Multicultural Education 8
Multicultural Education in Rural Maryland:
How Much More Tolerant Can We Get?
Christina Salmon
English 535: Language and Culture
Dr. Gibson
June 28, 2007
Multicultural Education in Rural Maryland:
How Much More Tolerant Can We Get?
In order to best meet the needs of our diverse learners, all schools should have a multicultural education system in place. All stakeholders in the school need to be committed to helping our students become critical thinkers and productive members of society. In chapter ten of her book, Language, Culture, and Teaching: Critical Perspectives for a New Century, Sonia Nieto advises schools to demand more than just tolerance of diversity when implementing multicultural education.
In “Affirmation, Solidarity, and Critique: Moving Beyond Tolerance in Multicultural Education,” Nieto explains that educators often tout tolerance as the way to celebrate diversity in their schools. She proposes that tolerance is actually the lowest level of diversity support, and that if students never move beyond this level, they will never fully respect and affirm the differences of others. Nieto notes four dynamic levels of multicultural support: tolerance, acceptance, respect, and affirmation, solidarity, and critique. As schools progress through these levels, they will truly celebrate diversity and meet students’ unique needs. Nieto depicts five school scenarios involving each of the four levels, along with a view of a monocultural school. I, too, believe that schools should strive for more than just tolerance; however, this will only happen as long as all stakeholders involved agree to change and fully support diversity in all aspects of education. The stakeholders in rural school settings are more resistant to change, and they may not support the changes needed to move well beyond tolerance in these schools.
Unfortunately, monocultural schools are the common situations in most American school systems today, according to Nieto. A monocultural education is one in which the entire school environment, including curriculum, pedagogical strategies, and policies, are representative of the dominant culture. The ethnicity of the teachers is not representative of the students, and their lessons do not reflect the students’ diversity. This school is “color-blind” to its students; therefore, ignoring the differences that make them unique. The students are ability grouped, and most top classes are comprised of European-American and Asian-American students. Teacher expectations are not the same across the ability levels. ELLs are immersed in English-only classrooms, and their native backgrounds are not considered to be an asset. This kind of school does not celebrate diversity in any productive manner. Unfortunately, this school would probably also be most resistant to change.
When reading about monocultural education, I was disheartened to see my own school in its description. I teach in a rural elementary school in Wicomico County, where things have always been done the same way. My current principal has recently taken over the position that had been filled by the same person for fifteen years. Even as she made changes over the past year, many parents questioned her actions, and these were only minor compared to what would have to be changed in order to truly embrace diversity. In rural locations, such as the Eastern Shore of Maryland, there are some individuals who have the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality. There are teachers within my school who want to do the same thing that they have always done in their classrooms. When moving to a higher level of diversity support, everyone involved, from parents and students, to staff members, to the community, needs to be willing to change their attitudes. If any one of those groups of people is not supportive of the change, then perhaps tolerance is the only level they will ever be able to reach.
Nieto continues her beliefs of ideal multicultural schools by illustrating a school operating at a tolerant level. She explains the difference between the denotation and connotation of the word tolerance. Tolerance is a respected value to have and admire. However, the connotation of the word is negative in that it implies that differences are accepted, but not embraced. Therefore, Nieto argues that schools should not stop at developing tolerance, and instead, they should strive to reach the upper levels of multicultural education support. In the scenario of a tolerant school, their curriculum is undergoing changes to reflect multiculturalism. Diversity is recognized on a superficial level in students learning about prominent African Americans, American Indians, and women. There is a multicultural teacher who reports to classrooms within the school to teach diversity lessons. There are ESL classes to support language learners, but these students are expected to learn English quickly in a subtractive manner. Teachers are mostly unprepared to celebrate the diversity of the students beyond acknowledging general differences. Interestingly, teachers at a tolerant level in Nieto’s scenario are not aware of why certain students are more successful than others.
I believe that my school is slowly moving in the direction of tolerance, in that we are superficially supporting diversity. Black History Month is recognized and students know that Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream, but I am not sure that all students know what that dream entailed. We have a new reading curriculum with stories that are representative of diverse cultures from around the world. Our students read about many different cultures and traditions, which is a start in an elementary school. Nieto’s description of a tolerant level school is somewhat disheartening because there is so much more that could be done to embrace diversity as seen in the higher levels.
The next level of support for diversity is acceptance. Nieto notes that this is the level in which there is a greater movement towards true multicultural education. In an acceptance level school, teachers represent many ethnic backgrounds, and they receive professional development in diversity. The curriculum has been expanded to include literature from different countries, studies of important people with various backgrounds, and all students are encouraged to take foreign language courses. Tracking is limited to the top levels of classes, and students’ schedules are flexible. ESOL students are tested before being placed in appropriate programs, such as transitional bilingual education. Less proficient students are able to receive instruction in their native language. Students are exited out of the ESL program into mainstream classrooms, as they progress in English, no more than three years upon entering it.
One of the most interesting ideas in the acceptance level school is the notion of a salad bowl, rather than a melting pot, to represent the cultural capital that students bring to school. If teachers can use their students’ cultural motifs in their instruction, then students will begin to see the benefits of diversity. Fortunately, the changes between a tolerant level school and an acceptance level school would not be very difficult to implement. The bulletin boards that depict diverse students of the week or holidays celebrated around the world would be easy to create, yet meaningful for all students. The curriculum guides in schools are already constantly being revised, and new material covering diverse leaders, events, and literature can be added appropriately. The costs of adding the new material may be a drawback. However, the differences between ESOL classes operating under a tolerant level and an acceptance level are important and necessary in order to meet their needs. Students should be able to use their native language in schools if it helps them to learn concepts easier, which they can do in an acceptance level school. Learning English is difficult enough without adding the complications of having to learn curriculum standards in English as well. When Native Americans were forced to be educated in their nonnative language of English during the twentieth century, their literacy rates dramatically dropped. Using their native language would also help students in maintaining it. One drawback to accommodating students with instruction in their native language would be finding more bilingual teachers and speakers of several different languages. Another drawback would be gathering materials in different languages. However, the largest obstacle would be convincing all members of schools and communities to even allow this to happen. There are some educators and many non-educators who feel that English-only instruction should be the only permissible instruction in schools. Obviously, these are people who have never experienced what ESOL students are dealing with in their schools everyday right now. Again, convincing all stakeholders in education to change their thoughts, particularly those in a rural area, is a difficult endeavor, and it continues to be an obstacle for multicultural education.
The third level of multicultural education support is respect. Diversity in this scenario is highly regarded, and it drives the school experience. In a respect level school, hallways are decorated with student accomplishments in all areas and activities, including a Spanish Spelling Bee. Professional development is a necessary component used to inform teachers of best practices in their areas. Teachers develop and revise curriculums often, and diverse materials are selected to be part of them. Students in this ideal situation are able to discuss social injustices throughout history in their classes, and students of all ability levels work together. In this scenario, ELLs are not limited to just three years in an ESOL program. These students are able to take part in a maintenance bilingual program that allows instruction in their native language throughout all of their schooling. I believe this is an effective program because it allows students more time to develop CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) language. This would enable students to be more successful on standardized assessments because they would have access to the academic language of the tests. Native English speakers are also eligible to take part in the program as well, an interesting approach to bilingual education. This would reinforce Peal and Lambert’s research in the 1960’s, which found that bilingual children outperform monolingual children.
The acceptance level school is an ideal school scenario, much like the highest level of diversity support, which is affirmation, solidarity, and critique. In this school, classrooms are very diverse because there is no tracking, special education, or traditional bilingual programs. All students work together, regardless of their background or ability. The whole school is multilingual, and every student studies a second language. Many classes are even instructed in two languages. All literature is viewed with a critical eye, and students are learning about all topics, even those that would be considered taboo in other schools. This school would also have a government system in place with elected students, faculty, parents, and the community involved in all decision-making. The critical thinking of the students truly reflects the goals and results of multicultural education. According to James Banks, multicultural education’s main goal is to help students become critical thinkers and develop their decision-making skills.
Many of the aspects of the two upper levels of diversity support are very ideal and utopian. However, many of the ideals of these schools are what make them unrealistic scenarios. Many schools today would be extremely uncomfortable discussing the taboo topics that are freely critiqued at these two levels of diversity support in schools. The issue of hiring enough bilingual teachers would be costly and difficult. Obtaining diverse resources would also be a costly expense. The amount of diversity in these schools is incredible, yet in this part of Maryland, I believe that many parents and community members would feel uncomfortable in the settings of these schools. They are very untraditional, and many people who live in rural areas like their traditions. It will take a lot of time and concerted effort before these schools and members of the school systems would be willing to approach these levels of diversity support.
The ideas that Nieto has proposed are admirable, and all schools should continue to become more diverse in all areas. Educators should try to move their students beyond tolerance. However, this will take time and willingness of everyone involved in the educational system. Small changes should be made in order to make everyone more comfortable while moving towards and beyond tolerance, particularly those schools in rural settings. I believe that Nieto’s highest-level support schools are very lofty goals, and perhaps implausible for rural areas. If all educational stakeholders and their communities are not supportive of the changes, then even acceptance may be a difficult goal to reach. While schools are becoming more diverse, parents should be involved in understanding the process and its importance. When everyone is willing to change and grow in diversity, then schools will become more tolerant and move towards the higher levels of support. It will take a lot of time, effort, and willingness, but even tolerance is a huge step beyond a monocultural school, especially in rural areas.