Varieties of Multicultural Education: An Introduction

Burnett, Gary. “Varieties of Multicultural Education: An Introduction.” ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education. (1994)

In Varieties of Multicultural Education, Burnett discusses the current state of multicultural education, and the increased attention it has received in recent years. He goes onto frame multicultural education into three typologies. The first typology, content-oriented programs, focus on including content about different cultural groups as part of the curriculum. The second typology, labeled student-oriented programs, are programs that aim to “help culturally or linguistically different students make the transition into the educational mainstream.” The last typology, socially-oriented programs, aims to increase “cultural and racial tolerance and reduc[e] bias.”

As a middle school teacher with students of many races from a variety of different backgrounds, the importance of multicultural education and cultural awareness is quite evident. Students are at a vulnerable stage, where they are developing their identities and feeling out what is socially appropriate. Schools are a place where students are introduced to cultural differences, and it is therefore important for these issues to be addressed in the classroom setting. I think that all three of the categories that Burnett outlines in this article are important to include in the classroom, as they all increase cultural understanding and enhance learning for students with different backgrounds.