Education

1. Multiculturalism
And Anti Racism
BY: LUBNA , CHRISTY, JANET , SARA & ASMA

2. Main objectives
Gay (2013)
 To help teachers understand what culturally responsive teaching is by connecting
critical pedagogy and multicultural education
 To push teachers to understand their own privilege and teach in a way that helps
underachieving minorities to connect with education and succeed
 To supply teachers with information on how to teach in a culturally responsive way
Asher (2007)
 Presents a critical, intersectional, self-reflective view of multicultural education
 ‘Queering the gaze’ of teachers
 Traditional multicultural education “does not, ultimately, shake the patriarchal
foundations of ‘the master’s house’, much less dismantle them” (Asher, 2007, p. 65).

3. Objectives
Sleeter & Mclauren (2005)
 Tensions between standards movement and multicultural education
 Rather than avoiding issues such as racism, educators must concentrate on helping young people learn
about them
 Howard (2003) argues that the sooner educators can have honest discussions about race and racism,
the sooner we can heal old wounds
 “The standards movement, however, has framed curriculum largely as a commodity for individual
consumption rather than as a resource for public good” (Sleeter, 2005, p. 170)
Coloma (2009)
 “How those in power construe racialized and colonized Others indelibly shapes the type of education
provided to them” (Coloma, 2009, p. 515)
 The Other as intellectually inferior, in need of civilization by the West
 Race a significant factor in US curriculum development for the Philippines
 Discourse produces knowledge, whether true or false, and that knowledge shapes institutional
practices (Coloma, 2009)

4. What is culturally
responsive
teaching?
Culturally
Responsive
Teaching is a
pedagogy that
recognizes the
importance of
including students'
cultural references
in all aspects of
learning
(Ladson-
Billings,1994).
“Using the cultural
knowledge, prior
experience, frames
of reference, and
performance styles
of ethnically
diverse students to
make learning
encounters
relevant and
effective for them”
(Gay, 2013)

5. Required reading 1: Main Ideas
Teaching To and Through Cultural Diversity by Gay Geneva
• Culturally responsive teaching
improves the performance of
ethnically and racially diverse
students.
• Used to be sufficient to include
“accurate content about and
comprehensive portrayals of
ethnically and racially diverse groups”
(Gay, 2013)

6. How to teach in a culturally responsive way? Gay (2013) Suggests
Replace misinformed attitudes, beliefs and biases
Understand the resistance to culturally responsive teaching-this includes doubt about the validity of culturally responsive
teaching as well as anticipating difficulties with implementation
Understand culture and difference as not being a choice, but an unconditional part of being
human
Connect culturally responsive teaching to specific subjects/skill areas to demonstrate
investment to this methodology
Remember that culturally responsive teaching encourages positive values such as: equality,
justice, diversity etc.

7. Required reading 2 : Main Ideas
Unpacking the tensions of race, culture, gender and sexuality in education by Asher Nina
What do we need to do to enable
teachers to identify, engage, and
unpack the nuanced, context-
specific differences at the
intersections of race, culture, gender
and sexuality that they encounter on
a daily basis? (Asher, 2007)
Picture: www.voiceofyouth.org

8. Asher (2007)
Argument
Multicultural education’s
main focus has been on race
and culture with little
attention on differences of
sexuality, gender and class.
To address racial and ethnic
tensions effectively, we need
to acknowledge and engage
gender and sexuality (P.69).

9. How can we foster critical, self-reflexive ways of teaching that promote
equity and democratic ways of being? (Asher, 2007)
Students are given
opportunity to
recognize and examine
differences in terms of
the context-specific
intersections of race,
class, gender, sexuality,
culture and language.
Students can
reflect critically on
their own stories
via
autobiographical
essays and
reflective journals.
Results Brings theory and
pedagogy together to
create a safe space for
students to express
their differences,
including their
resistance to social
transformation
through engagement.

10. “Autobiography can function to “queer” or to
make theory, practice, and the self-unfamiliar”
(Asher, 2007)
Image source: itsallaboutculture.com
Reflect/Discuss:
What does “affirming
diversity” mean to you and
how can this be implemented
in your classroom with your
students?

11. Critical pedagogy in Multicultural education
What is multicultural education?
 Started due to the civil rights and women’s movements.
 Still had failure of white people & institutions to
grapple with their own racism.
 Critical pedagogy and multicultural education require
action and question how we name ourselves and
others. when we name concepts or people they become
visible and easier to discuss.
 Although personal experience is important to
multicultural education we need to remember that even
our experiences happen within social constructs and
are tainted by society.
Supplementary Reading
Exploring connections to build a critical multiculturalism. In Multicultural education, critical pedagogy and the politics of difference (Sleeter,
Christine & McLaren, Peter (1995)

12. CONT.
 Need to identify with the “other” when he/she is
less like us. we should not try and put the
experiences of others in our own words or
compare ourselves to them.
 Need to understand our own privilege and
decide what to do with it. The authors suggest
that they use their privilege (white educated) to
talk to a white audience about the destruction of
white supremacy.
 Ask readers to share power with non-white
people by taking their intelligence seriously and
supporting the “ideas, perspectives & careers” of
these people.
 Ask teachers to acknowledge that we are trying
to fight racism in schools that are taught my
mostly white females.

13. Connections of Sleeter & Mclauren (1995) Article
with Gay (2013)
 Both Gay (2013) and Sleeter & Mclaren
(1995) discuss multicultural education,
why it is needed and how to implement
it.
 Both articles express the need for more
than ethnic foods and festival days.
Teachers need to take action and to
incorporate the autobiographies of
different students and their culture and
ethnicity.
 Sleeter & Mclaren argue that even our
autobiographies can be tainted by
society.

14.  Both articles express the need for
teachers that will look at biases and
stereotypes and acknowledge where
they came from and who created
them.
 Both articles suggest that teachers
need to be prepared to encounter
resistance to culturally responsive
teaching by articulating the tensions
that may exist. Gay (2013) goes even
further to suggest what those
tensions may be: worry about
implementation and validity.
CONNECTIONS OF SLEETER & MCLAUREN (1995) ARTICLE WITH
GAY (2013)

15. Connections Sleeter (2005) with Asher (2007)
 Multicultural education must be ever-
shifting, reflective, and political (Asher,
2007; Sleeter, 2005)
 Silencing difference and ignoring
multiplicities results in the oppression
of marginalized groups (Asher, 2007)
 An intersectional analysis that takes
into consideration issues of race, class,
gender, and sexuality is necessary
(Asher, 2007; Sleeter, 2005)

16. Cont..
 Concept of ‘visionary pragmatist’ (Sleeter,
2005): “Visionary pragmatists reach for what
may seem unattainable, seeking ways to turn
the impossible into the possible” (Sleeter,
2005, p. 182). Asher’s work in her
multicultural education classes reflects this
visionary pragmatism.
 The culture gap between teachers and
students is growing (Asher, 2007) and
teachers must openly discuss issues of race
and oppression to begin to ‘heal old wounds’.
(Sleeter, 2005)

17. Critique/Questions/Reflections
 What is the importance of learning about
one’s self—one’s own biases and
privileges—as a means of maintaining
high expectations for our students?
 How can we incorporate students’
cultures in order to influence teacher’s
instructional methods?
 What does it mean to be a multicultural
educator? Relate this to your own
experience as an educator.

18. Coloma (2009) “Destiny Has Thrown the Negro and the Filipino
Under the Tutelage of America”: Race and Curriculum in the Age of
EmpirE – Article OVERVIEW
 Public schooling was a tool of American colonization of the Philippines and was seen by the U.S.
colonial government as a way of smoothing local resistance to governance.
 Schooling in the Philippines was modelled after schooling for African-Americans in the U.S. South:
Filipino/as were constructed as “Negroes”
 “[T]he material effects of the discursive construction of Filipino/as manifested in educational policy
and curriculum which structured what teachers taught, what students learned, and what kinds of
lived trajectories were made possible” (p. 497): Policy decisions were supported by the ways in
which Filipino/as were discussed by people in the United States. Those discussions placed limitations
on what kinds of education were thought to be appropriate for public schooling in the Philippines.
 Discusses how the U.S. colonial government viewed changes made to education, but also how various
segments of Filipino/a society saw these changes, e.g., seeking new opportunities for employment
through liberal arts courses

19. Coloma (2009) – Article OVERVIEW
 3 central concepts to unpack : Archaeology, Discourse, Race
 Archaeology & Discourse (p. 496) – from Michel Foucault
 Archaeology: Coloma describes that he will examine the specifics of the conditions surrounding the development of public
schooling in the Philippines. What are the limits that determined how this system could develop? How do statements made
about this system correlate with other statements? What kinds of statements were not made about this system?
 Discourse: The idea that these statements described above have material effects; they “form the objects of which they speak”
(p. 496). What do discourses of the public school system include/exclude? What do they make possible/impossible?
 Race (p. 498-499)
 “something that is both imposed upon and claimed by a group of people based on political reasons and not on biological,
genetic or anthropological criteria” (p. 498-499). Race is a social construct, not a ‘natural’ characteristic. Understandings of
race are specific to historical, cultural, and geographical contexts.
 The racial logics used to construct hierarchies of race are based upon ideas of “literacy, modernity, and maturity” (p. 507)
rooted in whiteness

20. Coloma (2009) – Article Summary (Slide 1
of 7)
 “Toward a Transnational History of Race, Empire, and
Curriculum” (p. 497)
 Coloma argues (via curriculum studies, history of education,
and ethnic studies and Asian American Studies) for the
importance of research that crosses borders, looks to
“historical convergences of various communities of color” (p.
498), and considers understandings of race to be embedded
within social and political forces.

21. Coloma (2009) – Article Summary (2 0f 7)
Image: “School Begins” from Puck magazine, 1899 (credit: Wikimedia Commons). To view larger version:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:School_Begins_1-25-1899.JPG
“The Racialization of Colonized
Filipino/as”
(p. 499)
• In this section, Coloma analyses U.S.
colonial visual culture, specifically
political cartoons and photographs at
the turn of the 20th century
•He discusses this image on p. 501

22. Coloma (2009) – Article Summary
(3 of 7)
 In the “School Begins” cartoon, African American manual-industrial schooling is presented as the
“viable option” (p. 502) for Filipino/as.
 The cartoon displays how different forms of schooling are considered to be appropriate/attainable
for different racialized groups under U.S. imperial rule.
 As Coloma describes, for the Filipino child seated in the front row, the alternative options of
whiteness (White Americans, in the back rows), extinction (Native American, seated by the door), or
exclusion (Chinese figure, outside the door) are not considered to be available and/or applicable.
African-American manual-industrial schooling (figure washing the window) is considered by U.S.
colonizers to be the most reasonable option for mass education in the Philippines.
 “Popular media, official reports, and personal correspondence worked to produce and reinforce the
racialization of Filipino/as through the White hegemonic and distorted imageries of African Americans.” (p.
503)

23. Coloma (2009) – Article Summary
(4 of 7)
 “African American Perspectives on
Filipino/as” (p. 504)
 Coloma describes different views held by African
Americans about Filipino/as
 Further implications for the fact that
Filipino/as were racialized as “Negroes”
 Some thinkers argued for solidarity and mutual
learning (e.g. W. E. B. DuBois), others (e.g. Booker
T. Washington) made arguments that African
Americans were in competition with Filipino/as
over scarce economic resources

24. Coloma (2009) – Article Summary (5 0f 7)
 “Educational Curriculum, Policy, and Teacher Preparation” (p. 506)
 Manual-industrial training in the Philippines was modelled after training provided to African
Americans in the U.S. South
 Expansion of the schooling system meant more Filipino/a teachers were hired and trained, producing
tensions around how to train teachers, what should be taught to students by those teachers, and the
purpose of the Normal School (i.e. teachers’ college).
 While Filipino/as who were able to access a liberal arts education (e.g. through travel to U.S., or the
Normal School) had access to better job prospects, most did not have this option. “[The push for a
manual-industrial curriculum to racialized and colonized communities ultimately belied a seemingly
benevolent yet deeply insidious agenda to keep them at the mercy of those who held the reigns of
power” (p. 511). The purpose of schooling was not to create opportunity for Filipino/as but to
support U.S. economic needs.

25. Coloma (2009) – Article Summary (6 of 7)
 “The Dominance of the Manual-Industrial
Curriculum” (p. 511)
 Coloma comments on how the widespread use of
this curriculum worked to maintain social class
divides.
 The educational tools of U.S. global imperialism
drew on manual-industrial education forms that
had been developed as remedial education. In the
case of racialized minorities, this education was
meant to address perceived moral deficiencies.
 Students were trained to produce goods for export,
maintaining economic dependence on foreign
markets: part of a legacy that continues today in the
Philippines.

26. Coloma (2009) – Article Summary (7 of 7)
 “By foregrounding the educational history of the Philippines under
U.S. rule, I call into question the hegemonic narrative of
exceptionalism in the United States that, through historical amnesia
or selective interpretation of history, disavows its imperialist past and
present. I also take to task the self-righteous mission of benevolent
altruism among educators who defensively dismiss their complicity in
colonial and neocolonial operations.” (p. 513)
 Coloma calls for serious attention to the ongoing implications of U.S.
imperialism and the coloniality embedded in educational work.

27. Coloma (2009) – Implications
 What histories do we fail to account for in Canada’s educational narratives?
 e.g. The place of education systems in tactics of elimination and assimilation of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis
people, including residential schools
 Reframing our ideas about the intended purposes of schooling: When we consider
intersections between race, racism, and schooling, we need to extend our thinking to consider
how entire national schooling systems have been planned as explicit systems of social control,
and particularly, how racial logics are used to justify this control.
 “Mass public schooling, for the colonizers, served as a resolution to the White man’s burden, and persists as a
legacy of Western imperialism in many postcolonial nations.” (p. 496)
 For Curriculum Studies scholars (that’s us!), Coloma calls for transnational studies that
acknowledge that nations are interrelated and “people, ideas, goods, cultures, and
institutions” cross borders (p. 497). In transnational research, the nation is not the main unit
of analysis.
 The importance of discussing race in terms of specific histories; thinking about racial logics
through their material outcomes

28. Connecting Coloma (2009) to Gay (2013) “Teaching to and
through cultural diversity” (1 of 2)
 While Coloma’s research has implications for how we understand education in
practice, his work takes up different goals and strategies than what we see in Gay’s
applied discussion of culturally responsive teaching.
 Yet, like Coloma, Gay argues when we are talking about race (and culture, and
ethnicity), we need to define our terms carefully. The word “diversity” can
encompass a wide range of topics, so Gay asks us to make sure that we speak in
terms of specifics.
 Although Coloma’s work is written for a scholarly audience, Gay’s comments on how
theory and research impact her practice suggest that educators might find something
useful in Coloma’s remarks. She also notes that there is a range of ways that
educators do or do not engage with scholarly work, and that is ok.

29. Connecting Coloma (2009) to Gay (2013) “Teaching to and
through cultural diversity” (2 of 2)
 Gay’s comments that “marginality is contextual and relative; [and] that there is something positive
and constructive among people and communities most disadvantaged in mainstream society” (p. 54)
echo Coloma’s interest in discussing how some Filipino/as were able to work the new public
schooling system to their advantage, even though this was a system designed to deny them power.
 Gay also asserts that culturally responsive teaching must not shy away from the topic of intergroup
conflict. I draw a connection here with Coloma’s desire to reveal the controlling implications of
schooling in colonial contexts. He makes clear that education is not inherently benevolent work, and
that White America maintained its power through schooling in the U.S. South and in the Philippines.
He also engages the ways in which Filipino/as were viewed by African Americans, naming
possibilities both for solidarity and for concerns about competition.

30. Connections:
Coloma (2009) readings with Asher (2007)
 Education for the Other must be
examined as race has indelibly shaped
the type of education that we provide
 Imperialism and colonialism are key to
the type of education in the US
 Mass public schooling has racist and
colonial roots: “mass public schooling,
for the colonizers, served as a resolution
to the white man’s burden, and persists
as a legacy of Western imperialism in
many postcolonial nations” (Coloma,
2009, p. 496)

31. Cont..
 As American curriculum studies goes international, it must
contend with the history of and ongoing imperialism and
colonialism (Coloma, 2009)
 Public education has a manual-industrial focus, instead of a
focus on the liberal arts, and this must be contended with by
the anti-racist educator
 Public education was designed to assimilate and this must be
contended with by the anti-racist educator

32. Critique/Questions/Reflections
 How can we incorporate historical
backgrounds, languages, cultural
characteristics, contributions, critical
events, significant individuals, and
social, political, and economic
conditions of various majority and
minority ethnic groups into our
classrooms?

33. Final Reflections
 Multicultural Education Drives Student
Growth and Achievement.

34. References
 Gay, Geneva. (2013). Teaching To and Through Cultural Diversity. Curriculum
Inquiry, 43(1), 48–70.
 Sleeter, Christine & McLaren, Peter. (1995). Introduction: Exploring connections to build
a critical multiculturalism. In Multicultural education, critical pedagogy and the politics
of difference (pp. 5-32). Albany, NY: SUNY.
 Asher, Nina. (2007). Made in the (multicultural) USA: Unpacking the tensions of race,
culture, gender and sexuality in education. Educational Researcher, 36(2), 65-73.
 Coloma, Roland Sintos. (2009). “Destiny has thrown the Negro and the Filipino under the
tutelage of America”: Race and curriculum in the age of empire. Curriculum Inquiry,
39(4), 495-519.
 Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishing Co.