Within the field of education, there continues to be a move to standardize curriculum and test what students know—ostensibly to assess their learning and academic growth. The argument seems to be the more we standardize curriculum, the more we can control what students learn and how students learn. These moves that impact curriculum and the instruction of that curriculum are driven by assumptions that continue to be interrogated and examined throughout the field of education and within the field of critical multicultural education more specifically. In this issue of Multicultural Perspectives, we present the work of authors who encourage us to question the rationales that underlie our work.
The authors of the articles in the Advancing the Conversation section encourage readers to critically examine how curriculum in schools and service-learning experiences are being conceptualized and implemented. In “Disrupting Colonial Narratives in the Curriculum,” Stephanie Masta examines how an eighth-grade social studies teacher acted in ways that normalized rather than disrupted colonialism. Through her analysis, she found what was missing in the teacher's classroom is a disruption of the colonial narratives currently told about the United States and its relationship to other countries. In order to disrupt these narratives, educators need to help students examine critically Eurocentric knowledge and its relationship to power. The author asserts educators must re-center the viewpoints of those colonized as equal to Eurocentric views.
In “Enhancing Cultural Humility Through Critical Service-Learning in Teacher Preparation,” Alan S. Tinkler and Barri Tinkler describe the impact of critical service-learning experiences on the development of skills and dispositions of preservice teachers. This study examined outcomes of the experience through the lens of cultural humility: a stance where critically-minded individuals are persistently self-aware and self-reflective when interacting with others in order to be attentive to culture, power, and privilege.
Two articles in this issue's section on Creating Multicultural Classrooms provide readers with recommendations for enhancing the curriculum. Dee Knoblauch, in her article entitled, “Building the Foundation of Acceptance Book by Book: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and/or Transgender-Themed Books for Grades K–5 Multicultural Libraries,” discusses the significance of including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender (LGBT) families and characters in the school-sanctioned curriculum—beginning in the elementary grades. Families with same-sex parents is an increasing demographic in the United States; an inclusive curriculum would allow all children to see their families represented.
In “Teachers Moving Forward on a Cultural Self-Awareness Spectrum: Diverse Children, Museums, and Young Adult Literature,” AnnMarie Alberton Gunn describes case study research that investigated teachers’ participation in a multicultural children and young adults’ literature course that incorporates visits to a Holocaust museum.
In the section on Personal Perspective, Paul Gorski, in “Rethinking the Role of ‘Culture’ in Educational Equity: From Cultural Competence to Equity Literacy,” argues too much of a focus on “culture” in teaching and learning limits the possibility of real progress toward educational justice. The author asserts that, although some culture-centric frameworks are grounded in commitments to educational equity, they often are implemented in ways that mask the forms of structural injustice that contribute to educational outcome disparities.
Finally, as we write this editorial, the NAME staff and Annual Conference Committee are working hard to develop yet again an outstanding learning and networking opportunity for all of us. We hope you have saved the date and are planning to join us in Cleveland for NAME's 26th Annual International Conference on NAME: The Multicultural Lens of Equity for ALL. We look forward to seeing you there!