This article uses three tenets of critical race theory to critique the common pattern of teacher education focusing on preparing predominantly White cohorts of teacher candidates for racially and ...ethnically diverse students. The tenet of interest convergence asks how White interests are served through incremental steps. The tenet of color blindness prompts asking how structures that seem neutral, such as teacher testing, reinforce Whiteness and White interests. The tenet of experiential knowledge prompts asking whose voices are being heard. The article argues that much about teacher education can be changed, offering suggestions that derive from these tenets.
Globally, over the last two decades, attention to culturally responsive, multicultural approaches to teaching have largely been supplanted by standardized curricula and pedagogy that derive from ...neoliberal business models of school reform. In this essay, I discuss three factors that contribute to the marginalization of culturally responsive pedagogy: (a) a persistence of faulty and simplistic conceptions of what culturally responsive pedagogy is, (b) too little research connecting its use with student achievement, and (c) elite and white fear of losing national and global hegemony. After discussing these factors, recommendations are offered.
Using Kymlicka’s analysis of conflicts between “imperatives of state control” and “objectives of social movements,” I draw on my experiences with multicultural education to extrapolate some trends ...from the past and present that may inform the future. After briefly describing the origins of multicultural education (mainly within the United States), I situate struggles over education in the context of the global expansion of neoliberalism, critique “neoliberal multicultural education,” then briefly describe some efforts that push back. This essay concludes with four recommendations for moving forward.
Critical family history challenges historians to ask about their ancestors. Who else (what other groups) was around, what were the power relationships among groups, how were these relationships ...maintained or challenged over time, and what does all this have to do with our lives now? These are different questions from the questions most family historians ask. This introductory essay elaborates on what critical family history is and where the concept came from, then provides a brief overview of the articles included in this Special Issue.
Critical multiculturalism has emerged over the last decade as a direct challenge to liberal or benevolent forms of multicultural education. By integrating and advancing various critical theoretical ...threads such as anti-racist education, critical race theory, and critical pedagogy, critical multiculturalism has offered a fuller analysis of oppression and institutionalization of unequal power relations in education. But what do these powerful theories really mean for classroom practice and specific disciplines?
Edited by two leading authorities on multicultural education, Critical Multiculturalism: Theory and Praxis brings together international scholars of critical multiculturalism to directly and illustratively address what a transformed critical multicultural approach to education might mean for teacher education and classroom practice. Providing both contextual background and curriculum specific subject coverage ranging from language arts and mathematics to science and technology, each chapter shows how critical multiculturalism relates to praxis. As a watershed in the further development of critical multicultural approaches to education, this timely collection will be required reading for all scholars, educators and practitioners of multicultural education.
Stephen May is Professor of Education, Faculty of Education, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Christine E. Sleeter is Professor Emerita, College of Professional Studies, California State University Monterey Bay.
Introduction: Critical Multiculturalism, Stephen May and Christine E. Sleeter
Part One: Critical multiculturalism and teachers
1. Critical Multiculturalism within Higher Education: Resistance and Possibilities within Teacher Education. Michael Vavrus
2. Empowering Preservice Teachers, Students, and Families through Critical Multiculturalism: Interweaving Social Foundations of Education and Community Action Projects. Virginia Lea
3. Daring to Infuse Ideology into Language Teacher-Education. Lilia I. Bartolomé
4. Discursive Positioning and Educational Reform. Russell Bishop
5. Critical Multicultural Practices in Early Childhood Education. Jeanette Rhedding-Jones
Part Two: Critical Multiculturalism in Language and Language Arts
6. Critical Multiculturalism and Subject English. Terry Locke
7. Critical Multicultural Education and Second/Foreign Language Teaching. Ryuko Kubota
8. Critical Multiculturalism and Cultural and Media Studies. Sanjay Sharma
Part Three: Critical Multiculturalism in Mathematics/Sciences
9. Critical Multicultural Approaches to Mathematics in Urban, K-12 Classrooms. Eric Gutstein
10. Digital Stories and Critical Multicultural Education: A Freirian Approach. James C. McShay
11. Knowing our Place: Critical Multicultural Science Education. Georgina M. Stewart
Part Four: Critical Multiculturalism in Humanities and Social Science
12. Discussing Race and Culture in the Middle School Classroom: Scaffolding Critical Multiculturalism. Jill Ewing Flynn
13. A Critical Multicultural Approach to Physical Education: Challenging Discourses of Physicality and Building Resistant Practices in Schools. Katie Fitzpatrick
14. The Arts and Social Justice in a Critical Multicultural Education Classroom. Mary Stone Hanley
15. Breaking Through "Crusts of Convention" to Realize Music Education’s Potential Contribution to Critical Multiculturalism. Charlene A. Morton
Author Biographies
"This masterful treatment of transformative critical multiculturalism within unconventional disciplines, in one collection and across many nations, positions this book as an important contribution to the field and marks a turning point in critical multiculturalism."-- Language Arts
"I truly believe that this book is a must-read for critical race theorists, critical pedagogues, and critical multicultural practitioners…. and conclude that May and Sleeter accomplished their ambitious goal: to show how critical multiculturalism relates to praxis."-- Education Review
"In this skillfully edited, engaging, and luminous volume, May and Sleeter have made a unique contribution to education theory and practice by producing a tightly conceptualized and coherent book that illustrates myriad ways in which critical multiculturalism can be implemented in school, college, and university classrooms. The delicate balance between theory and practice in this book makes it welcomed and significant."-- James A. Banks, Kerry and Linda Killinger Professor of Diversity Studies and Founding Director, Center for Multicultural Education, University of Washington, Seattle
"This important collection makes a strong argument for a version of critical multiculturalism that learns from the errors of the past while keeping sight of the pressing and complex challenges facing contemporary educators." --David Gillborn, Professor of Critical Race Studies in Education, University of London, UK
Over the last two decades in many countries, culturally responsive, multicultural and bilingual approaches to teaching have largely been replaced by standardised curricula and pedagogy, rooted in a ...political shift toward neoliberalism that has pushed business models of school reform. I argue that neoliberal reforms, by negating the central importance of context, culture and racism, are reversing the empowered learning that culturally responsive pedagogy supports. To address these problems, I argue that educators who work with culturally responsive pedagogy must engage in three areas. First, a persistence of faulty and simplistic conceptions of what culturally responsive pedagogy is must be directly confronted and replaced with more complex and accurate views. Second, the research base that connects culturally responsive pedagogy with student learning must be strengthened. Third, the political backlash from work that empowers minoritised communities must be anticipated and addressed. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
This article reviews data-based research studies on preservice teacher preparation for multicultural schools, particularly schools that serve historically underserved communities. In this article, ...the author reviews 80 studies of effects of various preservice teacher education strategies, including recruiting and selecting students, cross-cultural immersion experiences, multicultural education coursework, and program restructuring. Although there is a large quantity of research, very little of it actually examines which strategies prepare strong teachers. Most of the research focuses on addressing the attitudes and lack of knowledge of White preservice students. This review argues that although this is a very important problem that does need to be addressed, it is not the same as figuring out how to populate the teaching profession with excellent multicultural and culturally responsive teachers.
Although in the long run, neoliberalism has a track record of undermining equity and democracy, in the short run it has directed attention to education needs that have been inadequately addressed. ...This article sketches what teacher education in the US can do to advance equity and democracy in five areas: recruitment and admission, early fieldwork, professional coursework, student teaching, and on-going professional development. The article then examines three neoliberal pressures teacher education: (1) away from explicit equity-oriented teacher preparation, and toward preparing teachers as technicians; (2) away from defining teacher quality in terms of professional knowledge, and toward defining it terms testable content knowledge; and (3) toward shortening university-based teacher education or by-passing it altogether. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of collaborating with underserved communities as a way of pushing back against neoliberalism.
Many teacher educators attempt to prompt teacher candidates, who are usually majority white, to examine themselves as culturally and historically located beings in order to prepare for multicultural ...and anti-racist teaching. But with white teacher candidates in colonialist societies, this work is difficult. Family history stories that white teacher candidates tell tend to disassociate individuals from the context of race and class relations in which they lived. Using insights from Critical Race Theory, critical whiteness studies, and post-positivist realist identity theory, I probe below the surface of a 'heroic individual' story I grew up hearing about one of my immigrant great-great-grandmothers. This paper reports detailed historical research that situates her life in a social and cultural context, thereby making racism visible. Using a research methodology I am calling 'critical family history,' I uncover the story's silences related to her claiming of a white identity in the context of racism and competition for economic resources. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for how teacher educators work with family history and racism in order to move from uncovering how racism was constructed and how it works, to how white people today might act differently.
In this article, Sleeter reflects on her previous article, “An Invitation to Support Diverse Students through Teacher Education.” She argues that her earlier recommendations are still valid, but ...changing conditions have lent them greater urgency. Research has made clear the positive impact of culturally relevant curriculum and pedagogy on students of color. Although White teachers still dominate the profession, White students are no longer in the majority. But schools are still highly racially segregated, with unequal access to resources, and school closures coupled with increased online education have only widened racial gaps. Because of these conditions, she argues that public education needs federal leadership.
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