Outline

Introduction

As the United States sees the first largest increase in immigration since the early nineteen hundreds, the elementary classroom is becoming more diverse than ever. With so many different cultures being brought together in these environments, it is important that the curriculum provides these diverse populations with activities and materials in multicultural education. (Hopkins and Tastad, 399).  Multicultural literature can be used as an effective avenue for teachers to incorporate this type of education into the curriculum.  This literature will provide ways for children to explore diversity.  

“Multicultural literature is literature that depicts and explores the lives of individuals who belong to a wide range of diverse groups” (Bainbridge, Panataleo, and Ellis, 183).  Diversity is used in the most general sense of the word as the multicultural children’s literature should reflect differences not only in skin tone, but language, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, family structure, class, physical and mental disabilities, and ethnicity.   The public schools are changing rapidly as immigration is reaching an all time high (Hopkins and Tastad, 399). As more people are coming to this country there is more and more diversity in every classroom.  As they become more culturally diverse throughout the country, there will be an increase in the need for multicultural works in every school. 
        
  Why Multicultural Literature is Important (Goals)

The goal of using multicultural literature in the elementary classroom is for children to become critical thinkers who can consider multiple perspectives before drawing conclusions about any issue.  Children’s literature is a perfect vehicle for getting children to enter other worlds as it introduces children to these other worlds away from their norm. (Fresch 443)  

When a child lives vicariously the life of a character in a book, he or she usually can find something within that character that they themselves relate to.  If a child faces similar issues that the character from another culture faces, then the child will begin to see that there are similarities in everyone, just as there are differences in everyone. Research has shown that reading multicultural literature accompanied by discussion can significantly improve a child’s acceptance of difference. 

When the students are exposed to this literature at early ages at school as well as at home, they develop the most positive attitudes toward differences.  The younger aged children’s attitude toward multiculturalism is most modifiable at these times.  Just because a teacher tells students to be tolerant of others does not mean they are going to be.  That is why it is so important to begin in the early years.  (Bainbridge, Panataleo, and Ellis, 185)           

Although it is extremely important for students to read books about other cultures to gain understanding of those cultures, it is more important for the curriculum to provide literature of cultures that are represented in the classroom.  It is crucial for all children to feel a sense of belonging within a classroom in order for them to benefit from the class to their highest potential.  If they are able to identify with literature that resembles themselves, they are more likely to have a higher self-confidence and do better in the class overall. (Mcmahon and Reeves, 16)

Increasing student’s interests in reading has been proven to help motivate them to become better readers.  If children can personally relate to what they are reading about, then they will be more apt to want to read.  If literature does not reflect children’s situations, they may begin to view their personal situation as incorrect. (Hampton, Rak, and Mumford, 11)  

Teachers face the challenge of creating classroom environments where every child is accepted.  They need to remind students that we are all human.  No matter what our differences, we are alike in that one way.  All humans should be created equal and that is something they need to take into their lives as they are faced with negative influences as they grow up. (Cameron, 3). 

It is impossible to “teach a culture” in a limited amount of time, so by introducing students to many cultures without using stereotypes, will allow them to realize the wide array of differences among the world.  Educators need to use literature that reflects diverse situations to promote more effective learning for all students. Through literature a child can face the same issues that the characters face.  Children enjoy reading about others who remind them of themselves.  Incorporating multicultural literature into the curriculum may help some students to bring insight into misunderstandings between cultures.  Each and every story is told from a different point of view, by exploring these points of view, students might be more inclined to consider these different points of view before making decisions in their own daily lives. (Fresch, 446)

It is suggested that culture influences how we read and write, and if this is true, then the more students are exposed to culture, the more they will be able to contribute to their school work. (Fresch, 447).  

Literature is also considered an art form and by discovering literature that influences students, they are opening a world of discovery of their own personal gifts.  Literature is also capable of passing on social and cultural values to readers.  All children need to value themselves and their roots.  The ultimate goal for teachers is to help children realize that all people from all cultures are equal, we are all human beings.  We need to teach children to recognize the importance of being human.  Multicultural literature is often a universal story were the theme of the book has happened to nearly all the children in the world (Cameron, 3)

When a student can find something within a character from another culture that they relate to in themselves, they may be better able to understand the similarities amongst people from across the world.  Teachers influence students so much and they need to encourage positive attitudes towards difference.    

   Teachers' Responsibility

Teachers need to create healthy, multicultural environments in the classroom and also the school as a whole. Teachers have an enormous responsibility in properly facilitating the multicultural literature that they introduce to the classroom.  If the literature is not chosen properly or the discussions are overlooked, multicultural literature in the classroom will not provide as great of an impact.  They need to search for books that provide multiple perspectives for students to gain better understanding for the need of fairness in diversity in social issues.  A teachers own culture may bias the way they interpret a literary work so it is important that teachers put their bias’ aside as they might unknowingly limit cultural understandings and hinder students own values and opinions of other cultures.  

In order for teachers to properly teach multicultural literature, they must facilitate discussion after every reading.  When a student feels comfortable in their environment, they will be more willing to discuss their opinions and fears.  If the teacher does not allow time to answer their questions and talk about what they’ve read, the literature could possibly be misunderstood. 

Teachers need to celebrate the diversity in their classroom as well as in the entire world, as no classroom will represent even a small fraction of the diverse cultures throughout the world.  They need to make sure that absolutely every child feels welcome in their class and treat them with respect. 

Many teachers that are new to the profession are not properly trained to facilitate multicultural literature.  There are debates at the national level that discuss the amount of diversity training teachers should have before they enter the classroom.  The most important thing that these teachers need to realize is the effect that their opinion has on their students and how it influences their lives. (McMahon and Reeves, 15).

  The Problems
There are problems concerning multicultural children’s literature.  Less than ten percent of the children’s books published each year in the United States are multicultural.  Even more upsetting is the fact that fictional stories in this area are becoming even more scarce and fiction is what allows children to live the lives of characters in other cultures to gain better understanding of how other people live. (Hopkins and Tastad, 399) 

There is a concern about the amount of ethnic writers that are writing children’s literature.  Even though many of these writers are not getting published, some people feel that only a person from a culture can properly write about that culture.  Others feel that writers that are not from that culture can accurately write about the culture with proper research.  Many multicultural stories, in trying to be extremely politically correct, have a tendency to stereotype character or have them exceptional good at something like academics or athletics which defeats the purpose of writing stories about people the children can relate to.  Other stories have been found to very accurately portray one culture while another culture is stereotyped.  The story Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman and Caroline Binch, is about a young African American girl who gets the part in a play as Peter Pan, “even in this excellent contemporary self-worth story, a scene is presented in which Grace is ‘playing Indian’”(Hopkins and T astad, 403).

  Conclusion
Multicultural literature needs to reflect the standards of good literature, while revealing the cultural wonders of our world.  There is more and more research available on teaching multicultural literature and although it is becoming more and more prevalent in the classroom, schools across America have a long way to go.  Teaching multicultural education is a necessity and multicultural literature is an extremely effective way to bring multicultural education into a curriculum.