Effective
Multiculturalism in the Adult Education Class:
What changed on 9/11?
by
Federico Salas, Director of Adult Education
North Harris College, Houston
A few months ago,
I wrote the first of a series of articles proposing the development of
a comprehensive approach to teaching Multiculturalism in the Adult Education
class. This is an area of training and research to which I have devoted
the last nine years of my life.
I believe that multicultural
education has always been important, but now things have changed dramatically
in our country: the tragic events of September 11 have brought, in my
opinion, the need for multicultural understanding to the forefront. Not
only have the terrorist attacks shocked and harmed us in their overwhelming
destruction, but also there is potential for even more harm if we allow
ourselves to generalize negative stereotypes and blame all members of
a particular group or religion because of the actions of a fanatical few.
The
Need for Multicultural Education
When adult education
teachers are asked to consider the challenges they face in the classroom
today, they rarely mention challenges posed by multicultural classrooms;
nor do they mention the lack of multicultural training opportunities for
themselves. However, I believe that our classrooms are the places where
an enlightened reaction to both the tragic events of September 11 and
to the challenges of day-to-day multicultural interactions can and should
take place. Further, I believe that teachers should be armed with training
that helps them teach and model behaviors that result in successful multicultural
interactions.
What
is Multicultural Education?
Traditionally, multicultural
education has been aimed at understanding and appreciating other languages
and cultures. This happens through teaching not only actual information
about the target culture, but also what Senator Paul Simon called "an
intellectual and emotional appreciation of cultures other than [our] own."
One of the basic approaches
to multicultural education uses data gathered by an ethnographic study
of the target culture. Through careful observation (among other techniques),
the ethnographer arrives at a description of the target culture that reflects
hundreds of generalizations. These are based on what Bennett (1998) calls
the "central tendency" of the group - that is the behavior exhibited
by the largest number of people in the culture. Most multicultural education
programs use this information to teach students to recognize patterns
of behavior, values, and attitudes that differ from their own. While this
approach is valuable and informative, it does not allow us to take the
next natural step, that is, using the information learned in actual intercultural
communication events.
What
are the purposes of Multicultural Education?
During the last 30
years, there has been great progress toward the implementation of multicultural
education, despite some serious detractors. One consistent, if misguided,
criticism of multicultural education is that it is for people of color,
not for the majority. Another is that the study of multicultural education
has displaced the study of Western culture with the study of a varied
heritage. These arguments are pernicious, and espousing them hurts us
all, because multicultural education is not "for" one minority
or another, but rather for all cultural groups to learn to communicate
with each other. It is about adding to the canon rather than subtracting
from it while expanding our mainstream knowledge.
Multicultural education
is about giving everyone the skills necessary to succeed in a culturally
and ethically diverse nation and world. As teachers in the adult education
class in general - and the Civics class in particular - it should be our
goal to prepare educated adults to succeed as citizens. In order to do
that they need to understand (and we need to foster awareness of) the
place of intercultural communication in our society, in the workplace,
in the schools, in our places of worship, and in general in the global
economy. Part of being American is being open to the diversity that makes
the country strong. Part of being a good citizen is learning to legitimize,
welcome, and value the heritage of all groups in our society.
Multicultural
Education: The Need for a New Curriculum
In the field of adult
education the inclusion of multiculturalism has had uneven success. In
the ESL classroom, teachers integrate a variety of multicultural activities,
but the ABE/ASE class has not seen an equal emphasis. Although ESL students
are a natural group for multicultural education, we should not forget
that we live in a multicultural society and all our adult students live
and work in multicultural settings. It is important to realize that we
are preparing adults who must succeed in a highly competitive multicultural
society in which the workplace is far from culturally homogeneous. Many
textbooks show diverse characters and present multicultural examples,
but in many instances there is little done in terms of multicultural
awareness, other than presenting a few situations mostly drawn along
the lines of ethnicity and national origin.
The curriculum has
to be redrawn to address the real concerns of communication in a multicultural
community. The objectives of the new approach to teaching in the multicultural
context are first of all to foster the recognition and acceptance of the
fundamental differences that exist between groups; second, to enable students
to negotiate meaning and reality in multicultural contexts; and finally,
to develop tools to manage conflict in cross-cultural communication events.
But what are the characteristics of such a curriculum?
Wurzel (1988) suggests
that multicultural education is not "an instructional product but...
a continuous process..." that starts with the development of an awareness
of the student's (and our own) cultural identity or self-awareness. Included
would be:
- an acceptance
of the conflict generated by cultural differences as an educational
tool (managed conflict is a learning - and teaching - opportunity);
- ongoing opportunities
to learn there are different perspectives of reality, and that reality
can be negotiated;
- integrated activities
that generate controlled opportunities for improved intercultural communication;
and
- an awareness of
the universality of multiculturalism, given the fact that virtually
all contexts in which we engage in communication are multicultural even
when the major identifiers (nationality, ethnicity, etc.) are the same.
Multiculturalism
- Necessary for a Multicultural World
Beyond stereotypes
and general descriptions of cultural patterns, multicultural education
has two very practical applications in today's world: first, the only
way we can keep the competitive edge in the global economy is by learning
to communicate more successfully in an intercultural market. It is simply
smart to learn how to do business with suppliers and customers from other
cultures, because we cannot isolate ourselves any further and expect to
succeed. Second, after 9/11 there is an urgent need to adopt and adapt
new approaches to dealing with the multiplicity of cultural issues, and
the diversity of our teaching situation. We need to be prepared to answer
the questions of our students, and we must be able to manage as far as
possible in the classroom the inevitable conflicts that are likely to
arise in the near future given the current world situation.
In this necessarily
limited space I have attempted to establish the bases for further discussion
about multicultural education in the context of adult education. I believe
that without a concerted effort in that direction we will not be able
to adequately address the problems of the adult education classroom today.
About the Author
Federico Salas, Director of Adult Education at North Harris College in
Houston, has worked in Adult Education for 15 years. A former GED, ESL,
and Spanish instructor, Federico has a Master's Degree in Applied Linguistics
(ESL). The Adult Education Professional Development Center at NHC is currently
developing a 12-hour training program for effective multiculturalism.
The pilot for this training will be available starting in March 2002.
References
Bennett, Milton (ed.). 1998. Basic Concepts of Intercultural Communication.
Yarmouth, Maine: Intercultural Press, Inc.
Wurzel, Jaime. 1988.
Toward Multi-culturalism: A Reader in Multicultural Education. Yarmouth,
Maine: Intercultural Press, Inc.
  
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