Multiculturalism is an essential principle that enhances the recognition of diverse cultures in various areas. Multicultural education in public and private institutions may take time before it is fully incorporated because it is a process that involves relationships between people. Some of the characteristics associated with multicultural education include reducing prejudice and stereotypes of diverse cultures, promoting harmonious co-existence between people from different cultures, seeing tolerance of cultural differences, and encouraging cultural exchange. Therefore, incorporating it in public and private institutions may enhance peaceful co-existence in the school community. This essay aims to explain the viability and importance of implementing multicultural education in public and private institutions.
Implementing multicultural education in schools worldwide is possible, but compliance may challenge. Most schools focus on achievement strategies, and therefore the goal of implementing multicultural education may not be adhered to. On the other hand, compliant educators may not have the necessary skills to impart multicultural education to learners. It means that programs that provide pedagogical skills should also be tailored to cater to multicultural education. Schools with educators who are in a position to demonstrate how diversity is essential and advances crucial learning towards equity can implement multicultural education with ease. It is worth noting that researchers in multicultural education advocate for its implementation. However, schools and educator preparation programs have been inadequate in ensuring that multicultural education is embraced. There is a need to critically analyze the structures that hinder the effective implementation of multicultural education to be adopted in public and private schools worldwide.
According to (Sleeter, 2018), multicultural education promotes self-respect, confidence, and appreciation of different cultures. Implementing multicultural education will enable learners to be whole rounded. Students from different cultures can express themselves freely because they feel appreciated in the classroom. It allows students to appreciate diverse cultures and become comfortable around people from different cultures. Multicultural education helps students discover the greatness of diverse cultures in their surrounding environment (Nakaya, 2018). Therefore, educators need to come up with methods that will help them teach multicultural education instead of relying on the provided texts. Through multicultural education, students learn about their classmates’ cultural backgrounds and learn at the same time. Educators can be creative in a way that they accommodate all students in the classroom and allow them to understand their values, beliefs, and cultural perspectives. Students need an opportunity to have the same education regardless of their skin color.
Apart from providing diverse cultural education, multicultural education also shapes an institution’s image, and it seeks to provide a broad range of needs. A well-designed curriculum and a good relationship between the educator and students are essential for effective multicultural education implementation (Sleeter, 2018). Educators should possess specific competencies such as flexibility and empathy, which are key in teaching learners from diverse cultures. Multicultural education is essential because it promotes understanding and social cooperation. The main purpose of multicultural education is to allow learners to explore different lifestyles (Cherng & Davis, 2019). Another reason why multicultural education is important is that it creates multicultural awareness and promotes positive teacher-student in different cultural backgrounds.
Multicultural education is essential in private and public institutions because it encourages inclusivity. Although multicultural education is complex, it aims to meet the needs and wants related to the intellectual development of learners from different cultures. Furthermore, it helps develop students’ identities and reinforces their independence (Cherng & Davis, 2019). Multicultural education is essential in public and private institutions because it positively impacts society. Multicultural education will help students easily coexist with others in the future. In addition, it creates a foundation of social peace. Public and private institutions help students experience diverse cultures, making it easier for them to interact later in the workplace and other social contexts (Cherng & Davis, 2019).
In conclusion, multicultural education helps in creating qualitative relationships among diverse students within institutions. Multicultural education aims to help students from diverse cultures to learn how to interact with others and transcend cultural borders. Multicultural education actualizes social equity and cultural democracy among students from diverse communities. Implementing multicultural education in public and private institutions will enable students to gain self-confidence because they feel appreciated in a classroom setting. Multicultural education will play a significant role in the lives of learners if successfully implemented in public and private institutions around the world. However, educators have a lot of work to do to implement multicultural education in the classroom. Flexibility is key in multicultural education because educators must balance learning and incorporating cultural diversity.
References
Cherng, H. Y., & Davis, L. A. (2019). Multicultural matters: An investigation of key assumptions of multicultural education reform in teacher education.Journal of Teacher Education, 70(3), 219-236.
Nakaya, A. (2018). Overcoming ethnic conflict through multicultural education: The case of West Kalimantan, Indonesia. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 20(1), 118-137.
Sleeter, C. E. (2018). Probing beneath meanings of multicultural education 1. In Routledge international handbook of multicultural education research in the Asia Pacific, 23-36.