Understanding Multicultural Education

Multicultural education has evolved over the last 25 years to become a promising, productive, and positive approach to education within an increasingly diverse schooling context. The academic discipline has developed models, robust definitions and goals, and specific pedagogical principles related to an education that is multicultural. Almost all teacher education programs now require some academic coursework that focuses on the theoretical and practical elements of multicultural education. In addition, school districts are also recognizing the importance of multicultural education through professional development, the hiring of cultural facilitators, and minority teacher recruitment.

Understanding Multicultural Education: Equity for All Students brings the goals, ideas, theories, principles, and practices of multicultural education together in their most accessible form. The book is organized using the analogy of a house to make complex ideas understandable. It aims to move the ideals of multicultural education from the academic realm to the public. With the information provided by the authors, stakeholders who play a role in the implementation of multicultural education—students, teachers, administrators, parents, school board members, citizens—will be able to pursue its implementation more fully and authentically.

Francisco Rios, Ph. D., is a professor in the Educational Studies Department at the College of Education at the University of Wyoming (UW). He is the senior associate editor of Multicultural Perspectives, the Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education and serves as the founding director of the University of Wyoming's Social Justice Research Center.

Christine Rogers Stanton, Ph.D., has worked as a language arts teacher, instructional facilitator, and field experience supervisor in K-16 classrooms across a variety of disciplines in urban, rural, and reservation settings. She teaches courses for the Department of Education at Montana State University.