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High quality educational experiences will not exist if some ethnic groups and
their contributions to the development of U.S. history, life, and culture are
ignored or demeaned (Gay, 2000). Gay also explains, "Much
intellectual ability and many other kinds of intelligences are lying untapped in
ethnically diverse students. If these are recognized and used in the
instructional process, school achievement will improve radically.
Culturally responsive teaching is a means for unleashing the higher learning
potentials of ethnically diverse students by simultaneously cultivating their
academic and psychosocial abilities" (p. 20).
The Curriculum Considerations section provides information
on actual lesson plans and units, approaches to multicultural education, a
multicultural calendar, multicultural planning questions, cooperative learning,
multicultural goals and strategies, evaluating children's books for bias, and
cultural responsiveness. The example lessons are structured in a
before and after format. The reader can view a lesson before multicultural
restructuring and after multicultural restructuring in order to gain an
understanding of how one's own lessons can be modified. Planning questions
are provided to guide a teacher in forming multicultural lesson plans. The
goals of multicultural education and strategies are given in order to aid in the
construction of one's own planning questions. One multicultural strategy
is the use of cooperative learning. This section provides a link to
information about using cooperative learning in the classroom. Information
about cultural responsiveness informs the teacher of his/her roles and
responsibilities and how to utilize culturally responsive caring and teaching.
All of the information provided in this section guides the teacher in practical
applications of multicultural education.
Reference:
Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research,
& practice. New York: Teachers College Press.
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