As we approach Martin Luther King Day (January 15th), it is important to reflect on how we share our country’s history with our students. Frequently, a few days (maybe even only a lesson) are spent celebrating the accomplishments of a person or the historical impacts of an event. The information that is shared is factual (Mostly. This was a hard lesson I had to learn in recent years.) in nature, generic, and tends to be told linearly. We do not always ask our students to think critically about history: most importantly how what happened in the past is directly related to what is happening in the present. The history of the United States is a complicated, messy, multicultural affair, not the static subject taught in a classroom. New evidence and interpretations are being brought forth all the time, which changes the meaning and impact in our present time, and our students should be given the opportunity to struggle to understand this history, much like they struggle to learn the relevance of atomic theory or a world language.
I say all of this as I am currently reading Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen. Don’t be swayed by the title, he is not raging against teachers. Loewen points out how history is predominately taught from the Eurocentric and nationalistic viewpoints of our country. To make his point, he delivers one of my favorite paragraphs from his book:
Textbooks in American history stand in sharp contrast to other teaching materials. Why are history textbooks so bad? Nationalism is one of the culprits. Textbooks are often muddled by the conflicting desires to promote inquiry and to indoctrinate blind patriotism. “Take a look in your history book, and you’ll see why we should be proud” goes an anthem often sung by high school glee clubs. But we need not even look inside. The tiles themselves tell the story: The Great Republic, The American Pageant, Land of Promise, Triumph of the American Nation. Such titles differ from the titles of all other textbooks students read in high school and in college. Chemistry books, for example, are called Chemistry or Principles of Chemistry, not Triumph of the Molecule. And you can tell history textbooks just from their covers, graced as they are with American flags, bald eagles, the Washington Monument.
Most of Loewen’s critical critiques are placed on historians and book publishers. Though some improvements have been made in recent years, many of these books still tell a history that deliberately forgets or glosses over our country’s past actions. So how do we as educators create curriculums to directly combat this and thereby making our content more culturally relevant? As an aside, if you are interested in learning more about the blatantly racist and imperialistic policies of President Woodrow Wilson, the strong socialist views held by the activist Helen Keller, or how the legend of Thanksgiving is ethnocentric, check it out. FYI, the picture I have in my head of a chemistry book called “Triumph of the Molecule” makes me giggle uncontrollably. Upon reflection, a title such as that on a chemistry book is probably closer to the truth than when applied to a history book.
When we are asking our students to learn about historical and present-day people, places, and things, it is important to keep in mind the “Banks’ Levels of Integration” in teaching and implementing a multicultural education. A multicultural educational approach directly works against content that is learned in a static, linear way. It gives depth, reason, and more points of connection to our daily lives. This doesn’t just apply to historical topics but should apply to an entire curriculum for any age.
James A Banks, Emeritus Professor at the University of Washington, is a leader in the space of multicultural education and how to implement the approach in classrooms. He has developed a helpful model for making any curriculum more culturally relevant and sustaining. The basics are as follows:
- Level 1 – The Contributions Approach
- Focuses on heroes, holidays, and discrete cultural elements.
- Content is primarily limited to special days, weeks, and months related to multicultural events and celebrations. For example, a Spanish class celebrating Cinco de Mayo, putting up posters in the hallway to highlight AAPI Heritage Month, or completing one lesson on MLK to celebrate and note his birthday.
- Focuses on heroes, holidays, and discrete cultural elements.
- Level 2 – The Additive Approach
- Content, concepts, themes, and perspectives are added to the curriculum without changing its structure.
- Though a step in the right direction, this approach can oftentimes lead to the viewing of multicultural content from the perspective of only the majority group, typically and predominately white and male.
- Content, concepts, themes, and perspectives are added to the curriculum without changing its structure.
- Level 3 – The Transformation Approach
- The structure of the curriculum is changed to enable students to view concepts, issues, events, and themes from the perspectives of a diverse number of multicultural groups related to the specific content.
- This approach changes and challenges the basic assumptions and interpretations given by the majority group perspective. It asks students to also view different perspectives from multicultural groups giving the content an opportunity for a more thorough analysis.
- The structure of the curriculum is changed to enable students to view concepts, issues, events, and themes from the perspectives of a diverse number of multicultural groups related to the specific content.
- Level 4 – The Social Action Approach
- Students make decisions on important social issues and take action to help solve them.
- The major goal of this final level is to educate students on social criticism and change while teaching them decision-making skills.
- Students make decisions on important social issues and take action to help solve them.
If you would like to see an example, check out the video, (embedded below) which explains how a specific lesson can be modified for each level to integrate more culturally relevant concepts and provide opportunities for critical thinking. Like many pedagogical approaches, only some concepts need to be taught at a Level 4 of integration and a lesson designed to be at a Level 4, does not necessarily mean that it will take more time out of your instruction. Take a critical eye to your curriculum and look at where you might increase your curriculum’s level of integration. Your students will build skills to become more socially conscious while learning how to think critically about the world around them.
