History and Foundations of Intergroup and Multicultural Education

In the early weeks of my doctoral version of the foundations of multicultural education, our focus turned toward the intriguing history and fundamental principles of intergroup education and multicultural education. We delved into this field's annals and discovered a tapestry interwoven with diversity, equity, and inclusion. Examining the origins of intergroup education allowed us to appreciate the transformative power of fostering understanding and empathy across different social groups. Simultaneously, exploring the foundations of multicultural education sheds light on the imperative to acknowledge and celebrate the richness of cultural, ethnic, and linguistic diversity within educational contexts. By unraveling the historical threads that have shaped intergroup and multicultural education, we equipped ourselves with a deeper understanding of the importance of fostering an inclusive and equitable educational landscape for all. The students were charged to synthesize the information read on the history of multicultural education and create a visual timeline of images, words, and videos to capture their understanding of the significant historical events that have contributed to the establishment of the field of multicultural education. Below are examples of a few examples. 

1. https://www.sutori.com/en/story/multicultural-education-historical-timeline--vpHxgbZeTS5YEb3VAVmkQjUE 

2. https://www.sutori.com/en/story/a-brief-timeline-of-the-history-of-multicultural-education--Y7vYWNvQhEAjwmNjxajkDTSm 

3. https://www.sutori.com/en/story/history-multicultural-education--yWSgyqMYg2wR6r2uZzeikTvH 4. https://www.sutori.com/en/story/multicultural-education--o8AfpgTA694hQcyyqgEvtwkj 

5. https://www.sutori.com/en/story/multicultural-education-overview--1KYecZoi2EsDzgNE8bdR188t 6. https://www.sutori.com/en/story/multicultural-education-timeline--qzMEB72ACxMJD64vWE9pTe3s

Asian Americans and Moments in History

This semester for my Foundations of Multicultural Education course, we are reading Becoming a Multicultural Education: Developing Awareness, Gaining Skills, and Taking Action, along with Rethinking Multicultural Education. BAME situates itself in providing readers with essential knowledge, awareness, skills, and actions for multicultural education teaching. Part of gaining the essential knowledge for multicultural education teaching is to intentionally learn about historical perspective on a multicultural American. This knowledge is essential for educators who have an obligation to ensure students learn the true history of the nation in order to challenge the isms and other forms of intolerance. The third chapter in the text explores the social construct of race and briefly outlines the legislatively imposed racial groups in the United States. In particular, the chapter discusses the largest three Asian American groups, provides brief historical highlights, and situates the experience of Asian Americans in schools by challenging the model minority myth. In response, the students in the course where challenged to investigate the story an Asian American from the listing provided by Zinn Education Project. Below are links to their eBook creations using Google Slides.

Ronald Takaki: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1iYofDFAs69RViSVQm2i1sajGnppMUv4zdaJ7t-PaYao/edit?usp=sharing

Yuri Kochiyama:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1orfw_lytZaP_V0j_WRouTlK_UcjgQLZtMpIl4P-EBe8/edit?usp=sharing

Fred Korematsu:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1lCLJRMZu1Ab3xEUGN_zJbB-BuEEubNZVZZp3lwkRZK0/edit?usp=sharing

Kiyoshi Kuromiya:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wfU94Zp3_VZbAgOJGMt7ifPIJHV4e0VdZTaXoDKaNoU/edit?usp=sharing

The Abolition Movement

The Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform (Banks, 1988) is a seminal piece I use to reflect on my own teaching, but is also something I share with students semester after semester. There are four approaches that Banks describes. "One approach, such as the Contributions Approach, can also be used as a vehicle to move to other and ore intellectually challenging approaches..." (p. 38). As Banks, lists a number of challenges with the Contributions or Heroes and Holidays Approach, I remind my students that it is unrealistic to jump to the more socially active approaches when majority of what they experienced as students and observed in area schools fits the Contributions Approach. I encourage them rethink the heroes and holidays they acknowledge. I have my students engage in activities were they learn about often unsung heroes who have contributed to social justice. Below is a listing of notable abolitionists. While Harriett Tubman is often a notable abolitionist, many are unfamiliar with her work as a spy during the Civil War. I also seek to expose my students to other Black abolitionists to help dispel the myth that Blacks who were enslaved or free were complacent with the institution of slavery. Lastly, since most teacher education students are White, learning about Whites who sought justice provides role models for anti-racist actions.

Harriet Tubman: http://prezi.com/2sv5hogx2srg/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Lucy Stone: http://prezi.com/ks7o7fitzgyt/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

William Lloyd Garrison: http://prezi.com/2ntsaue_qac_/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy  

John Brown: http://prezi.com/g3umvzawmmft/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Lydia Maria Child: http://prezi.com/tx8fxe-ybmyi/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Harriet Beecher Stowe: http://prezi.com/b124tonqchre/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Harriet A. Jacobs: http://prezi.com/cvesbxis5wcn/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy  

Wendell Philips: http://prezi.com/vbncpgrr0rvj/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

William Still: http://prezi.com/2f3uhuffpxx4/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Ather Tappan: http://prezi.com/rz0eoupst2xi/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Teaching #BlackLivesMatters

As the semester draws to end, the focus of my students turns to their unit plans. One common topic that students often undertake is that if teaching about the Civil Rights Movement. While many of the attempts are promising endeavors, others focus on the typical "Heroes and Holidays" framework where Dr. King and Mrs. Parks take center stage. While the contributions of these two individuals is undeniable, there were many unsung heroes who also sacrificed their lives.

Another challenge is for students to connect these past efforts with other movements for justice that followed. The preservice teachers are often curious about how to teach about #BlackLivesMatters in an attempt to connect the past to the present. However, they often do not have enough foundational content knowledge beyond what the have heard from the media. Fortunately, Teaching for Change provides a valuable resource for educators to gather the necessary content knowledge, as well as classroom activities to assist students in processing and analyze systemic injustice.

http://www.teachingforchange.org/teaching-blacklivesmatter

Teaching Black History

Check out this link recognizing the accomplishments of 50 African Americans, one for every state in the Union, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/50-iconic-black-trailblazers-who-represent-every-state-in-america_us_5890cbb6e4b0522c7d3d6cfb?.

Teaching Islam in a Catholic School

Check out this article by Gregory Landrigan, http://www.teachingforchange.org/teaching-islam-catholic-school.

Perspectives on the Civil War

During the fall 2016 semester, the social studies methods students participated in a learning experience (http://chssp.ucdavis.edu/programs/historyblueprint/the-civil-war) that allowed for them to learn about the diversity in perspectives as to whether the Civil War was necessary and desirable. Below are two links to VoiceThreads, which capture are some of the perspectives of individual Americans. These perspectives highlight the complexity of public opinion and allows for the exploration of how perspectives impact actions, beliefs, and history.

https://voicethread.com/share/8490883/

https://voicethread.com/share/8525741/

Application: Synthesizing Social Studies Content and Integrating Technology

I have been utilizing Social Studies, Literacy, and Social Justice in the Common Core Classroom: A Guide for Teachers by Ruchi Agarwal-Ragnath as a course text for social studies methods for the past few semesters. This text provides a social justice-oriented social studies framework, where students are to process and synthesize content in what is known as Application. During this step students process and apply the information they have learned. Writer's workshop, dialogue poems, first person narratives, dramatization, visual arts, and rewriting narratives are specific methods students can utilized to demonstrate their understanding of social justice-oriented social studies content.

This semester, my undergraduate students have been reading A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki along with the Agarwal-Ragnath text. Below are some of their "Application" examples highlighting their synthesizing and processing of history of a multicultural nation. The students included the utilization of a geographic tool to support our conversations on the five themes of geography, specifically movement.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ck-kxs2xfho-W47jcvrUToyhrcNQTAhcofhKuQSoixQ/edit?usp=sharing

http://www.animaps.com/pb/294420002/6796/Japanese_Immigration

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wDzRKVOtdHOvOm0wyFhp09ZAfDHVdppyw1mg4oABlNc/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Ge00DDC4OQOhN33OhqmlQGkaI_UyZgSgH3EZWlKcRk/edit?usp=sharing

Teacher Scholarly Knowledge 2016

For the fall 2016 semester of "Teaching Elementary School Social Studies" we have revisited the idea of teacher scholarly knowledge in preparation for unit planning.  Teacher scholarly knowledge includes listings of necessary teacher information for teaching social studies units on historical events/people/places, geography, economics, or civics education. Here are a few examples of student work.

Rewriting History for the Better by Dave Constantin

http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-51-fall-2015/feature/rewriting-history-better

Studies in Multicultural Education Spring 2016

Students in my "Studies in Multicultural Education" course have been reading Rethinking Multicultural Education: Teaching for Racial and Cultural Justice. This text provides a robust and powerful presentation of multicultural education that is anti-racist and social justice-oriented. Recognizing that race is not the only social category which presents itself in classrooms, the students were charged with reflecting, researching, and then writing about other aspects or combinations of social identities they experience in their classrooms or have in interest in learning more about. The following comments to this post include some of the highlights they have discovered.

Equality Day

On this day in 1920 the 19th Amendment was ratified, granting women in the United States the right to vote.

PBS Learning has put together an activity pack which may be useful today or at some other point when teaching about the role of women in the development of the United States.

 http://to.pbs.org/1gBBvWc

First Person Narratives

During the Spring 2015 semester of Teaching Elementary School Social Studies, we used Social Studies, Literacy, and Social Justice in the Common Core Classroom as our course text. One notable application strategy shared was the creation of first person narratives during Writer's Workshop. First person narratives can include diaries, journals, travel journals, memories, oral histories, and autobiographies. In studying several unsung women activist, my students created autobiographies or biographies on a specific woman as eBooks. Here are a few examples of their work.

Iowa and the Underground Railroad

My fall 2014 social studies methods students worked collaboratively to create VoiceThreads using images and conversation to highlight Iowa’s role in the anti-slavery movement and Underground Railroad trails.


https://voicethread.com/new/share/6274804/

http://voicethread.com/share/6302465/ 

https://voicethread.com/new/share/6302461/

http://voicethread.com/# thread/6274820/32307240

https://voicethread.com/new/share/6307349/

https://voicethread.com/new/share/6275277/

https://voicethread.com/#thread/6302974/32478328/33908797

https://voicethread.com/new/share/6275264/

Literature Book Clubs

*Social Studies Strategy 31: Literature Book Clubs

Children’s literature helps students explore the similarities and differences with other people and places. Quality literature integrates naturally with the social studies and allows the teacher to meet both language arts and social studies learning objectives. Book clubs are standard in many elementary and middle school literacy and language arts programs. When using literature to help students learn social studies teachers must include an explicit focus on the social studies content to be addressed and have learning objectives that address social studies.

Procedures:

1. Determine what will be best learned through a book club.

2. Choose a variety of quality children’s literature that addresses the social studies learning objectives and that is appropriate to the students’ various reading levels.

3. Explain how book clubs work as well as the broader goals of reading and talking about what is read.

4. Provide any necessary background content and skills needed as well as the concepts or themes to be explored.

5. Introduce and display the writing prompts that students will be addressing in their later conversations.

6. Provide quiet time for reading in class, with the teacher reading also. Assigning reading for homework is appropriate.

7. Display and explain writing prompts.

8. A student serves as the discussion leader and uses the writing prompts as conversation starters, noting that the conversation may go in many directions.

9. Gather the class for a brief period to synthesize the many conversations.

10. Continue until the book is completed.

*50 Social Studies Strategies for K-8 Classrooms (3rd ed.)

Application and Ideas

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11JfjQJ5zYH5ja_Ckn5hOsdBDu0L2lIfyt-OPSBqwNxA/edit?usp=sharing

Traveling the Trail of Tears

For the past three semesters, my students and I have learned about the lives of the Cherokee Indians before forced removal, during removal, and after relocation. During the Spring 2014 semester, students made brochures highlighting significant landmarks and other points of interest in states the Cherokee Indians lived and/or traveled through on their forced migration. These brochures are a nice complement to a "This American Life Story" documenting the travels of two sisters who traveled the trail as their ancestors once did (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/107/trail-of-tears). 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuWnpKMF9lc0ZBWWltTmQ5RmRQS005emZVZVln/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuV3JyQml0RTk2ZFk/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuNlNTWlRBek92WWhDVnI0WUhrbnZ4QnkybWRJ/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuSVgwV21ROFVia2RvbDN0M195WUdfYWlxampZ/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuVWs3bHF4Z1EweUFkRFd1RDZJOWw5SG1hV1Jz/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuMFBNVVBnLXpxZmJyaEZ0d1dDQUl4bkRFUm44/view?usp=sharing

The Trail of Tears

For the past three semesters, my students and I have learned about the lives of the Cherokee Indians before forced removal, during removal, and after relocation. This semester we added to our discussion the forced relocation of the Creek, Choctaw, Seminole, and Chickasaw Nations. What the students have created are statements to inspire wonder about the lived experiences of these Nations. They have also included the use of a mapping tool to highlight the former and/or current location of each nation. The mapping tools of choice were found to be user friendly for teachers and elementary students.

Native American Heritage Month

November marks the start of Native American Heritage Month. Here are a few resources to consider for your teaching.

We Shall Remain (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/) is a PBS mini-series documenting the history of Native peoples as an essential part fhistory in the United States.

American Indians in Children's Literature, http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/

The Acatraz Proclamation (http://www.tolerance.org/activity/alcatraz-proclamation-primary-document-activity) is an activity from Teaching Tolerance which highlights the Native American Right Movement.

Reframing Our Views of Native Americans,
http://educatingondiversity.blogspot.com/2014/01/reframing-our-views-of-native-americans.html

Celebrate Indigenous People's Day

Rethink how you teach about Columbus Day. Check out these resources collected by the Zinn Education Project, http://zinnedproject.org/tag/columbus/.

More on Sojourner Truth

As my recent sections of Teaching Elementary School Social Studies are using Social Studies, Literacy, and Social Justice in the Common Core Classroom as our course text, we have discussed the marginalization of social studies in the elementary classroom. In order to expose students to individuals like Sojourner Truth, elementary teachers must purposefully integrate social studies into their comprehensive literacy program. Adding to the videos from this post (http://educatingondiversity.blogspot.com/2014/06/sojourner-truth-puppet-shows.html) students created activities/lessons to accompany an interactive read aloud using a picture book on Sojourner Truth (i.e. Sojourner Truth's Step Stomp Stride by Andrea Davis Pinkney). Below is a link to their creations.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UtyZCOdozMMcHzuRIo7QieQtA-KNcHVB2Adie5znowA/edit?usp=sharing