High quality educational experiences will not exist if some ethnic groups and their contributions to the development of U.S. history, life, and culture are ignored or demeaned (Gay, 2000). Gay also explains, "Much intellectual ability and many other kinds of intelligences are lying untapped in ethnically diverse students. If these are recognized and used in the instructional process, school achievement will improve radically. Culturally responsive teaching is a means for unleashing the higher learning potentials of ethnically diverse students by simultaneously cultivating their academic and psychosocial abilities" (p. 20).
The Curriculum Considerations section provides information on actual lesson plans and units, approaches to multicultural education, a multicultural calendar, multicultural planning questions, cooperative learning, multicultural goals and strategies, evaluating children's books for bias, and cultural responsiveness. The example lessons are structured in a before and after format. The reader can view a lesson before multicultural restructuring and after multicultural restructuring in order to gain an understanding of how one's own lessons can be modified. Planning questions are provided to guide a teacher in forming multicultural lesson plans. The goals of multicultural education and strategies are given in order to aid in the construction of one's own planning questions. One multicultural strategy is the use of cooperative learning. This section provides a link to information about using cooperative learning in the classroom. Information about cultural responsiveness informs the teacher of his/her roles and responsibilities and how to utilize culturally responsive caring and teaching. All of the information provided in this section guides the teacher in practical applications of multicultural education.
Reference:
Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, & practice. New York: Teachers College Press.