Rationale: Adolescents are growing up in a society of diverse cultural, ethnic, economic, and racial populations. Students benefit and grow best where this diversity is acknowledged with respect, and activities are designed to integrate all students in educational settings (This We Believe, p. 35).

Benefits of Teaching/Learning about Diversity and Multiculturalism

• American schools are a complex mix of race, cultures, languages, and religious affiliations, with a widening gap between the rich and the poor, creating more social class diversity. Teaching from a range of perspectives will prepare students from diverse groups to work together in a unified nation (Banks, 1994, p. 4).
• From Florida School Year 2000 Project - Middle School Subcommittee (1994):

  Multicultural awareness and education helps to develop students who learn to acknowledge, understand, value, and appreciate cultural diversity and become citizens who respect all people and honor diversity.

• During early adolescent years, students become more aware of the many cultural differences among people in their immediate environment (George, Stevenson, Thomason, & Beane, 1992, p. 75). These authors suggest the use of cultural fairs to celebrate the diverse ethnic groups in a community, state or region as well as around the world.
• Johnston (1992) stresses the importance of interdisciplinary teaming in creating and recognizing the diversity within a school. Interdisciplinary teaming avoids creating group boundaries within a middle school.
• Johnston also stresses the importance of the celebration of diversity with students through the recognition of unique contributions and rewarding all achievements (p. 88). He says that we reward the best athletes, not the whole team, or the superior musicians, not those who back them up. We celebrate high achieving students, not those who achieve despite remarkable odds they overcome. Middle schools should honor everyone.

The "so called" typical American family, which includes a working father, a mother who stays home and two children, now constitutes less than 10 percent of American families (Clark & Clark, 1993, p.48). Schools must recognize and address this family diversity as well as other cultural and ethnic diversities.

Teachers who lead their students in explorations of our extraordinary pluralistic culture create situations that build powerful, reciprocal friendships between generations (George, et al, p.76).

Metz (1986) and Damico (1982) found that teaming had a positive effect on interracial relationships in middle schools. The racial barriers seemed to decrease when students were placed together heterogeneously.

Banks (1993, 1994b) lists five dimensions of multicultural education to help teachers implement and assess programs that respond to student diversity:

1. Content integration ---which deals with the extent to which teachers illuminate key points of instruction with content reflecting diversity.
2. Knowledge connection --- extent to which teachers help students understand how perspectives of people within a discipline influence the conclusions reached within that discipline.
3. Prejudice reduction --- has to do with efforts to help students to develop positive attitudes about different groups.
4. Equitable pedagogy --- concerns ways to modify teaching so as to facilitate academic achievement among students from diverse groups.
5. Empowering school culture and social structure dimension --- concerns the extent to which a school's culture and organization ensure educational equality and cultural empowerment for students from diverse population groups.

George, et al, (1992) stress the importance of utilizing students' natural curiosity and inquisitiveness by leading them into responsible social inquiries. Learning about diversity and various groups can benefit everyone as students and teachers learn more about the everyday lives of others.

Selected References

Banks, J. (1994). Transforming the mainstream curriculum. Educational Leadership 51, (8) 4-8.

Banks, J. (1993). Multicultural education: Historical development, dimension, and practice. In Review of Research in Education, vol. 19, L. Darling-Hammond (Ed.), Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.

Banks, J. (1994b). Multiethnic Education: Theory and Practice. 3rd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Damico, S. (1982). The impact of school organization on interracial contact among students, Journal of Educational Equity and Leadership, 2(3) 238-252.

George, P., Stevenson, C., Thomason, J. & Beane, J. (1992). The Middle School and Beyond. Alexandria: VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Florida Schoolyear 2000 Project - Middle School Subcommittee (1994). Center for Educational Technology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida.

Johnston, H. (1992). Climate and culture as mediators of school values and collaborative behavior. In J. Irvin (Ed.), Transforming Middle Level Education: Perspectives and Possibilities. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Metz, M. (1986). Different by Design: The Context and Character of Three Magnet Schools. New York: Routlage and Keegan Paul.

This We Believe. (1992). Columbus, OH: National Middle School Association.