals will never be fully realized.

Educational equality, like liberty and justice, is an ideal toward which human beings work but never fully attain. Racism, sexism, and discrimination against people with disabilities will exist to some extent no matter how hard we work to eliminate these problems. When prejudice and discrimination are reduced toward one group, they are usually directed toward another group or take new forms. Whenever groups are identified and labeled, categorization occurs. When categorization occurs, members of in-groups favor in-group members and discriminate against out-groups (Stephan, 1999). This process can occur without groups having a history of conflict, animosity, or competition, and without their having physical differences or any other kind of important difference. Social psychologists call this process social identity theory or the minimal group paradigm (Rothbart & John, 1993). Because the goals of multicultural education can never be fully attained, we should work continuously to increase educational equality for all students. Multicultural education must be viewed as an ongoing process, not as something that we ‘‘do’’ and thereby solve the problems that are the targets of multicultural educational reform (Banks, 2006).

HIGH-STAKES TESTING: A CHALLENGE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is being widely interpreted and implemented as a testing and assessment initiative. The emphasis on testing, standards, and accountability that is mandated in most states compels many teachers to focus on narrow and basic skills in reading, writing, and math (Sleeter, 2005). In too many classrooms, testing and test preparation are replacing teaching and learning. Research by Amrein and Berliner (2002) indicates that the emphasis on testing and accountability is having detrimental effects on student learning.

Because of the ways in which accountability is being conceptualized and implemented, the professional role of teachers is being fractured and minimized. However, some writers and researchers, such as Roderick, Jacob, and Bryk (2002), have provided evidence that the focus on the underachievement of targeted groups of students that is required by the NCLB Act has in some cases resulted in higher achievement among these students.

CHAPTER 1 MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION: CHARACTERISTICS AND GOALS 5

The national focus on basic skills and testing is diverting attention from the broad liberal education that students need to live and function effectively in a multicultural nation and world. It is essential that all students acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills. However, students also need the knowledge, skills, and values that will enable them to live, interact, and make decisions with fellow citizens from different racial, ethnic, cultural, language, and religious groups.

The schools need to teach about social justice issues in addition to basic skills. Teaching for social justice is very important because of the crises that the United States and the world face. An education that is narrowly defined as academic achievement and testing will not prepare students to become effective citizens who are committed to social justice. We should educate students to be reflective, moral, caring, and active citizens in a troubled world (Banks, 2008). The world’s greatest problems do not result from people being unable to read and write. They result from people in the world—from different cultures, races, religions, and nations—being unable to get along and to work together to solve the world’s problems, such as global warming, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, poverty, racism, sexism, terrorism, international conflict, and war. Examples are the conflicts between the Western and Arab nations, North Korea and its neighbors, and Israel and Palestine.

MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION: AN INTERNATIONAL REFORM MOVEMENT

Since World War II, many immigrants and groups have settled in the United Kingdom and in nations on the European continent, including France, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland (Banks, 2008, 2009). Some of these immigrants, such as the Asians and West Indians in England and the North Africans and Indochinese in France, have come from former colonies. Many Southern and Eastern European immigrants have settled in Western and Northern European nations in search of upward social mobility and other opportunities. Groups such as Italians, Greeks, and Turks have migrated to Northern and Western European nations in large numbers. Ethnic and immigrant populations have also increased significantly in Australia and Canada since World War II (Inglis, 2009; Joshee, 2009).

Most of the immigrant and ethnic groups in Europe, Australia, and Canada face problems similar to those experienced by ethnic groups in the United States (Banks, 2009). Groups such as the Jamaicans in England, the Algerians in France, and the Aborigines in Australia experience achievement problems in the schools and prejudice and discrimination in both the schools and society at large. These groups also experience problems attaining full citizenship rights and recognition in their nation-states (Luchtenberg, 2009).

The United Kingdom, various nations on the European continent, Australia, and Canada have implemented a variety of programs to increase the achievement of ethnic and immigrant students and to help students and teachers develop more positive attitudes toward racial, cultural, ethnic, and language diversity (Banks, 2008, 2009).

THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

Multicultural education grew out of the ferment of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. During this decade, African Americans embarked on a quest for their rights that was

6 PART I ISSUES AND CONCEPTS

unprecedented in the United States. A major goal of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s was to eliminate discrimination in public accommodations, housing, employment, and education. The consequences of the Civil Rights Movement had a significant influence on educational institutions as ethnic groups—first African Americans and then other groups—demanded that the schools and other educational institutions reform curricula to reflect their experiences, histories, cultures, and perspectives. Ethnic groups also demanded that the schools hire more Black and Brown teachers and administrators so that their children would have more successful role models. Ethnic groups pushed for community control of schools in their neighborhoods and for the revision of textbooks to make them reflect the diversity of peoples in the United States.

The first responses of schools and educators to the ethnic movements of the 1960s were hurried (Banks, 2006). Courses and programs were developed without the thought and careful planning needed to make them educationally sound or to institutionalize them within the educational system. Holidays and other special days, ethnic celebrations, and courses that focused on one ethnic group were the dominant characteristics of school reforms related to ethnic and cultural diversity during the 1960s and early 1970s. Grant and Sleeter, in Chapter 3, call this approach ‘‘single-group studies.’’ The ethnic studies courses developed and implemented during this period were usually electives and were taken primarily by students who were members of the group that was the subject of the course.

The visible success of the Civil Rights Movement, plus growing rage and a liberal national atmosphere, stimulated other marginalized groups to take actions to eliminate discrimination against them and to demand that the educational system respond to their needs, aspirations, cultures, and histories. The women’s rights movement emerged as one of the most significant social reform movements of the 20th century (Schmitz, Butler, Rosenfelt, & Guy-Sheftal, 2004). During the 1960s and 1970s, discrimination against women in employment, income, and education was widespread and often blatant. The women’s rights movement articulated and publicized how discrimination and institutionalized sexism limited the opportunities of women and adversely affected the nation. The leaders of this movement, such as Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, demanded that political, social, economic, and educational institutions act to eliminate sex discrimination and to provide opportunities for women to actualize their talents and realize their ambitions. Major goals of the women’s rights movement included offering equal pay for equal work, eliminating laws that discriminated against women and made them second-class citizens, hiring more women in leadership positions, and increasing participation of men in household work and child rearing.

When feminists (people who work for the political, social, and economic equality of the sexes) looked at educational institutions, they noted problems similar to those identified by ethnic groups of color. Textbooks and curricula were dominated by men; women were largely invisible. Feminists pointed out that history textbooks were dominated by political and military history—areas in which men had been the main participants (Trecker, 1973). Social and family history and the history of labor and of ordinary people were largely ignored. Feminists pushed for the revision of textbooks to include more history about the important roles of women in the development of the nation and the world. They also demanded that more women be hired for administrative positions in the schools. Although most teachers in the elementary schools were women, most administrators were men.

CHAPTER 1 MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION: CHARACTERISTICS AND GOALS 7

Other marginalized groups, stimulated by the social ferment and the quest for human rights during the 1970s, articulated their grievances and demanded that institutions be reformed so they would face less discrimination and acquire more human rights. People with disabilities, senior citizens, and gays and lesbians formed groups that organized politically during this period and made significant inroads in changing institutions and laws. Advocates for citizens with disabilities attained significant legal victories during the 1970s. The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (P.L. 94–142)—which required that students with disabilities be educated in the least restricted environment and institutionalized the word mainstreaming in education—was perhaps the most significant legal victory of the movement for the rights of students with disabilities in education (see Chapters 13 and 14).

HOW MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION DEVELOPED

Multicultural education emerged from the diverse courses, programs, and practices that edu- cational institutions devised to respond to the demands, needs, and aspirations of the various groups. Consequently, as Grant and Sleeter point out in Chapter 3, multicultural education in actual practice is not one identifiable course or educational program. Rather, practicing edu- cators use the term multicultural education to describe a wide variety of programs and practices related to educational equity, women, ethnic groups, language minorities, low-income groups, and people with disabilities. In one school district, multicultural education may mean a cur- riculum that incorporates the experiences of ethnic groups of color; in another, a program may include the experiences of both ethnic groups and women. In a third school district, this term may be used the way it is by me and by other authors, such as Nieto and Bode (2008) and Sleeter and Grant (2007); that is, to mean a total school reform effort designed to increase educational equity for a range of cultural, ethnic, and economic groups. This broader and more compre- hensive notion of multicultural education is discussed in the last part of this chapter. It differs from the limited concept of multicultural education in which it is viewed as curriculum reform.

THE NATURE OF CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES

The United States, like other Western nation-states such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, is a multicultural society. The United States consists of a shared core culture as well as many subcultures. In this book, we call the larger shared core culture the macroculture; the smaller cultures, which are a part of the core culture, are called microcultures. It is important to distinguish the macroculture from the various microcultures because the values, norms, and characteristics of the mainstream (macroculture) are frequently mediated by, as well as interpreted and expressed differently within, various microcultures. These differences often lead to cultural misunderstandings, conflicts, and institutionalized discrimination.

Students who are members of certain cultural, religious, and ethnic groups are sometimes socialized to act and think in certain ways at home but differently at school (Lee, 2006). In her study of African American students and families in Trackton, Heath (1983) found that the pattern of language use in school was very different from the pattern used at home. At

8 PART I ISSUES AND CONCEPTS

home, most of the children’s interaction with adults consisted of imperatives or commands. At school, questions were the dominant form of interactions between teachers and students. A challenge that multicultural education faces is how to help students from diverse groups mediate between their home and community cultures and the school culture. Students should acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to function effectively in each cultural setting. They should also be competent to function within and across other microcultures in their society, within the national macroculture, and within the world community (Banks, 2004).

The Meaning of Culture

Bullivant (1993) defines culture as a group’s program for survival in and adaptation to its environment. The cultural program consists of knowledge, concepts, and values shared by group members through systems of communication. Culture also consists of the shared beliefs, symbols, and interpretations within a human group. Most social scientists today view culture as consisting primarily of the symbolic, ideational, and intangible aspects of human societies. The essence of a culture is not its artifacts, tools, or other tangible cultural elements but how the members of the group interpret, use, and perceive them. It is the values, symbols, interpretations, and perspectives that distinguish one people from another in modernized societies; it is not material objects and other tangible aspects of human societies (Kuper, 1999). People in a culture usually interpret the meanings of symbols, artifacts, and behaviors in the same or in similar ways.

Identification and Description of the U.S. Core Culture

The United States, like other nation-states, has a shared set of values, ideations, and symbols that constitute the core or overarching culture. This culture is shared to some extent by all of the diverse cultural and ethnic groups that make up the nation-state. It is difficult to identify and describe the overarching culture in the United States because it is such a diverse and complex nation. It is easier to identify the core culture within an isolated premodern society, such as the Maoris before the Europeans came to New Zealand, than within highly pluralistic, modernized societies such as the United States, Canada, and Australia (Penetito, 2009).

When trying to identify the distinguishing characteristics of U.S. culture, one should realize that the political institutions in the United States, which reflect some of the nation’s core values, were heavily influenced by the British. U.S. political ideals and institutions were also influenced by Native American political institutions and practices, especially those related to making group decisions, such as in the League of the Iroquois (Weatherford, 1988).

Equality

A key component in the U.S. core culture is the idea, expressed in the Declaration of Independence in 1776, that ‘‘all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’’ When this idea was expressed by the nation’s founding fathers in 1776, it was considered radical. A common belief in the 18th century was that human beings were not born with equal

CHAPTER 1 MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION: CHARACTERISTICS AND GOALS 9

rights—that some people had few rights and others, such as kings, had divine rights given by God. When considering the idea that ‘‘all men are created equal’’ is a key component of U.S. culture, one should remember to distinguish between a nation’s ideals and its actual practices as well as between the meaning of the idea when it was expressed in 1776 and its meaning today. When the nation’s founding fathers expressed this idea in 1776, their conception of men was limited to White males who owned property (Foner, 1998). White men without property, White women, and all African Americans and Indians were not included in their notion of people who were equal or who had ‘‘certain unalienable rights.’’

Although the idea of equality expressed by the founding fathers in 1776 had a very limited meaning at that time, it has proven to be a powerful and important idea in the quest for human rights in the United States. Throughout the nation’s history since 1776, marginalized and excluded groups such as women, African Americans, Native Americans, and other cultural and ethnic groups have used this idea to justify and defend the extension of human rights to them and to end institutional discrimination, such as sexism, racism, and discrimination against people with disabilities (Branch, 2006). As a result, human rights have gradually been extended to various groups throughout U.S. history. The extension of these rights has been neither constant nor linear. Rather, periods of the extension of rights have often been followed by periods of retrenchment and conservatism. Schlesinger (1986) calls these patterns ‘‘cycles of American history.’’ The United States is still a long way from realizing the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. However, these ideals remain an important part of U.S. culture and are still used by marginalized groups to justify their struggles for human rights and equality.

Individualism and Individual Opportunity

Two other important ideas in the common overarching U.S. culture are individualism and individual social mobility (Stewart & Bennett, 1991). Individualism as an ideal is extreme in the U.S. core culture. Individual success is more important than commitment to family, community, and nation-state. An individual is expected to achieve success solely by his or her own efforts. Many people in the United States believe that a person can go from rags to riches within a generation and that every American-born boy can, but not necessarily will, become president. Individuals are expected to achieve success by hard work and to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. This idea was epitomized by fictional characters such as Ragged Dick, one of the heroes created by the popular writer Horatio Alger. Ragged Dick attained success by valiantly overcoming poverty and adversity. A related belief is that if a person does not succeed, it is because of the person’s own shortcomings, such as being lazy or unambitious; failure is consequently the person’s own fault. These beliefs are taught in the schools with success stories and myths about such U.S. heroes as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.

The beliefs about individualism in U.S. culture are related to the Protestant work ethic. This is the belief that hard work by the individual is morally good and that laziness is sinful. This belief is a legacy of the British Puritan settlers in colonial New England. It has had a powerful and significant influence on U.S. culture.

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