Education that is Multicultural and Social Reconstructionist Education

Education that is Multicultural and Social Reconstructionist

Education that is Multicultural & Social Reconstructionist • In this approach the social issue of concern is the elimination of oppression of one group of people by another. • The expression Multicultural indicates that the entire educational program is redesigned to reflect the concerns of diverse cultural groups.

Goals • Reflects on various forms of social inequality • Deals with oppression and social structural inequality based on race, social class, gender, and disability. • The approach prepares future citizen to reconstruct society so that it better serves the interest of all groups of people, especially those who are of color, poor, female, gay, lesbian, disabled…

Multicultural Social Justice Education • Society Goals (promote social structural equality) • School Goals (Prepare citizens to work actively structural equality) • Target students (Everyone) • Practices: – Curriculum – Instruction – Other aspects of classroom – Other school-wide concerns toward social

Assumption & Theory (Angela) • The believe is that if individuals become more humane, better skilled, more literate, or more civil, society as a whole will become more just. • In the field of sociology the reverse of this concept is true. Individuals shape their beliefs and behavior to fit their niche in social structure. • Individuals need to learn to organize and work collectively in order to bring about social changes that are larger than individuals.

Critical Theories • Conflict Theory or Critical Theory • Cognitive Development Theory • Sociological Theory of Culture

Conflict Theory (Critical Theory) • Social behavior is organized much more on a group basis than on an individual basis, referred to as “status groups”. • Groups struggle for control over resources and ideas. • Groups solidify by structuring social institutions for the benefit of dominant groups

Cognitive Development Theory • Learning is a process of constructing knowledge through the interaction of mind and experience. This interaction requires active involvement. • Children’s understanding of society is based on the world they experience and how society connects to their world. • It is important to work with children’s experiential backgrounds to develop critical thinking and collective, social action. • Democratizing power relationships in the classroom helps to gain insights about the nature of society. .

Resistance Theory (provides the promise of help) • Act in ways that oppose oppression • Overt Behavioral opposition (visible) • Mental - private opposition (difficult to detect) • Accommodation or pragmatic acceptance – people often adapt overtly, but privately oppose the circumstances.

Sociological Theory of Culture • (Omero)

Identity & Democracy • Multicultural Social Justice educators feel that knowledge always has a concrete in the interaction of the mind and the experiences of students. • Vygotsky’s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory asserts that the knowledge children remember and use relates to their interests and social and cultural milieu, comes in a language that they understand, is constructed by the children, and includes their active involvement.

Identity & Democracy • Murrell (2002) developed a framework for learning that places students and their developing identities at the center (Sleeter & Grant, p. 196) – Self definition – Self-mobilization – Recursive appropriation of signs – Inventive reappropriation of signs – Belonging

Recommended Practices • • • Practicing Democracy Analyzing the Circumstances of One’s Own Life Developing Social Action Skills Coalescing Commonalities with Previous Approaches