School Wide Multiculturalism

The Schoolwide Considerations section addresses issues on a systems-level by providing information on multicultural benchmarks and characteristics of a multicultural school.  If multicultural education is to work in a classroom, it must also be reflected within the whole school.  A multicultural school would practice transformative and social action approaches, in which the entire curriculum reflects multicultural perspectives and encourages students and staff to take social action concerning race issues (Banks, 1999).  The multicultural benchmarks can serve as guidelines for schools in maintaining an effective multicultural school.  Some issues that are addressed are: policy statements, staff, curriculum, parent participation, teaching strategies, teaching materials, and monitoring/evaluation.  Some characteristics of a multicultural school include: ethnically diverse school culture, respect for first languages and dialects, and culturally sensitive assessment procedures. 

Reference:

           Banks, J.A. (1999). An introduction to multicultural education (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.