jonnyjay70.newsvine.com/_news/2009/03/29/2616783-multic -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 7/4/2009
Last Visited: 7/4/2009
As for multicultural education, current NAME president Paul C. Gorski, an assistant professor of "interdisciplinary and integrative studies" at George Mason University's New Century College in Fairfax, Virginia, has asserted that "the transformation of society" is the ultimate goal.
Targeting "Oppression"
Gorski doesn't seem to believe that social justice is achievable within a capitalistic society, which he condemns as "oppressive.
"This is precisely the reason," he asserts, "that it is not enough to continue working within an ailing, oppressive, and outdated system to make changes, when the problems in education are themselves symptoms of a system that continues to be controlled by the economic elite."
Conducting a workshop at the 2006 NAME gathering in Phoenix, Gorski derided what he characterized as public schools' token displays of multiculturalism, along the lines of "Taco Night.
There is, he said, "too much celebrating diversity and not enough combating the evils of racism.
Gorski made clear that he believes multiculturalism is about power politics.
Rather than celebrating ethnic foods and fun, he told the teachers, multicultural education "is a political movement and process that attempts to secure social justice for individuals and communities, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, home language, sexual orientation, disability, religion, socioeconomic status, or any other individual or group identity.
In handouts given the teachers, he added, "Multicultural education insists that comprehensive school reform can be achieved only through a critical analysis of systems of power and privilege.
The ultimate goal, he concluded, "is the elimination of educational inequities," which include "racism, sexism, hetereosexism, and classism."
School boards and administrations may think they are sending teachers to NAME in order to learn ways to wholesomely "celebrate diversity" in their schools.
But Gorski and other NAME officials consider the celebratory "Heroes and Holidays" stage only a small step toward the desired curricular transformation.
...
Academic freedom gives Bill Ayers and Paul Gorski and other social-justice educators the right to say and write whatever they want about this country and its education system.
215 online sources [ view sources ]
Profile is not claimed [ claim profile ]
