Scene #3 – Multicultural Curriculum
Location: This scene takes place in a public school setting that serves a large number of low-income,
Latino/a and African American students.
Situation: A group of teaching faculty is meeting as a department to discuss issues related to curriculum
development for a set of English Literature classes. The stated objective of the meeting is to discuss
lessons learned and best practices for students’ academic success as the group has been asked to move
toward a shared curriculum.
Meeting Participants:
Chris – White man, 20 years teaching experience
Judy – African American woman, 8 years teaching experience
Monica – Latina, 5 years teaching experience
Sarah – White woman, 5 years teaching experience
Nicole – White woman, 2 years teaching experience
1 - Judy: Our task today is to share what we’ve learned about best practices regarding curriculum
development. It seems that eventually we will be asked to coordinate. Monica and I have been
working together for a while now. One of the things we’ve found really important is to ensure
that we use a multicultural approach when selecting literature and developing lesson plans. We
bring in books from authors of various backgrounds throughout the year and students are able to
appreciate the multiple perspectives. We’d be more than happy to share what we’ve been using.
2 - Chris: I always make sure my students read the classics. They never go out of style.
3 - Nicole: I started using some books from the students’ background during Hispanic and Black
history months. But, it’s really hard to avoid upsetting one of the two biggest minority groups on
our campus. During October the African-American kids felt left out, and then in February all the
Hispanic kids complained. And I fell behind, because I basically skipped two months’ worth of
my regular curriculum.
4 - Sarah: I’m still working at being multicultural. I had the same problem as Nicole at first. But, now I
make sure the students realize that both of their group’s histories are important and they have to
take turns learning about each other. If we don’t, we just reinforce the idea that only white men
can be writers. No offense, Chris. I also had trouble at first not falling behind. But, I’ve found a
way to match the multicultural lessons with my regular objectives, so even though I’m skipping
the normal curriculum, I at least still hit the standards.
5 - Monica: Perhaps we could talk about why the students are only reading from authors that
represent them one month per year. A multicultural approach includes diverse authors throughout
the year. Besides, if we’re at all interested in social justice, we need to be talking about how
racism is embedded in these books and in our choices. I mean, Sarah, I heard you say “normal”,
and I’m not even sure what you mean by that. We’ve never been told which literature books have
to be used in class. We only have a set of core texts and there are plenty of options.
6 - Judy: Thanks. I think this is part of why we’re meeting together. We should really talk about why we
choose what we do and how to ensure the texts meet students’ needs.
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7 – Chris: Bringing race into it isn’t going to help us go anywhere productive. It is offensive and only
creates issues. Matching an author’s background to the student’s takes us down a slippery slope
where we have to keep changing our books depending on demographics and then use less
sophisticated books. It’s a bad idea all around, and it’s based on the idea that students can’t learn
from people from backgrounds other than theirs. I just don’t buy it.
8 - Sarah: I think I know what Chris is saying. I’m not sure about the quality of other, newer books, but
what I meant by “normal” are the traditional books, the ones we all had to read. I figure the kids
do have to read those old classics or else they’ll be even more behind culturally if they get to
college. All that said, I do supplement with books written by authors from their backgrounds
during the heritage months so they can be sure to see themselves represented in what they read.
9 - Judy: I hear that you’re incorporating some voices other than European authors, Sarah, but I’m still not
sure why you think it’s essential that students read a particular set of books in order to be
successful in college. Critical thinking and literature analysis are a set of skills students need, and
those can be taught with many different books.
10 - Monica: Right, and besides, some of those “classics” really are trouble. In some of them the racism
that runs throughout is so bad that even using it to analyze race isn’t worth it. It can be really
hurtful.
11 - Chris: It’s only hurtful if kids are being taught to take literature personally. Just last week some
students said they didn’t want to read Huck Finn aloud anymore because of the words in the
book. But, my response is, “This is literature. It’s fiction. It’s only personally offensive if you
make it so.”
12- Sarah: Well, I did have a lot of students complaining about To Kill A Mockingbird, and I did stop
using that book. It is important to pay attention to our audience. They’re still kids, and we do
have to protect them to some degree, especially if the only characters from some students’
backgrounds are shown in a bad light. We should really be sensitive and avoid that if we can. It
only reinforces society’s messages about who they are and what they’ll achieve.
13- Monica: I appreciate not wanting to reinforce stereotypes, and I also think it’s critical that we avoid
the books that use derogatory language, like those that we’ve named already. But, students do
need to develop critical thinking skills, and choosing books that help them analyze issues of race,
class, and gender can also help them develop those skills.
14 - Nicole: I am really confused. Don’t you think it’s just best that we approach this in a colorblind way?
If we just treat them like regular kids, not trying to overthink this, then we can avoid creating a
problem where it doesn’t really exist. I can’t even imagine asking the kids to find racism and all
that in their books. I mean, I don’t think I pick racist books to read anyway. I already avoid Huck
Finn. And, I wouldn’t want to pick books that have racism or sexism in them on purpose. I mean,
what would be the point of that…just to get them upset and pay attention to negative parts of
society?
15 - Judy: I think it’s really important that we all be able to talk to our students about the real issues of
race and class they face in our society. We talk about it all the time in my class. It just comes up
as a natural part of having a diversity of voices coming through the literature. This is also how
we’re preparing them for success in our diverse world that still has a lot of racism, classism, and
sexism in it. You can see that, right?
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16 – Nicole: Well, yes, I guess.
17 - Sarah: I think so too. But, I understand why Nicole would feel like she does. It’s like opening a huge
can of worms and who knows where it would go? Gender issues, ok, I can do that. But, if we end
up talking about race and class issues the whole time, we’d get derailed and never get to the
literature analysis skills they need.
18- Chris: This entire conversation is ignoring the fact that students need to be able to handle the real
world. Sure, there may still be some racism in some places. I’m not going to get into that. But, the
real world requires them to be tough enough to not fall apart when they hear certain words or
about historical events. Our history has already happened, and students need to face that and take
advantage of the opportunities they have now. The world isn’t going to be so sensitive.
19- Monica: Chris, if you and I both agree that racism does still exist and we all want them to benefit
from the opportunities they have, wouldn’t they be better off if we introduce literature that helps
them understand society better? Even if we don’t approach it from an angle of caring for them
emotionally, wouldn’t they intellectually benefit from having read authors with different
perspectives?
20 – Chris: The classics are filled with different perspectives, if you take a close look. I just think once we
start making race and ethnicity a rationale for why we select certain books, then all these other
issues pop up. Both Nicole and Sarah ended up with upset students when they started trying to
cherry pick authors based on ethnic background. I never have that problem.
21- Monica: You just don’t hear about it.
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