Social Justice Through Multicultural Education

Irie MonteFall 2009

Elementary MethodsCathy Benedict

Historically…

“Education was viewed as a social resource connected with other resources such as

jobs, power, and self-determination.”

Who used to go to school?Who goes to school now?

Who/What determines which school a student will go to?

common metaphors to conceptualize multicultural education:

1. As therapy2. As teaching techniques3. As academic discourse

Let’s question these common metaphors.• Are these valid in their own sense?• Do they encompass all aspects of multicultural

education?

Watch this video and notice the people in the video. They

are all white.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnJPJ2xMdG8

Is this a good example of multicultural education?What could make it better?

Christine Sleeter suggests…

Multicultural Education as a

Social Movement

“the goal is not just to effect a particular policy change but more importantly to shift the power to control decisions, define situations and allocate resources.”

In order to be a social movement…

• The basis must be founded by the very people for which the movement is working. Multicultural education is meant to benefit ethnic people whose needs, learning habits and cultures have been neglected from curriculum. (students, parents and community members)

• Sleeter says…“locally, the action agenda should come largely from oppressed communities, not from White educators”.

So, let’s close the gap between educators and community.

• How can we do this???

• Brainstorms ways to involve communities in school environments. The school is NOT an independent entity but a vital part of the community

Some ideas…• As an educator, place yourself directly into the community.

Join community music groups, activist groups, etc.• Stay up to date with local religious events, ethnic holidays,

volunteer and outreach programs.• Bring school music to places

outside of the school.• Encourage parents and community

members to attend conferences and meetings and even to observe a class.

• Distribute pamphlets on Multicultural education and include resources that parents, students and community members can refer to.

Power

• What is power to you?• What does power look like?• What makes someone powerful? • What is individual power? Collective

power?• What does power sound like?• How can you become more powerful?• Do you want to become more powerful?• Why?

Is power…Communication?Cooperation?Bravery? Reputation?Pride?Physical Strength? Emotional Strength? Perserverance? Curiousity? Taking Risks?Faith?Intelligence?Forgiveness?Patience?Influence?

This photo, to me, embodies many forms of power.

ArtNature overcoming

human destruction

Humans overcoming biases, differences, mistakes, enormous struggles

ForgivenessEducationHomage

Social Justice

• What is social justice?• Why do we need social justice?• Do you see social justice in your

everyday life?• Do you personally feel the need for

social justice?

Gustein says…“Liberation from oppression is the

fundamental purpose for teaching social justice”

Ladson-Billings thinks…• “A liberatory Pedagogy needs to do

three things: “produce students who can achieve academically, produce students who demonstrate cultural competence, and develop students who can both understand and critique the existing social order”.

Freire makes a major point in saying:

“there neither is nor has ever been an educational practice in zero

space-time”• We cannot isolate multicultural

education in the classroom from it’s greater context in the world.

• We need to always look at education in a social and political context!!!or it is meaningless…

Examples of ways to involve multicultural education in music:

• Ask students to spend a regular day in their lives, taking special note of the musics (use this term broadly! Include special sounds, perhaps voices, bells, take note of dance and art, movies with sounds etc.) that surround them. Keep a notebook for the day and write down all of the music you hear.

• This will provide a foundation for which to understand the musical context in which your students live.

• As an educator, do it yourself!