Kathleen C. Rende
In a world of turbulence and friction among cultures, what better a time to promote understanding between different individuals then when a child first enters school? With a carefully designed multicultural unit, teachers are the perfect vehicles
to drive a healthy understanding of others. School provides the perfect forum for children to be exposed to different cultures. In kindergarten, children are expected to learn social skills like problem solving that they can partner with a respect for multiculturalism.
Culture is how we define ourselves. Culture can be as simple as what we eat in the morning or as complex as how we observe holy days in the year. Culture can be our language and traditions or just our daily behavior. As Americans, we are lucky enough to have hundreds of cultures living in close proximity with each other. But the truth of the matter is, sometimes those cultures don't always have an understanding of one another.
Within any given community there can be a number of cultures. Individuals conduct themselves based on their cultures traditions. We also have beliefs about other cultures, based on what we have observed or by comparing it to how we observe our own traditions. Creating an understanding among cultures can prove to be a difficult task. Sometimes beliefs among different cultures can be unhealthy, to say the least.
James Banks, a multicultural educator, views multicultural education reform movements as a "process whose goals will never be fully realized." (Morrison, 292-293) He further states that multicultural education equity is an ideal that will always be partnered with racism, sexism and discrimination against people with disabilities. Prejudice will always exist; this is why he also urges educators to continuously work to "increase educational equity for all students" (Morrison, 292-293).
Although James Banks is urging that all children of all races and creeds be allotted the same educational opportunities, our countries lack of equity stems from a lack of tolerance and understanding of different peoples. However, our children are the next voters and policy makers. They are the next to make change, so there needs to be a change in the classroom.
A school is a place where several cultures come together and learn on an equal plane. Children in kindergarten eat breakfast and lunch together, learn letters and numbers together and learn how to interact and get along with each other. Learning in this environment is the ideal situation for children to grow from each other, especially at such a young age.
In my classroom, I have watched two children, one from a Spanish-speaking home and one from an English-speaking home, work collaboratively to solve problems. What better time then in kindergarten to teach not tolerance, but to celebrate each other for what everyone adds to the classroom and how they are essential to society. Children in kindergarten come to school with so little prejudice, yet so little understanding of each other and themselves. What better time than now to help them develop healthy views of each and every one of us?
Teaching Multiculturalism
A good multicultural program that infuses culture into it's teaching fosters healthy views of different peoples. By differentiating instruction, children with many learning styles can have an equal opportunity to learn. There are some guidelines teachers can follow to help them teach multiculturalism (Morrison, 299) Get to know the different families in your classroom. By keeping an open-door policy and inviting families into your room you can get an idea as to how some family function.
Authentic situations help to make learning more meaningful. By showing students how people conduct their daily lives help the students see a culture first hand. Using film and books is an easy way to do that, easier than traveling to an area to show children how that culture lives. Also, using the children's own experiences and interests to plan for lessons contextualizes the unit and makes the students feel good about their own backgrounds.
Using an interdisciplinary unit can infuse culture into all aspects of learning. By using the different subject areas (i.e. math, language arts, social studies, music, art, science, etc.) the unit becomes developmentally appropriate for a kindergarten classroom.