Multiculturalism Issues in Curriculum Assignment

Multiculturalism Issues in Curriculum - Assignment Example It shall also make recommendations and/or predictions for the future of this issue. Finally, it shall establish support for recommendations and/or predictions with this research. Body The multicultural curriculum has its roots in the history of multicultural education which follows the history of the US civil rights movement (Fillion, n.d). The desegregation practices during the 1950s were established in order to provide equal education for all individuals, regardless of race or any other demographic considerations. The 1960s and 1970s, desegregation practices expanded to include application in seeking equity of all students in terms of their human rights (Banks, 2000). With the focus on human rights, multicultural concerns in education were considered, recognizing the importance of establishing awareness in a culturally diverse community. The changes in the teaching curriculum came under the collective heading of multiculturalism. These changes were also apparent in Britain and in A ustralia just as they were unfolding in the US (Lynch, 1983). The educational authorities recognized the fact that the curriculum must come from the social and the ethical concepts being seen in the multicultural setting. Various references to the inherent value of all human beings were also highlighted, and this attached value was also seen in the human rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s (Lynch, 1983). In these states, the focus was on acknowledging the need for the multicultural curriculum and for teachers to support and promote such a program. Research was then carried out and workshops with teachers implemented. Such actions were able to establish that even as many resources were needed in order to â€Å"bring teachers to the level to the level of multicultural teaching acceptable to the proponents of multicultural curriculum, an emphasis must be placed on institutions of higher learning to require the incorporation of inclusionary multicultural methods and practice in the teacher certification process† (Fillion, n.d, p. 1). In effect, without any inclusionary methods in the institutions of higher learning, the multicultural curriculum could not find its place in the educational system. One of the issues in the multicultural curriculum revolves around the fact that the US is composed of different racial groups, but the educational system, including the curricula, the books, the resources, and other teaching materials are founded on White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, otherwise known as the mainstream Americans (Tiedt and Tiedt, 2000). This type of curriculum largely does not consider the experiences, the history, and the culture of other racial and ethnic groupings in the US (Banks, 1988). This type of curriculum has a negative impact on minorities as well as those belonging to the mainstream culture. This is because racism and ethnocentrism are protected and nourished under this mainstream-supported culture. A mainstream-focused curriculum has a neg ative impact on the mainstream students because it further supports their sense of superiority, misleading their understanding of their relationship with other members of society, especially the ethnic minorities (Banks, 1988). The lack of a multicultural curriculum also prevents the process of understanding concepts and information from the point of view of other cultures and races. Another issue with the

An Evaluation of Traditional Concepts of an Individual Essay

An Evaluation of Traditional Concepts of an Individual - Essay Example There were also those who have sought personal glory and conquests, individuals like Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolph Hitler and Julius Cesar all of which had their own vision and version of the "ideal society" in which they sought to dominate. And finally there were those who have been known for their infamy and notoriety, otherwise known as deviants or villains. Is there anything that separates them and the other individuals The answer may be lie on the fact that these individuals may have discovered what it takes to be an individual that can stand above others. Or perhaps they have not been aware of the fact that they were exceptional or maybe they made their purpose clear to themselves that they want to achieve something that will grant them dominion above others. In any case, the individual is truly unique and each has the potential of unimaginable glory and achievement. This paper discusses some traditional and conventional concepts of the individual like how and what it take to be a n individual, how does the individual perceive his or herself, how are they able to cause either damage or benefit the environment and other individuals that they have been involved with. Any normal person would refer... Individual's posses a high sense of self that they have may have acquired during the early stages of development. The term "human being" has been the subject of debate for years, but in the traditional sense is synonymous to a person or an individual. Some sociologists and anthropologists adhere to this classical definition of the person while some say that this definition should be expanded. Others have proposed a total redefinition of what a person is. The classical definition is quite tricky, a person may also be defined as someone who is entitled to basic rights but then there are also other beings that are entitled to such rights such as the right to live for example ("Persons"; "Cultural Identity"). Some psychologists have been in fact went to as far as defining a person as a gestalt of thoughts and never defining it in the material sense, although this is too extreme. The individual can be defined when one is aware of his or herself. This "Conscious Theory of the Mind" suggests that the individual creates a mental image of his or herself a sort of "mental construct" which is distinct from anybody else. In an experiment by George Gallup in 1970, he demonstrates that some higher primates like chimpanzees. This experiment was a variation of the "Mark of Rouge" experiment where children a year old or more were written with a "mark of rouge", actually an erasable mark made with a crayon, in their foreheads. The child was placed in front of a mirror and was let to observe his or herself. Most of the children in the age of exactly one year reacted to their mirror image as if they saw another child. Older children simply wiped away their "rouge markings" once they observed