More Multiculturalism

           The article, Toward a Centrist Curriculum: Two Kinds of Multiculturalism in Elementary School, talks about the concept of diversity by introducing two different views on the subject of multiculturalism. The first view, introduced by Herman Melville, is called “cosmopolitanism.” This first view is considered universalistic, and the literal meaning of cosmopolitanism “means being a citizen of the world, a member of humanity as a whole” (Hirsch).  The second view, ethic loyalism (ethnocentrism), is a “particularistic view that stresses loyalty to one’s local culture” (Hirsch). To further differentiate between the two views, cosmopolitanism gives an example of the great city of Alexandria where there were “people from every race, nation, and continent rubbing up against each other to form a microcosm of the world” (Hirsch). The ethnic loyalist on the other hand “holds that each culture has a duty to preserve its own identity against the larger cosmopolis” (Hirsch).

            So, how do these two views of multiculturalism relate to the schools and classrooms? Well, it is said that the subjects of American history and literature are moving toward Melville’s vision of cosmopolitanism with the adoption of a curriculum developed by the Core Knowledge Foundation, a group that specializes in the development of a specific core elementary curriculum (Hirsch). The Core Knowledge Foundation created the Core Knowledge Sequence, which is a specific sequence of knowledge for elementary grades that makes up approximately 50% of a school’s curriculum; this leaves another 50% of the curriculum to have local variation, “including integration with more ethnically-centered curricula” (Hirsch).  This split of the curriculum helps incorporate the particularistic view of ethnic loyalism, but in the end the article says that cosmopolitanism is the “only valid multiculturalism for the modern era” (Hirsch).

For me personally my schooling from the elementary grades through high school followed the view of cosmopolitanism, meaning that the curriculum was suited for a diverse student population, which all of my schools had. Adam Waxler in an article titled Multiculturalism in School Curriculum said “different cultures and perspectives can and should be incorporated throughout the various units within the traditional curriculum.” This is very ideal to the schooling I received, and it is definitely the kind of schooling that would represent a “true friend of diversity” (Hirsch). Ultimately, to achieve a true multicultural education, we have to follow the traditional curriculum, but teach in ways that address “various perspectives and allow students to draw their own conclusions” (Waxler).

References:

Hirsch, E.D. (n.d.). Toward a centrist curriculum: Two kinds of multiculturalism in elementary school. Retrieved from https://elearn.mtsu.edu/d2l/lms/content/viewer/main_frame.d2l?ou=2975445&tId=19133313

Waxler, A. (n.d.). Multiculturalism in school curriculum. Retrieved from https://elearn.mtsu.edu/d2l/lms/content/viewer/main_frame.d2l?ou=2975445&tId=19133312