Multicultural Education

It is nearly two decades since public schools in South Africa began to admit learners from all cultural and racial backgrounds, and this diversity has resulted in a need for schools to evolve with the changing circumstances as well as to maintain excellence. Teachers are faced daily with the challenge of teaching and managing learners of unfamiliar cultures, languages and backgrounds. Multicultural education introduces various models of multicultural education and provides practical, low-cost classroom strategies which teachers can implement effectively in culturally diverse schools.

Multicultural education explores concepts of diversity in society from various theoretical perspectives and discusses the implications of differences and similarities among South African learners. Practical activities at the end of each chapter allow teachers to reflect critically on their own practice, and assist educational leaders to carry out professional development in multicultural education in their schools.

Contents include the following:

• South African policy and legislation relevant to diversity issues
• Cross-cultural communication
• Teaching in the linguistically diverse classroom
• Multicultural approaches to curriculum and learning material
• Positive discipline in the culturally diverse classroom

Multicultural education is aimed at teachers, members of school management teams, school governing bodies and interested parents.