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The Importance of Multicultural Literacy

The document discusses the importance of multicultural literacy for students from diverse cultural backgrounds. It argues that as classrooms become more diverse, it is critical for teachers to use multicultural literature to promote cultural awareness and make all students feel respected regardless of their background. The schools should help students develop multicultural literacy skills so they can have a balanced cultural identity and commitment to social justice. Overall, the document advocates for bringing together students, teachers, and communities to promote cultural acceptance through multicultural literature in order to change the world.

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Shynnie Wen Onsat
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1K views2 pages

The Importance of Multicultural Literacy

The document discusses the importance of multicultural literacy for students from diverse cultural backgrounds. It argues that as classrooms become more diverse, it is critical for teachers to use multicultural literature to promote cultural awareness and make all students feel respected regardless of their background. The schools should help students develop multicultural literacy skills so they can have a balanced cultural identity and commitment to social justice. Overall, the document advocates for bringing together students, teachers, and communities to promote cultural acceptance through multicultural literature in order to change the world.

Uploaded by

Shynnie Wen Onsat
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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“The importance of multicultural literacy to individual”

By: Onsat Shynnie Wen M.

Imagine this. It is your fight of school. You are sitting there behind and waiting for
the teacher to start teaching. All of a sudden the teacher begins speaking in Japanese
and you only know English. How are you going to understand what is being asked of
you? There are many children who came from different places to study in another
place, this is all too common of an experience.

I have been studying in Ifugao State University for 1 and a half year and I have met
different people, different cultures and different language of my classmate.
Sometime I got frustrated by a simple inability to understand the other person’s
language. For me, it is important to understand what others are trying to say. It is
more vital to understand someone’s perspectives.

Literature of any kind can be important for students of other cultures even children. I
have experienced watching my cousin reading different kind of books that was
scattered on their table. He learned all his vocabulary by reading his books all the
time. Now that he is in college, he speaks English fluently. He loves reading about
science and can read many of his favorites.

Our society is becoming increasingly diverse and it is more important now than ever
before to learn all that we can truly create a welcoming classroom atmosphere.

Why multicultural literacy is important?

Multicultural literacy refers to the skills involved when uncovering bias in regards to
culture, as well as the ability to take different perspectives to gain a more human
perspectives.

Teachers can use multicultural literature to promote cultural awareness and respect.
If students can see their culture being portrayed just as anyone else in the class then
they begin to feel comfortable with their differences. It is important to educators to
make sure the students and parents do not feel like they are being judge because of
their culture or socio-economic status. Teachers are the one to provide guidance,
educate, and support their students, parents, and community.

The schools should help students acquire multicultural literacy, which will enable
them to develop a delicate balance of cultural, national, and global identifications
and a commitment to act to change the world to make it more just and humane. If
they teach students to be literate without helping them to develop a commitment to
construct a just and humane world, then it will foster a nation and world in which
there is a “treat of justice everywhere”.
CONCLUSION:

We need to pull together and unite as students, parents, teachers, administrators,


and community to work toward a common goal of cultural acceptance but the
promotion of multicultural literature. The bottom line is that we need to read aloud
to our children and students as much as we can and with as much culturally diverse
appropriate literature there is. We can change the world one child at a time if we
pull together. WE CAN DO IT!!!

REFERRENCE: Banks, J.A (1996). Multicultural education, trans-formative


knowledge and action: Historical and contemporary perspectives. New York:
Teachers college press.

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