Multicultural Education: Characteristics and Goals
By James A. Banks
Banks, James A. & Cheery A. McGee. Multicultural Education: Issues & Perspectives.
Ed. 4th Ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2001, pp. 3-30.
Questions for Discussion
1. What are the three components or elements of multicultural education?
2. How do Banks define multicultural education?
3. In what ways did the civil rights and women’s rights movement of the 1960s and
1970s influence the development of multicultural education?
4. What major tensions exist among groups, such as various racial and ethnic groups and
between feminists and ethnic minorities? Can multicultural help reduce such
tensions? Is so, how?
5. What is macroculture? A microculture?
6. How is culture defined? What are the most important components of culture in a
modernized society?
7. List and define several core or overarching values and characteristics that make up
the macroculture in the U.S. To what extent are these values and characteristics
consistent with practices in U.S. society? To what extent are their ideals that are
consistent with realities in U.S. society?
8. What problems result when ideals in U.S. society are taught to students as if they
were realities? Give example of this.
9. How is individualism viewed differently in the U.S. and in nation, such as China and
Japan? Why? What are the behavioral consequences of these varying notions of
individualism?
10. What is the American dilemma defined by Myrdal? To what extent is this concept an
accurate description of values in U.S. society? Explain.
11. How do the preferred ways of learning and knowing among women and students of
color often influence their experience in the schools as they are currently structured?
In what ways can school reform help make the school environment more consistent
with the learning and cognitive styles of women and students of color?
12. In what ways does the process of identifying and labeling students with mental
retardation discriminate against groups, such as African Americans and Latinos?
13. In what ways can the characteristics of a group help us understand an individual’s
behavior? In what ways are groups characteristics limited in explaining an
individual’s behavior?
14. How do such variables as race, class, and gender interact to influence the behavior of
students? Give examples to support your response.
15. What does Banks mean when he referred to “social construction of categories”? In
what ways are these concepts such as gender, race, social class, and exceptionality
considered social categories?
16. List and define the five dimensions of multicultural education. How can these
dimensions be used to facilitate school reform?
Adapted from Banks, James A. “Multicultural Education: Characteristics and Goals.” Multicultural
Education: Issues and Perspectives. Eds. 4th edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2001, pp. 25-26.
Thao, CSUMB