By Dr. David Childs Childs, Ph.D.
Northern Kentucky University
As our society becomes increasingly more diverse, it is important that schools strive toward developing a more inclusive curriculum in public schools that goes beyond simply patronizing people of color. James Banks offers four levels of multicultural curricular reform that is effective and meaningful and integrates social justice into the lesson. Below I have included the four approaches outlined by Banks. I encourage teachers to move beyond the first level (The contributions approach) to the more thoughtful, meaningful and transformative approaches to multicultural curriculum design.
From “Four Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform”
By James Banks
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).
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 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).”
Here are some other resources for teachers that highlight Dr. James Banks’ work on multicultural curriculum.
Multicultural Education: Goals and Dimensions
Approaches to Multicultural Reform
Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum and Reform
Stages of Multicultural Curriculum Transformation
On Educating for Diversity: A Conversation with James A. Banks
Bloom-Banks Matrix: Design Rigorous, Multicultural Curriculum for the Diverse 21st Century Classroom
Reference
Banks, J.A. (1999). An Introduction to Multicultural Education (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
I chose to read this article as it caught my eye because it could help me learn new ways to create a multicultural curriculum in my future classroom. You pointed out that the world is always going to continue to grow more diverse. These four approaches will create a more meaningful approach to this curriculum that our classrooms need. I love how the Social Action Approach actually has the students do something physical towards the social issues they just learned. Thank you for listing more teacher resources at the bottom of this article for us to look further into!
After reading this article, I realized, as I went through school I do not remember a time that a teacher taught much about other cultures. Being that this is my last year of college and I will be teaching young students in the near future, I want to use these approaches within my classroom. Although, it may be hard to use some of these approaches with young children, I am sure I can use at least one in the classroom. The additive approach stuck out to me when thinking about how I would use it in my lesson planning. Changing and shifting the way students learn about different ethnic perspectives, can allow for more understanding and appreciation of others. Which is something we are heavily laking right now, all over the United States.
As a future educator, I believe it’s important to integrate multicultural curriculum into the classroom. Especially for those of us teaching at the elementary level, where these students don’t get to study social studies as often or as in-depth until they get into upper grade levels. When teaching about history at a younger level I think it’s important to not just read a story to tell why an event is important but talk to our students and have them tell us their thoughts. It’s important for these students to see different viewpoints from different cultures. For example, when teaching students about thanksgiving, finding a book or an appropriate short video showing the native American’s viewpoint about these new people coming onto their land. Have the students do a compare and contrast on how the viewpoints from the natives and the settlers were similar or different. It would also be interesting to have to students write in a journal as if they were a settler or as a Native American. These are great ways to get students more involved in other cultures.
Since I am a Senior at NKU majoring in Elementary Education and am quickly approaching having a classroom and students of my own, this article is particularly important for me to read and learn from. As I plan my lessons and begin to think about how I want to approach teaching, I must remember that my classroom will be diverse, and using these multicultural approaches will only enrich my curriculum and allow my students to become better thinkers and make a difference in the world. I want my students to be able to think and learn beyond their own cultures and experiences and these approaches are the perfect way to do that. I thank Dr.Childs for posting this and James Banks for developing these as they will only make me a better and more impactful educator to my students.
For those of us in Secondary Education, one of the most difficult tasks our students can face would fall under the Transformation Approach. As such, this could be an excellent exercise in learning empathy and acceptance of multiple cultures. Students just coming into their executive functions as well as many adults have a difficult time remembering that the world is not centered upon themselves and that there are other cultures, economic backgrounds, and social circumstances that are beyond the visual scope. By allowing students to safely explore these new perspectives, we can gently challenge biases and preconceived notions of different peoples, places, and views.
As a future educator, especially a history educator, it’s important to understand multicultural viewpoints. The adage “history is written by the victor” is an ugly truth that I diligently want to combat. Going to college and learning global viewpoints, I understand how wording can really impact our thoughts and notions on history. Getting a micro-credential in global awareness has allowed me a deeper understanding of history as you assess historic events from every viewpoint. I think James Bank’s “Transformation Approach” is what I aim to have in my classroom. I really want to hone in on the “other” point of view, not just offer it as extra education. Its so important to develop a rounded sense of history and whitewashing it only limits us and turns us against one another. My job as an educator is to teach without bias and with love! That’s not possible without multicultural education and curriculum.
As someone who will be entering the teaching profession in the next year, I believe that it is extremely important that teachers are taking the Social Action Approach. In Social Studies classrooms especially, teachers have a unique opportunity to actively work to encourage students to work for social change through the curriculum they choose to teach. The Transformation Approach is also a unique way of creating a multicultural curriculum. While in theory this approach is very interesting and a great way to institute change, much of the responsibility to execute this will fall directly on the educator. When working in the public school sphere, teachers must keep in mind the various standards they are require to hold their lessons to and find ways to incorporate ideas of social change.
I find all of these approaches interesting, but I personally like the Transformation and Social Action approach. It is my own personal opinion that we need to move away from a Eurocentric point of view in terms of education, especially when other cultures have contributed so much.
This article really stuck out to me because it has always been one of the most concerning things to me about my future classroom. I want to make sure my students all feel at home and comfortable in my classroom and that might mean changing up how we do some things. I feel that each one of these approaches should be used. Not only should we incorporate diverse talks in the classroom but we need to encourage participation in their lives in the present and the future.
I really enjoyed this article, because it really highlights how to implement the cultural differences in the classroom. I plan on teaching at a relatively diverse school when I graduate and these tactics can definitely be implemented in the classroom. I believe seeing history from different perspectives is incredibly important. Also using historical knowledge to try to make changes in modern society is a very interesting way to keep society from repeating their mistakes.