147218 Aisulu Kuspangaliyeva Multicultural education is an

147218 Aisulu Kuspangaliyeva

Multicultural education is an important development for today's world and citizens must implement it now at every level. The world is always changing. Political boundaries are in a constant state of flux and it is so much easier to visit different cultures than ever before. The ethnic groups to which people belong are no longer as isolated as they once were.

Multicultural education is a field of study and an emerging discipline whose major aim is to create equal educational opportunities for students from diverse racial, ethnic, social-class, and cultural groups.

According to some views, if one wants to alienate and further fragment the communication and rapport between ethnic groups, implement multicultural education. As stated by Bennett (1995), "to dwell on cultural differences is to foster negative prejudices and stereotypes, and that is human nature to view those who are different as inferior" (p. 29). Thus, multicultural education will enhance feelings of being atypical. Schools in America may see multicultural education as a way to "color blind" their students to differences. Administrators may view the "color blind" approach as a gate keeper that assures equal treatment and justice for all students and as a way to facilitate compatibility and sameness of all cultures. A common statement from this line of thinking is, 'we are more alike than different'. We should focus on the similarities and not the differences to achieve greater equanimity among the races.

Multicultural education promotes critical analyses of our society and its institutions. Students develop critical thinking skills in schools and classrooms where they are free to ask questions and examine course content, the media, popular culture and themselves for biases. The defining characteristic of a multicultural school is not the demographic makeup of the student body, but the willingness to ask, "Who's voice is not being heard? Why wasn't it included? " and, "How can this be changed? "

One of the goals of multicultural education is to acknowledge the experiences and perspectives of oppressed groups that are commonly excluded from mainstream academia (eg. racial, ethnic, class, gender, etc. ).

Multicultural education aims to eliminate prejudice, racism and all forms of oppression. To do this, "it is imperative that multicultural educators give voice and substance to struggles against oppression and develop the vision and the power of our future citizens to forge a more just society. " (Sleeter, 1991)

Another aspect of multicultural education is to understand the interrelatedness and interdependence of cultures. As a way to educate students about other cultures, it is important for them to understand how cultures interact and rely on each other to grow. Along with simply understanding the interdependence of cultures, students must be able to develop skills to interact in a multicultural world. This development of diversity must be stressed as students learn about living in a world where people from all different backgrounds are expected to be able to interact.

Thank you for attention!