Critical multicultural education : the benefits of a cross-curricula approach in a New Zealand context

Abstract

The theoretical background of this research was based on the literature on ‘critical multiculturalism’ (Banks, 2002) and ‘education in knowledge societies’ (Gilbert, 2006). It focuses on multicultural education in the context of teacher education. The particular focus of this study is teacher education for social justice, in relation to a teacher preparation course in a New Zealand context. Mixed methods and grounded theory were chosen because they distinguish power differences and ethical implications that are expanded from those divergences in terms of discrimination, oppression, misrepresentation, and marginalization as well as they also emphasize on issues of social justice. Furthermore qualitative data had to be changed or quantified to facilitate the absorption and comparison of the data from the pre- and post-course surveys. (Tashakkori & Teddie, 2010, p. 443) The intent of the analysis was to gauge pre-service teacher’s dispositions towards critical multicultural education, both before participation on the course and after the course had been completed and to evaluate any change in teacher dispositions that occurred. the responses in this data set indicate that this course may have had a moderate influence in their student cohort in prompting shifts characterized as ‘strong’ (30%) according to the classification used in this analysis. This analysis also indicates that the relationship between conceptualizations of knowledge and learning and teacher’s interpretation of the NZC may be more difficult to measure than originally envisioned. Therefore, what can be inferred from this analysis is that the self-reported shifts in the responses (which may not explicitly mention knowledge and learning) have influenced students’ interpretations of aspects of the NZC related to diversity, inclusion and community participation, particularly in relation to sensitivity to difference and awareness of origins and effects of inequalities. In conclusion, the demographic seems to be conservative coming to education for reasons that do not necessarily support the aim of multiculturalism, according to the rubric. In order to fulfill the expectation of Zeichner and Sleeter (2011) of teacher education for social justice, one course of multiculturalism is not enough for a whole teacher educational program. What would be needed would be a cross-curricula approach, where multicultural aspects can be found in all subjects.