Wednesday, February 9, 2011

What Multicultural Approach suits you?

Previously i discussed multicultural education and the importance it has on its learners. There are four different approaches that go along with Multicultural education they are as follows; level 1 Contributions Approach, level 2 the additive approach, level 3 the transformation approach, and level 4 the social action approach. All of these approaches focus on human relations with activities that promote a cultural understanding among different racial groups. Level 1 focuses on heroes , holidays and discrete cultural elements. Teachers can bring these components of the students lives into the classroom for everyone to experience. Level 2 The additive approach places content, concepts,themes, and perspectives of cultural views into the curriculum without changing the structure of the class. This simply means that teacher allow the students to learn through alternative perspectives like fellow peers who may view the world differently. For example this may take place during a multicultural week in the school where they can experience alternative perspectives. A great way this is displayed in schools is the month of February Black history month her students of all descent learn about the history of African Americans in this country and the triumphs and tribulations they've been through. Level 3 the transformers approach this is when the structure of the curriculum is changed to enable students to view concepts, issues,events, and themes from the perspectives of diverse ethnic and cultural groups. This is when student's are urged to view everything they learn in a topic area through a certain perspective. For example in a U.S History class students have to view the effect's of westward expansion; not only is their an open frontier for new settlers but it affect's the native American who already inhabit that land and to them this is an invasion of their home land. The fourth level is the social action this is when students take a stance on important social issues and then intern take action to resolve those issues. This is when the teacher is challenging the students to take a step outside the box in a higher level of thinking.

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