Page 29 - Linguistically Diverse Educational Contexts

• conservative, whereby the dominant white majority of society acquiesces to multiculturalism and treats ethnic minorities as an "addition" to American culture; this refers to controlled multiculturalism;
• liberal, which assumes that natural equality between whites and other racialised populations exists but is absent due to unequal access to opportunities for social and educational self- realisation for oppressed groups; such a situation requires fundamental state reform leading to the practical realisation of the idea of equality;
• left-liberal, which focuses on identifying differences related to race, class, gender, and sexuality, hence the various sexual minority and feminist movements. It is stressed that the universalist humanism underpinning the ideology of equality obscures the fundamental cultural differences between races and therefore these differences need to be taken into account in order to understand the essence of the determinants of different behaviour, values, attitudes, and social practices;
• critical, which rejects the conservative and liberal emphasis on "sameness" and the left-liberal search for "difference", and instead calls for social policies to take cultural criticism into account and move towards constructing a culture that is democratic and open to difference (Grzybowski, 2008, pp. 28-29).
As I mentioned above, the assumptions of the multicultural education model overlook the role of the interrelationship between minority groups and the dominant environment. However, multicultural education in America is not static. In Nieto's (2010) publication, such features of multicultural education as building mutual relationships, mutual understanding, and changing the way we think about minority or migrant students shine through. At the same time, one perceives a narrative in which there is one dominant culture in which all Others/foreigners are welcome, but valuing is done hierarchically anyway.
Nieto (2010, p. 68) describes multicultural education as:
• anti-racist education;
• widespread education;
• education for social justice;
• education as a continuous and dynamic process;
• education coming from a critical pedagogy.
Multicultural education, according to Nieto, is by definition inclusive, as it is for all people and for all people regardless of their talents, social background, language, religion, race, or other differences. Multicultural education is not a specific task that one would perform at a specific time or a subject whose content can be discussed. Multicultural education is as a rule pervasive and permeates all spheres of school life, such as the school atmosphere, the environment, the curriculum, the relationship between teachers and pupils, and the local environment. It is visible in lessons, during breaks, in contacts with parents (also in their mother tongue), and even on notice boards in the school. Developing a multicultural perspective means changing our thinking in a more inclusive and expansive way. At the same time, we reflect on what we have learned and adapt our learning to real learning situations. Finally, multicultural education is referred to as a process primarily because it also focuses on intangibles such as expectations of student achievement, learning environments, and other cultural variables that are necessary to know if we are to support all students on their journey to success. It is
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