Multicultural Teaching: A Handbook of Activities, Information, and Resources

by Pamela L. Tiedt, Iris M. Tiedt

This practical text, which defines multicultural education broadly to include all types of diversity, provides a wealth of content area-specific activities to help teachers implement an inclusive curriculum that meets the individual needs of each student. Bringing theory and practice together and applying a model focusing on Esteem, Empathy, and Equity, the authors encourage reflection and discussion through working with Reflective Teaching Portfolios and Cooperative Learning Groups at the end of each chapter. Teacher candidates learn the implications of such topics as language diversity, the academic achievement gap, and racism along with guidance to plan lessons designed to develop a community of learners in their classroom.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Philip · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't particularly impressed with this book. This is partially because the majority of the book contained lessons that didn't apply to my classroom, or lessons that I felt were very elementary (in both senses of the word - meant for elementary schools, or more appropriate for elementary schools even if they are meant for older students...)

I felt like I really had to dig to get at the good stuff. Maybe an El. Ed. teacher would like the book more than I did.

But I also didn't like some of the conclusions the authors came to. Tiedt and Tiedt argue for an analogy of a "tossed salad" rather than "melting pot." Given the fact I don't like the term "tossed salad" in the first place, as well as my disagreement with this analogy started my reading of this book off on the wrong foot.

I'm not in favor of casting off cultural identity once people become American, but I am in favor of assimilating into the American culture while maintaining some sense of ethnic identity.

It just seemed like the authors were trying to hard to be politically correct rather than honest. (How long will the term "differently abled" be in vogue. I hope not long. I can't keep up.)

There was some good stuff early on. I particularly liked the section on white privilege. That's a term that gets thrown around a lot, but I had no real practical/meaningful examples of it.

I read this book for a class. I got a lot more out of the book Bridging Multiple Worlds: Case Studies of Diverse Educational Communities. If you are in a book store holding these two books in your hand - weighing them out - pondering... Choose the latter. Or more likely, if you're in a class and assigned these two books, and you're trying to decide which one to read and which one to skim/skip - read Bridging.