Multicultural Education reflects broad humanitarian and democratic goals for equality, justice, understanding, and respect for all people as well as harmony between people of differing cultural backgrounds. Consequently, this unit is designed to bring to the consciousness of children the contributions of all immigrant and migrant groups represented in their classes. This consciousness-raising can be accomplished through the study of a variety of multicultural areas including: family life and roles, foods, religion, recreation, folk crafts, and history. The ethnic groups to be represented in this unit are Black, Hispanic, Jewish, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Irish, and Polish. I have chosen these particular ethnic groups because of their contributions to the settlement and development of New Haven and because they are all more or less represented in my classroom.
This unit is intended for use in a Foreign Language Exploratory class for seventh and eighth graders. It is focused on a multicultural calendar of ethnic festivals and celebrations, dated from September 1, 1980 through January 6, 1981, concentrating on holidays of major importance to the ethnic groups listed above. I have further provided background information and activities to accompany some of the dates listed on the calendar including:
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1. Autumn as a season of Harvest Festivals: Sukkoth, Chinese Harvest Moon Festival, African Harvest Festivals, Halloween.
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2. Winter Holidays in response to the winter solstice: Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanza, Three Kings’ Day.
The background information is written so that it can be read to students if the teacher chooses. The activities are coded by grade level as follows: P-Primary, I-Intermediate, M-Middle, H-High School. The background information and activities are given as examples of how the calendar can be used as a starting point for a multicultural curriculum program. The unit is not intended to be a comprehensive four-month program, but rather a supplement to many other activities in the classroom. It is hoped that this unit will be used by educators of all disciplines and grade levels in an effort “to become more responsive to the human condition, individual cultural integrity, and cultural pluralism in society.”
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September is a time when teachers consider their teaching strategies, the spatial arrangement of their classroom, and the rules for classroom behavior and interaction. It is a time, in short, when they reflect upon both the “formal” and “informal” curriculum. The “formal” curriculum refers to that content or knowledge in textbooks, units, films, and other materials that we intend to teach students. The term “hidden” curriculum was first created by Philip Jackson in his book,
Life in Classrooms
. Other writers have referred to the “unstudied” or “informal” curriculum.
In general, the informal curriculum can be defined as those values or viewpoints that are inferred from aspects of the learning environment. Some examples are: school rules, teacher-student relationships, student-student relationships, spatial arrangements, and teaching strategies. The values, beliefs, viewpoints are reflected in the instructional process. The purpose of using a term such as the informal curriculum is simply to make one aware that the learning environment is just as important as the formal curriculum.
What, then, does the informal curriculum have to do with multicultural education? Multicultural education is designed to increase respect and understanding for all people. “Multicultural education is preparation for the social, political, and economic realities that individuals experience in culturally diverse and complex human encounters...This preparation provides a process by which an individual develops competencies for perceiving, believing, evaluating, and behaving in different cultural settings.”
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Because so much of multicultural understanding involves such subtle yet important phenomena as clothes, gestures, accent, inflection, and manners, the informal curriculum of the classroom is particularly relevant. By recognizing that we can prepare students through both the informal and formal curriculum, we can increase our effectiveness in achieving all of these goals.
As further illustration of the meaning of the informal curriculum, consider the following examples:.
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In a classroom that has a bulletin board displaying pictures of people around the world one could infer a viewpoint that respects other cultures.
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In a lunch program that includes foods from a variety of cultural groups one can infer that contributions from many cultural groups are valued.
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In a classroom where the teacher encourages students to examine information from different frames of reference, one can infer that the teacher respects differing viewpoints and values critical thinking.
One way that multicultural education can be promoted through the informal curriculum is by relating curriculum content to the students’ lives and cultural experience.
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Encourage bilingual students to teach their language to their classmates.
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Decorate the room with visual signs for a multicultural focus with objects students have brought in or made that can help them personalize the room.
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Involve parents in the classroom. At the beginning of the year parents could be sent an invitation to assist in the class, to contribute cultural information or artifacts or to teach the class a special skill or hobby they have.
Among the activities that can be used in a Foreign Language classroom to stimulate learning and to promote appreciation of the many customs and festivals of differing cultures are: culture capsules, international cookbooks, international dinners, minidramas or skits, multicultural sports and games, films and slides, magazines and newspapers, guest speakers, international music, folk crafts, and field trips. Multicultural education need not be limited to Foreign Language teachers. Many of these activities can be developed in conjunction with teachers of other disciplines in order to stimulate interest in multicultural education.
Celebrating holidays of major importance to the different groups in the school can foster positive multicultural interactions and understandings among students and teachers. The following background information is designed to support multiethnic modes of celebration.
