Multiculturalism in the Modern World: Jen Holladay at TEDxDenverTeachers

Summary

In this TED Talk, a parent Guardian from Denver Public Schools emphasizes the importance of a deeper approach to multicultural education. They critique the superficial inclusion of food, festivals, and folklore, arguing for a more rigorous and critical engagement with diverse perspectives. The speaker advocates for a multiculturalism that is academically rigorous, promotes pro-social skills, and fosters social justice or critical thinking. They share examples from their child's education, highlighting the transformative power of teaching history from multiple viewpoints, such as Native American resistance narratives and the perspective of a buffalo in the context of westward expansion.

Takeaways

• 👨‍🏫 The speaker emphasizes the importance of multicultural education that goes beyond表面的文化元素如食物、节日、英雄和民间故事，提倡深入的内容和教学。
• 🎓 Multiculturalism in education should be rigorous, focusing on content and instruction that supports skill building and advanced learning.
• 🤝 It should foster pro-social capacities, enabling students to view issues from multiple perspectives and work collaboratively in diverse groups.
• 📚 The speaker criticizes the trivialization of significant cultural and historical events, such as serving tacos for Cinco de Mayo, which can reinforce stereotypes.
• 👀 The value of multicultural content is not just in its origin but also in the messages it conveys, which should be carefully considered.
• 🏫 The speaker shares their experience with Highline Academy Charter School, which practices purposeful integration and uses Core Knowledge Plus curriculum to ensure a balanced and rigorous education.
• 🌟 A key example is the teaching of westward expansion, where the speaker wanted their child to understand both the positive and negative impacts of progress.
• 📖 The use of diverse narratives, including resistance stories, is crucial for providing a comprehensive view of historical events.
• 🌱 The Denver Green School's approach to teaching westward expansion from the perspective of a buffalo is highlighted as an innovative method to engage students.
• 🌐 The ultimate goal of multicultural education is to empower children to participate effectively in a diverse democracy, preparing them to be critical thinkers.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the speaker's talk on multiculturalism?

The speaker focuses on a rigorous and advanced form of multiculturalism that includes content and instruction, pro-social capacities, and advancing social justice or critical thinking.

Why does the speaker express concern about using food and festivals to represent multiculturalism in schools?

The speaker is concerned because such practices can reinforce stereotypes and trivialize important cultural aspects, rather than promoting a deeper understanding of the cultures.

What is the risk associated with serving tacos for Cinco de Mayo in schools, according to the speaker?

The risk is that students may not associate the food with the historical significance of Mexican resistance to French occupation, thus trivializing the event.

Why does the speaker criticize the use of folklore and fables in early childhood classrooms?

The speaker criticizes this approach because it may not convey the messages and values of the stories as much as their geographical origin, which is not the primary goal of multicultural education.

What was the speaker's daughter's reaction to the story 'The Selkie Girl' in her multicultural anthology?

The speaker's daughter, and the speaker themselves, were uncomfortable with the story's content, which was inappropriate for a second-grade literacy class.

What are the three characteristics of the multiculturalism the speaker advocates for?

The three characteristics are: 1) Rigor in content and instruction, 2) Development of pro-social capacities, and 3) Advancement of social justice or critical thinking.

What was the controversy in Denver Public Schools regarding the new teacher evaluation protocol?

The controversy arose because the new draft included elements related to social justice, which some community members feared would turn children into socialists, while others argued it was necessary to prevent reinforcing a white supremacist system.

How does the speaker describe Highline Academy Charter School's approach to multiculturalism?

Highline Academy Charter School is described as a purposefully integrated school with a 50/50 split of students of color and white students, using a Core Knowledge Plus curriculum to ensure a rigorous and diverse learning experience.

What was the speaker's concern about her daughter's westward expansion unit in second grade?

The speaker was concerned that her daughter was only getting half of the story, focusing on the positive aspects for some groups while not fully addressing the negative impacts on others, such as Native Americans.

How did Highline Academy Charter School supplement the core knowledge sequence for the westward expansion unit?

They supplemented with various resources including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and resistance narratives to provide a more balanced and comprehensive view of the historical event.

What was the unique approach taken by the Denver Green School for teaching the westward expansion unit?

The Denver Green School taught the unit from the perspective of the Buffalo, offering a unique and multicultural viewpoint that allowed students to understand the impact of westward expansion on different species and environments.

Outlines

00:00

🌟 Multiculturalism Beyond Celebrations

The speaker, a parent and newly employed by the Adams 14 School District, emphasizes the importance of multiculturalism in education. They critique the common approach of focusing on food, festivals, and holidays, arguing that these can reinforce stereotypes and trivialize significant cultural aspects. Instead, they advocate for a more rigorous and meaningful engagement with multicultural content that supports academic skill-building, pro-social capacities, and social justice. The speaker shares concerns about how certain stories, like the 'selkie girl' tale, might be inappropriate or send the wrong messages to children, suggesting a need for careful selection of multicultural educational materials.

05:03

🏫 Implementing Social Justice in Education

This section discusses the controversy surrounding the term 'social justice' in educational settings, particularly within the Denver Public Schools. The speaker recounts how the introduction of social justice elements in a teacher evaluation protocol sparked debate, with some fearing it would indoctrinate children with socialist views, while others argued it was necessary to counter white supremacist ideologies. The speaker clarifies their stance on multiculturalism, aligning it with the development of critical thinking skills and pro-social proficiencies, which involve understanding multiple perspectives and working collaboratively in diverse groups. They highlight their involvement with Highline Academy Charter School, a purposefully integrated school that emphasizes core knowledge plus a diverse curriculum to ensure a comprehensive and equitable educational experience.

10:03

📚 Teaching History from Multiple Perspectives

The speaker shares their personal experience with their daughter's education, focusing on how history, specifically westward expansion, is taught. They express initial concerns about the potential one-sided narrative but are reassured by the school's approach to include a variety of perspectives, including resistance narratives from both Native Americans and white individuals who opposed the Indian Removal Act. This approach is praised for fostering a deeper understanding of historical events as complex and multifaceted. The speaker also describes their daughter's enthusiasm for learning, which led her to request a visit to the site of the Sand Creek Massacre, demonstrating the impact of this educational approach on student engagement and curiosity. Finally, they discuss the unique perspective taken by the Denver Green School, which taught the same historical unit from the viewpoint of the buffalo, symbolizing the importance of considering multiple perspectives in multicultural education.

Keywords

💡Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism refers to the coexistence and interaction of diverse cultures within a society. In the video, it is discussed as an educational approach that has been around for decades, aiming to include and respect the cultural differences of all students. The speaker critiques common practices like celebrating food and festivals, arguing that a more rigorous and meaningful approach is needed to truly understand and value different cultures.

💡Stereotypes

Stereotypes are oversimplified and generalized beliefs about a particular group of people. The speaker mentions the risk of reinforcing stereotypes through superficial multicultural practices, such as serving specific types of food on certain holidays, which can trivialize the complexity and depth of a culture.

💡Pro-social capacities

Pro-social capacities refer to the skills and attitudes that enable individuals to interact cooperatively with others and to contribute positively to society. The speaker emphasizes the importance of developing these capacities in students, suggesting that a true multicultural education should help students to view issues from multiple perspectives and work collaboratively in diverse groups.

💡Social justice

Social justice involves the fair and just relations between the individual and society, which includes the distribution of resources, the recognition of rights, and the participation in decision-making. The speaker discusses the controversy around the term 'social justice' in education, but argues for the importance of teaching students to be critical thinkers who can challenge and address societal inequalities.

💡Core Knowledge

Core Knowledge is a curriculum approach that emphasizes a specific, sequential, and cumulative set of content that children should learn at each stage of their education. The speaker mentions Highline Academy as a 'Core Knowledge Plus' school, indicating that they follow this approach but also supplement it to ensure the curriculum meets the needs of their diverse learners.

💡Westward Expansion

Westward Expansion refers to the 19th-century movement of settlers into the American West. In the script, the speaker discusses how this historical event is often taught from a单一 perspective, but advocates for a more inclusive and critical approach that considers the experiences and resistance of different groups affected by this expansion.

💡Resistance Narratives

Resistance Narratives are stories or accounts that highlight the opposition or struggle against dominant narratives or oppressive forces. The speaker talks about the importance of including these narratives in the teaching of history, such as the resistance to Indian Removal policies, to provide a more balanced and comprehensive understanding of historical events.

💡Pioneer Perspective

The Pioneer Perspective refers to viewing historical events, such as Westward Expansion, from the viewpoint of the settlers or pioneers. The speaker contrasts this with the need to also consider other perspectives, such as those of Native Americans, to gain a fuller understanding of the impacts and implications of such events.

💡Healthy Commons

The Healthy Commons concept refers to the shared resources and environments that communities depend on for their well-being. The speaker mentions the Denver Green School's focus on teaching about the healthy commons as part of their sustainability and environmental education, emphasizing the collective responsibility to protect shared resources.

💡Sustainability

Sustainability generally refers to the ability to maintain processes or states in the long term, often in the context of environmental responsibility. The speaker describes the Denver Green School's focus on sustainability, which includes teaching about the environment and the importance of protecting shared resources for future generations.

💡Diverse Democracy

A Diverse Democracy implies a political system that is inclusive of a wide range of cultural, ethnic, and social groups. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the goal of multicultural education: to empower children to participate effectively in a diverse democracy, indicating the importance of preparing students to engage with and respect the diversity of their society.

Highlights

The speaker emphasizes the importance of multiculturalism in education, which has been a topic of discussion since the 1970s.

Multicultural practices should not be limited to food, festivals, heroes, and holidays, as they risk reinforcing stereotypes and trivializing important issues.

The speaker critiques the common practice of serving culturally specific foods on holidays, suggesting it can oversimplify complex cultural histories.

The value of multicultural content extends beyond the origin of a story to the messages it conveys to the reader.

The speaker shares a personal experience of her daughter reading a story that objectified women, highlighting the importance of story selection in multicultural education.

Multiculturalism should be rigorous in content and instruction, supporting skill building and advanced student instruction.

Pro-social capacities are crucial for students to view issues from multiple perspectives and work collaboratively in diverse groups.

Social justice or critical thinking is a key component of the multiculturalism the speaker advocates for in schools.

The speaker discusses the controversy around the term 'social justice' and how it was met with both support and resistance in the Denver Public Schools community.

Highline Academy Charter School, where the speaker is involved, is a purposefully integrated school with a 50/50 ratio of students of color to white students.

Core Knowledge Plus is a teaching approach that provides a scaffolded set of content, ensuring a comprehensive and sequential learning experience.

The speaker's daughter's school experience with westward expansion was enriched by supplementing the curriculum with diverse perspectives and resistance narratives.

The Denver Green School, which the speaker's daughter later attended, taught westward expansion from the perspective of a Buffalo, offering a unique and multicultural approach.

The speaker urges educators to go beyond表面的multicultural practices to truly empower children to participate in a diverse democracy.

The talk concludes with a call to action for educators to embrace a deeper, more critical form of multicultural education.

Transcripts

so it's important for me to say that I

am here as a parent Guardian from the

Denver Public Schools and I just want to

thank the organizers for inviting a

parent voice into this venue I really

appreciate the opportunity I also just

accepted a job with the Adams 14 School

District's I got to do a little shout

out for Adams 14 you know most TED Talks

talk about a new idea or a big idea I'm

talking about a really old idea it's

been around for decades I'm talking

about multiculturalism we were talking

about it in 1978 and we're still talking

about it today because it's been around

for such a long time it can mean

different things to different people so

I want to talk about some multicultural

practices that I'm not talking about

today I am NOT talking about food and

festivals or heroes and holidays

okay these sorts of things can be really

fun they're very easy to do and if

they're authentic to the cultures that

are represented in our school they can

be really fun community builders but

they also come with some risks one of

the things that I've see a lot out here

as I see I see things on the school menu

we'll have tacos and celebration of

Cinco de Mayo

we'll have Fried Chicken for Martin

Luther King Day we'll have soul food on

the menu during Black History Month and

again these sorts of things can be fun

but they also run the risk of sort of

reinforcing stereotypes and they also

run the risk of trivializing things that

are really really quite important so how

many people here think most of your

students have heard of Cinco de Mayo

right and so if y'all had taught I use

y'all as a gender-neutral pronoun if

y'all had tacos on your menu as your

students are biting into that taco are

they thinking about Mexican resistance

to French occupation that what they're

thinking about No

so it runs the risk of sort of

trivializing something that is actually

quite important

oops can you go back one I'm also not

talking about something we do a lot in

early childhood classrooms which is when

we bring in stories from all over the

world right kind of that folklore and

sort of fables approach again this is

something that's really easy to do it's

also a way to kind of ensure that our

children our diverse children in a

classroom see somebody who looks like

them and what they're reading in the

classroom it's a really easy thing to do

but I want to remind everybody that the

value of multicultural content is not

just about where a story comes from it's

also about the messages that the story

relays to the reader

last year in her second grade literacy

class my daughter was reading a

multicultural anthology one of the

stories that was included in that

anthology was a story called the selkie

girl which is a traditional Celtic tale

and if I were to summarize this story

it's basically about a man who gets

obsessed with a magical seal woman so

I'm going to read one paragraph from

this story he went to look in wonder and

delight he saw three beautiful girls

sitting on the rocks

naked combing their hair one of the

girls had fair hair one red and one

black the fair haired girl was singing

she was the most beautiful of the three

and he could not take his eyes from her

he gazed and gazed at her gleaming white

body okay this was my daughter's

response to that story I would say it

was my response as well so when you are

using sort of the stories from around

the world approach remember that the

messages matter the messages of the

story matter as much as where the

stories come from to be fair to my child

this is what Zooey looks like happy okay

so if I'm not talking about food and

festivals or heroes or holidays or

folklore and fables what am I talking

about I am talking about the kind of

social the kind of multiculturalism

that's characterized by three base

big things it is rigorous in terms of

content and instruction very rigorous it

supports all that skill building we're

so concerned about it also is designed

particularly with instruction to

advanced students pro-social capacities

and that's a big phrase that just means

our students can look at issues from

multiple points of view and they can

work collaboratively in diverse groups

that's what pro-social proficiencies are

and the third thing that the kind of

multiculturalism that I'm talking about

does is that it advances social justice

let's talk about that for a second last

fall in the Denver Public Schools we had

a little kerfuffle DPS rolled out the

new a draft of the new teacher

evaluation protocol and it included some

elements that related to this term

social justice and so it brought out

some pretty significant responses in our

community to some people in our

community if we focus on social justice

that means we're going to turn all of

our children into socialists who hate

white people okay this of course this

kind of response then brought out people

from the other end of the spectrum who

said if we don't have an emphasis on

social justice in our schools that just

means our schools will serve to

reinforce the white supremacist

heterosexist oligarchy and by the way so

right so if you get hung up on the

social justice term if it's not a term

that works well for you I'm going to

take a cue from our school

superintendent Tom Bose Berg when we

were having this kerfuffle in DPS

who just came back and said we want our

kids to be critical thinkers

multiculturalists are interested in our

children being able to look at issues

from multiple points of view work

collaboratively with each other

and really kind of solve problems so the

kind of multiculturalism that I'm

talking about is the kind that is

rigorous academically content and

instruction it advances pro-social

proficiency particularly through

instruction and it advances social

justice or critical thinking would ever

term you're most comfortable with

so one of the schools that I have the

privilege of being involved in in Denver

and Denver Public Schools is Highline

Academy Charter School

I'm the board president there that's a

volunteer position where I work

full-time and yeah and Highline Academy

is a k-8 public charter school

authorized by Elissa authorized by the

Denver Public Schools we are a

purposefully integrated school and we

mean that like in the old school way we

are 50% of color and 50% white that's on

purpose and the demographics of South

East Denver allow us to do that we're

also what we call a court what we call

literally we made this up we are a core

knowledge plus school those of you who

know core knowledge if you don't know

core knowledge what it basically is it's

a it's a sequence and a scaffolded set

of content that spirals up through the

grade levels and it's a really useful

tool because it allows us to make sure

that you know our kids aren't reading

that I have a dream speech every year

when they when they do Martin Luther

King Day right it just allows us to

create shared knowledge and second grade

that is then built upon in the fifth

grade so when Zoe my daughter was in 2nd

grade last year this was when they had

their first introduction to westward

expansion and it was now High Line High

Line has where a core knowledge Plus

school

we supplement our content a lot to make

sure it meets the needs of our diverse

learners and when Zoey got into this

westward expansion unit it was a whole

bunch of a pioneer wagon trains River

boats trains and that and varied that

based sort of in this manifest destiny

mentality and that is a perfectly valid

way to teach westward expansion it

really is because westward expansion was

really really good for a lot of people

and we probably would not be here today

had it not unfolded the way that it did

but westward expansion was not good for

everybody

and I was really worried that Zoey was

only getting sort of half of the story

and so I sat down and I thought to

myself okay what is it I really want her

to know by the end of this unit what do

I wanted to be able to answer and I

wanted her to be able to think about how

can progress be both positive and

negative that's really what I wanted her

to be able to reflect on with this unit

and so we supplemented a lot we

supplemented a lot we brought in the

core knowledge sequence for example

includes a short story that's the that's

told from the perspective of a pioneer

girl who's going out on the road right

and so we then diagram early grades

teachers best friend we did a Venn

diagram activity using a story about a

bitterroots Eilish girl who was being

forcibly removed from her home that was

one way we brought in we brought in

fiction nonfiction we brought in poetry

from the Choctaw we brought in an

important thing that we brought in were

resistance narratives because when you

teach history particularly this episode

of history it's almost like it's a

foregone conclusion but there was

massive resistance to policies of Indian

Removal we certainly taught some of the

resistance narratives from Native

America but we also made a point to do

resistance resistance narratives from

white folks the the ladies of stupid

Ville oh hi Oh a group of Quaker women

who wrote to Congress asking them to be

more equitable a u.s. senator who gave a

six-hour long speech

on the floor of Congress asking folks to

reject the Indian Removal Act we brought

in lots and lots of different things and

by the end of the unit my child and many

others could answer or at least reflect

on right about that essential question

in what ways can progress be both

positive and negative they used all of

their skills their reading skills their

writing skills we had mapping activities

for geography we had graphing activities

for math it was a whole sort of skill

based it was very rigorous for my child

she was really transformed I would say

by this unit it really sparked a passion

for her I took at least three trips to

the bookies which is our little

independent teacher bookstore in

southeast Denver to get her nonfiction

books about Native America that kind of

thing and then she did the most

incredible thing she asked us to do

something over spring break she didn't

want to go to camp she didn't want to

lay around and play video games this is

what she wanted to do she wanted to go

see the side of the Sand Creek Massacre

because she had read about it in some of

her books

so she was really really motivated by

this content you know that you're

getting it right when the kids are doing

it on their own time you know you're

getting it right so between second and

third grade Zoey changed schools she is

now at the Denver Green School which is

a when it's fully enrolled it'll be a

k-8 vk8 and it's an innovation school

which means it's it's a traditional DPS

school but it's got its own kind of

thing going on it does have an

environmental if I could get some water

that would be helpful

and it does have an environmental focus

but it's really built around these

principles of sustainability and it's a

little different than environmentalism

so for example they are really

interested in teaching children about

the healthy commons how do we protect

the healthy commons thank you

hmm much better so the idea of the

healthy commons is there are things that

we share in common right we share the

earth we share the land we share the

water how do we work collectively to

protect those things so Zooey goes to

the Denver Green School and wouldn't you

know at there teach in westward

expansion in the third grade right I'm

like really because we just we just did

this and we just did it really well and

it was it was awesome and now she's

going to sit in class and do it all over

again

well cartel cartel Jacquet her teacher

definitely did lay down some background

knowledge about what happened for Native

America and the Pioneers and that sort

of thing and then mr. Jacquet did

something that rocked my daughter's

world and it rocked my world and it's

very Denver Green School he taught the

unit from the perspective of Buffalo

right and if you think about

multiculturalism being about inviting

multiple perspectives think about the

power of children looking at westward

expansion from these three frameworks it

was really quite a beautiful it was a

really beautiful and exciting thing for

my daughter and for me and hopefully for

all the kids so I just want to ask all

of the educators in the room that when

you think about doing multiculturalism

please don't stop with heroes and

holidays food and festivals folklore and

fables please don't stop there and maybe

don't even start there because there is

a wonderful way to do a kind of teaching

and learning that is going to build

those academic skills you care about

that's going to allow children to really

look at issues from multiple

perspectives and that is going to enable

them to sort of think very critically

and and doing multicultural education

really at the end of the day is about

empowering our children to be really

prepared to participate in our diverse

democracy thank you very much

you