Sociology

It is clearly evident in many classrooms today the rich and colorful diversity of todays society in most parts of the world. Mere educating of the children is no longer enough nowadays as such the educational setting is even more revolutionized. The schools and learning environments must work for all the aspects and must consider the diverse cultures of the communities they serve.

As such the students of this generation are exemplified with different learning styles, habits, cultural orientation and socio-economic background, there must be high observance on the implementation of multicultural education in every classroom of the world.

Eventhough there is a limited budget for the education sector, the Philippines have multicultural education in both schools and nonschool activities to conform to the changing needs of the students of the modern generation (Mitchell  Salsbury, p. 259). The Office of the Deputy Minister for Higher Education (now Department of Education) is the responsible to ensure that multicultural education is properly observed inside the classrooms of the country (Mitchell  Salsbury, p. 259).

In the Philippines educational system, the issue of the multicultural education which is considered as a problem that has plagued many other countries in the world is properly addressed. For instance, there are different ethnic groups that can be found inside the classrooms of the country. These include the Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, Protestants, Animists, Chinese, Mestizos, and native Filipinos (Mitchell  Salsbury, p. 259). Albeit their different cultural, social and religious orientation, these students are receiving equal and fair treatment from their teachers in terms of the subject content, class discussion, cultural and religious exploration and the like.

Moreover, in the Philippine school setting, there is no racial discrimination among gender, social classes, economic status and religious affiliations. Boys and girls are given fair treatment inside the four walls of the classroom. The teachers are not speaking about the color, religion, economic stability and gender of the students. These things are not big deal inside the school in terms of their treatment to the students. Though the country is not financially stable with regards to the program, efforts are still being made to solve the issue on multicultural education within the context of the countrys educational system (Mitchell  Salsbury, p. 261).

This type of educational scenario was developed due to the pressing needs of the stakeholders of education to understand and acknowledge the differences of the students in many ways so that the plurality in education will be highly observed. The teachers and other stakeholders of the country realized that there should be a need for the adaptation of the multicultural education in order to suffice the needs of the diverse students.

And to conform to the revolution of todays education, the country, particularly its schools, genuinely adhere to the principles of multicultural approach. Though this requires ample time, money and effort, the observance of multicultural education in the classroom is indeed a great choice for every educational institutions as such it will bring high degree of success in all the aspects of education.

One of the advantages of observing multicultural education in the classroom is the elimination of racism and sexism among the students. Through teaching the culturally different approach, there will be an attempt to raise the academic achievement of the students of color through culturally relevant instruction (Sleeter, p. 30). It should be noted always that eventhough students have differences, there should be equal opportunities inside the classroom as such education is a right of everyone. The aim of the schools should be to encourage the full development of the students regardless of the diverse racial, ethnic and gender groups of the students (Banks, p3. ). Educators, hence, must eliminate all structures of education that impede learning of the ethnic minorities and women. There should be equal opportunities between the man and woman or between the rich and poor so that there would be a sense of multiculturally responsive classroom approach in the schools.  This is thus the reason why in the countrys educational set-up, equal opportunities are given to the students regardless of gender. For instance, the students whether boys or girls are given the opportunity to participate in all the activities of the classroom such as recitation, discussion, project making and the like.

Multicultural education approach, moreover, promotes the idea of democracy in a pluralistic society. It is through this approach of education, students learn to value cultural knowledge and differences (Sleeter, p. 40). This is a good value that the students might learn with the multicultural approach. As they understand the diversity of the educational setting, they are implicitly learning also the sense of democracy and fairness within themselves which will be very helpful to the students when they are ready to face the realities of the society.

Nevertheless, the practice of multicultural education is not that easy because there are a lot of considerations which need to be taken. In the multicultural classroom, there must be a culturally responsive curriculum to suffice the needs of the different students. The teacher should prepare a lesson which will consider the subject matter as well as the diverse culture of the students. For instance, in this set up, the teacher may present a view of mathematical thinking that incorporates the ways in which culture and mathematics are related and intertwined (Nielson, p. 234). In sciences, the study of environments can be done from the perspectives of the diversity of cultural understanding. Eventhough this would mean additional and laborious tasks on the part of the teachers, it is better as compared to monocultural as such there will be a high manifestation of learning not only in the subject matter but also in the culture of their respective orientations. While the students are learning the subject matter that they need to accomplish, they are likewise acquiring a sense of the understanding the different cultures that the different students posses in their classroom.

In the teaching and learning process of the multicultural approach, likewise, there is a need for various teaching strategies to cater the various learning needs of the different learners inside the classroom. In this case, the teachers must consider that students are confined with the multiple intelligences and each type needs different teaching maxims (Armstrong, p. 29). When teaching a particular subject, the teacher must not only use devices which are intended for the visual learners but also to the other types of learners such as auditory, tactile, and the like.  For instance, the teacher may provide visual aid for the visual learners, recordings and sounds for the auditory and practical application for the tactile type of learners. Through this, there would be less discrimination in the different types of learners. The students find no discrimination as such all of them are being addressed with their different learning needs.

Along with the diversity of the curriculum and the teaching strategies to suffice the needs of the diverse culturally responsive learners are the diverse culturally oriented stakeholders of the education. The change in the school setting from monocultural to multicultural approach should be a hand in hand effort of all the stakeholders of the education which include, aside from the students, teachers, administrators, parents, community leaders and government. On the case of the Philippine educational system,  the teachers are the ones who observe multicultural approach of education inside the school through observance of the anti-discrimination acts not only in the school but as well as in the whole community. The teacher, furthermore, cannot alone do all the tasks to maintain fairness and justice inside the school. The other stakeholders of education also take their parts in maintaining an education with an environment free from prejudice, racism and discrimination. Education of todays generation should incorporate multitude of voices in multicultural society so that there would be effective observance of multiculturalism (Banks, p. 3). This means that education should be treated as a thing tantamount to equality and fairness. And the country successfully achieved this goal through the collaborative efforts of the teachers, administrators and the other stakeholders of education in the community.

Though it requires too much persistence and hard work not only on the part of the teachers but as well as on the part of the students, administrators, community leaders and government, multicultural education is a great revolution in the country as such it will not only develop and enhance the educational setting itself but also the perception of the world to justice, fairness and equality.