Sele Nadel-Hayes
Re-envisioning Education and Democracy
Public Intellectual Essay
Who Are Those People Who Don’t Look Like Me?
…and other questions of cultural
studies in public education
Historically, education has been
used as a method of allowing people of all ages to develop an understanding of
why things exist the way they do. From math class discussions of fractions to
history courses on labor unions, people in education systems are able to gather
tools necessary to live productively in our society. The ultimate goal of
education has always varied in terms of focusing on preparation for entry into
the workforce at different levels, but an element of creating a base of
knowledge from which most people can draw has generally been an underlying
presence. The academic discussion of what the purposes of education should be includes
people with differing beliefs from all over the world, a signal that new and
different perspectives have an affect on the educational lives of everyone, not
just those who recognize the wide range of inputs that are present. Academics
are not the only ones contributing ideas to the community of people interested
in reforming schools and education in the
The process of developing
systematic changes in an environment with vastly different interests is
difficult at best. One might assume that in a time in which people are having
new experiences with and being exposed to new cultures that adoption of
principles of inclusion would be resistant to some of the difficulties of
school reform as people began to develop personal connections to other cultural
groups through increased interaction. Because schools should be changed and
developed to reflect the needs of the communities they serve, it is crucial
that all processes of school change recognize that those needs can range
greatly from place to place. It is with this belief in the forefront of our
school reform priorities that we find an appropriate avenue within which to
identify some important methods that may be employed to create a positive setting
for increased recognition of different cultural perspectives in curriculum and
clearly outline the goals that motivate our doing so.
Goals
There cannot be one prescribed
method for implementing these important changes into every school in the
Meeting Goals
It is primarily important that
diversity, multiculturalism, and pluralism are identified as different ideas
beyond a factor of scale. To assert that pluralism is a stronger acceptance of
multiculturalism and that multiculturalism is a deeper embrace of diversity is
irresponsible and misleading. Where diversity can be used to identify
differences between individuals in a community and appreciated as a form of allowing
individuals to freely develop and express his or her personal identity, it is
not an effective way of describing connections between groups of individuals
with established commonalities. Multiculturalism begins to address the need for
group identification coupled with a strong understanding of one’s individual
background and experiences. However, multiculturalism is limited in its ability
to de-emphasize the role of a dominant group over “other cultures” in that it
requires one common set of beliefs from which to draw parallels. A pluralistic
approach to curriculum development extends beyond the important foundations
built by multiculturalism and requires everyone in an educational system to
become experts on all groups with influence on the chosen subject-matter.
The most visible demand for changes
in curricular emphasis exists in terms of race and racial relationships in
education. While this visibility lends itself to the conclusion that it is the
most important area of focus, it would be inappropriate to ignore desperately
needed development of curriculum that addresses questions around gender,
socio-economic status, religion, sexual orientation, or any fracturing element
in any community. In deciding how to approach the many areas in need of reform,
communities must challenge themselves to identify the histories of different
groups involved as well as their current behaviors and beliefs, to promote
awareness and intercultural competency, and to reduce prejudice in every aspect
of the educational system. Finally, school communities should discuss and
deliberate the role of power relationships in the entire reform process and
seek to utilize all available resources to employ education as a means of
eliminating domination of any group or individual over another in any
situation.
Although this essay overtly
advocates the adoption of curriculum reform that embraces the most extreme of
these principles, a pluralist approach to teaching and learning, it would be
irresponsible to assume that this will come as an accessible reform solution
for every school. Given this, the following methods of meeting the prescribed
eventual goals of curriculum development are developed by different kinds of
reformers and designed to provide access to the desired curriculum changes in
different stages. This will hopefully allow school communities to recognize the
importance of even minute changes in attitude and approach in creating positive
change of this kind.
One method of bringing change to classrooms
demands changes in how teachers present material to students. Maxine Greene
from the Teachers College at Columbia University in New York says that no
one should be able to look at all of the different kinds of communities in
the world and be able to justify the teaching of one over another as all we
strive to be attentive to difference and be open to the idea of plurality.
Greene says that plurality in the classroom gives students the power to reaffirm
the values of justice, equality, freedom, and commitment to human rights that
provide a foreground for fostering increased interaction between people and
groups and leads to decreased violence and increased appreciation for and
pride in one’s own culture.
Changes at this level require
concrete changes in what is commonly taught in classrooms. Although this
includes introducing “new” authors and theorists to standard curriculum like
Toni Morrison and Bharati Mukherjee in English courses, Art Spiegelman in
history, and Paulo Freire in civics, an important departure from this is the
identification and use of works and interpretations of existing established
sources that contribute positively to the understanding of other cultures. Walt
Whitman, a foundationally necessary poet of the 1930s, writes in “Song of
Myself”:
Through
me many long dumb voices
Voices
of the interminable generations of prisoners and slaves,
Voices
of the diseas’d and despairing and of thieves and dwarfs,
Voices
of the cycles of preparation and accretion,
And
of the threads that connect the stars, and of wombs and of the father-stuff,
And
of the rights of them the others are down upon…
Through
me forbidden voices…
Whitman’s recognition of the
importance of recognizing the contributions of other cultures to every
individual’s current social location is an exemplary illustration of the
inter-connectedness of our histories and futures and exists within a reputable
body of literature. This preliminary connection can provide a link between more
traditional and contemporary understandings of the relations that govern our
lives and guide our actions.
In contrast to the adoption of curricular
changes which infuse all aspects of learning with recognition of the influence
of different cultures, one might find it more appropriate to one’s community to
focus on a single introductory element to serve as a gateway to more inclusion.
In choosing this individual experience, it might be appropriate to co-ordinate
with different stakeholders within the school system to allow for the process
to gain institutional recognition and meaning. As the school as a whole begins
to embrace the teaching of one particular set of experiences, it becomes more
reasonable to envision the repetition of the experience and re-dedicating the
community to taking part in the process again with a different cultural group.
An example of this kind of project
would be a situation in which few members of the school community have had
experiences or relationships with Japanese culture. Incorporation of coursework
that includes language, literature, dance, food, mathematics, and history
allows all members of the school community to develop a new and valuable
knowledge base and a better frame of reference for understanding his or her own
background. The crucial element of this curricular possibility is the commitment
of the entire institution to recognizing the equal value the different culture
holds. It is the responsibility of all participants in the curriculum reform
project to be dedicated to eliminating the tokenization of any aspect of
another culture and instead encourage the systematic expansion of what is
commonly accepted as an individual’s personal area of expertise.
A final possibility for bringing
curricular changes that celebrate different cultures is the use of a single
academic field as an introductory point of departure. This method, which would
focus its emphasis to the contributions of many different groups to a single
subject, is an important tool for school communities that are unable to reach
consensus on the best way to approach curricular changes or if to approach them
at all. It is often argued that the first step in learning about difference is
to identify similarities. This approach would develop the expertise of teachers
and students with meaningful breadth such that curiosity in expanding the
cultural exploration beyond a single subject would progress and be cultivated.
The method of gradual introduction
and expansion relies upon several factors. First, the “entry discipline” must
be a standard field with required coursework by all students so as to maximize
the possibility for translation of the lessons into other fields. Second, the
delicacies of scheduling time for different groups must be considered to
emphasize equality and utility so as not to yield further marginalization.
Finally, practical and “real-world” experiences must be incorporated into the
curriculum to ensure students are not made to think the differences and
similarities they study exist only in textbooks and while sitting in rows of
desks.
Critiques
As in many movements, new or
long-established, there exists a vocal body that resists the development of
curriculum beyond traditional teachings. Arthur M. Schlesinger, an
These critiques are based upon many
different assumptions and fears. It is the responsibility of an educational
system to recognize and address all of the proposals for change that are
presented and evaluate them based on criteria that works toward the goals for
change that reflect the community’s needs. In this process, all community
members are afforded the opportunity to question reform proposals and present
counter-proposals of their own. The role of critique in a reform movement is
equally as valuable as the initial development of the reform goals. While it is
unfair to allow objections to over-rule the work of reformers, it is the role
of education to provide a space and common language for individuals and groups
with differing views to understand each other and work together. This goal
should support all curriculum reform movements until communities are able to
clearly see themselves and their efforts in their schools and are able to
utilize all of the resources education is able to offer each individual in the
community.
For more on new
curriculum development…
¯
Maxine Greene, “The Passions of Pluralism: Multiculturalism
and the Expanding Community.” in The Journal of Negro Education (Summer,
1992). pp250-261.
¯
Richard Seltzer, Michael Frazier, Irelene Ricks, “Multiculturalism,
Race, and Education.” in The Journal of Negro Education (Spring, 1995). pp124-140.
¯
Rose Reissman, “The Evolving Multicultural Classroom.”
Published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria
VA. 1994.
¯
Christine Sleeter & Carl A. Grant, “Making Choices
for Multicultural Education.” Published by Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood
Cliffs, NJ. 1993.
¯
Pedro A. Noguera, “More Democracy Not Less: Confronting
the Challenge of Privatization in Public Education” The Journal of Negro Education (Spring,
1994). pp237-250.