An Annotated Bibliography on Multi-cultural Education

Mary Stone Hanley, a teacher in the Teacher Certification Program of Antioch University in Seattle, explains and elaborates some of the issues concerning multicultural education and gives a brief history of the subject as well as a few suggestions for its improvement in “The Scope of Multicultural Education”. She explains the ideals and goals of a multicultural approach to education and the possible ways of achieving them through citations of works from other people and of course, from herself.  The main targets of her article are the teachers concerned in teaching multicultural groups of students. Her article can also be used to inform other people about the subject of multicultural education. She is still continuing further researches for the development of multicultural education.

John Morefield. “Recreating Schools For All Children.” New Horizons for Learning.

John Morefield conducted extensive researches for the availability of good education for “all” children. When he became the principal of Hawthorne Elementary School in Seattle, Washington, he promised the community that entering kindergartners would graduate with skills at or above expected grade level competency. Thus his researches on what works in diverse communities. His targets are all concerned audiences with emphasis to fellow teachers. His article specifies twelve characteristics that he thinks are needed to have a successful school. He explains that since it is widely accepted that American education has been biased and racist, it is now time to move on and prepare a better future of education for all the children of the world.

Rey A. Gomez. “Teaching with a Multicultural Perspective.” ERIC digest.

Gomez explains that to teach with a multicultural perspective will encourage understanding and appreciation of one’s own culture, as well as others. He suggests that the use of this perspective in teaching could promote a sense of uniqueness and specialty to his own culture to the child and therefore making the child create a same sense of perspective when viewing other’s cultures.

He also suggests that multicultural programs should not utterly focus on only the other’s cultures to the extent that a stereotype is created within the class. In his article, Morefield also reminds the parents of the children attending multicultural schools of the `myths’ that usually lead to the stereotype behaviors of their children toward multiculturalism.

Wilson, Keith. “Multicultural Education.” EdChange.

Wilson is an associate professor at the Pennsylvania State University. In his article, he gives a definition of Multicultural Education, and gives examples of the pros and cons of Multicultural Education. He cites some views from other writers to complement their views. He also gives a few suggestions on as to how a multicultural education program may succeed.

Burnett, Gary. Varieties of Multicultural Education: An Introduction. ERIC Digest 98.

Burnnet compares and contrast some of the programs that represent the current multicultural education typologies. He explains in his article some of the current programs that are currently being used to aid in multicultural education for the benefit of those who would like to create their own policies and or programs for the advancement of multicultural education. He cites some articles concerning debates about the effectiveness of some of the programs to back up his explanations.

Milk, Robert-Mercado, Carmen-Sapiens, Alexandria. Rethinking the Education of Teachers of Language Minority Children: Developing Reflective Teachers for Changing Schools. NCBE Focus.

The article’s main idea is how to make the teachers more ‘language minority students’ friendly. They wish to clarify and explain the roles of the teachers on the educational lives of the students. They cited several works of other people to further explain the importance of the teacher’s role in the political, demographic, and programmatic statuses of the schools that teach language minority students. They give suggestive guidelines for the teachers to help them in teaching language minority students.

Attinasi, John. “Academic Achievement, Culture, and Literacy: An Introduction.” NCREL.

He relates his own ideas and experiences to the audience to explain his, and other’s views about multicultural education. In this article, he introduces multiculturalism by relating it to his views of “closure” and “processes” and then states a few brief history of the evolution of multiculture. He then gives a few guidelines and information on how multiculturalism can imply changes on the way of teaching in a school with diversely cultured students.

Gollnick, Donna M. – Chinn, Philip C. Multicultural Education for Exceptional Children. ERIC Digest #E498.

Gollmick and Chinn stress the importance of multicultural education on the growing population of the U.S. in their article. They also give importance to the purposes of multiculturalism in the education world. They also stress the importance of the teacher’s roles and their curriculums on the multicultural students. and then they give suggestion on as to how to create a non-biased and effective curriculum for teachers, or for schools, who handle multiculturally diverse classes. Their article is a good preview of how important is the need for improvement of multiculture education.

Cohen, Cheryl. Teaching about Ethnic Diversity. ERIC Digest No. 32.

Cohen explains the importance of Ethnic Diversity as part of the curriculum to be used for students. He also gives stress to the effective procedures to be used in teaching Ethnic Diversity. Basically, it is an informative article that emphasizes the importance of Ethnic Diversity in a curriculum for students. Its main audiences are teachers and the vast American children of different ethnical backgrounds.

Covert, Bob and Gorski, Paul. Defining Multicultural Education. EdChange

Gorski and Covert give hints as to what does Multicultural Education really mean. They show that there is almost no two classrooms that has the same definition for Multicultural Education. Then they give examples of aspects of multicultural education. They state the importance of the definition on the possible transformations it could cause to the society. They also stated a possible goal of multicultural education which is to affect social change of the world.

References:

Attinasi, J. (1994). Academic Achievement, Culture, and Literacy: An Introduction. Retrieved August 8, 2007 from the NCREL database. Website: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/educatrs/leadrshp/le0att.htm

Burnnet, G. (1995). Varieties of Multicultural Education: An Introduction. ERIC Digest 98. ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education New York NY. Retrieved August 8, 2007 from the ERIC digest database. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED372146. Website: http://www.ericdigests.org/1995-1/multicultural.htm

Chinn, P. and Gollnick, D. (1991). Multicultural Education for Exceptional Children. ERIC Digest #E498. ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education New York NY. Retrieved August 8, 2007 from the ERIC digest database. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED333620. Website: http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9220/exceptional.htm

Cohen, C. (1986). Teaching about Ethnic Diversity. ERIC Digest No. 32. ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education New York NY. Retrieved August 8, 2007 from the ERIC digest database. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED273539. Website: http://www.thememoryhole.org/edu/eric/ed273539.html

Covert, B. and Gorski, P. Defining Multicultural Education. EdChange. Retrieved August 8, 2007, from EdChange database. Website: http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/initial.html

Gomez, R. (1991). Teaching with a Multicultural Perspective. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education Urbana IL. Retrieved August 8, 2007 from the ERIC digest database. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED339548. Website: http://www.ericdigests.org/1992-5/perspective.htm

Hanley, M. S. (n.d.). The Scope of Multicultural Education. New Horizons for Learning. Retrieved August 8, 2007, from New Horizons for Learning. Website: http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/multicultural/hanley.htm

Milk, R.; Mercado, C.; Sapiens, A. (summer 1992). Number 6. NCBE FOCUS: Occasional Papers in Bilingual Education. Retrieved August 8, 2007 from NCBA database. Website: http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/focus/focus6.htm

Morefield, J. (n.d.). Recreating Schools For All Children. New Horizons for Learning. Retrieved August 8, 2007, from New Horizons for Learning. Website: http://www.newhorizons.org/trans/morefield.htm

Wilson,K. (n.d.). Multicultural Education. EdChange. Retrieved August 8, 2007, from EdChange database. Website: http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/keith.html