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ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS GUIDE (2014-2015)

M.S.O.E.-1
Socioligy of Education
Disclaimer/Special Note: These are just the sample of the Answers/Solutions to some of the Questions given in the
Assignments. These Sample Answers/Solutions are prepared by Private Teacher/Tutors/Auhtors for the help and Guidance
of the student to get an idea of how he/she can answer the Questions of the Assignments. We do not claim 100% Accuracy
of these sample Answers as these are based on the knowledge and cabability of Private Teacher/Tutor. Sample answers
may be seen as the Guide/Help Book for the reference to prepare the answers of the Question given in the assignment. As
these solutions and answers are prepared by the private teacher/tutor so the chances of error or mistake cannot be denied.
Any Omission or Error is highly regretted though every care has been taken while preparing these Sample Answers/
Solutions. Please consult your own Teacher/Tutor before you prepare a Particular Answer & for uptodate and exact
information, data and solution. Student should must read and refer the official study material provided by the university.
SECTION I
Q. 1. Explain the banking concept of education.
Ans. The banking concept of education reinforces this dichotomy between humanity and reality. It separates the
student from the teacher, the material from experience or understanding, education from action and engagement with
realitya perfect pattern of endless segregation that compel the isolation of people from their fundamentally human
(ontological) purpose and the maintenance of a power structure. Once this structure or mentality of constant isolation
and alienation has been imposed into a person, it is impossible for she or he to learn; they have accepted they have no
role or engagement with education or realityeven their definition of reality is distortedand they accept and trust their
own ignorance, ...a person is merely in the world and not with the world, the individual is spectator, not re-creator.
The banking concept of education supposedly relays knowledge from a subject, the teacher, to the objects or receptacles
of the information, the students. Freire insists that Knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, through
the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful, inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each
other. The banking concept relays information, given as static, absolute, and to be known only on a surface level, so that
it can be split out in the exact same condition as when the student first received it. Freire talks about knowledge, which is
never static or absolute, it is necessarily incomplete, to be completed by the mind, experience and understanding of the
conscious individual. Nothing should be detached from reality or consciousness to be blindly memorized, but to be seen
in relation to reality. Thus, men and women begin to single out elements from their background awareness and to
reflect upon them. These elements are now objects of their consideration, and as such, object of their action and cognition.
Therefore, to understand is to act, and to act is to be engaged in reality. To be human is to change, dynamically with
the world and dynamically changing the world. If it is true that thought has meaning only when generated by action upon
the world, the subordination of students to teachers becomes impossible. Authentic thinking, thinking that is concened
about reality, only takes place in communi-cation. This is how Freire proposes how one can regain her or his humanity
from oppression through education as engagement with the world, education as consciousness as consciousness of
consciousness.
Freire terms education that responds to the essence of consciousness a problem-posing education. The banking
concept of education inhibits the individuals power to think critically or use creativity, to suppress the students cognition
or reflection of the subject, while problem-posing Strives for the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in
reality, to become the subjects through critical analysis and not objects non-decisive objects. The critical mind engages
in the dynamic nature of reality and knowledge, ...critical consciousness always admits that causality to analysis; what is
true today may not be so tomorrow. Problem-posing cannot serve the oppressor, because it asks people to constantly
engage in and critique the reality of systems of domination as the oppressor creates it.
Q. 2. Education contributes to cultural reproduction Critically discuss.
Ans. Cultural And Economic Reproduction: The concept of education as an agent of cultural reproduction is
argued to be less directly explained by the material and a subject taught, but rather more so through what is known as the

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Hidden Curriculum. This refers to the socialization aspect of the education process. This nature of education is reproduced throughout all stages of the system; from primary to post-secondary. The ability of a student to progress to each
subsequent level requires mastery of the prior. Ones ability to successfully complete the process of educational attainment strongly correlates to the capacity to realize adequate pay, occupational prestige, social status, etc. upon workforce
participation.
Bowles and Gintis show that the meritocratic ideology does not hold up to empirical scrutiny. They present a great
deal of data gathered from a number of studies (by themselves and others). First, in their recent Schooling in Capitalist
America revisited, Bowles and Gintis show that social mobility in America is a myth. By focusing on intergenerational
wealth mobility, they show that the meritocracy cannot be an effective mechanism for social mobility because that mobility
hardly exists. Second, Bowles and Gintis show that the mechanism for more education leading to more income not
primarily cognitive in nature. They agree that there is a correlation between education and income level, but when they
look at people of the same cognitive ability, the correlation is nearly unchanged.
It is becoming somewhat fashionable to talk about the relationship between unequal economic structures and the
inner hidden workings of elementary, secondary, and university education. While we find ourselves in rather strong
agreement with the politics of this position, it has as one of its fundamental weaknesses what might be called a
correspondence theory. That is, all too many of the current analyses of schooling and economic control assume that there
is something of a one-to-one and rather immediate correspondence between, say, the ongoing division of labour in society
and what happens in schools. This position has the dual benefits of pointing to relationships that have been all too hidden
in the past and at the same time, clarifying some of the possible political biases of previous research on educational
reform, mobility, selection, and so forth. However, it can also be just a bit too mechanistic.
There is no clear consensus as the exact role of education within cultural reproduction; and further to what degree, if
any, this system either encourages or discourages topics such as social stratification, resource inequality, and discrepancies
in access to opportunities.
Q. 3. Examine the role of politics in development of educational curriculum.
Ans.educational Curriculum and the Politics of Domination: Recent proposals for school reform have involved a
significant shift in how curriculum decisions are made, particularly at the state level. In response to these proposals,
actions taken by educators have underscored the critical nature of the issue regarding who makes curriculum decisions.
What should be learned? How should it be organized for teaching? These seemingly simple questions are deceivingly
political. Curriculum theorists are preoccupied with the politics of the first question at the expense of the real politics of
the second. Instructional designers are preoccupied with the real politics of the second question at the expense of the
politics of the first. It is argued that conceptual distances between curriculum theory and instructional design are based on
division of labour established during the 1960s. After decades of neglect, curriculum theorists, and specifically critical
theorists, appear clueless when it comes to curriculum design and the real politics of their causes. When it comes to the
real politics of practice their political causes are formless. Quite the opposite of critical theorists, instructional theorists
nearly mastered the real politics of form, but have no political causes.
Schools are always treated as a medium from where the students gain knowledge from their teachers. It is felt that
school for the elite class always provide the better knowledge to the students irrespective of the other small status schools.
Another major concept employed in understanding curriculum as a political text was hegemony, borrowed from the
Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci (19772), who borrowed the term from Marx and Engels (1974). Gramsci emphasized
the role of the superstructure in perpetuating class and preventing the development of class-consciousness.
Apple and Weis (1983) discuss the movement beyond simple reproduction theory, stating that hegemony is not and
cannot be fully secure. Their view that the cultural sphere is relatively autonomous leads them to move beyond resistance
to a belief in the possibility of meaningful intervention in the schools. However, they caution that this action must be a
kind of praxis and that the connections between the schools and the larger society must be made.
Apple extends his analysis of curriculum as a political text. In Race, Class and Gender in American Education:
Toward a No Synchronous Parallelist Position Cameron McCarthy and Apple call for theoretical work that demonstrates
how race, class, and gender interconnect, and how economic, political, and cultural power expresses itself in education
(McCarthy & Apple, 1988). As well, they point to a shift in strategies for fundamental change in curricular content,
pedagogical practices, and social structures (McCarthy & Apple, 1988). Landon Beyer and Apples The Curriculum:
Problems, Politics and Possibilities (1988) concentrates on issues of political and pedagogical agency. Fundamental to
these issues is the concept of praxis, which involves not only a justifiable concern for reflective action, but thought and
action combined and by a sense of power and politics. It involves both conscious understanding of and action in schools

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on solving our daily problems.

(a) Colonial Education in India: The ideas and pedagogical methods of education during the colonial period, from
1757 to 1947, were contested terrain. The commercial British East India Company ruled parts of India from 1764 to 1858.
A few 18th century company officials became scholars of Sanskrit, Persian, and Tamil and promoted Oriental learning,
which was classical learning in indigenous languages. However, they were outnumbered by Anglicizes, those who
denigrated Oriental learning and advocated the introduction of institutions for Western learning based upon the British
curriculum with English as the medium of instruction. By the early 19th century, when English was made the official
language of government business, British policy promoted a cheap, trickle-down model for colonial education. When the
British Crown abolished company rule in 1858, government universities existed at Bombay (Mumbai), Calcutta (Kolkata),
and Madras (Chennai); about 2000 students studied at 13 government colleges in all of British India, and another 30,000
students were in government secondary schools. Direct rule did not change the decision to deemphasize primary education
to provide occupational training for young Indian men who took jobs both in the lower tiers of the government and in
urban, western-style legal and medical services.
Non-government schools established by Western Christian missions and Indian social and religious reform organizations
provided the only opportunities for elementary education in the 19th century. American and English missionaries founded
mens colleges, and by the 20th century, Lucknow, Lahore, and Chennai all had Christian womens colleges as well.
Foreign teachers staffed these institutions, offering a Western curriculum in English with financial support for the children
of Christian converts. Reformist societies also started schools, partly to provide Western education without the threat of
Christian conversion. The curricula in private girls schools ranged from the Urdu, Persian, writing, arithmetic, needlework,
and Islamic studies of the Punjabi Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam primary schools in north-western India to the Westernstyle liberal arts curriculum of Bethune College, founded by liberal Brahmo Samajists (Hindu reformers) in Kolkata.
Even voluntary societies members who wanted to provide educational alternatives for their children disagreed about the
advantages and disadvantages of the colonial educational model for both content and the language of instruction.
When British officials who represented direct rule by the Crown introduced modest self-government in the 1860s,
they shifted financial responsibility for education to a growing Indian middle class. Families of respectable middling
status usually chose to send their daughters to gender-segregated educational institutions once there were schools taught
in vernacular languages with general curricula. While older historians narrated the insidious, total and transparent
domination of the educational system by the colonial state, more recent scholarship delineates the creative resistance to
state agency and suggests that there was a combat between consciously opposed sides (Kumar). As the nationalist
movement gained supporters in the 20th century, Indian leaders developed several nationalist educational paradigms to
challenge the colonial model. Mahatma Gandhi wanted the state to teach basic literacy in vernacular languages to the
majority of the population. Rabindranath Tagore, Indias first recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature, believed that the
English language provided Indians access to the sharing of knowledge across international borders and that education
should include the teaching of Indias cultural traditions. The fight for freedom from colonialism preempted decisions
about educational ideologies until after 1947.
In the 19th century East India Company took following measures to establish education system in India:
The governing of new system is entirely in the hands of government under all the levels.
The teaching of English and use of English language in the medium of instruction.
Establishing teachers training schools for all levels of instruction.
Maintaining existing government colleges and high schools and increasing their number when necessary.
Vastly increasing vernacular schools for elementary education.
Introducing a system of grants-in-aid for private schools.
(b) Politics of Language: Language is a material medium in which people interact in society. The most elementary
observation is that language is, of its nature, involved with power devices, because it involves interaction of man in
society. Power is a kind of domination, often thought to be right and legitimate; however, domination has also been
described as a form of repression. Day-to-day lives of people have to deal with co-beings and agencies that attempt to
exercise power, enabling things to be done the way that they want it done. Language politics is a term used to describe
political (and sometimes social) consequences of linguistic differences between people, or on occasion the political
consequences of the way a language is spoken and what words are used. It means language can express some authority.
The mutual interaction between politics and language depends upon power and its structures. Different political
parties develop their own language to dominate over other parties. Since the relationship multifaceted, it becomes clear
that power is not always given; on the contrary, it is the basis for argument, is created, re-created, subverted and hidden

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using language. Language, however, is not simply a medium for turning a power resource into influence between language
and power is dynamic.
This can be seen when the prestige of a language rises or falls with the power of its users. At the micro level of social
interactions, a speakers power or powerlessness is reflected in the content or style of language and the style of language
reflects upon group membership. Research on language style has focused attention upon features of language that
characterize and describe low but not high power forms, and has done so without due recourse to the inter group relationships
that underpin style differences in the first instance. In doing so this work prioritizes the low over the high power form,
thus obscuring processes that might enable the powerless to become powerful.
Language also control over the direction and outcome of conversation is determined by the ability to win conversational
turns and the ability to gain turns is a function of both the interactive nature of conversation, and the social context in
which conversation takes place.
The political or social dominance of one country or one group over another is often accompanied by linguistic
dominance, in which the more dominant party imposes its own language on the population at large as the standard
language to use. Attempts at gaining influence power and power are often covered up and/or justified through the strategic
use of social categori-zations or stereotypes.
(c) Womens Education: Women`s education in India has been one of the major issues of concern of the Government
of India as well as the society at large. It is because of the fact that today the educated women play a very significant role
in overall development and progress of the country. Women hold a prominent position in the Indian society as well as all
over the world. However, since the prehistoric times women were denied opportunities and had to suffer for the hegemonic
masculine ideology. Thus, this unjustifiable oppression had resulted into a movement that fought to achieve the equal
status of women all over the world. Women education in India is the consequence of such progress and this led to the
tremendous improvement of women`s condition throughout the world. Nevertheless eradication of female illiteracy is
considered as a major concern today. In the recent era, the Indian society has established a number of institutions for the
educational development of women and girls. These educational institutions aim for immense help and are concerned
with the development of women. In ancient India, women and girls received less education than men. This was due to the
set social norms. Interestingly, in the Vedic period women had access to education, but gradually they had lost this right.
Women education in ancient India prevailed during the early vedic period. In addition to that Indian scriptures Rig Veda
and Upanishads mention about several women sages and seers. Women enjoyed equivalent position and rights in the early
Vedic era. However, after 500 B.C, the position of women started to decline. The Islamic invasion played a vital role in
restricting freedom and rights of the women. A radical change attended and there was a terrific constraint for women
education in India.
India presently account for the largest number of illiterates in the world. Literacy rate in India have risen sharply from
18.3% in 1951 to 64.8% in 2001 in which enrolment of women in education have also risen sharply 7% to 54.16%.
Despite the importance of women education unfortunately only 39% of women are literate among the 64% of the men.
Within the framework of a democratic polity, our laws, development policies, plan and programmes have aimed at womens
advancement in different spheres. From the fifth Five Year Plan (1974-78) onwards has been a marked shift in the
approach to womens issues from welfare to development. In recent years, the empowerment of women has been recognized
as the central issue in determining the status of women. The National Commission of Women was set up by an Act of
Parliament in 1990 to safeguard the right and legal entitlements of women .The 73rd and 74th Amendments (1993) to the
Constitution of India have provided for reservation of seats in the local bodies of Panchayats and Municipalities for
women, laying a strong foundation for their participation in decision- making at the local level.
Although in the Vedic period women had access to education in India, they had gradually lost this right. However, in the
British period there was revival of interest in womens education in India. During this period, various socio-religious movements
led by eminent persons like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar emphasized on womens education in India.
Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Periyar and Baba Saheb Ambedkar were leaders of the lower castes in India who took various
initiatives to make education available to the women of India. However womens education got a fillip after the country got
independence in 1947 and the government has taken various measures to provide education to all Indian women. As a result
womens literacy rate has grown over the three decades and the growth of female literacy has in fact been higher than that of
male literacy rate. While in 1971 only 22% of Indian women were literate, by the end of 2001 54.16% female were literate.
The growth of female literacy rate is 14.87% as compared to 11.72 % of that of male literacy rate.
Women education in India plays a very important role in the overall development of the country. It not only helps in
the development of half of the human resources, but in improving the quality of life at home and outside. Educated

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women not only tend to promote education of their girl children, but also can provide better guidance to all their children.
Moreover, educated women can also help in the reduction of infant mortality rate and growth of the population.
SECTION II
Q. 4. Discuss the contribution of private sector in expansion of professional education.
Ans. Private Sector in The field of Education: Private sector plays a very important role in education system of any
country. Developed countries have many elite private educational institutions and research facilities which actively encourage incubation, invention and knowledge building. Private sector players are more adaptable to fast changing needs
compared public sector. Private sector contribution should only be complimentary to public system, if we need to make
our education system more effective.
The role of private sector in Indias education system cannot be undermined in any way. However, private institutions
have mushroomed in the urban parts of the country only. This is purely due to commercial reasons. If the private sector
seriously wants to integrate itself into the education system, it will have to change focus from being commercial to being
service-oriented. Providing education to masses should be at the core of their business.
The Indian education system has witnessed remarkable growth in terms of infrastructure development over the past
couple of years. The enrolment of students in higher education had already surpassed the mark of 12 million, with the
number of universities and colleges surpassing 400 and 20,000 respectively. However, the current education infra-structure
is insufficient to meet with the growing demand for higher education in the country, says our analytical study on Indian
higher education system.
Need For Private Sector Involvement In Professional Education: The professional education in particular is
attracting a lot of attention of the policy-makers and planners. The government has committed itself to enhance the excess
of higher education, make it available to weaker sections of the society and improve its quality. The pioneering work of
the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) with its emphasis of demand-supply gap caught the attention of not only the
government, but also the private sector. The governments inability of meet the huge investment required for higher
education was well-known even before the publication of the report of National Knowledge Commission; but the precise
numbers in terms of the quantum of investment and the number of universities required to bridge the demand-supply gap
cited by NKC; fueled the appetite of the private sector in a big way. During the post-liberalization era, the private sector
investment in higher education has been increasing substantially. It has further picked up during the past decade, outstripping
the public sector investment. Bulk of this investment has gone to technical education specially in the areas of engineering
and management as per the dictates of the market system. In the pre-liberalization era, the private sectors presence in
higher education was virtually negligible. Apart from this quantitative change, there has been a qualitative change in the
role of private sector in higher education. Earlier the big business houses, corporate and industrialists set up educational
institutions as a philanthropic activity. These were donations and not investments. They spent very little time in their day
today administration and management. Now-a-days, a new class of educational entrepreneurs has developed for whom
setting up, running and managing educational institution is a full-time activity. They do not have any other economic
engagement. In spite of their declared status of not-for-profit organization due to statutory obligation, it is well known
that like any business entity, their objective is nothing else, but profit only. One promoter once told me in a lighter vein
that though his trust was a non-profit organization but they love surplus. Success stories of huge surplus being made by
educational entrepreneurs started making rounds. The compound annual growth rate of most of these promoters was
simply astronomical. The early starters were biggest beneficiaries as government subsidies in land allotments were available
and state surveillance on educational standards was minimal.
Q. 5. What do you understand by multiculural deucation? Critically examine the strategies of executing
multicultural education.
Ans. Cultural Diversities In Multicultural Education: Multicultural education views the aforesaid cultural
diversities:
Multicultural education is an emerging discipline that aims to provide educational opportunities to learners from
diverse ethnic, cultural groups and social class. It seeks to help students acquire skills and positive attitude to
negotiate, communicate and interact with individuals from diverse cultures to create a moral and civic community.
The greatest advantage of a multicultural curriculum is that it encourages understanding and tolerance between
groups. Students can relate to one another in class, thereby creating harmony and cooperation.
Reduction of personal detachment and ignorance are possible advantages to a multicultural system of education.
If we learn to embrace diversity in our society, the unconscious and conscious expressions of sexism (racism)
must be done away with completely. Multicultural education can help bring all cultures together in harmony.

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Multicultural education simply relates to instructions and education designed for several different races, and is
based upon consensus building, and fostering cultural diversity within racial societies. It incorporates positive
racial eccentricities into classroom atmosphere.
Why is Multicultural Education Essential?: The term multicultural education is used to describe a variety of
practices within curriculum and classroom instructions. In some districts, it means a distinction in the ethnicity or gender
of a particular class of students. In other cases, the term is used to discuss a curriculum which encompasses education on
a wide variety of cultures in an effort to enhance the students knowledge and awareness of the world in which they live.
There are number of reasons why multicultural education is essential in the present global scenario. We have discussed
some of them below:
Bringing Culture to Life in the Classroom
Keeping this in mind, teachers should be prepared to teach units that fully address the cultures of other nations
throughout the year and across the curriculum and not just around the holidays. These units should discuss the food,
music, history, stories, clothing and belief systems of these cultures using appropriate curriculum.
Whenever possible, bringing actual souvenirs or artifacts from the country being studied can be a wonderful teaching
tool for all ages. Examples of such items might include a costume which demonstrates traditional clothing, a piece of
jewelry, a woven basket, a small figurine or statue, or foreign currency. To accomplish this part of the lesson, it might be
necessary to ask around among the faculty, friends or parents to see who has travelled and what souvenirs are available.
Allowing students of differing backgrounds to share about the foods they eat at home or the first language of their
parents or grandparents offers a rich foundation for multicultural learning. Incorporating the ethnic diversity in the classroom
into the curriculum should not single students out as different, but contribute to the whole classrooms understanding of
the diversity present in our world. Teachers should consider having parents involved in these lessons, too, if this would
add to the students experience and understanding of multi-culturalism and diversity.
Reaching Pre-Readers with Multiculturalism
For younger students, multicultural literature offers a means to bring the importance of multicultural education into
the classroom. Reading a picture book, such as Jambo Means Hello a Swahili counting book by Muriel Feelings, is a
great way to introduce a foreign culture. The story can then be augmented with photos from magazines or the internet to
remind the children that the places are real and not just imaginary. Classroom instruction might include listening to folk
music from the country being studied, eating a simple food from that nation, or doing a craft that replicates a piece of
traditional jewelry.
Reaching Older Students with Multicultural Lessons
Older elementary students and middle school students also benefit from multicultural education. At this age, it is
important to help the students understand that there is an entire world of customs beyond their own. While young children
accept this easily, they also have very little understanding of the size of the world in which they live. Older students grasp
the map and their place in it, but do not know much about life beyond their own existence. This is where multicultural
education makes the biggest impact.
One way to illustrate the world and the people in it is to bring in a fabric world map. These are available at most retail
fabric stores. To prepare for this exercise, clip out 20 or 30 magazine images of people from foreign countries. Number
the pictures 1 through 20 and make a list of each photograph and the country you think the people in the photo belong to.
Then have the children try to match each photograph with a spot on the map. It is important that it be a fabric map as the
children will likely step on it and pull it slightly and the fabric is much more durable than a paper map. When the game is
done the map should be covered with faces from all around the world. Teachers can then point out simi-larities and
differences, such as racial similarities among regions of the world.
Older elementary and middle school students might also appreciate reading short stories or books about fictional or
historical characters from around the world. Assignments can relate to the books being read and go beyond the story to
further discuss the national setting.
When it comes to high school students, teaching about world cultures can be easily accomplished through assigning
individuals reports. The students should be required to learn about the location, politics, history, climate, geography and
culture of the nation assigned. Oral presentations can help the entire class learn from each students research. Teachers can
choose whether oral reports should cover basic information or whether the students should chose a particular element
about the nations culture to share with the class. These reports can be as structured or fun as the teacher permits. Students
might be encouraged to dress in a traditional costume from their country, or perhaps even cook a simple dish for the class
to sample.

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Multicultural Education: Goals And Strategies: The expected outcomes of multicultural education are embedded
in its definitions, justification, and assumptions and they exhibit some clearly discernible patterns. While specific goals
and related objectives are quite numerous, and vary according to contextual factors such as school settings, audiences,
timing, purposes, and perspectives, they fall into seven general clusters. They cover all three domains of learning (cognitive,
affective, and action) and incorporate both the intrinsic (ends) and instrumental (means) values of multicultural education.
These goal clusters are ethnic and cultural literacy, personal development, attitude and values clarification, multicultural
social competence, basic skills proficiency, educational equity and excellence, and empowerment for societal reform.
Each one is discussed briefly below.
Developing Ethnic and Cultural Literacy: One of the primary and persistent reasons for the movement to include
cultural pluralism in school programmes is to correct what advocates call sins of omission and commission. Let us take
the example of United States. First, we must provide students with information about the history and contributions of
ethnic groups who traditionally have been excluded from instructional materials and curricula; and second, we must
replace the distorted and biased images of those groups that were included in the curricula with more accurate and
significant information. These goals continue to be major concerns of multicultural education, because many students
still know too little about the history, heritage, culture, and contributions of groups of color in the United States. Groups
that are highly visible in the popular culture, such as African Americans and Mexican Americans, are somewhat more
familiar to students than others that are smaller in number and less accessible in the public press, such as Asian Americans
and Native Americans. The information about and images of ethnic group members and experiences portrayed in popular
culture and mass media are often inaccurate, distorted, superficial, one dimen-sional, and incomplete. The prominence of
African Americans in the music and professional athletics industries and their disproportionate representation in penal
institutions may lead some students to conclude that the only contributions to U.S. society by these groups has been in
these highly visible areas. Similarly, if students are exposed only to racist portrayals of Native Americans, which cast
them as noble savages caught forever in a historical time warp, wearing skimpy clothes, feathers, and war paint, living in
teepees, and riding horses bareback, they have no idea of how to place Indians accurately in contemporary times, productively
engaged in the wide variety of activities that characterize human life.
The persistence of these types of caricatures about ethnic groups, coupled with restricted interethnic group interaction,
reinforces the need for students to learn accurate information about ethnic groups contributions to the history, life, and
culture of the United States. Thus, a major goal of multicultural education is to learn about the historical backgrounds,
languages, cultural characteristics, contributions, critical events, significant individuals, and social, political, and economic
conditions of various majority and minority ethnic groups, such as African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans,
American Indians, and Eastern Europeans. This information should be comprehensive, analytical, and comparative, and
should include similarities and differences within and among groups.
This goal is appropriate for both majority students and for those who are members of various ethnic minority groups.
A mistake frequently made by educators is to assume either that members of ethnic minority groups already know their
culture and history or that this kind of knowledge is relevant only to them. Multicultural education argues to the contrary.
Membership in an ethnic group does not guarantee self- knowledge or exclusive ownership of knowledge about that
group. Acquiring knowledge about the history, life, and culture of ethnic groups is appropriate for all students because
they need to learn more, with greater accuracy, about their own cultural heritages and those of others. Furthermore,
knowledge about ethnic pluralism is a necessary foundation for respecting, appreciating, valuing, and celebrating diversity,
both nationally and internationally.
Personal Development: The psychological underpinnings of multicultural education explain its emphasis on
developing greater self-understanding, positive self-concepts, and pride in ones ethnic identity. Emphasizing these areas
is part of multicultural educations goal of contributing to the personal development of students, which contends that a
better sense of self-contributes to the overall intellectual, academic, and social achievement of students. Students who
feel good about themselves are likely to be more open and receptive to interaction with others and to respect their cultures
and identities. This argument is further justified by claims made about the reciprocal relationship between self-concept,
academic achievement, ethnicity, culture, and individual identity.
Many students have internalized the negative and distorted conceptions of their own and other ethnic groups, a
process that has been promoted in larger society. Students from groups of colour may be convinced that their heritages
have little of value to offer, while those from dominant groups may have inflated notions about their significance. Developing
a better understanding of their own and other ethic groups and cultural experiences can correct these distortions.
Multicultural education also helps educators to fulfil the goals of maximizing human potential, meeting individual needs,

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and teaching the whole child by enhancing feelings of personal worth, confidence, and competence. It creates a psychosocial
state of readiness in individuals and learning environments, which has a positive effect upon academic efforts and task
mastery.
Attitudes and Value Clarification: To learn this point lets take the example of United States. We know that strong
ethnic prejudice and ethnocentric values persist in U.S. society, based upon and driven by beliefs that have no basis in
fact, but are commonly evoked. Several examples illustrate this point. The high unemployment rates among African
Americans, Puerto Ricans, Mexican Americans, and American Indians lead some people to believe that these groups are
lazy and have no work ethic. The control of most major institutions and power positions by European Americans cause
some people to think that these positions were acquired because European Americans have innate intellectual superiority
and are destined to be leaders. The prominence of recent immigrants and racial group members in low level service jobs
cause some people to conclude that their economic status is synonymous with their human worth, and to act accordingly.
The tendency to ascribe attributes and behaviours of individuals to the entire ethnic group to which they belong is the
basis for perpetuating stereotypes, prejudices, and racism. This tendency, along with the disparities in distribution of
opportunities and rewards in American society, supports multicultural educations goal of clarifying ethnic attitudes and
values. It includes confronting prejudices, stereotypes, ethnocentrism, and racism directly; critical analysis of the sources,
expressions, and effects of negative ethnic attitudes and values; reconciling differences between ethnic beliefs and truth,
supported by documented facts; and developing new, more positive, and enriched ethnic attitudes, beliefs, and values to
replace the old, negative ones.
Multicultural education also promotes the core values that stem from the principles of human dignity, justice, equality,
freedom, self-determination, and democracy. The intent is to teach youths to respect and embrace ethnic pluralism, to
realize that cultural differences are not synonymous with deficiencies or inferiorities, and to recognize that diversity is an
integral part of the human condition and U.S. life. Clarifying ethnic attitudes and values is designed to help students
understand that some conflict of values is unavoidable in ethnically and racially pluralistic societies; that conflict does not
have to be corrosive and divisive, when managed well it can be a catalyst for social progress; that there is strength in
ethnic and cultural pluralism; that ethnic allegiance and national loyalty are not irreconcilable; and that cooperation and
coalition among ethnic groups are not dependent upon having identical beliefs, values, and behaviours. Analyzing and
clarifying ethnic attitudes and values are key steps in the process of unleashing the creative potential of individuals for
self-renewal and of society for continuous growth and development.
Multicultural Social Competence: It is imperative that students learn how to interact with and understand people
who are ethnically, racially, and culturally different from themselves. The United States and the world are becoming
increasingly more diverse, compact, and interdependent. Yet, for most students, the formative years of their lives are
spent in ethnically and culturally isolated or encapsulated enclaves. This existence does not adequately prepare them to
function effectively in ethnically different environments and multicultural settings. Attempts at cross-cultural interactions
are often stymied by negative attitudes, values, and expectations; cultural blunders; and by trying to impose rules of social
etiquette from one cultural system onto another. The results are often heightened interracial and interethnic group frustrations,
anxiety, fears, failures, and hostilities.
Multicultural education can ease these tensions by teaching skills in cross-cultural communication, interpersonal
relations, perspective taking, contextual analysis, understanding alternative points of view and frames of reference, and
analyzing how cultural conditions affect values, attitudes, beliefs, preferences, expectations, and behaviours. It also can
help students learn how to understand cultural differences without making hasty and arbitrary value judgements about
their intrinsic worth. Attaining these goals can be expedited by providing wide varieties of opportunities for students to
practice their cultural competence and to interact with different ethnic peoples, experiences, and situations.
A major goal of multicultural education is to facilitate the teaching and learning of basic literacy skills of ethnically
different students.
Multicultural education can improve mastery of reading, writing, and mathematical skills; subject-matter content;
and intellectual process skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and conflict resolution by providing content and
techniques that are more meaningful to the lives and frames of reference of ethnically different students.
Educational Equity and Excellence: This goal of multicultural equity is closely related to the goal of basic skill
mastery, but is much broader and more philosophical. It derives from the notion that educational excellence is unattainable
for any student when certain groups are denied a fair chance to receive the highest quality education possible and when
some contributions are systematically excluded from the U.S. and human stories. It builds upon the idea that comparability
instead of sameness is the key to providing equitable educational opportunities for ethnically different students. (Gay,

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1988)
In order to determine what constitutes comparability of learning opportunities, educators must thoroughly understand
how culture shapes learning styles, teaching behaviours, and educational decisions. They must then develop a variety of
means to accomplish common learning outcomes that reflect the preferences and styles of a wide variety of groups and
individuals. By giving all students more choices about how they will learn, choices that are compatible with their cultural
styles, none will be unduly advantaged or disadvantaged at the procedural levels of learning. These choices will lead to
closer parallelism (e.g., equity) in opportunities to learn and more comparability in students achieving the maximum of
their own intellectual capabilities (e.g., excellence). Other aspects of this goal include teaching accurate information
about all segments of U.S. society; developing a sense of social consciousness, moral courage, and commitment to
equality; and acquiring skills in political activism for reforming society to make it more humane, sympathetic toward
cultural pluralism, morally just, and egalitarian. Therefore, the multicultural goal of achieving educational equity and
excellence encompasses cognitive, affective, and behavioural skills, as well as the principles of democracy.

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