Culture, teaching, and learning are interconnected. There are three major components of multicultural education: an idea/concept, a school reform, and an ongoing process. Culture is defined as the different values and beliefs that are shared by a group of people. Effective teaching requires understanding culture in complex ways and making connections between students' social lives and learning in the classroom. The teacher's attitude is the most important factor in embracing multicultural education.

2. Chapter 2: Culture, Teaching, and
Learning
Outcome For the Day
Explain how culture, teaching, and learning
are
(linked, can’t separate) connected

3. 3 Components of Multicultural
Education
Tell your neighbor what the three major
components of multicultural education are:
An idea/concept
A school reform
An ongoing process
Test
Question
Review!

4. What is culture?
• Culture is defined as the different values
and beliefs of a group that people share.
Banks

5. Rita Pierson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw
Watch the video, if it does not play use the link above. It is also on blackboard.

6. What Do You Think?
“I think the best way to learn about a
multicultural society is to study many
cultures. If during class we studied one
culture a day, we might scratch the
surface on what it would be like to be
informed of and about numerous
cultures.” – A Pre-Service Teacher

7. • The quote on the previous slide demonstrates what we call the
tourist-based or the transmission approach to learning about
multicultural education. The approach is very common;
however, it does not offer educators an accurate or adequate
view of culture. Instead, it HINDERS our effective teaching
practices!
• Educators must look at culture like an onion--- many complex
layers that interact with each other (not separate sets of
identifiable characteristics in nice neat boxes!)
We, as passionate educators and human beings,
have to GRAPPLE with the complexity that
surrounds the different meanings AND uses of
the culture concept in the classroom!
Where do the student behaviors come from?
Why is this student different? What is the usefulness of
his/her differences? What limitations does their culture
give them? How can I connect their culture to the concept
being taught?

8. The KEY POINT
is:
Have an understanding of culture that will
help you make more effective connections
between your students’ social lives and their
learning in your classroom!
The teacher’s attitude is the most
important factor!!!!

9. • Multicultural education is most often seen as
a problem in the educational setting. It is not
about learning how to DEAL with it; it is about
learning how to EMBRACE it and learn
together as a collective group.
• Teacher preparation programs AND actual
learning environments most often do not
make connections between culture and
learning. We want to put everyone in their
nice neat box and superficially teach others
how to play together nicely. This is not the
goal of our multicultural experience.
• As teachers, we must cultivate a much deeper
understanding of how culture is implicated in
teaching and learning; we must move beyond
that tourist approach.
• The persistent achievement gap demands a
view of culture aimed toward educational
inequalities.

10. Misconceptions
This illustrates 2 very important misunderstandings:
#1 Culture is composed of a set of static and
bounded traits and values evenly attributable to all
members of the group.
#2 The culture or poverty/minority students is
characterized as deficient in contrast to the cultures
of the middle and upper classes’ non-minority
students. This blames the individual WITHOUT
considering the poor schools they may attend,
unequal resources, lack of qualified teachers, and
greater use of severe discipline practices.

11. Involuntary Minorities VS Voluntary
Minorities
Involuntary Minorities Voluntary Minorities