Narrative And Experience In Multicultural Education

Narrative and Experience in Multicultural Education explores the untapped potential that narrative and experiential approaches have for understanding multicultural issues in education. The research featured in the book reflects an exciting new way of thinking about human experience. The studies focus on the lives of students, teachers, parents, and communities, highlighting experiences seldom discussed in the literature. Most importantly, the work emphasizes the understanding of experience and transforming this understanding into social and educational significance.

Narrative and Experience in Multicultural Education explores the untapped potential that narrative and experiential approaches have for understanding multicultural issues in education. The research featured in the book reflects an exciting new way of thinking about human experience. The studies focus on the lives of students, teachers, parents, and communities, highlighting experiences seldom discussed in the literature. Most importantly, the work emphasizes the understanding of experience and transforming this understanding into social and educational significance.

The heart of this study is a detailed narrative account of a teacher in an inner-city school. For two years, the author collaborated with an immigrant teacher from the Caribbean, studying her practice from three perspectives: place—the community and school landscape; temporality—the history of the school and current programs; and interaction—the teacher's relationship with the school, parents, and students. Current ways of examining multicultural issues focus on the analysis of broad factors affecting large groups of people. In the process, the individual is subsumed within catagories and the subtle nuances of experiences are lost. The narrative approach outlined in the book offers a new perspective on multiculturalism and research into multicultural education, one the author terms narrative multiculturalism. Narrative multiculturalism begins with experience as it is shaped by the contexts in which people live and work. It is also shaped by broader societal and global forces. In this approach, multiculturalism is viewed as a fluid process, continually evolving, changing, and transforming. Narrative multiculturalism develops an in-depth understanding of individual experiences and thereby creates an alternate perspective on multiculturalism.

Grade level: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, k, p, e, i, s, t.

Explores how individuals' identity and personal practical knowledge are being formed, shifted or interrupted through moments in teacher education.

Exploring Diversity through Multimodality, Narrative, and Dialogue awakens educators to the ways in which values, beliefs, language use, culture, identity, social class, race, and other factors filter approaches to teaching and expectations for students. Designed as a guide to help educators engage in dialogic interactions, the text articulates a theoretically grounded and research-based framework related to the use of personal narratives as learning tools. Educators are encouraged to consider their own positions, explore topics of diversity and social justice, and identify ways to better address student needs. Drawing on theories from multiliteracies, multimodality, embodiment, and narrative, chapters are framed around book discussions and the use of personal narrative to define and provide examples of dialogic interactions. Unique to this book is its focus on embodied learning and multimodality as well as myriad artifacts produced by educators; listening, not just dialogic talk; writing (both traditional print texts and multimodal composition) that supports dialogic interaction; and not merely responding to literature but developing empathic responses to texts, students, and others whose opinions may differ from one’s own viewpoints. The specific techniques and approaches presented can be used within educational and professional development settings to help readers enhance their journey toward greater awareness of others and of their own beliefs and experiences that lead toward social justice for all.

Stories offer opportunities for listeners to merge the storyteller’s experiences with their own, resulting in connections that can turn into life-changing experiences. As listeners and storytellers, it is imperative that we look more closely at the stories and narratives that shape our lives. Using Narratives and Storytelling to Promote Cultural Diversity on College Campuses is an essential research publication that offers a framework for identifying culture-based narratives. The book follows five college students through a vast array of divergent experiences and provides a comprehensive dialogue about diversity through personal narratives of college faculty, students, staff, and administrators. Highlighting a range of topics including microaggressions, ethnicity, and psychosocial development, this book is ideal for academicians, practitioners, psychologists, sociologists, education professionals, counselors, social work educators, researchers, and students.

In Queer Multicultural Social Justice Education: Curriculum (and Identity) Development Through Performance, I take a pragmatic approach sharing my intimate journey, my stories, and myself with you—the reader—as I actively perform and model the development of queer explorations (i.e., lessons) and curriculum. I begin this journey with three accessible histories of multicultural education, queer perspectives, and autoethnography, respectively. These easy-to-navigate stories provide you with important background knowledge, highlighting the evolution of, commonalities between, and need for each discipline, along with their connection to identity and identity awareness as a form of social justice practice and advancement. Next, I share and perform the nine explorations developed for this project, collectively titled Queer Explorations of Identity Awareness. Modeling for you in practical terms how to queer curriculum and its development, I openly examine my raw performances, discuss my personal and analytical reflections, and embrace my own personal experiences and revelations that occurred throughout this project. Finally, I close with a creative, reflective, and story-like analysis of the process that includes a call to action from you to share your stories as a way of knowing yourself—and others—as a form of social justice education and advancement. This book is intended for all formal and informal educators interested in performing and developing queer multicultural social justice curriculum and practices. Inspired by Ayers (2006), I invite you on this “voyage” with “hope and urgency” (p. 83). It is time we share our stories as a form of curriculum, activism, and coming together.