Dominant Culture

Educational programs were originally designed to promote the dominant culture. The dominant Anglo culture had the privilege of holding on to their languages, values and beliefs because the curriculum focused on their culture. The dominant culture did not have to worry about becoming deculturalized or cultural genocide. The dominant culture has the privilege of seeing their culture represented daily. Assimilation was used to integrate other cultures into the dominant culture ( (Spring, 2010). Assimilation is pertinent today in many schools. The literature and curriculum used to educate students’ in today’s society favors the languages and beliefs of the dominant culture. Many students of other cultures do not have the opportunities

People tend to want to group themselves based on people that are of their same culture. Bias about another culture can cause people to not want to associate with particular races. In many school systems, cultural differences are not being represented in the curriculum which causes students to not understand the importance of understanding and respecting other cultures. Educators need to take the time to encourage unity between students of different races. Classroom activities should allow students to work together in diverse groups. In education it is important for students to talk about their own culture and learn about other cultures as well. Cultural and linguistic backgrounds are viewed as strengths from which educators can build pedagogy changes to incorporate students’ lives ( (Nieto, 2008). Students need to learn about the diversity in our society in order to have an acceptance and love for all people. Educators need to incorporate multicultural educational activities into the curriculum that promote acceptance among culture. Although culturally responsive pedagogy has emerged an avenue for promoting student achievement, instructional tools are needed to support application of the theory in multicultural classrooms (Herrera, Holmes, & Kavimanda, 2012). Teachers that are not culturally aware of the needs for multiculturalism in the classroom may need

It is important that students maintain their values, beliefs, and cultural differences. The lack of Multicultural literature relates to the issues we have in society’s acceptance of cultural differences. Quality multicultural literature promotes collaboration among students and critical thinking skills. As an educator of younger students my goal is to provide more literature that teaches my students about their own culture and other culture. The video impacted the way I will determine what books I can use to incorporate more multicultural education. The video also brought awareness to focusing on multicultural education every day and not just