Melting Pot Best Describes United States Both Historically Presently - 1375 Words

Melting Pot Best Describes The United States Both Historically And Presently (Essay Sample) Content: Empirical LiteratureInstitutionNameIntroductionLike salad on a bowl or mosaic on a cloth, many cultures can come together, willing or otherwise and form a society that is diverse and broad based. In contrast to a melting pot, multiculturalism, otherwise referred to as ethnic or cultural pluralism, is moderate and pragmatic (Banks Banks, 2014). No wonder, the term multiculturalism does not have a definite definition. Sociologically, multiculturalism is a reform movement bent on reducing discrimination of minority groups as well as affording equal opportunity among various cultures in a society. In its cover story in 2016, The Economist magazine ran a story lauding Canada for its efforts to integrate many cultures within its borders. The publication argued that in the whole of the Western Hemisphere, Canada is the most successful in integrating different cultures from across the globe and that currently, the country is a cross-section of the worlds cultures. There is e vidence for all to see since Canadas economic performance has really done well since the policy of assimilation was adopted.In school environment, the whole exercise of teaching has been affected by cultural issues. In setting the curriculum, specific attention has to be directed at every culture so that one culture does not feel antagonised. Instructing students is also challenging since the literature base of the class is not uniform. One has to strike a balance which is oftentimes difficult. Subsequently, student assessment is also affected in that it has to be culture sensitive and closely consider how students from different cultures approach and understand tests.BodyA number of studies have been carried out in an effort to unravel how multiculturalism informs curriculum, instruction and assessment in school environment. In this section, we review case studies by researchers and we intent to evaluate their methodology, design and findings in effort to point out particular cultu ral issues of interest. According to a patterned case study by Yilmaz, (2016), that aimed at determining multiculturalism perceptions among teacher candidates, it was found that teacher candidates acknowledge the influence of multiculturalism on education. Interestingly, the teacher candidates understood that teacher education is an important first step in the direction of adapting the curriculum to the diversity in culture. The findings indicated that teachers have a primary responsibility in the transition of multicultural education which is anchored on a curriculum that enables an ideal environment for the transition. Additionally, the study revealed that the attitudes of the teacher candidates together with the teacher education have an important role in ensuring the prevalence of peace and unity among cultures; harmony that can be best achieved by teaching students the benefits of diversity in a multicultural environmentMaasum, Maarof Ali, (2014), in their study, concur that t he process of learning together with adjustment of students to the social structure is heavily reliant on the influences of culture. Teachers are the primary pillars in ushering in of change in society. Therefore, it is imperative that they get educated on matters of multiculturalism so that they are culture sensitive for the advancement children from different cultures. At their young age, children do not understand that their background is different from other kids. It is therefore important that a teacher understands this. The findings of this study pointed towards a need to ensure that teachers are multiculturally competent, which comprises of multicultural awareness, knowledge and skills.However, as far as Zilliacus, Holm, Sahlstrm, (2017) are concerned, transitioning multicultural education from being superficial to being social justice-oriented is a big challenge. Using Finland as a case study, the research finding show that superficial multicultural education is the most pr evalent despite Finland being at the front of countries that have for a long time supported equality and equity in education. As a good sign, results from the study have also shown that, eventually, the national curriculum has enabled the multicultural education to tend towards social justice. A recent curriculum that was effected in 2016 is one policy instrument that is pushing social justice in multicultural education. It promotes ethics and respect in students as well as encouraging fairness and an attitude that is open and tolerant in the face of diversity.Forrest, Lean, Dunn, (2016) emphasize that teachers are important agents in the fight against racism and that they require appropriate knowledge that is relevant in understanding a very diverse culture. Taking the case of Australia, which is an immigrant society, the study targeted teachers of public schools in an effort to find out their opinion and attitudes towards a culture that is very diverse. It also aimed to examine h ow the teachers view the goals of multicultural education with a particular purpose of evaluating how usefully their role as teachers can be harnessed, and finally what strategies the teachers feel can be most effective in implementing strategies that seek to eliminate racism. As a good sign, the results of the study indicate that teachers fully support strategies that are against racism and that they are quite aware that their culture is very diverse. Additionally, the results show that this attitude, that actually there is a cultural diversity, is common across the whole nation. However, what is worrying is that teachers knowledge about the implementation of strategies that are anti-racism greatly vary across the country. This is a setback to the effort of eliminating racism because it shows a non-uniformity that may frustrate the goal.In all the publications reviewed above, there is a common thread that passes through them. It is evident that teachers are the biggest agents of ch ange and that realising the goal of deepening multicultural education and ensuring that it is social-justice oriented is heavily reliant on the teachers. It is the teachers that are responsible for formulating the curriculum, giving instructions to students, and assessing the students. Therefore it is important that educators, who train teachers, ensure that they impart competency to the teachers they train. Emphasis should be put on how the teachers interact with their students since their contact with the students will shape the childrens attitude, Banks et al. (2000).Yilmaz, (2016), insists that students are more likely to develop attitudes modelled against those of their teachers. This is because they spend a lot time together and have the more contact. To equally benefit from education, schools should be transformed to incorporate democratic values and seek to improve the sustainability of a social structure that espouses values like liberalism, fairness and egalitarianism.Diff iculty in achieving the goals of a multicultural education comes from the fact teachers in any society are human that come from different cultures with a different capacity of understanding. Every culture has its own forms of bias and prejudice, which will permeate into the character of a teacher; a character which is built over a long time of socialising and interacting with people from the same culture. It is therefore critical that this aspect is grasped well by those responsible for setting policy, either in form of formulating curriculum or developing a whole new framework of a countrys education system.Apart from prepping teachers who will finally impart their knowledge to students, it is imperative that students are brought on board. In the study done by Yilmaz, (2016), it is outlined that student should be encouraged to adopt a mentality that is easy on multicultural education and that the school and education environment should avail or tend towards promoting equality of op portunity for all students from all cultures. Ar...