The Dimensions of Multicultural Education

Multicultural Education: Goals and
Dimensions
Multicultural education is an idea, an educational reform movement, and a
process (Banks, 1997). As an idea, multicultural education seeks to create
equal educational opportunities for all students, including those from
different racial, ethnic, and social-class groups. Multicultural education tries
to create equal educational opportunities for all students by changing the
total school environment so that it will reflect the diverse cultures and
groups within a society and within the nation's classrooms. Multicultural
education is a process because its goals are ideals that teachers and
administrators should constantly strive to achieve.
The Dimensions of Multicultural

Education
I have identified five dimensions of multicultural education. They are: content
integration, the knowledge construction process, prejudice reduction, an
equity pedagogy, and an empowering school culture and social structure
(Banks, 1995a). Content integration deals with the extent to which teachers
use examples and content from a variety of cultures and groups to illustrate
key concepts, generalizations, and issues within their subject areas or
disciplines. The knowledge construction process describes how teachers help
students to understand, investigate, and determine how the biases, frames
of reference, and perspectives within a discipline influence the ways in which
knowledge is constructed within it (Banks, 1996). Students also learn how to
build knowledge themselves in this dimension.
Prejudice reduction describes lessons and activities used by teachers to help

students to develop positive attitudes toward different racial, ethnic, and
cultural groups. Research indicates that children come to school with many
negative attitudes toward and misconceptions about different racial and
ethnic groups (Phinney & Rotheram, 1987). Research also indicates that
lessons, units, and teaching materials that include content about different
racial and ethnic groups can help students to develop more positive
intergroup attitudes if certain conditions exist in the teaching situation
(Banks, 1995b). These conditions include positive images of the ethnic groups
in the materials and the use of multiethnic materials in a consistent and
sequential way.
An equity pedagogy exists when teachers modify their teaching in ways that
will facilitate the academic achievement of students from diverse racial,
cultural, and social-class groups (Banks & Banks, 1995). Research indicates
that the academic achievement of African American and Mexican American
students is increased when cooperative teaching activities and strategies,
rather than competitive ones, are used in instruction (Aronson & Gonzalez,
1988). Cooperative learning activities also help all students, including middle-
class White students, to develop more positive racial attitudes. However, to
attain these positive outcomes, cooperative learning activities must have
several important characteristics (Allport, 1954). The students from different
racial and ethnic groups must feel that they have equal status in intergroup
interactions, teachers and administrators must value and support cross-
racial interactions, and students from different racial groups must work
together in teams to pursue common goals.
An empowering school culture and social structure is created when the

culture and organization of the school are transformed in ways that enable
students from diverse racial, ethnic, and gender groups to experience
equality and equal status. The implementation of this dimension requires
that the total environment of the school be reformed, including the attitudes,
beliefs, and action of teachers and administrators, the curriculum and course
of study, assessment and testing procedures, and the styles and strategies
used by teachers.
To implement multicultural education effectively, teachers and

administrators must attend to each of the five dimensions of multicultural
education described above. They should use content from diverse groups
when teaching concepts and skills, help students to understand how
knowledge in the various disciplines is constructed, help students to develop
positive intergroup attitudes and behaviors, and modify their teaching
strategies so that students from different racial, cultural, and social-class
groups will experience equal educational opportunities. The total
environment and culture of the school must also be transformed so that
students from diverse ethnic and cultural groups will experience equal status
in the culture and life of the school.
Although the five dimensions of multicultural education are highly

interrelated, each requires deliberate attention and focus. The reminder of
this article focuses on two of the five dimensions described above: content
integration and the knowledge construction process. Readers can see Banks
(1995a) for more information about the other dimensions.
Content Integration
Teachers use several different approaches to integrate content about racial,
ethnic, and cultural groups into the curriculum. One of the most popular is
the Contributions Approach. When this approach is used, teachers insert
isolated facts about ethnic and cultural group heroes and heroines into the
curriculum without changing the structure of their lesson plans and units.
Often when this approach is used, lessons about ethnic minorities are limited
primarily to ethnic holidays and celebrations, such as Martin Luther King's
Birthday and Cinco de Mayo. The major problem with this approach is that it
reinforces the notion, already held by many students, that ethnic minorities
are not integral parts of mainstream U.S. society and that African American
history and Mexican American history are separate and apart from U.S.
history.
The Additive Approach is also frequently used by teachers to integrate

content about ethnic and cultural groups into the school curriculum. In this
approach, the organization and structure of the curriculum remains
unchanged. Special units on ethnic and cultural groups are added to the
curriculum, such as units on African Americans in the West, Indian Removal,
and the internment of the Japanese Americans. While an improvement over
the Contributions Approach, the Additive Approach is problematic because
ethnic and cultural groups remain on the margin of the mainstream
curriculum.
Knowledge Construction and
Transformation
The Transformation Approach brings content about ethnic and cultural
groups from the margin to the center of the curriculum. It helps students to
understand how knowledge is constructed and how it reflects the
experiences, values, and perspectives of its creators. In this approach, the
structure, assumptions, and perspectives of the curriculum are changed so
that the concepts, events, and issues taught are viewed from the
perspectives and experiences of a range of racial, ethnic, and cultural groups.
The center of the curriculum no longer focuses on mainstream and
dominant groups, but on an event, issue, or concept that is viewed from
many different perspectives and points of view. This is done while at the
same time helping students to understand the nation's common heritage
and traditions. Teachers should help students to understand that while they
live in a diverse nation, all citizens of a nation-state share many cultural
traditions, values, and political ideals that cement the nation. Multicultural
education seeks to actualize the idea of e pluribus unum, i.e. to create a
society that recognizes and respects the cultures of its diverse peoples
united within a framework of democratic values that are shared by all.
Personal, Social, and Civic Action

An important goal of multicultural education is to help students acquire the
knowledge and commitments needed to make reflective decisions and to
take personal, social, and civic action to promote democracy and democratic
living. Opportunities for action help students to develop a sense of personal
and civic efficacy, faith in their ability to make changes in the institutions in
which they live, and situations to apply the knowledge they have learned
(Banks, with Clegg, 1990).
Action activities and projects should be tuned to the cognitive and moral
developmental levels of students. Practicality and feasibility should also be
important considerations. Students in the primary grades can take action by
making a commitment to stop laughing at ethnic jokes that sting; students in
the early and middle grades can act by reading books about other racial,
ethnic, and cultural groups. Upper-elementary grade students can make
friends with students who are members of other racial and ethnic groups
and participate in cross-racial activities and projects with students who
attend a different school in the city. Upper-grade students can also
participate in projects that provide help and comfort to people in the
community with special needs. They can also participate in local political
activities such as school bond elections and elections on local initiatives.
Lewis (1991) has written a helpful guide about ways to plan and initiate social
action activities and projects for students.
When students learn content about the nation and the world from the
perspectives of the diverse groups that shaped historical and contemporary
events, they will be better able to participate in personal, social, and civic
actions that are essential for citizens in a democratic pluralistic society.
References
Allport, G. W. (1954). The Nature of Prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Aronson, E. and Gonzalez, A. (1988). Desegregation, Jigsaw, and the Mexican-
American Experience. In P. A. Katz & D. A. Taylor, (Eds.), Eliminating Racism:
Profiles in Controversy. New York: Plenum Press.
Banks, J. A. (1995a). Multicultural Education: Historical Development,
Dimensions, and Practice. In J. A. Banks & C. A. M. Banks (Eds.). Handbook of
Research on Multicultural Education (pp. 3-24). New York: Macmillan.
Banks, J. A. (1995b). Multicultural Education: Its Effects on Students' Racial
and Gender Role Attitudes. In J. A. Banks & C. A. M. Banks (Eds.). Handbook of
Research on Multicultural Education (pp. 617-627). New York: Macmillan.
Banks, J. A. (Ed.) (1996). Multicultural Education, Transformative Knowledge and
Action. New York: Teachers College Press.
Banks, J. A. (1997). Multicultural Education: Characteristics and Goals. In J. A.
Banks & C. A. M. Banks, (Eds.). Multicultural Education: Issues and
Perspectives (3rd ed., pp. 3-31). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Banks, J. A., with Clegg, A. A. Jr. (1990). Teaching Strategies for the Social
Studies: Inquiry, Valuing and Decision-Making. 4th ed. New York: Longman.
Banks, C. A. M. & Banks, J. A. (1995). Equity Pedagogy: An Essential
Component of Multicultural Education. Theory into Practice, 34 (3), 151-158.
Lewis, B. A. (1991). The Kids Guide to Social Action. Minneapolis: Free Spirit
Publishing.
Phinney, J. S. & Rotheram, M. J. (Eds.) (1987) Children's Ethnic Socialization:
Pluralism and Development. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.

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Multicultural Education: Goals and

The Dimensions of Multicultural

Prejudice reduction describes lessons and activities used by teachers to help

An empowering school culture and social structure is created when the

To implement multicultural education effectively, teachers and

Although the five dimensions of multicultural education are highly

The Additive Approach is also frequently used by teachers to integrate

Personal, Social, and Civic Action

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