Cultural Curriculum Chat with Jebeh Edmunds

Season 6 Episode #16: How to Implement Multicultural Education in Today's Classrooms

• Jebeh Edmunds

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Ready to create an inclusive and engaging learning environment for all your students? 🌟 This video dives into practical ways to implement multicultural education in today’s classrooms.

Learn how to:
✅ Integrate diverse perspectives into your curriculum
✅ Build a classroom culture that celebrates all identities
✅ Engage students with culturally responsive teaching strategies

Whether you’re a new teacher or a seasoned educator, this guide will help you foster empathy, understanding, and success in your classroom. 📚

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back to the Cultural Curriculum Chat Podcast. I am your host, jeba Edmonds, here to inspire, educate and empower educators to embrace diversity and inclusion in their classroom. So, for today's topic is one that is very close to my heart. We are going to talk about how to implement multicultural education in today's classroom. Whether you're just beginning your journey or you're looking for some fresh ideas, this episode is packed with actionable tips, so grab your notepad and let's dive in. So what is multicultural education? First, let's divine it. Let me break it down for you.

Speaker 1:

At its core, multicultural education is teaching and learning that seeks to empower our students by embracing and integrating diverse multicultural perspectives, and it doesn't have to necessarily be race or ethnicity, but it is diversity in all kinds of identities. So this isn't about singling out a diversity day on your calendar or a specific month, necessarily, but it's embedding inclusivity into the whole entire fabric of your classroom community culture. Whole entire fabric of your classroom community culture. And I want you to think about it in terms of, let's say, you are studying a unit on American history. I want you to include narratives of indigenous peoples, african-americans, immigrants and other marginalized communities at the time of that historical event. I love the quote by Gloria Ladson Billings who I'm just paraphrasing is thinking about the quote of Gloria Ladson Billings. She is a huge expert on culturally responsive teaching and learning and she says, and I quote all instruction is culturally responsive. The question is, to which culture is it currently oriented? End quote. So when we talk about cultural responsiveness in multicultural education, she is saying which culture has the spotlight and what other marginalized communities have been in the shadows spotlight and what other marginalized communities have been in the shadows. How do we amplify and put a light on those other marginalized communities inside our instruction? How does it go hand in hand? And I always say we have been human beings at the same time and so understanding that historical events still have those different groups of people at that same time. What happened? What were their voices? How did they respond to this type of an event? Those are the types of things as we are as educators. We want our students to be critical, thinking in their higher order, learning and thinking. That's how we can infuse that into our classroom instruction.

Speaker 1:

The next thing when we were talking about the importance of multicultural education is the. Some people have asked me, jeb, why does multicultural education matter? For one, it fosters that sense of belonging amongst our students with our diverse backgrounds, you know. It makes us feel seen, heard and valued. You've heard me say this on our podcasts and our YouTube for years and it still rings true. It prepares all of our students to succeed. We are no longer in the days of being in homogenized only classrooms. We have diverse students, even if you can't see it by looking at that student, but we do have a diverse student body, and so to prepare our students to succeed in our globalized world is how we can go about it. There's so much research out there that shows classrooms that embrace diversity see a higher engagement, both academically and communicatively as well.

Speaker 1:

Here are some strategies that I want you to do to implement your multicultural educational tools today. First and foremost, diversify your curriculum. Audit, audit, audit. Gone are the days that we take our Rubbermaid bins and we pull out our theme of the unit and it is 25 years old or it's even older than that, because you got that free bin from your retirement buddy who just retired. We got to audit those materials. We need to make sure books that have diverse characters, looking for videos and other resources that have a wide range of voices. Some of the times we get those freebies or those bins and we haven't even opened it, we haven't even reviewed it ourselves. You know, hey, I've been guilty of going quickly because we don't have enough time and then we end up stepping in it and then we end up trying to repair the harm that has been done. All right, we've been there. So I want you to really audit and diversify your curriculum. Next thing, I want us to celebrate our cultural holidays and traditions, incorporate lessons on Diwali, the spring festival and even the lunar new year, which is coming up next month.

Speaker 1:

In talking about students and their own traditions that they share at home, that they can bring to the classroom, encourage that critical thinking. You know me, I love talking about critical thinking, especially with our students, and so guiding your students to question misinformation. You know, ring a bell. You know, ring a bell. So many of the stuff that we have. We can use this to talk about biases in our textbooks. I remember my students going Mrs Edmonds, this doesn't feel right and having those conversations of what makes us feel uncomfortable about this. Would this work today, or even today, today, looking at those firsthand articles and secondhand resources to see how can we have that open space for dialogue and brave spaces too.

Speaker 1:

Of course, when we're talking about implementing multicultural education, there's going to be hiccups, there's going to be pushback, all right. So you might get resistance from your colleagues, you might get resistance from your parents, but my advice to you is to stay focused on your why. Use the data in the research to support your decisions on moving forward. And again, keeping your communication crystal clear and open with your classroom community will really help you get that buy-in that you deserve. So much of it feels so secretive, so much of it feels so I'm just going to close my door and see where it takes us. That also builds that mistrust. So to come in and send a blurb in your weekly classroom newsletter will really go a long way so families can understand that you are opening up more of that dialogue. You are really focusing on having that multicultural educational curriculum into the forefront and priority of your curriculum and also showing them that you are still covering our standards and objectives, because it is a requirement in our scope and sequence as a whole. So you're not doing something that isn't required of you in the first place, all right.

Speaker 1:

So if you are ready to take your multicultural educational journey to the next level. I want you to check out my mini course, empowering your BIPOC Students. It is packed with strategies to make your classroom more inclusive and an equitable space and, as a listener to this podcast, you'll get an exclusive discount if you visit my website, jebaedmondscom, and enroll today. I am only having this open window and you will see in that description below my coupon code so you can enroll today, because we need to make that lasting impact together. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the Cultural Curriculum Chat Podcast and if you are watching me on YouTube, mrs Edmond's Cultural Corner, and if you found value in today's discussion, please leave a review and share this episode with your fellow educators, and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an update. I applaud you and all that you do. Educators, let's keep it going to build our inclusive classroom community. Take care now. Bye-bye.