Anti-racist and multicultural approaches to education in the classroom:Overview and evaluation

Abstract

Part of becoming a teacher is developing a personal philosophy of education, and while certain elements are subject specific or specific to a particular teaching
environment, one element that should be common to all teaching philosophies is the consideration of diversity in the classroom. Canada has an incredibly diverse population and immigration is on the rise. Teachers should have a clear understanding of the issues surround education for diversity and determine for themselves what particular orientation they will take in their own classroom. The two main ideologies discussed in our readings for this module address diversity in terms of either multiculturalism or anti-racist education. While there are of course other orientations and interpretations of these two in particular can vary, in order to streamline my discussion of this topic, my focus with be on them, with some discussion of the detrimental monocultural approach.