This document discusses the importance and strategies for implementing multicultural curriculum in classrooms. It provides examples of how to make a classroom look multicultural through displays of maps and international materials. It also explains that multicultural curriculum is needed to prepare students for diverse environments, address biases, and accommodate different learning styles. The document recommends books, articles, and websites to incorporate multicultural perspectives across subjects and grade levels.

1. Multicultural
Content/Curriculum
in the Classroom
By Dixie Trent and Melissa Pegues
January , 2013

2. Looking Like a Multicultural Classroom
 Develop a multicultural classroom calendar.
 Make maps showing the origin of various groups, and
place on classroom walls.
 Collect articles from newspapers and magazines that deal with the maps the
class or teacher has created.
 Set up a writing or reading area that looks like a Paris café—or any other
cultural theme (a comfortable area).
 In the classroom library, have grade-level books about different cultures and
their people
http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9218/secondary.htm

3. Why Do We Need Multicultural Curriculum?
 To prepare students for diverse workplaces and multicultural environments
 To expose biases, stereotypes, and policies that can restrict achievement
 To ensure that content is fair, accurate, and inclusive
 To accommodate for diverse teaching and learning styles of teachers and
students
 To help student, faculty, and staff become advocates for multicultural
awareness.
BYU (Brigham Young University)
http://education.byu.edu/diversity/curriculum.html

4. Why Do We Need Multicultural Curriculum?
(Continued)
We need multicultural curriculum for students like Francisco Jimenez, in his
description of living the life of a migrant child, in his book The Circuit—a trade
book that should be used in every classroom from 4-12 grade levels
(Jimenez, 1997). Jimenez describes a life of getting close to teachers and fellow
students, and then having to leave them all, with little or no notice; a life of
repeated disappointments. Equally important, Jimenez would go in and out of a
state of “forgetting” the little English he knew, because he never was allowed to
stay in one place for long.
Jimenez, F. (1997). The circuit. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.

5. Multicultural Recognition
For classroom content and curriculum to be truly multicultural, educators must
be able to recognize their own biases, prejudices, and assumptions that can
affect their students.
A teacher who can recognize and eliminate their own biases, will become a
more effective teacher, will ultimately have more multicultural curriculum, and
will likely be able to reach all students.
BYU (Brigham Young University)
http://education.byu.edu/diversity/curriculum.html

6. Multicultural Recognition
(Continued)
In her journal article, Becoming White: Reinterpreting a Family Story by Putting Race Back
into the Picture, Christine E. Sleeter (Sleeter, 2011) uses the family story of her own great-
great-grandmother, who turns out not to be the wonderful woman she was portrayed to be in
family lore, but a down-right racist woman who used racism to her advantage, at every
opportune time! Sleeter’s great-great-grandmother is the epitome of the white, European
immigrant who immigrated to the U.S. for a better life, in the middle part of the 19th.
century.
Christine discusses how many teacher educators in the U.S. are trying to get their white-
dominant teaching students to see themselves through their “culture,” rather than through the
“white European heritage” lens. This is a must-read for all teaching students, in order to re-
identify themselves through their own individual cultures and heritages.
Sleeter, C.E. (2011). Becoming white: Reinterpreting a family story by putting race back
into the picture. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 14(4),421-433.
http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=artoc;e&id-
doi:10.1080/13613324.2010.547850

7. Multicultural Classroom: Case Study
By Emilie M. Camp and Heather A. Oesterreich
A case study was done by the above two authors, about multicultural classrooms, and
how one teacher named “Rae” had transformed her classroom, through “uncommon
means.” Rae is not your typical teacher who teaches to the test! Rae doesn’t use the
conventional “worksheets” that her school prescribes—she creates her own multicultural
and inclusive worksheets, to reflect the diverse group of students in her classroom! An
uncommon teacher in a common-sense classroom! I recommend all future teachers read
the full study at the following website:
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/serviet/ERICServie
t?accno=EJ887770 (Journal)

8. Stages of Multicultural Curriculum Transformation
By James Banks and Peggy McIntosh
Stage 1: Curriculum of the Mainstream
Stage 2: Heroes and Holidays
Stage 3: Integration
Stage 4: Structural Reform
Stage 5: Multicultural, Social Action, and Awareness
***The above “stages” are a gradual step-by-step process, where the
teacher accomplishes one stage, and then moves on to the next stage,
until she has achieved all stages in her classroom curriculum. The full
text can be viewed at:
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/curriculum/steps,html

9. Multicultural Lesson Plan Websites
 http://www.awesomelibrary.org/Classrooms/Social_Studies/Multicultural/M
ulticultural.html
 http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/index.shtml
 http://www.diversitycouncil.org/elActivities.shtml
 http://www,edchange.org/multicultural/
 http://www.educationworld.com/tools_templates/index.shtml#asses
sments (an amazing site! )
 http://www.palmbeachschools.org/multicultural/documents/MultiFourth.pdf

10. References
Banks, J., McIntosh, P. (n.d.). Stages of multicultural curriculum
transformation. Retrieved from
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/curriculum/steps.html
BYU Diversity. (n.d.). Curriculum: What is multicultural
education? Retrieved from
http://education.byu.edu/diversity/curriculum.html
Camp , E. M., & Oesterreich, H. A. (2010). Uncommon teaching in common
sense times: A case study of a critical multicultural educator and the academic
success of diverse student populations. Multicultural Education, 17(2), 20- 26.
Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov

11. References
ERIC Digest. (n.d.). Multicultural education in elementary and
secondary schools. Retrieved from
http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9218/secondary.htm
Jimenez, F. (1997). The circuit. Albuquerque, NM: University of New
Mexico Press.
Sleeter, C.E. (2011). Becoming white: Reinterpreting a family story by putting.
race back into the picture. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 14(4),421-433
http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=artoc;e&id-
doi:10.1080/13613324.2010.547850