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The Contributions Approach
This approach reflects the least amount of
involvement in multicultural education approaches. This is
incorporated by selecting books and activities that celebrate holidays,
heroes, and special events from various cultures. For example,
spending time reading about Dr. Martin Luther King in January is a
common practice that falls into this category. In this approach,
culturally diverse books and issues are not specified as part of the
curriculum (Banks, 1999).
The Additive Approach
In this approach content, concepts, themes, and
perspectives are added to the curriculum without changing its basic
structure. This involves incorporating literature by and about
people from diverse cultures into the mainstream curriculum without
changing the curriculum. For example, examining the perspective of
a Native American about Thanksgiving would be adding cultural diversity
to the traditional view of Thanksgiving. However, this approach
does not necessarily transform thinking (Banks, 1999).
The Transformation Approach
This approach actually changes the
structure of the curriculum and encourages students to view concepts,
issues, themes, and problems from several ethnic perspectives and points
of view. For example, a unit on Thanksgiving would become an
entire unit exploring cultural conflict. This type of instruction
involves critical thinking and involves a consideration of diversity as
a basic premise (Banks, 1999).
The Social Action Approach
This approach combines the transformation
approach with activities to strive for social change. Students are
not only instructed to understand and question social issues, but to
also do something about important about it. For example, after
participating in a unit about recent immigrants to North America,
students may write letters to senators, Congress, and newspaper editors
to express their opinions about new policies (Banks, 1999).
Reference
Banks, J.A.
(1999). An Introduction to Multicultural Education (2nd
ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
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