Multicultural Education

Multicultural Education is an educational strategy that builds on the student’s culture to create an effective classroom instruction and school environment. Before teaching Multicultural literature, we need to study our community, its needs and our own cultural biases. According to Belinda Y. Louie one should examine their own culture biases before leading their students into instruction on diversity.

Teachers must be very organized for multicultural education because it takes extra creativity, more effort, and courage on the teacher’s part. As educators we must be open to what the students are doing and why they are doing this. Example: In some cultures the students are very touchy and a teacher may not be use to this or find it offensive. The teacher must explore the different learning habits of his or her students. Example: Most of the shy students will not say a word unless called on and they believe what the teacher says is true.
Teachers must create an open classroom and discuss cultural differences. An open classroom will create communication and in turn will establish a positive learning environment.
The teacher should introduce the language and culture of all their students. This shows students that their culture is important. This research was conducted using qualitative strategies to explore how multicultural literature is implemented with an interactive grammar approach.

Why use Multicultural Literature to teach an Interactive grammar method?
The importance of using Multicultural literature is that it helps break down barriers between classmates. It allows us the opportunity to get to know each other and gain knowledge of different genres. This type of literature shows how cultures are different yet very similar to each other. It can be used to show our biases towards other cultures.
Literature is a major tool for communication. According to Wham, Bainhart, and Cook (1996), children who were introduced to multicultural literature had a more positive attitude towards different cultures. Multicultural literature raises children's self-esteem, allows children to understand how and why each culture behaves, believes, and does certain things. Huck.C.(1990).says that literature is a mirror and a window on life. As readers discover other experiences through literature, they find themselves, reflected in books.
Using literature allows students to gain personal connections and gain new perspectives on life. Combining the interactive grammar method with multicultural literature will provide students with the tools they need to acquire grammar and enjoy the readings. The teacher’s materials have to be authentic and clear so students can be immediately drawn and interested in the class.
Research shows only a small number of multicultural books are well written and available. Few multicultural books are published and authentic. In order to increase children's multicultural literature there must be an increase of minority authors. Large publishers need to take the responsibility for publishing these books.
When evaluating authenticity, we need to make sure the text contains no distortions or omissions of history, and no negative or inaccurate stereotypes of ethnic groups represented. Also, no malicious insinuations should be printed. The lifestyles of the characters should be genuine. The speech in the text has to accurately represent the oral culture. The author and illustrator need to have background qualifications to represent the culture authentically. Short.G.K.1997. says that through the use of literature students can make connections that lead to powerful learning and meaning-making.

V. Bibliography:
• Gollnick,D.M &Chinn,C.P.(1998). Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society 5th edition. Columbus, OH :Merrill.
• Louie, Belinda.2006. Guiding principles for teaching multicultural literature. Reading Teacher, Feb 2006, vol 59 issue 5 p. 438-448.
• Multiculturalism:www.newhorizons.org/strategies/multicultural.higgins.htm accessed on November 23, 2008.
• Multicultural building blocks: www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/ buidingblocks.html accessed on November 23,2008.
• Establishing a Multicultural classroom by Jennifer tack: srufaculty.sru.edu/suzanne.rose/ACEI/JenniferTackACEI.ppt accessed on October 27 2008.