Reflective Essay: multicultural education and feminism as critical pedagogy
Multiculturalism as Social Activism
C. E. Sleeter, 1996, SUNY Press
Many schools of thought have traditionally treated „multiculturalism¾ as social class issues. Better it be called what it is, CULTURE and differences, challenging and enhancing our collective experience. (Chptr 1, pg 1) But with racism, sexism, and fear, multicultural education (m-e) has often degraded into strategies for alleviating white distress over issues of guilt and fear of diversity.
digression #1: My own realizations are bringing to light an understanding that without m-e we will see an acceleration in the losses of perennial human wisdom as reflected through a rich tapestry of diversity in cultural styles of expression. The many viewpoints of what is known, knowable and possible in the arts, sciences and humanities..... without some form of aggressive m-e we will see escalating conflicts as minorities struggle for equality, and perhaps some significant losses of indigenous cultural knowledge and understanding as these same fighters of oppression focus on gaining better access to the euro-centric masculine dominated global society, at the expense of preserving their own culture.... Truly it is a global concern that we not allow endangered indigenous cultural knowledge to go extinct.
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Definitions:
#1 Multicultural Education (m-e): as a form of „resistance¾ to dominant models of schooling. (pg. 2) Emphasis away from euro-masculine-centric teaching and experience to one embracing and promoting perspectives from all walks of life, all peoples, and especially those of women of color.
#2 Traditionally, multiculturalism has focused on placating white viewpoints, easing white resistance, and sensitivity training. (pg. 3, 4, 5, )
Better it focus on actually uplifting and promoting multicultures themselves, in their own words and styles.
#3 In the US, m-e has focused on raising minority student „self-esteem and self- efficacy¾, when it should actually focus on raising minority competencies and achievements in topics traditionally tailored to eor-masculine-centric theory and experience. (pg. 6, 7,)
#4 Another US focus has been on „Single Group Studies¾ like an hispanic-awareness week replete with music, dance and ethnic food labs in class, simply glosses over the issues. A more dynamically integrated framework is needed, but at least, we ought to strengthen any existing application of cross-cultural sharing. (pg. 7)
#5 m-e in education as „social reconstructionism¾, builds coalitions to combat oppression. (pg. 7)
#6 m-e phrased as „human relations¾ may pacify those who would resist to promoting any other cultural norm above that of the euro-masculine-centric.
#7 m-e therefore may best be described as teaching and reinforcing „other-ethnic¾ learners „resistence to oppression¾. (pg. 9)
#8 What m-e „could be¾: a celebration of not [just] what is [diversity], but what could be, and the energy it mobilizes for social change¾. (pg. 10)
#9 Yet! m-e is clearly a „product of its times¾, in that it has and continues to evolve as a focus for inquiry into the diversity of learning styles and practices embraced by cultures around the world.
#10 "In its inception, m-e was clearly connected with and attempting to contribute to a much larger social and political racial struggle... (pg. 11)
"...Since the school is viewed by ethnic reformers as an important institution in their oppression, they attempt to reform it because they believe that it can be a pivotal vehicle in their liberation" (Banks, 1984)
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Questions:
#1 Should m-e truly be „apolitical¾ at its best? (pg. 13)
#2 „As we enter the twenty-first century, the field of m-e must develop in ways that are consonant with its original mission: to challenge oppression and to use schooling as much as possible to help shape a future for America that is more equal, democratic and just, and that does not demand conformity to one cultural norm.¾ (pg. 15)
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Sleeter¼s experience:
#1 ...grew up white upper-middle class, in a 95% white dominant community.
#2 ... the „smart girl¾ couldn¼t get a date so she explored friends not normally of her own click.
#3 ... she felt "marginalized" but realized the difference that her ethnic friends must feel in their life-long struggle against marginalization.
#4 ... her experiences in college and as a young adult in the workplace gave her new insights into race and gender... ...she began to realize how she had always viewed m-e first through the eyes of an oppressed woman, and only then as a cultural issue that though she sympathized with, could not directly experience (except somewhat vicariously during a study-abroad experience in Japan).
#5 ... her relationships evolve as she gains clearer access to her own understanding through her professional studies and experiences as a teacher.
#6 ... her first real reaction to racism came when she and her mate (African-American) as a couple were turned down (discriminated against) in their search for affordable housing.
#7 ... she found African-American women treated her coldly, like she was stealing one of their own (men).
#8 She called it "gender terrain of pain and rejection" that lead to critiques of her own modern culture, and a reflective review of oppression in general.
#9 She refereed to a „personal life as grist for learning¾.
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multicultural education
Context: social, human nature, economic
Conservatism vs. Liberalism
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Socioeconomic concepts
#1 Capitalism
#2 Democracy
#3 Socialism
#4 Communism
#5 "undeveloped"
~ the beneficiaries of capitalism largely acquire wealth by playing to and through a system dominated by the euro-masculine-centric modes of social interaction.
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Strategies:
#1 Bridge Building as constructing positive self-identity that breaks with social relations of oppression.
#2 The "American Dream" as a whitifying myth!
#3 "Through experience we become adults with well-ingrained beliefs and social attitudes toward human nature that emphasize success through working within the system (social conformity).
#4 "Education, presumably promotes social cohesion and consensus and prepares youth for a variety of roles in society.... the roles themselves are rarely questioned."
#5 Conservatism has a component of "natural aristocracy".
#6 Liberalism has deep roots in "optimism" and rational thinking about the history of development of societies and culture.
digression #2: Does that mean that it really comes down to chance? Are white males dominant in global social/economic circles because history as it unfolded, favored the "best" technologies for trade and travel just coincidentally during the rise of european dominance? What I'm saying is that cultural, educational, and technical advancements happened to flourish just as an evolving power-base in western europe gained access to global markets. Hmmm.... put another way, the long trek of humanity from its cradling home in the tropics, through isolation and genetic variation to produce the variety of races of people, could well have resulted in power-bases changing from region to region, hemisphere to hemisphere as cultures evolved and grew in knowledge and application of technologies. Some of those technologies came out of necessity for those living in colder northern climes. But there was never any lack of inventiveness or originality in indigenous cultures living in more stable and warmer regions. Tropical cultures have less use for organized mass agriculture when the "forests" provide so plentifully (when harvested sustainably). . Perhaps it is unfortunate that technologies took so long for the temperate-climate tribes to develop that in the meantime their genetic isolation permitted a selective transformation in skin pigments and body structures.
Were it not for the crusades and the terrible destruction of cultural knowledge that ensued, we would still be under the influence of middle-eastern and arab-based technologies, and cultural norms. The arabs had advanced very far beyond any european thinking in the natural and physical sciences, but most of their treasured knowledge was destroyed.
So we are just lucky then. For better or worse (emphasis on overcoming the worst), we now live in a world dominated by euro-masculine-centric attitudes.
The greatest challenge will be to learn to live more tolerant of our differences, inquiring into the unique cultural wisdom (perennial) of each indigenous culture, so that we can preserve the best of what our diversity has to offer us as a species.
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Radical Structuralism:
Live simply so that others may simply live (Ghandi). To teach what you know and learn what you don¼t from another view with unique indigenous flavors of perception and knowledge construction.
Post-structuralism: offers important analytic tools!
We must get beyond the "conservative" rhetoric and acknowledge the growing body of insightful and definitive research on the roles of gender, race, color, and culture, that are pointing to a major flaw in our present cultural "norms".
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Feminism and Critical Pedagogy
C. Luke & J. Gore 1996, Routledge Press
„Passion, acerbity, and spurts of brilliance...¾ indeed!
digression #1: It all got me to thinking....
...¾resist temptations of harmonious agreement.¾
Recognize and admit that if (when) women can be supported in their views, allowed free and equitable voice and control over their own destinies, and those of their families, then they would ultimately stumble upon a secret to averting the (impending or unfolding even now) „Armageddon¾ we as a prolifically expanding, intolerant and globally dominating species are doing perpetrating on what was once a wild and diverse planet.
Its called control over, or critical assessment, investment in, nurturing of, and protection of the female¼s right to procreate (with her committed mate) and defend just as strongly, her right not to.
When women begin to listen to each other globally, learning to recognize perennial feminist wisdom across cultures, generations, and ethnicities, then they will surely begin to struggle for sustaining that voice and expanding its dialog to include concern for and nurturing of humanity as a whole, as a species (and as an admittedly controlling and manipulative one at that), and recognize the wisdom in preserving biodiversity and quality/equality in natural resource use and distribution. ....... I can¼t wait until the dawning of an age when women are in positions of global power, in numbers. I just hope we all allow it from a „critical feminist -post-structuralist pedagogical standpoint!
We can save the world. But women must be in power on many traditionally male-dominated platforms.
What I¼d really like to say is that it is not just „women¾, or not as much about „women¾ as it is about the „feminine aspect¾, the role of nurturer, of conceptualizer, domestic problem-solver, holistic thinker, that is important. Its just that while we may admit (and with some pride) that men do have a feminine aspect, it is definitely found in its truest form in women!
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