SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Cultural Diversity in School Curriculum



Abstract

In this study we try to explore the concept of “Cultural Diversity in School Curriculum” in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on “School Curriculum” and its relation with “Cultural Diversity”. The research also analyzes many aspects of “Cultural Diversity in School Curriculum” and tries to gauge its effect on “Education”. Finally the research describes various factors which are responsible for “Cultural Diversity in School Curriculum” and tries to describe the overall effect of “Cultural Diversity” on “School Curriculum”.

Table of Contents

Introduction1

Discussion, Research and Analysis2

Curriculum Reform4

Translating Principles to Practice4

2001 Elementary and Secondary EDUCATION Reauthorization Act — No Child Left Behind7

Conclusion8

Cultural Diversity in School Curriculum

Introduction

Cultural diversity in curriculum involves issues similar to those of concern in any curriculum development. They are what knowledge is of greatest worth, to whom and why, and how can it be best organized to be delivered most effectively to students. These apparently straightforward questions become complex, commanding, and unique to multicultural education when they applied to deciding which dimensions of diversity are to be the units of emphasis and how the studies are to be conducted. They are challenging decisions to make for several reasons. First, all possible forms of diversity cannot be included in any given curriculum. Second, of the many things that can and should be taught about the explicitly declared diversities of study, which are most important, and how will these determinations be made? Third, should the curriculum focus on cognitive content only, or are other forms of knowing equally important, such as thinking, feeling, valuing, acting, reflecting, and transforming? A fourth key curricular issue is whether multicultural education should be an independent enterprise, an integral part of all other subjects and skills taught to students, or both. Educators do not have to operate alone in answering these questions. Much assistance is available from research and scholarship, including conceptual principles and possibilities for actual practice for creating multicultural curriculum.

Discussion, Research and Analysis

Invariably, curriculum is created in and reflects various layers of contextual influences. This reality defies the hopes of some educators that a single multicultural curriculum can be created and transported across all school settings and student populations. Scholars may not speak in a single nomenclature (nor should they be expected to do so), but there is a high level of agreement among them about why multicultural education is important, what are its fundamental, substantive components, and how it should be implemented. Together these ideas constitute the foundations for curriculum development for and about ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity. (Pang, 2005)

The conceptual and ideological parameters of multicultural education provide baselines for creating curriculum rationales, goals, and objectives, content, learning experiences and assessment procedures for students and teachers. One of these emphasizes ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity within the United States, as opposed to global or international settings. This initiative originally grew out of concerns about discrimination and oppression against groups of color in U.S. society and the inequities they suffer in educational institutions (Bennett, ...