You are on page 1of 12

Running Head: MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Multicultural Education in Rural Elementary Schools

Amanda N. Giauque

Bridgewater College

WORD COUNT: 2060


MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 2

Abstract

This paper examines the topic of multicultural education in rural elementary

schools. It examines areas within this field of study. It first identifies

vocabulary words from Education 215 that fall under this area of research.

This paper also includes why I chose this topic of research, and how it will

help me become a multicultural education teacher. Then it looks at how

minority students feel in rural school settings, ways that youth identify

themselves and how a teacher can help to make this easier, the feelings

about multicultural education of both rural and urban elementary school

teachers, a brief history of multicultural education, and why it is important to

include the rural culture when teaching multicultural education. This paper

also looks at how this research will help me be the best teacher than I can

be, trying to meet the needs of all my students; in other words, having an

equitable classroom.

Keywords: multicultural education, equity, multiethnic curriculum,

cultural pluralism, dominant group, rural, elementary school


MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 3

The topic I have selected to research is multicultural education in rural

elementary schools. Throughout EDUC 215, I have learned about many

themes and topics that relate to this subject and are important to examine

while conducting research for it. The topics that I have chosen to examine

closer within relation to my topic are multicultural education, equity,

multiethnic curriculum, cultural pluralism, and dominant group.

Multicultural education is an educational concept that addresses

cultural diversity and equity in schools. It incorporates the different cultural

groups to which individuals belong with an emphasis on the interaction of

race, ethnicity, class, and gender in students lives (Gollnick & Chinn, 2013,

p. 3). It is important to research multicultural education in a rural elementary

school setting because in many rural areas, the population is extremely

uniform, with very little diversity. It is extremely crucial that these children

are still taught in a multicultural classroom so that they still are multicultural,

worldly students.

Equity refers to the principle of fairness (Equity, 2015). Equity

encompasses a wide variety of educational models, programs, and strategies

that may be considered fair, but not necessarily equal (Equity, 2015). It is

important to research equity in relation to multicultural education in a rural

elementary school setting because with little diversity in the classroom, it

becomes very important to be making even more of an effort to have an


MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 4

equitable classroom. Since there is not typically very much diversity in rural

schools, it is important to not necessarily treat all of your students equally,

but rather equitable; this will ensure that all students are included, even

minority groups.

Multiethnic curriculum is defined as a curriculum that incorporates

accurate and positive information about the history, experiences,

contributions, and perspectives of the ethnic groups that comprise the

United States population (Gollnick & Chinn, 2013, p. 66). It is important to

consider a multiethnic curriculum when researching multicultural education

in a rural elementary school setting because it is a part of multicultural

education, addressing ethnicities in particular.

Cultural pluralism is the maintenance of cultures as parallel and equal

in status to the dominant culture in a society (Gollnick & Chinn, 2013, p.

11). It is important to consider the importance of cultural pluralism when

researching multicultural education in rural elementary schools because in a

rural setting, as mentioned above, there may be a very little amount of

diversity; therefore, if there is a very small amount of students of a minority

culture(s) at the school, it is important to ensure that these students feel that

both themselves and their culture is equally important to the other students

that are a part of the dominant culture.

Dominant group is the cultural group whose values and behaviors

have been adopted by most institutions in society, including schools. In the


MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 5

United States, this group is the middle-class, white, English-speaking,

heterosexual Christian culture with its historical roots in Europe (Gollnick &

Chinn, 2013, p. 8). Thinking about the dominant culture when researching

multicultural education in rural elementary schools is important because

most of the students in rural schools are from the dominant culture. It is

important not to let this majority of students seem superior to any students

from minority cultures.

I selected the topic of researching multicultural education in a rural

elementary school because I attended a very rural elementary school with

very little diversity. I am interested in possibly teaching in the same area I

grew up in, so I would like to know more about ensuring that I maintain a

multicultural classroom. Because I may only have a few different races and

cultures represented in my classroom, this can feel like it is hard to do

because I am not going to be constantly reminded that multicultural

education is important, especially if I only have one or two races/cultures

represented in my class. Also, I chose this topic because I really wanted to

learn about the impact that going to a rural school with little diversity has on

a student that is from a minority group.

Researching this topic will help me be a multicultural education

teacher because if I teach in a rural area, I will now understand more about

rural elementary schools. First of all, I will understand more about how it

feels to be a students that is from a minority group that goes to a rural

school with little diversity. This is important because if I can understand how
MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 6

this feels, I will be able, to the best of my ability, to eliminate any bad

feelings that these students have when I am a teacher. For example, if they

feel that no one knows/cares about their culture, as a teacher, I could

prevent this by doing a lesson on their culture, and maybe even letting them

help me teach parts of it. Another way that researching this topic will help

me be a multicultural education teacher is I can learn through my research

ways that I can promote more multiculturalism in a rural elementary school.

In 2004 after conducting numerous case studies of diversity

education, Sonia Nieto found that for students to become concerned about

other cultures they first had to understand their own (Yahn, 2011). After

reading this quote, I realized that this is absolutely true. Especially for

elementary school children, who may not know enough about their culture, it

is important for them to learn about their own cultures traditions and

heritages. Starting at young ages, children have self-identity questions like

Who am I? and Where do I fit in? (Mouzong, 2010). In order to help

children answer these questions, it is important to implement teaching about

students cultures. This is just one of the aspects intertwined within

multicultural education.

In order to research multicultural education in rural elementary

schools, it is crucial to examine the attitudes/views of the teachers. There

was a study done that attempted to do this. It examined whether or not

there is a significant difference between attitudes of rural and urban

elementary teachers toward multicultural education (Irwin, 1999). The study


MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 7

gave 29 randomly selected schools (10 rural and 19 urban) questionnaires

for the teachers to fill out. (Irwin, 1999). They were questions regarding

multicultural education, and its importance and role; they had a rating scale

as follows: 1 for strongly agree, 2 for agree, 3 for disagree, and 4 for

strongly disagree (Irwin, 1999). This study found that overall the responses

were fairly similar; however there were some differences that seemed

noteworthy. First of all, in general, it was noted that urban teachers had a

tendency to select the response strongly agree or strongly disagree, on

the responses that rural teachers selected just agree or disagree (Irwin,

1999). Irwin (1999) points out that this may be because urban teachers may

be more aware of the severity of the needs of their multicultural student

populations. Also, the study concluded that both rural and urban teachers

disagree that cultural awareness should be stressed at the elementary

school level (Irwin, 1999). This was surprising to me because I feel that it is

easier to start implementing multicultural education at a young age, as

young children are generally more open to this idea and have not developed

as many prejudices. For example, in an article written by Pat Mora, a Latina

author, gives details of her visit to a rural school in Kentucky. She says here

I was in a school in which perhaps all teachers and students were Euro-

Americans, and the young faces welcomed me with affection and interest

(Mora, 1994). Mora (1994) recounts that the children were all very excited to

meet her, and even eager for her to teach them a few phrases/sayings in

Spanish. This is a prime example of the openness of elementary school


MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 8

students, which is why that is a perfect time to start implementing lessons

about other cultures.

Throughout my research, I came across a specific issue a few times.

This issue was the fact that one theory that researchers have as to why

multicultural education is not always as successfully implemented in rural

schools is because there is little attention to rural issues in multicultural

education (Reed, 2010, p. 15). This is a reasonable theory because most of

the time when one thinks about implementing multicultural education in the

classroom, there is not really much thought given to the rural population. -

Jaqueline Yahn (2011) lists out a few myths that help further prove why it is a

problem that multicultural education does not acknowledge rural people. The

first myth is that rural means white; when in fact it has been found that

approximately one-fourth of rural students are nonwhite races (Yahn, 2011).

This shows that if more about rural culture was included in multicultural

education, people would not make these assumptions anymore. The second

myth is that rural is monocultural; even though there are many subcultures

in rural areas (Yahn, 2011). The final myth is that rural is only a small

amount of students; but it has been found that rural students make up 19

percent of the youth educated in America (Yahn, 2011). Once again, as with

the above myths, these may not be widespread thoughts if people were

more educated on the rural culture of America.

Another perspective to examine when researching multicultural

education in rural elementary schools is the perspectives of the minority


MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 9

students in attendance at the school. Something that many people, I myself

included, have never thought about before is the difficulty of multiracial

students to identify themselves. In an article written my Christine Mouzong

(2010), these issues are examined. First of all, it points out the fact that

multiracial students may identify themselves with the ethnicity of both

parents, more strongly with the ethnicity of one parent over the other, or

leave ethnic terms out of their descriptions (Mouzong, 2010). Also, many

times they might decide to change their ethnic identity during different

stages and circumstances in their lives (Mouzong, 2010). Also, in the case of

multiracial students in rural schools, they may be more likely to experience

this feeling of being caught in the middle than those who live in larger

towns (Mouzong, 2010). Another issue, in particular for those students who

are part-Hispanic, is trying to decide whether to identify with full Hispanic or

a blended identity; if they chose a blended identity, it can be seen as a sign

of betrayal, but if they choose a Hispanic identity, they are often teased by

peers and family members about having lighter skin tones, not speaking

Spanish, and being seen around town with a white parent (Mouzong, 2010).

Multicultural education has its roots all the way even before the 1954

U.S. Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,

Kansas (Reed, 2010, p. 16). It was developed in an attempt to stimulate

equality and diminish prejudice (Reed, 2010, p. 16). Cultural understanding

is an important starting point for teaching and learning as well as a basis for

understanding the complexities of participating in a democratic pluralistic


MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 10

society (Reed, 2010, p. 17). It is important to start implementing at the

elementary school level because of the students generosity, curiosity, and

creativity (Mora, 1994). The students will be more open and will like to learn

about other students cultures, especially if they are in a rural school with

little diversity.

The research that I have done has immensely helped me in preparation

for becoming the best teacher that I can be. Because I want to teach in a

rural setting, it is my goal to eliminate the standard of almost seemingly

ignoring multicultural education in rural elementary schools. Also, I will now

be sure to include, within teaching multicultural education, the culture of

rural people/places, as it is a very important subculture that is often

forgotten about or ignored when teaching multicultural education. Also, I now

have a better understanding of how it feels to be one of the few minority

students in rural school settings. It will be very important for me to ensure

that this select group of students does not feel left out or inferior to the

dominant group. I hope that when I am a teacher, if I am enthusiastic about

multicultural education, that I can influence other teachers in my school that

it is a very valuable part of teaching, even at the elementary school level.


MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 11

References

Equity. (2015, January 9). Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/equity/

Gollnick, D. M., & Chinn, P. C. (2013). Multicultural education in a pluralistic society.

Chicago:

Pearson.

Irwin, L. H. (1999). Do rural and urban elementary teachers differ in their attitudes

toward

multicultural education in elementary schools? Contemporary Education,

70(3). Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=a9h&AN=2442628&site=ehost-live

Mora, P. (1994). A Latina in Kentucky. Horn Book Magazine, 70(3). Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9405207800&site=ehost-live

Mouzong, C. & Vuchinich, D. Caught (2010, May 17). Caught in the middle: Raising a

multiracial

teen in a rural place. Retrieved from

http://www.education.com/reference/article/caught-middle-raising-multiracial-

teen/

Reed, K. (2010). Multicultural education for rural schools: Creating relevancy in rural

America.
MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 12

Rural Educator, 31(2). Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=ehh&AN=48356221&site=ehost-live

Yahn, J. (2011, November 21). Appreciate the diversity in rural places. Retrieved

from

http://www.tolerance.org/blog/appreciate-diversity-rural-places

You might also like