isions reflect a school’s fundamental values and that students will benefit from having educators and role models from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds.
- Legislative and legal issues: The rise of multicultural education has also coincided with a number of legislative and court actions. Laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, the Equal Educational Opportunity Act of 1974, and the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1974, among many others, increased the visibility of multicultural education and led to the widespread adoption of more multicultural approaches to education in American public schools. Federal, state, and district policies, in addition to major legal decisions related to desegregation (Brown v. Board of Education, 1954), the education of bilingual students (Lau v. Nichols, 1974), and fairness in school finance (San Antonio v. Rodriguez, 1973), for example, have also had a major effect on multicultural education in schools.
As demographic changes in the United States have significantly increased the cultural diversity of student populations in public schools—many urban districts, for example, are already “majority minority” districts—multicultural policies and practices have become important and sometimes contentious issues.
At the center of many debates about multicultural education is the question of whether such approaches might actually serve to divide rather than unite Americans, and whether certain strategies are fundamentally fair to all students. In the view of some educators, parents, and others, increasing emphasis on diversity and multiculturalism in schools has shifted attention toward economically disadvantaged students of color, and away from white students from wealthier and more educated families. For example, strategies such as “heterogeneous grouping”—the grouping of students with different abilities, backgrounds, and levels of preparation in a single class—often leads to concerns about whether the practice disadvantages higher-performing students who may not be sufficiently challenged in the courses.
While the debates about multicultural education are both numerous and nuanced, many center on differing interpretations of equity—what is fair and just—and equality—what is applied, allocated, or distributed equally (for example, a school might choose to allocate resources—funding, teachers, staff time, etc.—equally among all students). Another source of debate stems from the conception of America as a meritocracy in which anyone, if they work hard enough, can succeed and prosper. Those who believe in and prioritize meritocracy may perceive unequal educational allocations, accommodations, or compensations to be unfair (because some students are being given an unfair advantage, which may diminish opportunities for other, possibly more deserving, students). Others, who don’t perceive America to be a true meritocracy, may argue that the unequal distribution of educational resources is the only fair way to level the playing field and ensure that every student has an equal—or equitable—opportunity to succeed. For a more detailed discussion of these debates, see equity.
The following list describes a few representative examples of multicultural education giving rise to debate:
- Affirmative action: While affirmative action policies are frequently misunderstood—e.g., they are often misrepresented as quota systems for minorities, for example—the practice of giving certain minority groups preferential treatment in school admissions has been a source of ongoing debate in the United States, and it has led to charges of reverse-bias (some even refer to the practice as “positive discrimination”). While proponents of multicultural education would argue that affirmative action is motivated by the desire to counterbalance a legacy of systemic, institutionalized bias and to expand educational opportunities for all students, critics tend to argue that students should be admitted to schools based solely on academic performance and other objecti