Key Concepts

Multicultural education is a progressive approach for transforming education that holistically critiques and addresses its current shortcomings, failings, and discriminatory practices. It is grounded in ideals of social justice, education equity, and a dedication to facilitating educational experiences in which all students reach their full potential as learners and as socially aware and active beings, locally, nationally, and globally. Multicultural education acknowledges that schools are essential to laying the foundation for greater equity in society including the elimination of oppression and injustice.

The underlying goal of multicultural education is to affect change. The pathway toward this goal incorporates three strands of transformation:

the transformation of self;
the transformation of schools and schooling;
the transformation of society.

EQUALITY VS. EQUITY

Equality = treat everyone the same
Equity = provide equal opportunity for everyone to achieve to their full potential

Equity is NOT achieved only by:

• providing computer access after school or on weekends;
• putting more computers in classrooms; or
• training teachers on effective uses of Internet technology.

• funding discrepancies between schools in richer and poorer areas;
• discrepancies in pay rates for teachers;
• varying levels of achievement expectations across racial, gender, and socioeconomic groups;
• formal and informal tracking;
• etc.