I think that Anti-Racism and Multiculturalism are complementary. There are many ways of promoting cultural literacy just as we would not think of teaching our students using only one strategy. I guess it really depends on how you view the different approaches.
Many have criticized multiculturalism about being too shallow by presenting the mall version of culture: the festivals, food, and folklore. High school students are very savvy about the pat presentation of “other” cultures. Students always ask: “Why do I need to learn about this?”. Grade 8 students in Socials learn about the world's major religions and I always introduce this project as a good experience for them to learn about the spiritual beliefs of others as in the future they will be working with people of all faiths. Teenagers think that the world revolves around them so examples that link back to them hit home! I need to develop with the Socials teachers a more vibrant unit for studying world religions in the library.
Canada is a multicultural nation and ESL and monolingual students need to learn about what Canada is all the social experiment that our country is. I believe that here is not enough done in high schools to promote cultural diversity in its entire splendor. It can be a start to explore the four F’s [ fun, food, festivals, folklore] but that is not enough. It can’t stop there because that does not address the deeper need for respect for diversity and zero tolerance for racist attitudes. What I hear a lot about these days is promotion of “other” cultures as if they have just been jettisoned in from other space. “Other” cultures have been here as long as Caucasian cultures. We are living in the global village and this global village is in our schools. Many students do not know about the multi-cultural history of BC since its inception and why not? Do we not cover this in Socials? I loved it when my school finally began to diversify culturally because this is now the norm. Issues of race and culture at least are being talked about more these days. The "nice" racism of Canada is being exposed and shown for what it is: unjust.
What does multicultural education and anti-racist education mean for my classroom practice?
First of all, my classroom is the library and its collection needs to reflect the cultural diversity of the community. However, the collection also needs to challenge students and staff to learn more about their local and international communities. I buy resources to support the curriculum and to meet the reading needs of students and staff. Each year, depending on my budget I establish development goals for the collection to meet the learning needs and the cultural makeup of the school community. The displays in the library window give students a visual education about things they might not know about. An Indo-Canadian student was pleasantly pleased when I asked him to find out for me the date for Diwali last year. The library display case had never before featured his cultural background and it might seem like not much but students are excited to see their culture showcased in the display case. Also, students might see a book featured in the display case that challenges them to widen their outlook on their global village. Since I call our library “The Mall of Knowledge Where You Can Shop for Free”, the display case is like the ones students walk by in the mall but I am not selling jeans but access to information.
The library is the academic heart of the library and also the social justice heart of the library. The collection contains resources that reflect a diversity of voices of history and also challenges teachers and students to be responsible local and international citizens. As a teacher librarian, I am always looking for resources that promote cultural understanding. I want students to see them reflected in the books on the shelves and see books about their cultures. I loved the reading about the multi-lingual and multi-cultural kindergarten. I do hope that we can be more understanding and curious of each other someday soon. Change is very difficult for many and making room at the table for a diverse grouping of people makes our country stronger and more vibrant. What scares me is that there are people who promote hate still in our communities. The fact that we have a strong public school system forces children of all races to study together and hopefully form friendships with the "other".
What impact could such teaching have on the ESL learners?
The practice of honoring a variety of cultural practices creates an environment where everyone in the room is respected and honored. The teacher in the room sets the culture in the room. If a monolingual student makes a racist comment in the classroom and the teacher does nothing then the ESL learner knows right away that they are on shaky ground. We need to be more pro-active with students and deal with teachable moments like a racist comment from a student. We need to explore with our students about where racism comes from and it is often about a struggle for power and land. Our interventions should be thought out and calm as throwing around the term “racist” is a hot button issue that people react to. These explorations of race need to be in all levels of the curricula and not just explored in a separate course. Immigrant students have told me that they have learned a great deal about Canada through their Socials classes such as multiculturalism and democracy.
The election of Barak Obama is causing some in the media to say that we are in a post-race era but issues of race are still predominant in our society. We need to teach students that we can discuss issue of race calmly and learn what unites us human beings instead of just focusing what divides us.
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