The Evolving Multicultural Classroom

Provides examples of how teachers can involve students in projects that promote cultural understanding and includes lesson plans, handouts, self-assessment questionnaires, and an extensive resources list.

Multicultural education is a construct that has been very useful for many years in harboring sensitivities teachers need in addressing diverse students. Now the discipline needs refreshing. In the global society, the idea of multicultural education, a decidedly Western formation, needs to expand its conceptual boundaries. Salient issues in multicultural education such as individual identities, social justice, and equity are bedrock concerns of multicultural educators. These concepts are considered necessary but not sufficient in shaping an evolving model of multicultural education. The complexity of humans and modern and emerging societies requires a broadened scope of the understanding of contemporary multicultural theory and practice. Evolving Multicultural Education for Global Classrooms addresses multicultural education from a comprehensive viewpoint that acknowledges the historical benefit of multicultural education and recognizes a need to inform the discipline with a broader viewpoint. As most knowledge on multicultural education comes from a Western perspective and the scholarship on the topic is weakening, the chapters in this book present new practices and classroom applications that are internationally transferable. Topics covered include teacher education, social justice, educational equity and inclusion, online education, and cultural sensitivities. This book is ideally intended for teachers, educational theorists, sociologists of education, inservice and preservice teachers, administrators, teacher educators, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in a fresh global perspective on multicultural education.

"This edited book highlights the identities and practices of ethnically diverse families and schools in contexts where multicultural policies are not always a priority. In an era of globalization and ensuing population mobility, it places a focus on Asia-Pacific, a continent with diverse customs, populations and languages, but grapples with what it might mean to be multicultural. The book features studies and frameworks that illustrate how minoritized communities engage with the diversity they live in and strategies in adjusting and adapting to their sociocultural environments, including practices that might support these efforts. This book represents initiatives and interdisciplinary scholarship from Japan, Hong Kong, China, Australia, South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan, which underscore the intersection of identities, cultural values, efforts, conflicts, and religions in making diversity work in their contexts. Collectively, these works make a unique contribution by invigorating debates on the flows and evolvement of cultural values and practices within and across families and institutions. This book will appeal to researchers, practitioners and readers with interest in the current state of cultural diversity among minoritized families in Asia-Pacific and beyond"--

This edited book highlights the identities and practices of ethnically diverse families and schools in contexts where multicultural policies are not always a priority. In an era of globalization and ensuing population mobility, it places a focus on Asia-Pacific, a continent with diverse customs, populations, and languages, but grapples with what it might mean to be multicultural. The book features studies and frameworks that illustrate how minoritized communities engage with the diversity they live in and strategies in adjusting and adapting to their sociocultural environments, including practices that might support these efforts. This book represents initiatives and interdisciplinary scholarship from Japan, Hong Kong, mainland China, Australia, South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan, which underscore the intersection of identities, cultural values, efforts, conflicts, and religions in making diversity work in their contexts. Collectively, these works make a unique contribution by invigorating debates on the flows and evolvement of cultural values and practices within and across families and institutions. This book will appeal to researchers, practitioners, and readers with interest in the current state of cultural diversity among minoritized families in Asia-Pacific and beyond.

“Richard Race has long proven that multicultural education and multiculturalism in [British] education are key to understanding and fostering social and community cohesion. This important book builds on decades of work, adding fresh insights that reflect the complexity of social and political issues faced in the UK… What Race and colleagues have done is both courageous and coruscating.” Professor Paul W Miller, Director of the Institute for Educational & Social Equity, UK “This edited book is a powerful curation of narratives, which set out pertinent and relevant perspectives on evolving dialogues in multiculturalism and multicultural education… It is a timely, comprehensive and insightful tome, which will be a useful addition to any global anti-racist bookshelf.” Dr Susan Davis, Reader in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Education, School of Education and Social Policy, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK Multicultural dialogues are as important now as ever. This volume explores narratives in education that have developed internationally in response to changing policies and the modern world. Its contributions reflect on the necessity of sustained dialogue within the wider social and political sciences alongside national and international politics, to enable more multicultural voices to be heard and to respond to the challenges of the modern world. Cultural diversity is a great societal strength and globalisation within education can increase our understanding of this. This edited volume: •Comprises work by researchers from across the globe •Draws on real-life case studies and empirical evidence •Consists of 20+ chapters covering a range of topics Building on case studies from England, Turkey, Italy and more, this text transcends national policy to ask what the core values of multicultural education truly are. From policy and pedagogy to the impact on curricula, it is essential reading for students and those working across the fields of education and sociology, particularly with an interest in social justice, inclusion and multiculturalism. Richard Race is Senior Lecturer in Education at Teesside University, UK and a Visiting Professor at Sapienza University, Italy. Richard is a member of the Executive Board of the Society of Educational Studies and Editorial Board Member of the British Journal of Educational Studies.

This conceptually rich and empirically grounded book draws upon expertise from a panel of emerging and established international scholars to explore the institutionalization and effect of multicultural education on a global scale. Previous studies of multicultural education have largely ignored the significance of understanding the combination of multiple sociopolitical influences on multicultural education in both policy and practice. Filling this void, this book sheds light on the two main reasons for taking a “glocal” perspective on multicultural education. First, children should be provided with meaningful learning opportunities to acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to live in a culturally and ethno-linguistically diverse society, where the distinction between the local and the global is becoming blurred. Second, understanding both the “global grammar” and the “local semantics” of multicultural education helps researchers and policy-makers grasp the whole picture of multicultural education as an evolving social construct and phenomenon. This new book provokes a new round of discussion and research to expand and enrich our inquiry into cultural diversity and educational inclusion.

This book describes a different approach to teacher education designed to create "carriers of the torch"--teachers who have a sense of efficacy and the attitudes, dispositions, and skills necessary to teach students from diverse racial, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds. Through her examination of teacher change and teacher education in two countries--the United States and South Africa--the author proposes new ways to prepare teachers for a rapidly changing global society.

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.