A View from the Inside: Multicultural Education. Report of the Select Seminar on Excellence in Education.

Overview & Synopsis

The Select Seminar on Excellence in Education met for 5 days between December 1990 and March 1991 to discuss multicultural education in schools. Participants were 27 master teachers, administrators, university professors, and community leaders. This monograph summarizes discussions at these meetings, emphasizing the kinds of attitudes, content, instructional resources, and strategies that are necessary for the effective development and delivery of a multicultural curriculum. Such a curriculum is one in which specific attention is given to knowledge and perspective drawn from the major cultural groups in our society. It implies an educational experience that prepares students to live in a global society. Attention is given to insuring that the knowledge and voices of many ethnic groups are included in the regular school experiences of all students. Suggestions are made as to types of classrooms that promote multicultural education, and how teachers, administrators, board of education members, parents, support staff, and community members can help promote multicultural education. Open letters to teachers and parents remind them of the parts they can play in multicultural education. In the final analysis, multicultural education is simply good education. (SLD)