Course Handouts and Other Items of Interest | -ISM (N.) Video Documentary Project
Why Do We Need This Class? Multicultural Education for Teachers
Ms. Pang's main goal is to help teachers create a classroom that is effective for all children. To accomplish that goal, she encourages teachers to examine issues of race, class, and gender that may serve as barriers to equal opportunity to learn.
IT WAS THE first day of class. A new group of teachers conversed noisily as I looked for my attendance sheet. I could hear a loud voice saying, "Why do we have to take this class? I'm not prejudiced. I don't need to be in here. I like all kids." I could hear someone else answer in a low voice, "I don't need it either. This is going to be a waste of time."
I smiled to myself and thought, "There are always doubting Thomases or Tomasitas. That's great. They will make my work easier."
After calling names on the class roster, I said, "I want to welcome you to the class. I am excited that I will have the opportunity to get to know you over the next 14 weeks. I realize that some of you feel the class will be a waste of time because you aren't prejudiced. Let's talk a little about this."
I turned to a broadly built woman with horn-rimmed glasses who was chatting in the back of the classroom. With a smile I said gently, "Joan, I was just wondering why you don't think you need this class."
Many of the teachers had been talking while I read through the class roster, but all of a sudden the room was quiet. The teachers turned toward Joan, waiting to see what she would say. Joan didn't want to back down. Just like the children in her classroom, she was cool and stood her ground. "Well, I just don't need to hear about prejudice and discrimination. I'm tired of hearing about the things we have done to blacks and Indians."
I smiled and replied, "I realize that many of you have thought a lot about prejudice and that you would never knowingly discriminate against any of your students." Joan's broad shoulders relaxed. "Let's hear from someone else. Why do you think we have this class?" I asked.
A tall male student wearing a gray sweat suit said, "I want to know how to teach black kids."
I looked at Larry in a puzzled way. "You need to respect, care, and believe in every student," I ventured."
No, that's not what I mean," Larry said, his forehead wrinkling in frustration. "I want you to tell me about black culture. You know -- their music, history, foods. Things like that."
"Why do you think you need information about black culture?" I asked.
"Because then I will appreciate their culture more," Larry said, smiling.
"What do you know about your own culture?" I asked.
This was the beginning of another wonderful semester in multicultural education. And I knew that this class would be exciting because these teachers were already willing to share their honest views with one another. We were off to a great start.
Preparing Teachers for Diversity
Preparing teachers for a culturally diverse society is one of the most exciting and rewarding endeavors in education. I love what I do because most teachers are caring and dedicated people. I see teachers as America's national treasures. They do not go into teaching to get rich. Many teachers feel that teaching is more than a job; it is a commitment and a calling.
In my semester-length class on multicultural education, I try to model the kind of classroom that I hope the teachers in my class will create. I believe that modeling is the most powerful strategy in teaching. I try to create a learning atmosphere that says to each teacher, "You are a precious and worthy person. All of us in the class need your input to grow. Help us be the best people we can be." During the first class session, I begin memorizing the names of each teacher. I learn the teachers' names quickly because I want each one to know that he or she is an important member of our team.
I also try to create an interesting and lively classroom climate. If I expect teachers to motivate their students, I must get teachers involved in their own learning. Though the content and the activities I use in a college class are different from those in a fourth-grade classroom, I can still get teachers excited about learning. Teachers can become enthusiastic and animated about the ideas and solutions they develop to solve classroom problems.
I have developed my class around some of the beliefs of Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator. I asked myself, "How can I develop a community of learners where everyone works together to create a free and just society?" I like Freire's idea of "problem-posing education," which means centering learning on social issues and problems. He thinks that students who are truly free bring what they know into the classroom. Students make connections between their lives, others' lives, and themes in society. True freedom occurs when teachers and young people tackle a problem and come to collective decisions about what action can be taken. The teacher does not act as the person in control; rather he or she shares leadership and the responsibility for learning. The "light bulb" goes on in both teachers' and students' minds, because through their dialogue they struggle together to arrive at solutions to social problems.
In contrast Freire sees most teachers making deposits in the minds of children. In this "banking" approach to education, students are passive learners, receiving and memorizing information so that they can recite it back to the teacher.[1] This passive role, Freire believes, conditions students to accept the status quo. Because the environment of the classroom teaches students not to challenge ideas or to create new ways to think, they will blindly accept the unfairness of society.
I attempt to provide a challenging and engaging learning environment by using lots of dialogue. I believe that the teachers in my classes learn more from one another than from me. In this shared learning process, they ask one another many questions, which forces them to clarify their values. They also ask me difficult, soul-searching questions.
Since I believe in "problem-posing" or issues-centered education, I know it is crucial to get teachers to talk about their ideas. I try to create a classroom in which we trust and respect one another, a place of caring.[2] It is a safe place where mistakes are the "fertilizer of success." I believe that every teacher should have the opportunity to find his or her "voice" and to express it. I explain to my teachers that we need each person's input because we will not grow as individuals or as a learning community unless we help one another see new aspects of issues. This point is extremely crucial in a class like multicultural education, which deals with a complex mix of emotions, attitudes, misconceptions, and ignorance about race, class, gender, and other cultural differences. I want my teachers to be "hooked" on dialogue so that their classrooms will become "think tanks" of committed students who work together. Each classroom can reflect a democratic community in which each student is an active and respected learner.
Three Phases of Instruction
My main goal is to help teachers create a classroom that is effective for all children. Teachers need to know that multicultural education is the study of schooling aimed at providing all children with an equal opportunity to learn in a culturally affirming and caring environment.[3] I help teachers look at issues of race, class, and gender that may serve as barriers to that goal. In building my class I divide the instruction into three phases.
1. Who am I? Am I prejudiced? In the beginning of the class, I want teachers to better understand themselves. I ask them to examine who they are by identifying their own values and goals. I am convinced that no matter how much information I give teachers about other cultural groups, if they are not prepared to understand others, they will not be ready to hear and receive the information.
Since most of those who enter the teaching profession are white and middle class, we read the book White Teacher, by Vivian Gussin Paley.[4] This book is a wonderful resource because Paley writes about her own prejudices and the mistakes she made as a kindergarten teacher. Reading this book helps teachers examine their own biases in a nonthreatening way; they look at racism in schools while learning effective teaching strategies that worked for Paley in her classroom.
I believe that teachers do not want to be prejudiced, but, because prejudice is often part of the hidden curriculum, they may be acting or thinking in ways that limit their own growth or that of their students. For example, a teacher might say, "I don't know why those black kids can't sit still." Then I ask the teacher, "Do you hear what you are saying? Do you also say, `I don't know why those white kids can't sit still'?" Another teacher may point out the first teacher's unconscious prejudices by noting the tone of voice and the use of the term "those" children.
2. What do I think about culturally diverse communities? The second phase of my class focuses on getting to know culturally diverse neighborhoods. I ask the teachers, "Do you hold stereotypes about different communities? Do you believe that Mexican parents from low-income areas do not care about their children? And do you believe that rich white parents from Beverly Hills are more concerned than black parents about their youngsters? Where did you get those ideas?" In order to help teachers think about their misconceptions, I take my class on field trips and require teachers to donate time to a community organization of their choice.
I believe that teachers will feel more connections with children in their classes when they know the school neighborhood and the issues that are most important to the community. In large urban areas, teachers may live in the suburbs and commute an hour to their schools in the inner city. Yet in teaching children, teachers can be more effective when they can make connections between the school curriculum and students' lives.
On one of our field trips, I take my classes to visit a community center in San Diego. The center serves several hundred low-income families. The drug traffic in the community has been limited because the neighbors worked with the police and forced the drug pushers out. I want the teachers to get to know the community and to learn that the parents and children in this neighborhood have the same desires for education, homes, and jobs as the teachers do.
At one point in the semester, we put on a learning carnival. The teachers set up booths with science experiments, math games, reading activities, and art projects. In discussions after the carnival, one teacher said, "I expected the kids from this neighborhood to be rude and wild. But they were all polite. In fact I was surprised that so many older siblings -- some only as old as 6 -- were taking younger brothers and sisters from booth to booth making sure that they had fun and got prizes. Many of the younger kids spoke only Spanish and so their older brothers or sisters translated and encouraged them to try each booth. I never knew how much family meant to some children."
Though the teachers thought they had created the carnival for the community, they benefited too. Members of the class began to feel personal connections with parents and children from low-income African American and Mexican American families -- people whom they had initially seen as so different and separate from themselves. The walls of isolation were slowly crumbling.
During the debriefing discussion, Joan, one of the teachers in the class, mentioned, "There's a family in the neighborhood with two boys in junior high. These boys aren't going to school because they don't have any shoes. Is there anyone willing to donate so the community center can buy them shoes?"
The teachers generously contributed. We then began to discuss what kinds of shoes the kids wanted. Larry commented, "I know that my students are very label-conscious. Do you think we should put any stipulations on how expensive the shoes are that the center buys for the boys?"
A teacher who was usually quiet raised her hand and said, "Just because these boys are poor, why should they want anything less than other children?" Several other teachers agreed. Though we hoped the money would be spent in a reasonable way, we felt that the students and the center would know what was best.
The social worker called me several weeks later to thank us for the donation. He told me that he had taken the boys to the store, and they had decided not to buy the designer tennis shoes but to buy a more moderately priced brand, because that would leave them a few dollars to buy new shirts too.
Since we all went on the field trip and were part of the carnival, everyone could share observations about our common experiences. One of the most damaging assignments a college professor can give teachers in a multicultural education class is to send them to various gatherings in ethnic communities -- for example, services at black churches, Vietnamese festivals, or Latino political rallies -- which may reinforce stereotypes that outsiders hold about culturally different groups. I have heard teachers come back from an African American Baptist church service and say, "Those people are so warm. I was scared to go to the church, and I didn't want to leave my car on the street, but the people made me feel so accepted. And the people are great gospel singers." Many times teachers need a chance to talk about what they have observed so that their encounters with other cultures do not become "zoo" experiences. Going to view another neighborhood can be dangerous if teachers do not understand what they are seeing. Many cultural traditions are rooted in deep values, but these values may not be obvious because of differences in dress and behaviors.
I want teachers to go beyond knowing that "we are all people" or being satisfied with only superficial contact with members of other communities. In a community service project, such as tutoring children after school or teaching English to newly arrived adult immigrants, teachers are able to have real discussions of ideas and to learn about the world view of people who are culturally different from themselves, because they visit the neighborhoods of those people repeatedly. In addition, teachers are more likely to see beyond cultural stereotypes and learn about individual differences. Again, dialogue with their peers is crucial because it gives teachers the opportunity to clarify their beliefs and to better understand what they felt and saw.
3. What does multicultural education look like in a classroom? In the third portion of the semester we explore the teaching of multiculturalism. I help teachers to look at what happens in the classroom by asking such questions as, What is multicultural education? What do you know about the historical experience of women, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Latino Americans, and African Americans in the United States? Why is a child's home language important to keep? What strengths does culture give children? What impact does culture have on learning? What does racism, sexism, or classism look like in schools?
Many teachers do not realize that culture can affect the learning environment. Students bring beliefs from home to school. One teacher asked a Vietnamese student to work with a new Cambodian immigrant. The Vietnamese student told the teacher, "I don't think he will accept my help." The teacher dismissed his concerns, believing that, since both students were from Southeast Asia, they would have natural connections. "I don't think you will have any trouble," she told the Vietnamese student.
Soon after this exchange, the Cambodian student came to the teacher with fire in his eyes and said, "I respect you because you are the teacher, but I won't work with a Vietnamese." This teacher learned that animosities from the past affected her classroom. After this incident, she did not assume that all Asian students got along well.
In addition to bringing up the questions listed above, I encourage teachers to incorporate ethnic content into their curriculum. Teachers are often unsure how to begin. One said, "I'm afraid I'll offend a Navajo student by talking about Navajo culture, because I don't know much about the culture." I suggest that they begin by getting to know each student as a person.
A teacher can also use literature to provide windows into the lives and cultures of others. In order to model the importance of literature, I read to my students almost every week. Since I am a former first-grade teacher, reading stories is one of my greatest pleasures. My teachers are just like young students. Their eyes sparkle when I read The Knight Who Was Afraid of the Dark or Honey, I Love. Their faces become clouded with sadness when I read The Children We Remember -- a book about the Holocaust -- or Teammates, which tells about the pain Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese endured fighting racism. Teachers feel the desperation in Langston Hughes' poems "Dream Deferred" and "American Heartbreak." The book Grandfather's Journey helps them sense the closeness of family and understand the emotional bonds we have to our country.[ 5] I discuss how to choose multicultural literature that can enrich the curriculum and how to use it in the classroom. I believe that literature is one of the most wonderful gifts we can share with our students.[ 6]
Another aspect of curriculum that I focus on is how to build a problem-posing unit. I ask teachers, "How can you provide ways for your students to look at a social issue? What questions can you ask students that will let them investigate and come to their own conclusions?" Older students might examine the civil rights movement as they consider the question, Are there times when people should challenge their government? Other students might examine the importance of diversity in the United States, seeking to answer the questions, Do you think the emphasis on cultural diversity separates Americans or brings them together? Why? Younger children can struggle with the question, What is fairness? Or they might be asked, Why do children call each other mean names? Wise teachers create lessons on issues that their students have chosen to investigate.
On the last day of class, after most of the teachers had left, a young teacher named Delia sat down next to me. "This has been the most difficult and yet most fun class I've had. You made me think. I learned more about who I was in this class. I never knew I had so many preconceived notions about people from other cultures. Sometimes I went home from class with a terrible headache. I had to own up to my prejudices and ignorance. I want to make a difference with all kids, and now I know I should never deny any children their culture."
Teachers like Delia created a real family of learners because they shared themselves with their peers and with me. I celebrate the important work that she and the other teachers do because they care for our most precious people, our children.
ENDNOTES
1. Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Herder & Herder, 1971).
2. Nel Noddings, The Challenge to Care in Schools (New York: Teachers College Press, 1992).
3. The phrase "study of schooling" was taken from the wonderful book by John Goodlad, A Place Called School: Prospects for the Future (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984). I use the phrase because Goodlad documents the importance of looking at the entire ethos of schools in order to better understand what reforms must be undertaken.
4. Vivian Gussin Paley, White Teacher (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979).
5. Barbara Shook Hazen, The Knight Who Was Afraid of the Dark (New York: Dial Books, 1989); Eloise Greenfield, Honey, I Love (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1977); Chana Abells, The Children We Remember (New York: Greenwillow Press, 1986); Peter Golenbock, Teammates (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990); Langston Hughes, The Panther and the Lash (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967); and Allen Say, Grandfather's Journey (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993).
6. The Council on Interracial Books for Children published a pamphlet called "10 Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism," which has been reprinted in Bill Bigelow et al., eds., Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice (Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools, 1994). For lists of children's books that are multicultural and appropriate for the discussion of social issues, see Ronald Evans and Valerie Ooka Pang, "Resources and Materials for Issues-Centered Social Studies Education," The Social Studies, May/June 1992,pp. 118-19; and Valerie Ooka Pang et al., "Beyond Chopsticks and Dragons: Selecting Asian-American Literature for Children," Reading Teacher, November 1992, pp. 216-24.
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By Valerie Ooka Pang
VALERIE OOKA PANG is a professor of teacher education at San Diego State University.
Why do we need this class? By: Pang, Valerie Ooka, Phi Delta Kappan, 00317217
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Course Handouts and Other Items of Interest | -ISM (N.) Video Documentary Project