Levels of Integration of Multicultural Content

As a social studies teacher, the integration of social justice into my methodology is not only a goal of mine but an expectation I am held to by myself and the Manitoba curriculum. Including social justice within my methodology means the integration of themes and histories that have to do with the social issues that are affecting Canadian and global populations historically and contemporarily.

Within the grade 9 Manitoba social studies curriculum, a conceptual model by James Banks is provided for reference. This model was made to analyze the levels of integration of multicultural content into the curriculum. But first, what is multicultural content? To me, multicultural content means that the understandings, histories, and perspectives that I am including in my classroom come from a variety of different sources that find value in the varied voices and experiences. My understanding of multicultural content is currently informed by bell hooks and my own lived experiences as someone who grew up in Manitoba's public education system. Taking this understanding into account, I can engage with the levels of multicultural content regarding my own experiences as both a student and a teacher.

Looking at the first level- a focus on heroes, holidays, and discrete cultural elements- is where I started with my explorations into using multicultural content in my teaching practice. I designed a unit for my grade 9 students that explored some of the different fairy tales, legends, and myths around the world. One of my goals for the unit was for my students to recognize the similar values that showed up as themes within stories from different cultures, where practices and teachings have differences. When I was doing a practicum in a K-6 school, I was lucky enough to get support from my administration to plan a school-wide activity in February to teach students about Lunar New Year. My identity and experiences as a Chinese Canadian are a part of what informed how I would approach this. An important tradition is the giving of 红包 (hong bao) to younger relatives and friends. 

The school administration funded the purchase of the red envelopes and chocolate coins for me and my students to put together and share with the rest of the school. I went from class to class with one of my students, who was Chinese as well, and we read a story about how the Chinese zodiac came to be. We handed out the 红包 to students and staff while letting them know the significance of the practices we were sharing. 

The first level of integration of multicultural content is a contributions approach. In my practice so far, I have included stories and holidays.

The second level of integration is the additive approach. Under this approach, content, concepts, themes, and perspectives are added to the curriculum, though the structure is not changed. Working under the social studies and English curriculums gives me a lot of freedom as a teacher, I can use backward design to meet the learning outcomes as outlined within the curriculum, but I can integrate content that could have relevance to the lives and identities of my students and reflect the community they are living in. 

The third level is the transformative approach. Under this approach, the structure of the curriculum is changed to allow students to understand concepts, issues, events and themes from diverse groups and perspectives. The value of lived experience and voices that have historically not been heard or listened to are important to recognize under this approach. An approach highlighted within the Mamàhtawisiwin document is to teach true history. This approach falls under the strategy of understanding world views, values, identities, traditions, and contemporary lifestyles. Teaching true history requires teachers to know about historical events that have had an impact on Indigenous Peoples and make decisions related to content based on this understanding. I feel as though I am privileged to have Anthropology and History as a part of my arts degree, as a lot of the content within those subject areas included the histories of different groups of Indigenous Peoples in North America. A lot of the information was transferred to me through ethnographies and auto-ethnographies, such as Yakama Rising by Michelle Jacob.

The fourth level of integration is the social action approach. Under this final approach, students are to make their own decisions on important social issues and take actions to help solve them. 

I am currently planning a unit for my grade 9 class about law and the Canadian justice system. My plans include explorations into systemic racism and how Indigenous Peoples in Manitoba have been and are still impacted by the effects of colonization within the justice system. Some of the content we will be looking at includes Indigenous forms of justice and sentencing as well as case studies that have recently occurred and may even be in current news cycles. It is my hope that I can work with the learning outcomes in the grade 9 social studies curriculum to try to reach a higher level of integration of multicultural content by having my students explore the ways in which the Canadian justice system has disproportionately disadvantaged Indigenous People as a direct result of colonization, showing the ongoing effects of systemic racism in their own community. 

References

Government of Manitoba. (2023). PDF. Winnipeg; Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning.

hooks, b. (1994). Embracing Change: Teaching in a Multicultural World. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (p33-44). Routledge.

Manitoba Education. (2007). Grade 9 Social Studies : Canada in the Contemporary World : A Foundation for Implementation. Winnipeg; The Government of Manitoba.