Multicultural Approaches to Racial Inequality in the United States

Abstract

Abstract In general, multicultural education has been perceived as a useful strategy in promoting racial tolerance and sensitivity toward the history and culture of ethnically diverse groups. In the USA, it has been adopted in a growing number of educational institutions and school districts as a solution to racial antagonism and minority underachievement in schooling. Unfortunately, critical curriculum theorists and educators have largely ignored developments in multicultural education. This essay evaluates the viability of the core ideological assumptions and desired outcomes of three different types of multicultural approaches to racial inequality. These three approaches are the following: (a) cultural understanding — the idea central to many ethnic studies programmes that students and teachers should be more sensitive to ethnic differences in the classroom; (b) cultural competence — the insistence in bilingual and bicultural education programmes that students and teachers should be able to demonstrate...