Crossing Borders

The Role of Discourse Diversity in Multicultural Education

Bibliographic Data

ID2973663
AuthorsRick Ayers (University of San Francisco, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume6
Issue2
Pages53-80
Publication date2014-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMulticultural Education Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2005-615X • E-ISSN: 2377-0031
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/2005615x.2014.11102912
OpenAlexW2131974181
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited42

In today’s complex, multicultural world, discourses and language vernaculars are more diverse than ever. Educational institutions often privilege the historically dominant vernacular (such as white middleclass English which is sometimes called “Standard English”). This language bias disadvantages students form working class and ethnically diverse communities. An examination of the debates on discourse and power in the US will have applicable suggestions for multicultural education in other parts of the world. Because of educational privileges granted to White European families, they still make up the majority of US students attending university. The privileging of “Standard English” assures that the transmission of knowledge and framing of educational goals favors those who share this discourse practice. Effective multicultural teachers deploy discourse that is an invented hybrid - neither formal professional English nor the primary community discourses of the students in their classes. It is a mixture that marks points of unity as well as steps towards induction to new discourses that reach across different generations and different local experiences within the complex web of Global Emergent Discourse. Multicultural teachers use a hybrid discourse to effectively engage students in a complex curriculum. The hybrid Global Emergent Discourse is also a validation of the perspective and values of both the teachers and the students and stands in contrast to and critique of the one way transmission of knowledge and framing of educational goals that is often the official practice of schooling in the United States. This paper is proposes that a broader, more inclusive, expansion of language diversity can allow students from all communities to not only have access to higher education but can reshape education to serve the needs and interests of all communities in respect to democratic principles and social justice

Cultural diversity · Cultural pluralism · Diversity (politics · Linguistics · Multicultural education · Multiculturalism · Pedagogy · Political science · Sociology · Anthropology · Critical Race Theory in Education · Gender Studies · Global Education and Multiculturalism · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub