In order for multicultural education to work successfully, partnership between the parent and their child’s educator is crucial and must begin at an early age.
Encourage Children to Speak Their Native Language at Home
When early childhood educators acknowledge and respect a child's home language and culture, ties between the family and the school are strengthened. Thus, this atmosphere provides a better environment for learning because children feel supported, nurtured, and connected not only to their home communities and families but also to teachers and the educational setting, according to the 1995 position statement by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, "Responding to Linguistic and Cultural Diversity".
Language differences can unfortunately be seen as a hindrance rather than an advancement in a child’s development. Parents should encourage their children to speak the family’s native language at home to strengthen his or her bilingual learning skills. Because of the abundant exposure children get to the English language in school and media, children will develop English skills while their home language remains in tact, according to NAEYC.
Language immersion programs work optimally when a child begins it in preschool, because this is the best age to learn and retain a language. Parents must be encouraged that learning multiple languages enhances a child’s educational experience.
Multicultural Parenting Methods
Many schools that teach multicultural education have parent tips and “toolkits” to stimulate parent involvement with their child’s education. Family Action Network, a school district in Palm Beach, has a checklist of things parents can do with their children each week, like playing educational games together, reading with the child daily, watching and discussing videos about other cultures, and going on school field trips together. The school highly encourages parents to volunteer in their child’s classroom, to see and be a part of what it is they are learning.
As the child gets older, it is the parent’s responsibility to examine how subjects like history and social studies are taught in their school system. Parents must question if children are learning United States history from a variety of cultural lenses, constantly including an integration of perspectives into their study. In the 1980s, multicultural education activists and educators refused to allow schools to simply add special “token” programs and units on famous women or famous people of color.
According to James Banks, a well-known advocate for multicultural education and “educational equality,” schools should examine every educational aspect, including policies, teachers’ attitudes and teaching styles, instructional materials, assessment methods, counseling, and teaching styles, according to his 2006 book, Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives 2006 [Wiley, John Sons Incorporated].
The United States is the world’s “melting pot” of cultures, values, ideologies, races and abilities. And as many emerging multicultural schools are proving, communities function best when differences are celebrated rather than restricted. Teaching multiculturalism in the home will eliminate racism and will hopefully help harvest school curriculum that will project people of all cultures into a positive future. Multicultural parenting will undoubtedly pave the way for an authentic multicultural society.
Amanda Drew - Amanda Drew is a recent college graduate from California State University of Chico with a degree in Journalism and International ...
