Multicultural Education through the Lens of the Multicultural Education Research Literature.

Overview & Synopsis

Insights into multicultural education practices are provided through the lens of the research literature. Two research ideologies are identified: research on multicultural education--the employment of the concepts and procedures of logical positivism to study the implementation of multicultural education, and multicultural education research--the employment of the tenets of qualitative or quantitative research methodology to study the social justice and power relationships that exist in educational institutions. Multicultural education research is built on the precepts of equity, freedom, and pluralism, subjective precepts that require interpretive frameworks and methods. Areas of methodological concern in the conduct of research about multicultural education and research in the multicultural framework are delineated. Multicultural education research has the potential to increase the knowledge base about how policies and practices in education are influencing the learning experiences of all students. (Contains 198 references.) (SLD)