According to James A. Banks, founding director of the Banks Center for Educational Justice at the University of Washington's College of Education, there are five key dimensions that need to be considered and addressed when creating multicultural education programs. They are: content integration, the knowledge construction process, prejudice reduction, an equity pedagogy, and an empowering school culture and social structure" (Banks,1995a; Banks, 2021). Multicultural education is designed to create equitable and inclusive learning opportunities by overhauling a school's environment. This effort is made so that from top to bottom, the school reflects the diverse cultures and groups within the community and society it serves (Banks, 2021).

Strategies: Creating Solid Multicultural Educational Practices

Two Content Integration Approaches

• The Context Specific (Contributions ) Approach: Takes place when specific examples from different cultures are used to showcase special events, specific holidays, or a singular moment in history. Although content specific inclusion is a positive step by educators attempting to fill the gaps, this intentional, but exclusive look at differing cultural and ethnic groups can unintentionally maintain the "them" and "us" status quo.

• The Additive Approach: "Special units on ethnic and cultural groups are added to the curriculum, such as units on African Americans in the West, Indian Removal, and the internment of the Japanese Americans. While an improvement over the Contributions Approach, the Additive Approach is problematic because ethnic and cultural groups remain on the margin of the mainstream curriculum" (Banks, 2021).

Knowledge Construction and Transformation Approach

In this approach, the curriculum is adjusted so that content it is taught from the perspective of different cultural, ethnic or racial groups. Teaching new and familiar content from a variety of different perspectives helps students unwrap and deconstruct the cultural biases they once held as fact. When events, issues and situations are reworked and retold through the voices of non-dominant cultural groups, new lessons can be learned and students develop more thoughtful and reflective thinking skills and attitudes (Banks, 2021).

Prejudice Reduction Approach

Educators work to reduce prejudicial attitudes, behaviours and ideologies by first becoming aware of typical prejudices that exist within their dominant society and social structures. With this knowledge, educators can then take measured steps to counteract typical and specific biases and help their students create a more equal and democratic view of differing cultures, races and ethnic groups (Banks, 1995). Although Banks does not discuss LGBTQ+ or other minority groups in his 1995 paper, the same steps could be taken by educators who expand the scope of their efforts to other marginalized groups.

Equity Pedagogy Approach

When teachers make a specific effort to create the best learning environment possible and facilitate the best teaching methods to reach students from differing backgrounds that may include differing racial, cultural and ethnic groups, as well as different gender groups, then they are employing equitable pedagogy (Banks, 1995). As with the Prejudice Reduction Approach, Banks does not mention some marginalized populations such as people with disabilities or the LGBTQ+ community. Today's educational leaders and teachers can apply many of the same strategies to differing populations in an effort to be more inclusive.

Banks makes a very interesting and important statement, "the academic achievement of students of color and low-income students can be increased when teaching strategies and activities build upon the cultural and linguistic strengths of students, and when teachers have cultural competency in the cultures of their students" (Banks, 1995, p. 393).

Empowering School Culture and Social Structure

In this approach to multicultural education, leaders, educators and other stakeholders must look at the educational setting as a microcosm of the larger society in which it is embedded. Elements such as teacher attitudes and biases mix with the curriculum being used, the materials available for concept development, and even the assessment systems in place. Because all of these elements work together to create the learning environment, they all need to be considered and adapted to produce a truly multicultural education setting that matches the diverse populations it serves (Banks, 1995).

Service Learning

Looking for a way to build cultural competence in students? Having them engage in service learning in the community is a great way to pull concepts together.

"Service learning contributes to welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environments by providing opportunities for students and staff to work together on common causes that have a positive impact on others.

Service learning emphasizes critical thinking and personal reflection and encourages a strong sense of community, civic engagement and personal responsibility" ("Service learning," 2020).

Service Learning Alberta

Edutopia Article on Service Learning

Top Image: Kuba Cloth, raffia, Democratic Republic of Congo, https://craftatlas.co/crafts/kuba-textiles