Running Head: HUMANIZATION THROUGH MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION 1

The Importance of Humanization through Multicultural Social Justice Education

Shira Feifer
University of San Diego
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The Importance of Humanization through Multicultural Social Justice Education

What we know about schools in the United States today, reflecting the population in the

United States today, is that they are becoming increasingly culturally, ethnically, and racially

diverse. James A. Banks (2010) noted that, “The U.S. (2009) projects that ethnic minorities will

increase from one-third of the nation’s population in 2006 to 50 percent in 2042” (p. 181).

Despite this ever-evolving diversified population in the United States, the mainstream curriculum

has continued to remain structured around concepts, ideas, and events that focus on the Euro-

American experience – that of mainstream Americans. A mainstream curriculum that continues

to essentially ignore the experiences, cultures, and histories of groups has negative consequences

for all students (Banks, 2010, p. 182).

Angela Valenzuela (1999) defines the negative consequences of a mainstream curriculum

through the lens of what she calls subtractive schooling. Through her research, Valenzuela

(1999) found that school policies and practices act to assimilate students to the dominant culture

of American schools and divest them of their cultural capital. These practices lead to

disengagement and overall underachievement on the part of students who do not fit the mold of

the dominant culture within American schools.

These same negative consequences are reported by Annette Lareau’s (2011) research,

which locates a key difference in the achievement of middle class versus poor and working-class

children. The difference Lareau (2011) found is effectively that students from a middle-class

background are raised by concerted cultivation – parent involvement and institutional

knowledge, learning to question adults, extracurricular activities, etc. – that fits very well into the

dominant culture of American education systems. Through concerted cultivation, middle class

students succeed in school. On the other hand, she found that poor and working-class children
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are raised more commonly by the accomplishment of natural growth with which children learn

better how to structure their own time and get much more quality time with extended family, but

do not gain the skills that are valued by our education institutions in the same way the many

middle-class children do (Lareau, 2011). The result of this difference is that social class and how

it manifests in the home greatly impacts educational outcomes. While one way of raising a child

is certainly not better or more caring than the other, middle class children are overwhelmingly

more primed to succeed within American institutions from elementary school to the job market.

Our schools must adapt to the communities of students that exist today. Carl A. Grant

(2012) asked the question of what the purpose of education is. For a long time the purpose of

education in America has been to prepare children for the workforce to place the United States at

the top of the economic and industrial food chain (Grant, 2012). But more recently educators and

theorists have been moving towards envisioning the purpose of education being to prepare

students to be culturally concerned citizens. Especially in a society that is becoming increasingly

diverse, there seems to be a greater need to help develop students to better the world we live in.

Banks (2007) explains that,

Multicultural education, a school reform movement that arose out of the civil rights

movement of the 1960s and 1970s, if implemented in thoughtful, creative, and effective

ways, has the potential to transform schools and other educational institutions in ways

that will enable them to prepare students to live and function effectively in the coming

century (p. 81).

Perhaps there was a time and a place in our history where homogenous mainstream education

made sense, but certainly today, it is our challenge to create democratic, caring, citizens

including the increasingly diverse student populations (Banks, 2007).

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I believe there are two aspects to effectively educating students to be critically conscious

democratic individuals in an increasingly multicultural society. The first is ensuring that

classroom spaces are humanizing and engaging to allow all students, especially those who have

not historically felt represented in the classroom space, to feel welcome and as though their

experience and identity matters to their community. The second is using a multicultural social

justice education approach to further that humanization and incorporate 21st century thinking

skills which include collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity to give

students the tools necessary to participate in our multicultural, democratic society.

Humanization

Patricia G. Ramsey and Leslie R. Williams (2003) state that,

To work effectively with children from diverse backgrounds, teachers need to be aware

of the parameters and implications of cultural differences and to understand how their

own cultural backgrounds have influences their views of children, education, and goals

for the society as a whole (p. 67).

In my own experience working in culturally diverse classrooms, I have experienced the

importance of recognizing cultural differences in creating authentic relationships with my

students. Authentic relationships are ones in which students are able to express their whole

selves. In a subtractive schooling environment students are unable to express themselves

authentically because to succeed, they are being forced to assimilate into the dominant culture

(Valenzuela, 1999). In my experience, I have seen that when students feel comfortable to be their

authentic selves, even if that means their language or culture is different than those around them,

they make greater leaps academically due to their comfort and ability to feel free to learn.
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Maria del Carmen Salazar (2013) paraphrases Freire (1972, 1984) saying, “humanization

is the process of becoming more fully human as social, historical, thinking, communicating,

transformative, creative persons who participate in and with the world” (p. 126). With

subtractive schooling and assimilationist teaching and policies still dominant, we need now more

than ever to cultivate a humanizing pedagogy.

Humanization is supported by the theory of engaged pedagogy. bell hooks (2009) states

that,

engaged pedagogy begins with the assumption that we learn best when there is an

interactive relationship between student and teacher…[it] emphasizes mutual

participation because it is the movement of ideas, exchanged by everyone, that forges a

meaningful working relationship between everyone in the classroom (p. 19, 22).

An engaged classroom is one where students actively participate in dialogue, all voices matter,

and the cooperative student voice is the leader of the classroom (hooks, 2009). hooks emphasizes

the importance of building a foundation for learning through community. In my school site

experience, I have seen engagement strategies like starting the class day with a classroom circle,

greeting all students by name at the door, and getting to know the students personally to foster a

safe and welcoming environment through community – and specifically through relationships.

Building relationships is a life skill that students need both in the classroom and in the world. It

is a skill that can help to humanize and build a critical consciousness for students to be able to

motivate and engage in the process of becoming citizens. There is an observable progression

from students feeling welcome and valued as individuals to building the skills to be able to form

relationships where they value, welcome, and respect others who may be different than them to

gaining a greater commitment and understanding to building community outside of their

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classrooms. Key here is understanding that to work on a society and community levels, there

needs to be a strong foundation in individual humanization.

Critical consciousness, another important aspect of humanizing pedagogy, is a process by

which students learn to conceptualize their contributions and the contributions of society as a

whole to the perpetuation of inequity, injustice, and oppression (Del Carmen Salazar, 2013, p.

131). To become engaged citizens, students need to not only be free to be self-actualized, but

also have an understanding of the realities we face as a society. Following the progression of

individual, to one on one relationships, to community, students’ development of a critical

consciousness goes hand in hand with their ability to think broadly on a societal level. Through

building relationships with others who are different than them, students not only gain a better

understanding of empathy, but also of truths facing our communities, and the commitment and

drive to do something about those truths.

Multicultural Social Justice Education

Multicultural Social Justice Education, as explained by Christine E. Sleeter and Carl A.

Grant’s (2009), “starts with the premise that equity and justice should be goals for everyone and

that solidarity across differences is needed to bring about justice” (p. 197). Rooted in social

reconstructionism, which is in a sense a critique of dominant modern culture, Multicultural

Social Justice Education is not just a practice, but a politically guided practice (Sleeter and

Grant, 2009, p. 198). This approach is grounded in everyday experience but not limited by it. It

involves teaching students about the nature of oppression in modern society and giving them the

tools necessary to articulate their own democratic goals and visions. Banks (2007) states that,
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In a democratic curriculum, students need to be taught about and have opportunities to

acquire American democratic values while at the same time learning about American

realities that challenge these ideals, such as discrimination based on race, gender, and

social class (p. 9).

Moving away from the historical one-sided Eurocentric education model, we have to find a

balance between telling history as we have in the past as actualizing American democratic ideals,

which may lead children to believe that have already achieved these ideals, and telling history as

just a series of oppressions of one group to another, which risks leaving students disillusioned

and hopeless. Focusing on exploitation also leaves out stories of people of color as effective

leaders and shapers of their own history (Banks, 2009, p. 9). To become critically conscious

citizens in today’s society, students need to first have internalized democratic ideals and obtain

an understanding of the gap that exists between American ideals and the realities (Banks, 2007,

p. 10). Through Multicultural Social Justice Education students can develop past just the

understanding, to the commitment and skills necessary to help close that gap.

Conclusion

Ultimately, I continue to come back to the question: what is the purpose of education? I

believe that the purpose of education is to prepare students, within an increasingly multicultural

society, to be democratic and culturally concerned citizens. Grant (2012) writes,

Cultivating, both as a word and concept, has history and currency in education. It is used

here as the action that brings about flourishing. The dictionary definitions of cultivate is

to nurture, give time and attention for self-improvement or for the benefit of others. To

cultivate is the work that teachers and professors do for and with their students (p. 912).
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He further defines flourishing as involving, “people making meaning and sense of important

aspects of their life” (Grant, 2012, p. 912). I connect strongly with the terms cultivating and

flourishing. For students who have historically been forced to assimilate as well as for those who

have learned in a bubble a sense of superiority based on their status, it is of the utmost

importance that there is a sense of cultivating critical consciousness with space for making sense

of important and real aspects to students’ lives.

Education should be dynamic and continuously evolving to keep up with the changes in

our American society as a whole and our smaller communities. For teachers, it is of the utmost

important to recognize the role we play in a child’s education. We are not simply standing in

front of a classroom giving students facts to memorize. Rather, we are holding space for

authentic learning, encouraging the cultivation of critical consciousness, building relationships

between students, families, and communities, and most of all we are responsible for ensuring that

our students feel in charge of their learning experience. To do this within a room of diverse race,

social, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds we need to first have a commitment to the education

– rather than schooling – of our students.

Banks (2010) outlines some important guidelines for teaching multicultural content

including an overall theme of holding yourself accountable as an educator (p. 195-197). With a

recognition of the space we hold and a commitment to authentic education, we also need to

recognize our own biases and how these play a role into how and what we teach. Cultural

competency is an ongoing learning process, but with a firm foundation in knowing your own

personal biases and experience teachers can continue to do the work: to seek support and

learning to enhance knowledge about different ethnic groups to reduce prejudice, combat
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stereotypes, and teach our students how to do that same within their classrooms and their larger

community. Essentially, to keep up with the increasingly multicultural society that we live in
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References

Banks, J. A. (2007). Educating citizens in a multicultural society. New York: Teachers College

Press

Banks, J.A. (2010). Approaches to multicultural curriculum reform. In J. A. Banks, & C. A. M.

Banks (Eds.), Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (pp. 181-199). Hoboken,

NJ: Wiley.

Del Carmen Salazar, M. (2013). A Humanizing Pedagogy: Reinventing the Principles and

Practice of Education as a Journey Toward Liberation. Review of Research in

Education, 37, 121-148. Retrieved from http://0-

www.jstor.org.sally.sandiego.edu/stable/24641959

Grant, C. (2012). Cultivating Flourishing Lives: A Robust Social Justice Vision of

Education. American Educational Research Journal, 49(5), 910-934. Retrieved from

http://0-www.jstor.org.sally.sandiego.edu/stable/23319631

hooks, B., (2009) Teaching Critical Thinking. Abingdon: Routledge.

Lareau, A. (2011). Unequal childhoods. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Ramsey, P.G., & Williams, L.R. (2003). Multicultural education: A source book. New York:

RutledgeFalmer

Sleeter, C.E., & Grant, C.A. (2009). Making choices for multicultural education; Five

approaches to race, class, and gender. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons

Valenzuela, A. (1999). Subtractive schooling: U.S.-Mexican youth and the politics of caring.

Albany: State University of New York.

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