Multicultural education aims to increase educational equity and is a progressive approach to transforming education. It has goals of creating a safe learning environment for all, strengthening cultural awareness, and preventing prejudice. James Banks identified four approaches to multicultural education: contributions, additive, transformational, and social action. The transformational approach changes curriculum structure to view concepts from multiple perspectives, while the social action approach includes activities for social change. Multicultural education increases productivity, problem solving, relationships, and societal vitality while decreasing stereotyping.

2. • According to Banks and Banks (1995)
“Multicultural education as a field of study is designed
to increase educational equity for all students.”
• According to James A. Banks (1997)
“Multicultural education is an idea, an educational
reform movement, and a process.”
Multicultural Education is…

3. Multicultural Education is…
• According to Paul Gorski (2010)
“Multicultural education is a progressive
approach for transforming education that
holistically critiques and responds to
discriminatory policies and practices in
education.”

4. Goals of Multicultural Education
• Creating a safe, accepting, and
successful learning environment for all
• Increasing awareness of global issues
• Strengthening cultural consciousness
• Strengthening intercultural awareness
• Teaching students that there are multiple
historical perspectives
• Encouraging critical thinking
• Preventing prejudice and discrimination

5.  James Albert Banks, an
educator sometimes called
the “father of multicultural
education.”
 Director of the Center for
Multicultural Education at
the University of
Washington
 Discuss the 4 Approaches of
Multicultural Education
(Multicultural Curriculum
Reform)
James Banks

6. The Four Approaches of Multicultural Education
(Multicultural Curriculum Reform)
1.) The Contributions Approach
2.) The Additive Approach
3.) The Transformation Approach
4.) The Social Action Approach

7. 1.) The Contributions Approach
• This approach reflects the least amount of
involvement in multicultural education approaches.
• selecting books and activities that celebrate
holidays, heroes, and special events from various
cultures.
• For example, spending time reading about Dr.
Martin Luther King in January is a common practice
that falls into this category. In this approach,
culturally diverse books and issues are not specified
as part of the curriculum (Banks, 1999).

8. 2.) The Additive Approach
• In this approach content, concepts, themes, and
perspectives are added to the curriculum without
changing its basic structure.
• This involves incorporating literature by and
about people from diverse cultures into the
mainstream curriculum without changing the
curriculum.
• For example, examining the perspective of a
Native American about Thanksgiving would be
adding cultural diversity to the traditional view of
Thanksgiving. However, this approach does not
necessarily transform thinking (Banks, 1999).

9. 3.) The Transformation Approach
• This approach actually changes the structure of
the curriculum.
• This encourages students to view concepts,
issues, themes, and problems from several
ethnic perspectives and points of view.
• For example, a unit on Thanksgiving would
become an entire unit exploring cultural
conflict. This type of instruction involves critical
thinking and involves a consideration of
diversity as a basic premise (Banks, 1999).

10. 4.) The Social Action Approach
• transformation approach plus activities for social
change
• Students are not only instructed to understand
and question social issues, but to also do
something about important about it.
• For example, after participating in a unit about
recent immigrants to North America, students
may write letters to senators, Congress, and
newspaper editors to express their opinions
about new policies (Banks, 1999).

11.  Multicultural education increases
productivity because a variety of mental
resources are available for completing the
same tasks and promotes cognitive and
moral growth among people.
 Multicultural education increases creative
problem solving skills through the different
perspectives applied to the same problem
to reach solutions.

12.  Multicultural education increases positive
relationships through achievement of
common goals, respect, appreciation, and
commitment to equality among the
intellectuals at institutions of higher
education.
 Multicultural education decreases
stereotyping and prejudice through direct
contact and interactions among diverse
individuals.

13. • Multicultural education renews vitality of
society among the richness of the different
cultures of its members and fosters
development of a broader and more
sophisticated view of the world.

14. Remember:
A key goal of multicultural education is to change
schools so that all students will have an equal opportunity to
learn.