Providing an essential foundation for pre-service and in-service elementary - secondary educators, this engaging and practical book focuses on essential questions and theoretical concepts about how to become an effective multicultural educator. Award-winning authors William A. Howe and Penelope L. Lisi bring theory and research to life through numerous activities, exercises, and lesson plans to heighten the reader’s cultural awareness, knowledge base, and skill set. Responding to the growing need to increase academic achievement and to prepare teachers to work with diverse populations of students, this text shows readers how to incorporate cultural knowledge into more effective classroom practice. The fully updated Second Edition is packed with new activities and exercises to illustrate concepts readers can apply within their own classrooms and school-wide settings.

Key Features:

• Discussion goes beyond race to include gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, second language acquisition, poverty, class, religion, and other key categories.


• Thorough, well-organized coverage of history, theory, and research gives readers a strong foundation in how the multicultural education field has developed and applies to contemporary classrooms.


• Chapter-opening vignettes, content questions, and key terms and concepts provide opportunities for greater engagement, understanding, and reflection.


• Two major case examples in every chapter illustrate the process of becoming a multicultural educator and describe common situations facing teachers and schools as they move towards multicultural education.


• End-of-chapter study tools include chapter summaries and Awareness to Application features, which offer reflective questions, exercises, and suggestions for applying key concepts in the classroom.


• An assessment list shows readers how to develop multicultural lesson plans.


• Updated Multicultural Profile features discuss key figures in the development of multicultural education and now include follow-up questions to encourage readers to engage in critical thinking


• New Extended Explorations added to each chapter ask readers to engage in individual and group problem-based learning or reflections in response to higher-order thinking questions.


• An evaluation tool—developed to analyze a school's progress towards a multicultural curriculum and environment