I hope I am helping at least one person become more open-minded and helping them realize how important this topic is. This edition is concentrated on teachers, mostly teachers who teach preschool and the early elementary years although you should not limit it to such. You can most definitely read and adapt to your focus group, whether you are a Homeschooling mom/dad or you teach high school.
I have researched this topic for many years so I will mostly be adding to this post from papers I have written in the past. I figure that instead of having it stored away collecting cyber dust, where no one can see it, post it where it may help teachers out there. I will post in two parts since these papers are so long. This first section will discuss the classroom, the next section will be shorter discussing Assessment and Evaluation.
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I will not be copy pasting the whole paper just sections of it. I have permission from the author, don't worry, she's pretty cool.
How to Integrate Multicultural Education into the Everyday Life of a Young Child
In the next twenty years, fifty-five percent of public school students will be considered part of a racial or ethnic minority group and twenty-seven percent may speak another language other than English (The National Center for Education Statistics, 2005). Many schools have recognized that this is a fact and have initiated an integration of multicultural education; other schools may be reluctant to do so. There are a variety of reasons in which a school or a teacher might deny to commence the integration of multiculturalism into the classroom. Huber (2000) mentions four reasons:
§ Some teachers report that “we are all alike here” or “we don’t see color here” and fail to recognize that culture has a considerable influence on the lives of both children and staff.
§ Teachers may not feel they know enough about another culture to feel comfortable providing materials and answering children’s questions.
§ Teachers may feel that they are already incorporating some multicultural materials in the classroom.
§ A teacher may not know what props or materials would be appropriate for the classroom.
What do teachers need to know in able to provide a genuine multicultural experience in the classroom? Where should a teacher start? What materials and lessons should be included?
Many might believe that the purpose of multicultural education is to teach “White” kids about all other cultures. This is simply not true. The beauty of multicultural education is that it is used to teach each child of every race about all other races, including the American culture. By no means should the American culture be left out of the picture. This curriculum is a way to embrace and equally value cultural diversity within the Untied States (York, 2003). Each year, before school begins, teachers should try their best to seek information of the children they will have in their classroom. If this is not possible, the first week of class, the teacher should survey the families, to learn about their culture and traditions. This can even be part of one of your first projects of the year. For this purpose the questions are addressed to the children and are filled out with the help of their family. This survey should have a variety of questions such as this Family History Questionnaire (Derman-Sparks, 1989):
1. I was born in _____?
2. My mother’s name is _____. She was born in _____.
3. My father’s name is _____. He was born in_____.
4. My mother’s parents live or lived in ____. They were born in ____ and _____.
5. My father’s parents live or lived in ____. They were born in ____ and _____.
6. Did my grandparents or great-grandparents come from another country? Which person? Which country?
7. What is my family’s cultural/ethnic heritage?
8. Does our family have special customs or traditions? What are they?
9. Tell a story about a special relative who’s important to our family.
This questionnaire is only an example; many questions can be added or taken out. Once all this information is gathered it is the teacher’s duty to create and environment where each culture is represented one way or another. The most important aspect about multicultural education is that children learn and accept themselves. When this occurs, they are ready to learn and accept other cultures and individuals.
Play
In Early Childhood Education, it is understood that children learn best through play. When Kieff (1994) asked a community of teachers and parents to define play, this is what they responded:
“Play is a child’s work.”
“Play is the way children express themselves.”
“Play is fun.”
“Play is the way children learn about their world.”
“Play is how children get along.”
A great way to facilitate play in the classroom is through learning based centers, others may call them stations, or areas. Depending on the space and materials there is a variety of centers that a child may choose to play at:
- Blocks
- Discovery/Science
- Math/Manipulatives
- Art
- Technology/Computer
- Library/Reading/Quiet Area
- Dramatic Play
- Sensory (Sand & Water)
- Music & Movement
Whether it is integrating a variety of toys and materials or offering activities in such areas, these centers are a great opportunity to expose children to different cultures. To provide information for teachers that can help the process of integrating multicultural education into a preschool classroom, I will offer a list of toys and materials and activities that can be added to each area.
- Block Area
The block area is a great opportunity for children to develop hand-eye coordination and spatial relations. Multicultural materials such as posters of different types of homes, along with palm leaves, coconut branches, corn husks, pine branches, bark, pine needles, craft sticks, stones, and straw for creating roofs, houses and branches (York, 2003). Miniature people in every day dress that are different in age, culture and abilities, and a wide variety of animals are other items that can be added to his area.
- Discovery/Science Area
So many activities can encourage children to observe, explore, classify, compare and measure. Children can observe as different types of plants, fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers from many different countries. This would be a great opportunity to mention how different countries use these items for different things. Another fun activity is cooking. Make special recipes such as flan, baklava, and breads from different countries. A cool experiment that can be offered in the classroom is dyeing cloth as Native Americans did by boiling plants to make dye: beets = red, spinach = green, blackberries = blue (Saul & Saul, 2001).
- Math/Manipulative Area
Want to introduce numbers and counting? Write the numbers from 1 to 10 in separate pages. Print out the symbol for that number in another language such as Mandarin or Japanese. Then use items native to that country to represent the number on that page. What to introduce patterns? Bring different fabrics; some may even be hand-made. These are usually made up of patterns. See if the children can recognize color and shape patterns.
- Art
Encourage the children to make self-portraits. If the children want to use paint, have them mix different colors to create the color that most resembles their skin. The next day, you can encourage them to make a portrait of their friend as well as mixing different colors to get the color of their friend’s skin. Later, have them compare the colors. They will figure out that no two colors are the same. Teachers can also look at different artists and their techniques. What inspired that artist to create such art? Was it their country, or another culture?
- Technology/Computer Area
It’s amazing what children can do with computers these days. A three year old in my classroom used the backspace to delete another friends name and typed her own name in, then pressed the enter key in order to sign in to the game. Having a variety of games and child safe website will provide them with real life pictures, video clips, music and games. Encyclopedias for kids are also a great resource to have when children start to inquire about different traditions. In http://pbskids.org/ and http://pbskids.org/go/ there are games such as Maya and Miguel, It’s a Big Big World and Dragon Tales among other games that expose children to diversity and different languages.
- Library/Reading/Quiet Area
So much to read in so little time! There are so many books teachers can use to integrate multiculturalism in the classroom. Be careful! Many books can be biased and teachers need review the books before placing them on the shelves. Here are some guidelines that Stacey York (2003) provides to have in mind when selecting multicultural literature:
- Illustrations: Are they stereotypical, exaggerated, depicting, or racist?
- Characters of Color: Do people wear suitable clothing?
- Relationship between White People and People of Color: Are people of color underrepresented in comparison to white?
- Story Line: Does the book contain loaded words, are the family relations stereotypical?
- Author and Illustrator: Are they qualified to deal with this subject matter?
Wouldn’t it be interesting to listen to a story in its native language? Set it up! Invite people to the classroom. Many are willing to do so much more than read; they’ll sing and dance with the children, they will bring art activities, just ask!
- Dramatic Play Area
Children learn to dress themselves, to button, zipper and snap. Children become mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. They are chefs, mail carriers, princes and princesses. This area encourages children to interact with each other. It is very important to allow children to have freedom of play because they learn a lot about themselves and others. The dramatic play area can be transformed into so many places, but to accommodate these transformations we must have lots of props! We can have two types of clothing: those used for celebrations and those that are used as other culture’s daily dress. It is important to let the children know that traditional clothing is not worn everyday, most of them wear regular clothing similar us (Huber, 2000). Other props that should be brought in are multicultural play food, cooking utensils, dolls among others.
- Sensory (Sand & Water)
Sensory tables are used to introduce textures and liquids. Providing different fabrics, soils, and sand can take a child to another place. A sand table can have toy camels and create patterns that the wind would create on the dessert sand. In the water table a child can be taken to Alaska where there may be icebergs and learn about the Inuit tribe hunting for blue whales. It’s a world of possibilities.
Sensory tables are used to introduce textures and liquids. Providing different fabrics, soils, and sand can take a child to another place. A sand table can have toy camels and create patterns that the wind would create on the dessert sand. In the water table a child can be taken to Alaska where there may be icebergs and learn about the Inuit tribe hunting for blue whales. It’s a world of possibilities.
- Music & Movement
One of the most powerful resources a teacher has is music. It’s fun, educational and its freedom to move as you feel. Provide different types of instruments or make them! Bring in different styles of music will offer the children a genuine experience of other cultures. Inviting others to dance for them and with them; inviting others to play instruments for them and with them, are unforgettable experiences.
Theme/Units
Whether its emergent, project-based, or thematic instruction, there can always be ways of integrating multicultural education. A thematic unit about ME! is relatively easy to prepare. In this type of unit you focus on the individual first then others. How about other units? One unit that is popular is transportation. How can we integrate multicultural education in the theme of transportation? We can start by asking the children, what is transportation? You might come up with a definition that states it takes you places. Now many of us that live in the United States instantly think of cars, buses, taxis, planes, boats, etc. How about the children who are from other countries? They may use camels, horses, bicycles, and even other people. It’s important to learn that despite our different traditions and cultures we have many things in common.
Another theme you might run into as a preschool teacher is animals. This topic can go into the Rainforest, the Desert, the Ocean and other places. Questions we can ask are where these animals live, what countries are they usually found and what is their interaction with the society around them. Are these animals valued, protected or are they an important resource of food? It is up to us to listen to children’s conversations and observe the way they play. Teachers will learn how the children view the world and we can also realize what might be of interest to them next.
Birthdays & Holidays
Birthdays and holidays are a great way to involve children in other cultures. Now is the time to take out the surveys that were filled out in the beginning of the year. A birthday is an international event. Birthdays are celebrated differently throughout the world. Make a classroom holiday out of each child’s birthday. How would that family celebrate the child’s birthday? Can it be done? If so, have the other children participate in activities that the birthday child’s culture usually participates in. The birthday child will feel very special and the other children in the classroom will have the opportunity to learn more about their friend that has just added one year to their life.
Holidays are also international. They may not be the same but most cultures have them. The first holidays on your list should be those that your families celebrate. This is a great opportunity to invite families as well as members of the community to be a part of their child’s classroom. We will all have much to learn from all cultures. Here are a couple of suggestions for involving parents and community in these celebrations (Bisson, 1997):
- Ask for ideas about what activities would be appropriate to provide for children.
- Welcome family members who would like to come in and lead an activity, such as cooking a holiday dish with the children or helping to decorate the classroom.
- Communicate to families ahead of time about what you are planning to do in the classroom, so parents or guardians can let you know if they have anything to contribute or any concerns.
Many of these holidays may be religious based. We have to keep in mind that we want to have a celebration; it should not be a time for preaching but an opportunity to learn about another culture. Some families might have religious views that don’t permit them to celebrate certain holidays or even birthdays. It is important to have communication with the families to reach an agreement and understanding about these holidays. Birthdays and holidays should be a way to celebrate diversity!
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