This paper will
discuss multicultural education and introduce six strategies for incorporating
a multicultural curriculum in a choice-based classroom. It is easy to overlook multicultural learning
experiences in the choice-based classroom but a multicultural education is
vastly important in our ever-changing world. With the internet connecting people all around
the world and more and more multinational companies, a multicultural education
is becoming increasingly important. Also
the population of the United States is becoming increasingly heterogeneous (Anderson,
1996b). As such, students need a greater
understanding of multiple cultures in order to work and live with people from a
greater variety of cultures. Multicultural
education is crucial to students being successful in life. Multicultural education is for every student,
not just the “other” (Delacruz, 1995). Students
from the majority culture need a multicultural education as much as minority students. It is important that all students have a
strong multicultural education. Also, a
multicultural education empowers students (Stuhr, Petrovich-Mwaniki, &
Wasson, 1990). Multicultural education
can raise students’ self-esteem (Ballenge-Morris & Stuhr, 2001).
We live in a
multicultural society dominated by one group's cultural heritage. Denied equal
educational opportunity to learn about their own cultural roots, students with
non-Western and/or non-mainstream cultural heritages too often experience
alienation, negative self-concepts, or low self-esteem, putting them at a
further disadvantage in our competitive society. The repair response in
multicultural pluralism suggests that by presenting in positive fashion the art
of marginalized cultural heritages, we can build positive self-concepts and
provide positive identities for those now suffering marginalization (Collins
& Sandell, 1992, p. 11)
Culture can be
thought of in several ways. From an
anthropological perspective, culture is comprised of many factors which affect
all interactions, including physical and mental ability, class, gender, age,
politics, religion, and ethnicity (Stuhr, Petrovich-Mwaniki, & Wasson,
1990). Anderson defines culture as, “…not
externally or geophysically determined. Rather it is made up of individuals and
groups who make choices and influence each other in the development of
collective values, perspectives, mores, and ways of doing things” (1996b p. 198).
From a sociological perspective, one might conceptualize culture in terms of
parts and people and the interaction between them (Archer, 1988). According to Kuster, culture is
…the process,
as well as the product, of a group of people bound together by some combination
of common factors. People are the
authors of culture, as each interacts and learns from one another. Culture is
constantly changing because it is influenced by factors that are dynamic in
nature. Social, economic, religious, and
political factors influence culture.
Culture, in this sense, is what guides how people act, think, and feel
and is a creative process involving behaviors, values, and substance shared by
people as they seek to give meaning and significance to their lives. There can be no pure and simple culture, in
that culture is always multifaceted and complex (2006, p. 33).
Culture is a lens through which
an individual views his or her world and it is paramount that students
understand a variety of cultures if they are to be responsible global citizens
who can work with people from all over the world.
According to
Stuhr, “multicultural education is a concept, a process, and an educational
reform movement” (1994, p. 171). The
term “multiculturalism” first appeared in Canada in the 1950’s (Dudek,
2006). “Multicultural education emerged
in the early 1960s out of the Civil Rights Movement as a means for
reconstructing school and society” (Stuhr, 1994, p. 171).
There are
several approaches to a multicultural curriculum a teacher can employ. A Socio-Anthropological approach looks at
cultures the way an anthropologist would (Stuhr, Petrovich-Mwaniki, &
Wasson, 1990). This approach can be overwhelming
as it requires much research on the part of the teacher and takes a lot of
class time as students examine primary source materials. This approach is not
well suited for the choice-based classroom where most of students’ time is
spent on art production. There is
teaching the culturally different.
The idealized
goal of such an approach in art education is to equip all students with
cognitive skills, technical efficiency, conceptual information, and the
aesthetic values of the dominant culture of the U.S., to enable them to get
jobs in the arts and to participate in fine art cultural events (Stuhr, 1994,
p. 172)
The problem with this approach
is that it teaches everyone to the standards of white, upper-class, males. There is no appreciation for diversity.
The exceptional
and culturally different multicultural approach to art education is based on
the assumption that there is a specific body of knowledge to be learned,
favoring a fine art world view based on the dominant artistic traditions of the
Western European and North American cultures, over other sociocultural art
worlds (Stuhr, 1994, p. 172).
This approach ignores the
contributions of the non-Western world. “The
human relations approach defines the major purpose of schooling as helping students
of different backgrounds to get along better in a world made continually
smaller by modern technology and mass media” (Stuhr, 1994, p. 173). This approach focuses reducing prejudices and
biases by focusing on the similarities between cultures, but it does not focus
on the differences between cultures. “An art program that promotes the single
group studies approach will focus on the group as a people (for example,
American Indians, Latinos, African Americans, or women)” (Stuhr, 1994, p. 174).
This approach is used more in colleges
and universities than with K-12 classrooms. There is the multiculturalism of
liberal-humanism which is based on the presumption that we owe equal respect to
all cultures (Levine-Rasky, 2006). Levine-Rasky
states that this approach assumes a “…universal sameness and equality of every
human person” (2006, p. 89). This
approach is based on “difference-blindness” and fails to acknowledge the
uniqueness of every individual (Levine-Rasky, 2006). This paper espouses the Multicultural Education
Approach. This approach includes
teaching students about the contributions of diverse groups of people which is
the backbone of the strategies in this paper (Ballengee-Morris & Sturh,
2001). The Social Reconstructionist
Approach is similar to the Multicultural Education Approach. The main difference is that the Social
Reconstructionist Approach also aims to make changes in the community for the
benefit of discriminated against groups.
This paper is not opposed to this approach, but helping the community is
beyond the scope of this paper.
According to
Dudek, there are two types of multiculturalism:
government sanctioned multiculturalism and everyday “on-the-streets”
multiculturalism (2006). “Of course, the
everyday "on-the-streets" version of multiculturalism is very
different from the Disneyland version of friendship and tolerance that
hegemonic constructions of multiculturalism present” (Dudek, 2006, p. 3). Ghassan Hage argues that multiculturalism,
…works only as
a model in which the White nationalist controls the racialized other. In other
words, as long as the so-called ethnic other obeys the rules of the
non-racialized status quo, then multiculturalism works. Hage demonstrates how
tolerance fades when there is a perceived danger of the racialized other
changing the fabric of (White) …life and identity (Dudek, 2006, p. 3).
For much of the history of the United States, the school’s job regarding
immigrant students was to assimilate them.
Multiculturalism is about celebrating our diversity.
Multiculturalism
builds on the assertion that because of the end result-an Euro-centric
orientation- assimilation should be rejected. Multiculturalism's doctrine of
equal-respect suggests that the recognition of the contributions of all racial
and ethnic groups take place in the field of education, as well as other
arenas, and that an emphasis be placed on the importance of maintaining
cultural diversity (George & Yancey, 2004, p.4).
According to Collins and Sandell,
Finding the
integrationist vision of the melting pot and the specter of the separatist
ghetto intellectually naive and/or ethically repugnant, most multiculturalists
in art education subscribe to pluralism - not only as an accurate description
of "what is," but as a prescription for liberation and a model for
teaching about art from other than the dominant culture's point of view (1992,
p8).
Despite its
many benefits and its popularity among advocates, multicultural education has
been quite controversial (Adejumo, 2002).
If pluralism would seem to be an intellectually and ethically safe
position, it is nevertheless politically problematic” (Collins & Sandell,
1992, p. 8). Some claim that all that is
worth knowing comes from the great men of Western culture (Anderson, 1996a).
However advocates for multicultural education argue that,
Western culture
is inherently repressive internally in relation to minority subcultures and
externally imperialistic; 2) the Western canon is unrepresentative of a broad
social spectrum, thus inherently elitist; 3) its political agenda is keeping
power and control for the elite but that this agenda is disguised through positioning
value assumptions as neutrals or truth (Anderson, 1996a, p. 56).
Of course, one
must still look critically at the art of other cultures.
Although
cultural pluralists in art education argue that Western mainstream art is
neither politically nor ideologically innocent, we tend to embrace the art of
other cultures as if it were harmless, failing to examine its politics and
ideology (Collins & Sandell, 1992, p. 9).
Collins and Sandell further
state,
Valuing
cultural differences out of their context perpetuates the Western tendency to
romanticize and trivialize, to render harmless and diverting the differences of
other cultures, but it does not begin to suggest how we might balance our need
for connection with our desire for transcendence (1992, p. 11).
Choice-based
art education is a nationally recognized grassroots approach to art education. It started over thirty-five years ago in Massachusetts
classrooms and was researched at Massachusetts College of Art. In choice-based art education students are
regarded as artists and they are offered real choices for responding to their
own ideas and interests through the making of art. Choice-based art education
supports multiple modes of learning for the diverse needs of students (Douglas,
2013).
In a
choice-based classroom, each class begins with a five minute demo by the
teacher. This is the extent of whole
class instruction. Then the majority of
class time is spent working in studio centers where students choose the media
they will work with and the content of their artwork. The teacher then acts as a coach helping each
student create his or her best work.
This may include small group instruction and individual instruction. Classes conclude with students sharing their
work with the class (Douglas & Jaquith, 2009, Hathaway, 2013).
In non-choice-based
classrooms, such as DBAE classrooms, multiculturalism is often taught in a
superficial way. For example, students
may make Day of the Dead skeletons without learning anything about the culture
surrounding this holiday. Kuster states,
“The implementation of multicultural art education in the United States from
the 1970s until the present has been strongly focused on generalized explicit
or overt cultural characteristics such as dress, speech, and holiday or
ceremonial behaviors” (2006, p. 33) Multicultural
education must go more in depth.
According to Kuster,
…multiculturalism
is more than adding on to the curriculum a conglomeration of superficial aspects
of cultural life. Multicultural competence causes students to better understand
how each person within a society affects and is influenced by others, thus
contributing to the on-going definition and the creation of culture (2006 p.33).
According to Stuhr, Petrovich-Mwaniki and Wasson,
By merely
presenting exemplars of cultural products such as Egyptian Hieroglyphics,
American Indian totem poles, and/or Australian bark paintings followed by the
production of copies of these forms, many art educators are missing the point.
Such tokenism not only trivializes the aesthetic production of all sociocultural
groups, but, what is worse, it avoids confronting the real challenge of
critically apprehending the meaning of the object, artist, process, in the
sociocultural context. Further it fails to make legitimate links and
contributions to the students' lives in ways that are morally, ethically and
cognitively sound (1992, p. 21).
There are
several ways in which the choice-based classroom naturally meets the needs of a
multicultural classroom. Because
students decide their own projects and work at their own pace, the choice-based
classroom meets students, from all cultures, where they are and all ability
levels are accepted and encouraged. Students also naturally draw inspiration
from their own interests so the choice-based classroom also allows all students
to incorporate their sociocultural identity into their work. Students are not just copying another culture’s
tradition. They can explore and further
understand their own culture. According
to Lopez,
Whereas in most
lessons, the educator stands as the authority on the subject, here by choosing
to examine the diverse cultures of our students, we are required to relinquish
authority and allow our students to teach us through their lived experiences.
Students then become ambassadors of their personal culture (2009, p. 23).
Further, as students share their
work at the end of each class, they learn about each other’s cultures from
someone in that culture.
Because
whole-group direct instruction is limited to the first five minutes of class,
it is easy to think there is not enough time for in depth multicultural
curriculum, but that is not the case.
One method for incorporating multicultural curriculum into the classroom
is to meet individual students where they are with their interest (Douglas
& Jaquith 2009). For example, if a
student is making a dragon, this offers the teacher the opportunity to teach
that student about the similarities and differences between European dragons,
Asian dragons, and South American dragons.
The student has already shown an interest in dragons and will likely be
open to learning more about them. Because
the teacher is not leading the whole class in a single project the teacher has
the time and insight into the student’s interest to help the student make a personally
meaningful connection. The teacher has
to be on the lookout for opportunities to supplement students’ learning with
multicultural curriculum.
In the
choice-based classroom, the room itself is a teaching tool (Douglas &
Jaquith, 2009, Hathaway, 2013, Hetland, Winner, Veenema, &Sheridan 2007). Each studio center includes informative
signage to guide students as they use that center. The teacher can use this opportunity to
showcase the work of minority artists as exemplars for each center. For instance, the teacher can show examples
of Kara Walker and Romare Bearden’s work in the collage center and examples of
Haegue Yang and Lee Bul’s work in the sculpture center.
Along the same
note, the teacher can further utilize the classroom as a teaching tool by
creating bulletin boards about different cultures throughout the year. The bulletin boards can include background
information about the culture and multiple examples of artists’ work from that
culture. The bulletin boards can then be
changed regularly so students learn about a variety of cultures throughout the
year. For example, one bulletin board
may be about the Edo period in Japan, with background information about that
period and examples by key artists from that time. Then the bulletin board may be changed to
teach about the culture of the Mayan people or contemporary Indian art. Another approach the teacher could use is to
compare and contrast how different cultures treat a subject. For example, a
bulletin board may contain self-portraits from a variety of cultures or
landscapes from different cultures. The
options are endless.
An additional
method for incorporating a multicultural curriculum into the choice-based
classroom is to utilize the five minute museum approach. The five minute museum is when for the five
minute demo at the beginning of a class students are shown artwork which they
discuss for five minutes, thus turning the classroom into a museum of sorts
(Douglas & Jaquith, 2009). There are several approaches the teacher can take
when using the five minute museum. For
instance, the teacher can show a variety of work from a single culture and
students can gain a greater understanding of that culture. Another tactic the teacher can employ is to
choose a theme and show work from a variety of cultures that relate to the
selected theme. Students can then
compare and contrast how artists from different cultural backgrounds express
the same theme. A third way the teacher
might approach the five minute museum is to select a specific time period and
show what artist from different cultures were working on at that time
period. For example the teacher could
have students compare and contrast the work of several contemporary artists
from different cultural backgrounds. The
five minute museum not only give students the opportunity to practice talking
about art, it also gives students the chance to learn about a variety of
cultures.
Another
technique for integrating a multicultural curriculum into the choice-based
classroom is to work with other teachers.
When students are learning about
a culture in their English Language Arts class or their Social Studies class,
it is the perfect time to teach those students about the art of that culture. According to Lopez, ” through integration
with the other curriculums such as social studies and language arts, educators
could offer all students deeper exposure, understanding and relevance” (2009,
p. 23). For example, when students learn
about the colonization of the Americas in their Social Studies class, the
teacher can use this opportunity to teach about the art of a local Native
American tribe or when students read Langston Hughes in their English Language
Arts class the teacher can teach about the artist of the Harlem Renaissance.
Finally, the teacher can always teach about a
topic for more than one class. When you cannot
cover the topic in one five minute demo break it up into two or three five
minute demos. For example, the art of
South Africa may take several classes as you also teach about the history of
Apartheid and compare it to the United States’ history of Jim Crow laws. This may take several classes to fully cover
a topic such as this and there is nothing wrong with that.
There are a few
things to look out for when teaching a multicultural curriculum. Do not be superficial when teaching about a
culture (Stuhr, Petrovich-Mwaniki, & Wasson, 1990; Stinespring &
Kennedy, 1995). Do not just show
students a culture’s artwork, teach them about the work’s context within the
culture (Anderson, 1996). For example,
do not just show students artwork by Native Americans, but explain the works’
context within the Native American culture.
Also be careful
to not teach stereotypes (Stinespring & Kennedy, 1995). For instance, when teaching about the artwork
of the Australian Aboriginal people, do not just show dot paintings, because
the students will think that dot paintings are all the Australian Aboriginal
people create. Show a variety of work so
that students get a more complete understanding of the art of the Australian
Aboriginal people.
In conclusion,
here are six strategies for incorporating a multicultural curriculum in a
choice-based art class. First, meet
students where they are with their interests.
Look for the teachable moments that naturally arise out of students
following their passions. Use the room
itself as a teaching tool by incorporating multicultural examples in each studio
center. Also, utilize bulletin boards to
teach about multiple cultures. The five
minute museum is another approach teachers can use to incorporate multicultural
education in a choice-based classroom.
Collaborating with other teachers to teach integrated lessons and build
on what students are learning in their other classes is another method for
adding a multicultural component to the choice-based classroom. Finally, the teacher can use several classes to
go more in depth, using multiple five minute demos to fully cover a topic. Do not think of a multicultural curriculum as
just one more thing you have to include, instead look at it as an opportunity
to expand your students’ worldviews.
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