11.6 Multicultural Perspective

In April 1989, the Association for Multicultural Science Education (AMSE) was founded and held its first meeting at the National Science Teachers Association conference in Atlanta. In the Bylaws of the AMSE, the following statement defined its purpose and objectives:

"The purposes for which this Association is organized are to stimulate and promote science teaching to students of culturally diverse backgrounds and to motivate such students to consider science-related careers; to explore and promote the improvement of science curriculums, educational systems and teaching methods in schools to assist such stimulation; to recruit and involve teachers of all minorties in science education and to initiate and engage in activities and programs in furtherance of improving the science education of culturally diverse students."

In this section we will explore multicultural education and indicate the central place that multicultural science education should play in planning science lessons, choosing content, selecting teaching materials, and teacher behavior in the classroom.

Multicultural education is a movement that began in the 1970s, but as James Banks points out, has expectedly suffered from some confusion. He says:

Since multicultural education...deals with highly controversial and politicized issues such as racism and inequality (it) is likely to be harshly criticized during its fomative stages because it deals with serious problems in society and appears to many individuals and groups to challenge established institutions, norms and values. It is also likely to evoke strong emotions, feelings and highly polarized opinions. As it searches for its raison d'etre, there is bound to be suspicions and criticisms.

What is Multicultural Education?

According to Fred Rodriguez, the acknowledgement of the importance of multicultural education was reflected in the American Association for Colleges of Teacher Edudcation (AACTE's) 1973 statement, No One Model American. The statement has become the basis for most other definitions of multitcultural education. Multicultural education, according to the AACTE statement involves the following:

• Multicultural education is education which values cultural pluralism.

• Multicultural education rejects the view that schools should seek to melt away cultural differences or the view that schools should merely "tolerate" cultural pluralism.

• Multicultural education programs for teachers are more than "special courses" or "special learning experiences," grafted onto the standard program.

• The commitment to cultural pluralism must permeate all areas of educational experience.

Another organization, the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) advocated that multicultural education should be part of all teacher training programs. The NCATE definition of multicultural education is as follows:

"Multicultural education is preparation for the social, political and economic realities that individuals experience in culturally diverse and complex human encounters...this preparation provides a process by which an individual develops competencies for perceiving, believing, evaluating and behaving in different cultural settings."

Multicultural education is seen not as a course of study or a subject, nor a unit of study, nor for just minority students, it is rather a way of teaching and learning, thereby offering a perspective on education. The teacher who embodies a multicultural approach creates a classroom environment that respects cultural diversity, and presents lessons that draw upon the cultural diversity implicit in the content being presented.

Status and Goals

In a report entitled Education That Works: An Action Plan for the Education of Minorities by the Quality Education for Minorities Project (QEMP) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the authors propose a national effort to create a new kind of learning system that recognizes the value and potential of all students. They set forth the following goals for the year 2000:

Goal 1: Ensure that minority students start school prepared to learn

Goal 2: Ensure that the academic achievment of minority youth is at a level that will enable them, upon graduation from high school, to enter the workforce or college fully prepared to be successful and not in need of remediation.

The QEM authors pointed out that this goal will be achieved when it is ensured that tracking does not occur at any point along the educational pipeline; any performance gap is bridged between nonminority and minority students by the fourth grade; minority students leave elementary school with the language, mathematics skills, and self-esteem that will enable them to succeed; minority youth are excelling in core academic courses (science, mathe, history, language) by the eighth grade that keep their college and career options open; and achieve, at a minimum, the same high school graduation rates for minority and nonminority students.

Goal 3 : Significantly increase the participation of minority students in higher education, with a special emphasis on the study of mathematics, science, and engineering.

Goal 4: Strenghen and increase the number of teachers of minority students

Goal 5: Strenthen the school-to-work transition so that minority students who do not choose college leave high school prepared with the skills necessary to participate productively in the world of work and with the foundation required to upgrade their skills and advance their careers.

Goal 6: Provide quality out-of-school educational experiences and opportunities to supplement the schooling of minority youth and adults.

As pointed out in the QEM report, the school population in the United States is changing such that the term "minority" will, if it hasn't already, loose its meaning. About 20 percent of the U.S. is Alaska Native, American Indian, Black or Hispanic, and by 2020, over a third of the nation will be minority. Some states (New Mexico and Mississippi) have "minority-majority" enrollments in schools, and California and Texas will soon be in the same category.

One of the points that the authors of the report make is that many minority and low income students not only begin school without the skills required to succeed in the present school system, but teacher expectations of students abilities are often low, thereby resulting in poor performance, and low levels of success.

The high drop out rate among minority students can be traced to factors such as being behind in school, low teacher expectations, having to work, becoming teenage parents, being involved in gangs, and boredom. Although drop out rates for Black youth have declined over the past decade (from 27 percent in 1978 to 15 percent in 1988), the rate for Hispanic youth was 36 percent, or over three times that of white youth. This was the same rate for American Indian and Alaska Native (Figure 1)

In order to ensure a quality education for minority youth, the QEM project focused on a number of strategies and suggestions for middle and high school curriculum and instruction. It is important to take note of these recommendations, because, although the QEM authors are moving toward a national focus and agenda, individual schools and teachers can implement their strategies as part of a multicultural approach. Here are some of the their recommendations, especially those that relate to the teaching of science.

• Focus on team learning by establishing "schools-within-schools," families of learning, and indeed, implement cooperative learning strategies in the science classroom.

• Implement science curriculum reforms including Project 2061, the NSTA scope and sequence, and curriculum efforts such as the BSCS Human Biology Project. Of special note, the report emphasized a science for all theme in the sense that it favored a science education program that was hands on, and that made an explicit connection between science and familar events. The committee also supported National Council of Teachers in Mathematics (NCTM) standards which recommends an emphasis on problem solving, the understanding of underlying concepts, the tools such as calculators and computers, and the application of mathematics disciplines to real life.

3. Replace the tracking curriculum in high school and replace it with a core academic curriculum to prepare students for college and the workplace. The committee puts stong emphasis on making sure that all students arrive at high school with a course in algebra, and that all students take mathematics and science in high school as part of the core.

4. Provide on-site health services and strenghen health education. Schools should work with students to deal with drug and alchohol dependency, and help reduce the number of teenage pregnacies. Drug and sex education programs should be part of the school curriculum.

5. To increase the number of minority students in higher education, especially in the study of mathematics, science and engineering, high schools and colleges should work together to provide programs to not only encourage, but provide academic programs to support this goal. Examples include offering six week summer science residential programs for high school juniors and seniors on college campuses to study mathematics, science and engineering. The project also recommended expanding funds available for recruitment.

These were not all the recommendations of the QEM Project. However, these provide insight into the directions that science education should move. Let's explore multicultural education as it specifically pertains to science education.