Language Diversity in the Classroom - ymerleksi - home

220 Language Diversity in the ClassroomMulticulturalism in EducationThe impulse behind multicultural education is very largely a positiveone. In a post-modern and politically correct environment it has, in manyeyes, a motherhood quality, but one need not be an ideologue of anyparticular stripe to see in such education a progressive and liberalizingforce. Indeed, we would be hard pressed to deny (in theory, at least) theutility and justice of an educational thrust that aims to alert children tothe varied world around them, whether or not it exists in microcosm intheir own classroom, to inculcate cross-cultural respect, and to form abulwark against racism and intolerance. The problems arise fromdefinition and interpretation, on the one hand, and from implementation,on the other.What should a multicultural program look like at school? There aremany possibilities, and probably no two programs could be identical, ifonly for the reason that local ethnic realities (which presumably shouldbe reflected in such programs, at least to some extent) alter with context.However, there are two broad approaches. One, now almost entirelyrejected at an intellectual level but still much in evidence, is a sort ofethnic show-and-tell in which cultural manifestations are paraded in aself-conscious and often trivial fashion. While the specifics of culturalvariation do, of course, have a place in a more thoughtful program, littlecan be expected if they are presented essentially as varieties of the exotic.Children (and teachers) may look forward to these experiences, butlargely as light relief from the real work of the school, taking their placewith unexpected but welcome school assemblies and old-style lessons inreligion and citizenship.The second approach involves a broader and less superficial stance onmulticulturalism. Programs here are often heavy with objectives andcurricula and, while well-meaning, may be either leaden and insensitiveor woolly and arbitrary. One representative writer discussed a multiculturalcurriculum focussing upon the ‘subjective content of theteachers’ and students’ own consciousness’. He went on to write:As an action system, the classroom of teacher and students wouldexamine the historical process which creates each individual. Theshared solidarity, when related to common experience, would plantthe seeds of collective change. (Connors, 1984: 110)These are the sorts of vaporings that give academics a bad name.Going beyond the style, such as it is, there is an assumption here thatschools possess a power for social change that history shows to be rare.