Charting
New Maps: Multicultural Education in Rural Schools
The United States
is one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse nations
in the world. This circumstance holds implications for education
even in places where the local population is not very diverse,
as often happens in rural areas (Spears, Oliver, & Maes,
1990). This article briefly reviews the concepts of "culture"
and "multicultural education." It then considers
the relevance of multicultural education for rural schools
in which neither ethnic nor cultural diversity is great.
CULTURE
AND MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION
One view interprets culture as a sort of map that provides
"standards for deciding what is...what can be...how to
feel...what to do, and...how to go about doing" (Goodenough,
1963, p. 258-259). Culture comprises traditional ways of making
sense of and conducting oneself in the world. It shapes unspoken
values, as well as social institutions such as education,
religion, marriage, and work (Gollnick & Chinn, 1990).
Needless to say, cultures vary immensely. Culture applies
to any group with coherent norms and traditions that help
members engage the world around them. It governs how people
share information and knowledge, as well as how they construct
meaning.
Because the United
States is a multicultural society, citizens need to understand
and respect one another, both as individuals and as members
of culturally distinct groups. To this end, education that
is multicultural (Grant & Sleeter, 1989)--or simply "multicultural
education"--has received considerable attention. The
National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education
(1982) describes multicultural education as "preparation
for the social, political and economic realities individuals
will experience in culturally diverse and complex human encounters...providing
a process for individuals to develop competencies for perceiving,
evaluating, and behaving in different cultural settings"
(p.14).
Multicultural education
nonetheless represents a change in educational thinking. After
all, social structures in most nations often put minorities
at a disadvantage, and the United States is no exception according
to many observers (e.g., Anderson, 1990). State-supported
schooling in the United States, for instance, began with the
attempt to "Americanize" immigrant populations.
Knowledge of other cultures (e.g., those of immigrants) seldom
figured in school curricula, with the result that students
often developed narrow views of the world (Boyer, 1990).
Whereas critics
of multicultural education worry that it may fragment students'
views of culture (Hartoonian, 1988), supporters believe this
view to be short-sighted. In fact, many supporters do not
propose a specific multicultural curriculum at all. Rather,
they have in mind a framework from which to shape curriculum
and carry out instruction. The aim is to help students understand
how culture not only shapes, but also limits, their actions.
Such understanding permits students to perceive both their
own culture and others in a more critical light (Spears et
al., 1990). In this sense, multicultural education seeks to
create an environment in which students can understand, respect,
and ultimately value cultural diversity.
WHY MULTICULTURAL
EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS?
Multicultural education in rural schools merits attention
for several reasons. First, the character of rural life is
changing (Deaton & McNamara, 1984), and thus rural needs
are changing as well (Stern, 1992). Historically, rural schools
have responded to a full range of educational, personal, and
professional needs in their communities. Faced with economic,
technological, and demographic changes, rural communities
and schools are, however, recognizing the need to look outside,
rather than only within, for answers to questions about human
meaning and purpose. Second, after its founding, the United
States welcomed the immigration of people from many differing
ethnic and religious backgrounds. Many groups settled in rural
areas, making contributions that persist to this day. Third,
recent demographic trends, including continued immigration
to the United States, are rapidly increasing the ethnic and
cultural diversity of American society.
These developments make interaction among individuals and
groups with quite different backgrounds increasingly more
common. Certainly such interaction will be more productive
if carried out on the basis of mutual understanding and respect,
rather than suspicion and prejudice. Three considerations
bear on making multicultural education work in rural schools,
as follows:
(1) reducing
cultural isolation in rural schools,
(2) adapting
practice to accommodate local needs, and
(3) the nature
of outcomes.
REDUCING
CULTURAL ISOLATION
Pearse (1989) warns that the lack of contact with--or complacency
about--other cultural and ethnic groups will place students
at a disadvantage. Multicultural understanding helps students
overcome the cultural isolation that lack of ethnic diversity
in rural areas may impose. It prepares rural students with
the broader understanding of culture that the future will
most certainly require.
The purposes of
multicultural education are compelling, however, only when
rural schools make sense of them in terms of their own circumstances
(Spears et al., 1990). This seeming paradox rests on the fact
that rural traditions are part of the cultural diversity of
the United States. Rural students, therefore, can understand
other cultures best when they understand their own culture
well. Educators such as those involved with the Foxfire Network
understand this principle (Wigginton, 1985). Foxfire engages
students in examinations of their own cultures, partly as
a way to show students the meaning of culture.
ADAPTING
PRACTICE
School practices designed to address diversity are, in fact,
as varied as rural communities themselves. Whatever the scope
of the multicultural effort, Spears and colleagues (1990)
suggest that attention to the following features are critical
for success: mission, staffing, curriculum and instruction,
home and community linkages, extracurricular activities, and
student characteristics.
Rural schools reported
a number of successful strategies to increase the ethnic diversity
of their staffs (Spears et al., 1990). Programs like "Teach
for America"--and connections with schools of education--helped
secure ethnically diverse staff as visiting or resource teachers.
Sometimes, these visiting teachers became permanent faculty.
Some rural districts also recruited ethnically diverse teachers,
whom they rotated among schools. When neither of these strategies
was possible, white teachers visited multi-ethnic schools
or took part in workshops about cultural diversity.
Some schools provided
students and teachers with materials or inaugurated instructional
events that reflected cultural diversity. Strategies included:
(1) replacing
older textbooks with ones that treated multicultural issues,
(2) using packaged
multicultural materials,
(3) selecting
relevant library materials or supplementary texts to be
used in student assignments, and
(4) using ethnic
holidays and celebrations as the basis for class assignments
and school celebrations.
Cultivating links
between home and school also proved to be essential. Strategies
to enlist parental support included:
(1) participation
in planning,
(2) developing
newsletters about the progress and purpose of the multicultural
effort,
(3) inviting
parental participation at cultural events and on field trips,
and
(4) conducting
family workshops about cultural diversity.
Extracurricular
activities included making field trips to museums and cultural
festivals or inviting speakers to address students. Hosting
exchange students was another successful strategy. Exchange
students often became celebrated members of the community
and willingly served as speakers at community events.
OUTCOMES
Due in part to the continuing debate over how to define multicultural
education--why it should be and for whom it is intended--little
has been written about "hard" outcomes. But evidence
does exist that multicultural education makes a difference.
This evidence generally emerges from the local meaning--symbolic
or personal--that participants assign to multicultural reform.
Spears and colleagues
(1990) reported that, to some participants, multicultural
education made school more "relevant," contributing,
they believed, to decreased rates of dropping out. Others
reported a decrease in racial stereotyping, leading to better
relationships among students. Among ethnic minority students,
a cultural "grounding," or sense of belonging was
reported, and demonstrated through behaviors indicating increased
self-confidence.
Oliver (1991) established
a positive relationship between racial attitudes of white
college students and exposure to practices associated with
multicultural education, with curriculum and instruction representing
the strongest influence. Tomlinson (1990), who introduced
multicultural reforms in 23 British schools, reports more
egalitarian and sensitive attitudes as evidence of the value
of multicultural education.
MULTICULTURAL
EDUCATION AND SOCIETY
Many rural communities are now facing a cultural crisis (Berry,
1990). Societies experience such crisis when cultural traditions
no longer conform to the preoccupations and needs of everyday
life (Nash, 1974). Outmigration, profound restructuring of
the rural economy, and the increase in rural poverty (Stern,
1992) add to the crisis.
Multicultural education
can help individuals and communities value and preserve their
own cultural uniqueness. It can also serve the same function
more generally, so that our multicultural society values and
preserves itself.
Multicultural education
offers a relevant view of educational purpose in an increasingly
complex world. It is not a quick fix. It does, however, provide
a map from which to chart the future, and it can help educators
and communities challenge arrangements that reproduce inequity
(Sleeter, 1992).
REFERENCES
Anderson, J.E. (1990). Introduction: Lessons from the past
and directions for the future. In H.P. Baptiste, Jr., H.C.
Waxman, J. Walker de Felix, & J.E. Anderson (Eds.), Leadership,
equity and school effectiveness (pp. 17-20). Newbury Park,
CA: Sage.
Berry, W. (1990).
What are people for? San Francisco: North Point Press.
Boyer, J.B. (1990).
Barriers and bridges to multicultural education in American
education. In Accommodating change and diversity: Multicultural
practices in rural schools (pp. 59-66). Manhattan, KS: The
Rural Clearinghouse for Lifelong Education and Development.
(ED 326 362)
Deaton, B.J., &
McNamara, K.T. (1984). Education in a changing environment.
Mississippi State, MS: Southern Rural Development Center.
Gollnick, D.M.,
& Chinn, P.C. (1990). Multicultural education in a pluralistic
society (3rd ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill.
Goodenough, W.
(1963). Cooperation in change. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Grant, C., &
Sleeter, C. (1989). Turning on learning: Five approaches for
multicultural teaching plans for race, class, gender, and
disability. Columbus: Merrill Publishing.
Hartoonian, M.
(1988, October). Ethical and philosophical foundations of
democratic citizenship. Paper presented at the Citizenship
for the 21st Century Conference, Washington, DC. (ED 302 474)
Nash, R.J. (1974).
The convergence of anthropology and education. In G.D. Spindler
(Ed.), Education and cultural process (pp. 5-25). New York:
Holt, Reinhart & Winston.
Oliver, J.P. (1991).
The relationship between the racial attitudes of white college
freshmen and sophomores as influenced by exposure to multicultural
education practices. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Kansas
State University, Manhattan, KS.
Pearse, S. (1989).
Addressing race and gender in rural primary schools using
two case studies. Gender and Education, 1(3), 273-281.
Sleeter, C. (1992).
Keepers of the American dream: A study of staff development
and multicultural education. London: The Falmer Press.
Spears, J.D., Oliver,
J.P., & Maes, S.C. (1990). Accommodating change and diversity:
Multicultural practices in rural schools. Manhattan, KS: The
Rural Clearinghouse for Lifelong Education and Development.
(ED 326 362)
Stern, J. (1992).
How demographic trends for the eighties affect rural and small-town
schools. Educational Horizons, 70(2), 71-77.
Tomlinson, S. (1990).
Multicultural education in white schools. London: B.T. Batsford
Ltd.
Wigginton, E. (1985).
Sometimes a shining moment. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday.
Jenny Penney Oliver
is affiliated with the Rural Clearinghouse for Lifelong Education
and Development, Manhattan, KS.
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