Culture and Multicultural Education

When we think of education, the first thing that comes to mind is a group of students in a classroom being taught by a teacher. However, if we look closer at the students we could see different cultures that are represented through the students. This in turn, causes multicultural education to take place. Let us first look at what culture is, and then we will look at what multicultural education is. Lastly, we will look at how multicultural education could address cultural differences and bias.
Culture is something that we all have. The word culture according to the New World Dictionary (1984) is "The ideas, customs and skills of a given people in a given period". To me this definition is vague and does not really explain what culture is, so let us look a little deeper (Guralnik, 1984).
Culture is best defined as the patterns of thinking, acting and believing that are passed on, and/or taught from one generation to the next. Culture also instills in us the do's and don'ts of our behavior, because a behavior that is norm in one culture my not be the norm in another culture. Culture also gives us our language, for example, my cultural norm language is English, but in China their cultural norm for language is Chinese. This is also a perfect example of a part of the culture being passes on from generation to generation, because children learn the language that is spoke in the home from parents or other family members first before they even attend school (Gollnick and Chinn, 2006).
Now that we have a better understanding of culture let us look at what multicultural education is. Multicultural education according to Banks and Banks (1995) is "To create equal educational opportunities for students from diverse racial, ethnic, social-class, and cultural groups". In addition to this explanation, it is important to also understand that in multicultural education the goal is to help each student to obtain the skills and attitude to be able to function effectively in our pluralistic society. Once the students have the skills and knowledge they will be able to interact, and communicate with people from various cultures in an ethical and civil manner (Banks and Banks, 1995).
Multicultural education can help address cultural differences. This can be done because it allows students to see other cultures in action. This would also allow the student to see that they are really not very different from other students from other cultures. Multicultural education can also help students understand the culture and the differences they are coming in contact with and not make quick and irrational judgments about a culture.
Multicultural education can also help address cultural differences by placing core values in the students. These core values can be as simple as human dignity, equality, and freedom. In addition, if we were to look closely at each culture and their core values, we might find that they are the same. The only difference might be they are taught different was of obtaining them. Nonetheless, with these core values in place we could avoid cultural bias (Gay, 1994).
Multicultural education can also address cultural bias. In a multicultural classroom, students will be able to see other cultures at work by being exposed to their fellow students. This allows each student to see that their fellow classmates are from families just resembling their own.

Guralnik, D (1984). Webster's new world dictionary. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

Gollnick, D, & Chinn, P. (2006). Multicultural education in a pluralistic society. Columbus, Ohio: Pearson.

Banks, J., & Banks, C. (1995). Handbook of research on multicultural education. New York: Macmillan.

Gay, G (1994). Multicultural education. Retrieved November 20, 2008, from North Central regional educational laboratory Web site: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/educatrs/leadrshp/le0gay.htm