From class: Diversity in Education

For my Diversity in Education class this semester, we read "Multicultural Education, Social Positionality, and Whiteness" by Christine Sleeter. My source for the article was different from the one in the link, so the page numbers may not line up, but it'll give you the idea.

This isn't a topic I bring up very often on this blog, but as I'm working my way through the MAT program and getting together drafts of my Teaching Philosophy, it seems valuable enough to add some of these topics here as well and examine them on some other levels.

Here's the response I wrote for this article:

Christine Sleeter (2000) addresses the issues of educating preservice teachers in how to be prepared for multicultural education in their classrooms. I felt like this article was a challenge to white preservice students. She's challenging us to critically examine our own understandings of culture, expand it to incorporate the causes and effects of race, gender, and social class, and to make choices that will lead to greater understanding of how to be a true leader in multicultural education. The trouble Sleeter sees is the differences in perspective and attitudes between those who are white and those who are not. For people of color, the concepts and issues of multiculturalism are much more obvious, and are a part of daily life in the systemic discrimination they face, and how they identify themselves, historically and in the present. Teachers of color "grasp [these concepts] much more readily than white prospective teachers because these concepts mesh with their life experiences" (Sleeter, pg 121). For white preservice students, the issues of discrimination, racism, and opportunities for minority groups are altogether different. They "have difficulty going beyond a focus on how 'we' can help 'them,'" (Sleeter, pg 119) and their focus tends more toward choosing to ignore the problems they have not experienced.

I would hope to fully incorporate the true meanings of multiculturalism into my own life and not fall into the trap of 'us' helping 'them.' However, I can see the point that is being made, and believe I have more frequently seen and participated in that behavior than I would like to admit. Having not been the victim of daily, systemic discrimination means that I need to reach beyond myself to try and understand life as a person of color. How can I fully teach my students without bias, and teach them in a fully multicultural way when it takes an effort to do so, and I am still more likely to phrase it in a 'me' versus 'them' way?

Sleeter points out that if we are truly learning from our multicultural studies and using multicultural education to address the issues that need to be faced, then "building on analyses of race, social class, and gender that have been advanced over the past two decades, multicultural education should also direct our attention to concentrations of power and wealth in the hands of a small elite and to manifestations of that concentration in contemporary culture and social institutions" (pg 120). The point Sleeter makes here is very powerful. Here we are: educators who are researching multiculturalism; studying the historical and contemporary roles of race, gender and social class in our society; and supposedly teaching how to evolve a meaningful discourse on how to fix the problems and celebrate the victories; yet, we remain trapped in our old thought and behavior patterns. My first course in college was "Race, Gender, Justice," a discussion of how the historical development of the constructs has created the world in which we live. I felt at that point that I was ready to accept and discuss these issues in ways that will make a difference. Yet, I cannot name any time when I consciously acted in a way that was different than my instincts because of the things I learned in that class. Multicultural education is the perfect avenue for advancing understanding among all members of our society of the historical and current attitudes toward and treatments of various groups. We should be able to have valuable discourse and create social change; but, we see very little of that coming out of our 'multicultural education.'

One of the roadblocks to a real multicultural education is that white racism is mostly left undiscussed and patriarchy and class hierarchy are ignored. We focus "mainly on cultural difference" (Sleeter, pg 120). "That multicultural education often skirts around white racism results from white people's reluctance to address it more so than people of color's disregard for it" (Sleeter, pg 120). White people who consider themselves open minded and non-discriminatory have a tendency to begin that belief with the idea that they are "colorblind." Yet, we continue to make certain negative assumptions about various groups, or carry some prejudice ideas about them. "For teachers, trying to be colorblind... means trying to suppress the application of those negative associations to individual children one is teaching" (Sleeter, pg. 125). Additionally, those who consider themselves colorblind are also denying that there are racial boundaries they see and do not cross, such as when they choose a neighborhood to live in. I too, am guilty of this. I have often been encountered with an individual of color and can stifle my biases and be 'colorblind,' treating the individual as an individual. However, when confronted with a situation where there may be a larger number of people of color, I will not cross the racial boundaries and will stick to the white side.

Sleeter suggests that to begin understanding and incorporating the perspectives of people of color in multicultural education, teachers should engage "in regular dialog and collaborative work with people of color in our own communities, but that dialog and work needs to include regular and continued self-analysis" (pg 131). We need to be aware of where we come from and what influences will be affecting our perspectives as we try to incorporate those understandings into our own. We should also work to make multicultural education more than a study of a different famous person every month or a different country or ethnic group every other week. Teachers and students should be able to discuss the multiple aspects of diversity that extend beyond most definitions of culture. Multicultural education must consider the definition of culture that Sleeter uses, "the totality of a people's experience" (pg 127), and through integration of projects and discussion on the whole spectrum of cultural characteristics, students could understand more than just a small aspect of small sampling of the cultures in our society. I hope that as I continue to develop my teaching philosophy and my identity as a classroom leader I will also be continuing to reflect on my cultural perspectives and how I can best use my background and understandings to effectively teach in a multicultural world.