Underrepresented In Multicultural Education

Unfortunately, as educators, we can’t reach every single student, at every single time. There are times when students get “brushed under the rug,” and in my opinion, I feel as though that is what happens to our racial and ethnic minority students as well as our low-income students. Not only are these students underrepresented within a general education setting, they are also underrepresented when it comes to school programs such as gifted. Burney and Beilke stated, “It is well documented that students from racial minorities are traditionally underrepresented in these programs.,” when referring to the gifted classroom setting. These students are underrepresented for a variety of reasons such as standardized testing, attendance, behaviors, getting the education they need in their early years to prepare them, and getting home exposure of content (2008) Burney and Beilke also

A multicultural education approach to learning can help retain gifted minority students because it allows those students to become immersed into a world of education they may have never gotten. The beauty of multicultural education is that we, as educators, are taking the time to ensure our low-income and racial minority groups are receiving the education they deserve. Thomlinson stated when discussing some teachers approach to multicultural education and gifted minority students, “They made genuine efforts to understand students’ perspectives and consciously incorporated this knowledge into planning curriculum and instruction that were culturally and personally relevant. These teachers did not ask the students to displace the familiar with “something better,” but rather to learn to live in two worlds – to become multicultural.” It is all about getting to know those babies (whether they be a low-income group, high-income group, racial minority, ESOL, Special Education… it doesn’t matter), get to know their families, get involved with