Welcome to Multicultural Studies

This course offers students the opportunity to examine important themes in America’s pluralistic democracy, question and analyze the relationship between these issues and diverse cultural groups, and to make decisions and take action on multicultural issues affecting themselves and others. This course does not offer simply a history of dominant or minority cultural groups. It engages students directly by introducing questions on topics such as political power, cultural identity, civil rights and gender equality. The course’s objectives specifically are to:

* Reflect the cultural context in which students live as well as the diverse learning styles of students in the classroom.
* Incorporate many interdisciplinary and differentiated instruction lesson strategies into class projects and activities.
* Give students the opportunity to explore and define their own cultural identities and ethnic heritages as well as those of the communities in which they live.
* Explore the stories and experiences of diverse ethnic and cultural groups in American history, tracing their multicultural roots back to their nations of origin and examining their struggles with racism, prejudice, inequality and oppression as well as their successes in creativeexpression, political empowerment and economic improvement.
* Examine the conflict between ideals and realities concerning social justice, economic equality and political freedom.
* Expose students to identifying and questioning ethical values and choices in a multicultural context.
* Support cultural diversity and pluralism in the values, attitudes and behaviors of a multicultural society and help students build decision making and problem solving skills that will help them become active and effective citizens.
* Challenge students to question their own values, attitudes and behaviors by examining the social construction of knowledge as related to multicultural issues.
* Help students learn to interact and coexist in a multicultural society by developing awareness of tolerance, justice, respect and activism.
* Use comparative models of continually changing diverse racial, ethnic and cultural groups to examine and question important political, economic and social issues from many different perspectives.
* Examine issues of class, gender and sexual identity and demonstrate to students the relationships, patterns and lessons to be learned from each by examining history and current events.
* Encourage students to compare political, economic and social relationships of power and authority to those of non-violence and peace.
* Build in students skills of thoughtful inquiry, discussion, critical thinking and problem-solving.

So, this week, we are exploring the origin of ‘race’ and ‘culture’ and their meaning in our lives today. We’ve been drawing a lot of resources from the PBS documentary, Race: The Power of an Illusion. Here’s it’s companion website: http://www.pbs.org/race/000_General/000_00-Home.htm. There’s a lot of good information and interactive stuff there. Check it out and let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to our class being engaging and educational. See you in class!