BILINGUAL MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

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BILINGUAL MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

• Kathee M. Christensen
• Northern Illinois University
• April, 2004

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Linguistic Diversity in the U.S.

• More than 325 languages used at home
• 175 American Indian languages
• Over 6 million children ages 5-17 speak languages
  other than English at home

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Cultural Diversity

• Exists at the national and local levels
• Requires that teachers view children through a
  different lens.
• Creates a win win situation in the classroom

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Culture

• An historically transmitted pattern of meanings
  embodied in symbols,
• A system of inherited conceptions (used to)
  communicate, perpetuate, and develop knowledge
  about and attitudes toward life.
• Geertz, 1973

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• Culture emerges through social interaction.
• Typically, culture is shared by members of a
  family unit.
• What might be some consequences when a child and
  parent do not share all aspects of their cultural
  identities?

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Anthropological categories

• BIG C CULTURE surface aspects of a culture
  readily apparent to casual observers
• (e.g. Belles Artes, food, fiestas and famous
  people, or gender, race, size, age)
• small c culture in depth knowledge and
  understanding of a culture shared values (e.g.
  social practices, language, perspectives)
• No se deje dar gato por liebre!

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Multiculturalism

• Individual level
• Self identified cultural components
• Group level
• Representation of several cultural identities
• Attitude toward others (absence of ethnocentrism)

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How do you define yourself, culturally?

• Family order
• Place of birth
• Ethnic/ cultural heritage
• Gender
• Deaf / hearing

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Gallaudet Research Institute data, December, 2003

• United States
• Illinois

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Ethnic diversity in programs for children who are
deaf
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Spoken/written languages in the home
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Children with Cochlear Implants
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Education

• Controversy over which bilingual approach is
  best.
• Successful programs make extensive use of
  additive bilingual AND immersion techniques
  (Thomas Collier, 1996)

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Parallels between signed and spoken bilingual
education

• Attitudes of families
• English-only programs
• Value of heritage (natural, native) language
• Shared responsibilities for concept formation
  (Tabors, 1997)
• Potential for two-way bilingual education
  programs

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Legislation

• Brown vs. Board of Education, 1954
• Equal access to educational opportunity
• Bilingual education act, 1968
• Equal education for linguistic minorities
• IDEA Amendments, 1997
• Assessment must be in the childs native
  language or other mode of communication.

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Teacher Preparation

• 75 CED certified DHH teacher preparation programs
  in the U.S.
• 7 self report having a class that focuses on
  multicultural issues in deafness
• 27 self report that multicultural issues are
  infused across the curriculum
• 41 NR or no focus on the issues

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QUESTION

• In our increasingly diverse society, where are
  teachers of children who are deaf getting the
  vital information that they need regarding
  multicultural populations?

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Supreme Court opinion on diversity in higher
education

• U. of Michigan decision diversity prepares
  students for citizenship in an increasingly
  diverse workforce and society

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National Standards

• American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
  Languages (ACTFL)
• ASL is one of ACTFLs LCT languages
• ACTFL-ESL, K-12 standards
• ACTFL-ASL, K-12 standards in process

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National and regional organizations

• NABE
• CABE
• CAID??
• Multicultural SIG has been eliminated

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Action research

• Ethnographic studies in classrooms
• Star Schools Project
• Residential schools as research sites
• How do those in leadership roles within schools
  end up mediating between reform plans (systems
  and structures) and actual practices?

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Assessment

• Access to the general curriculum
• Linguistically biased assessment
• Equal outcomes for graduation
• Children left behind?

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TRILINGUAL EDUCATION

• Videotaped series for Spanish speaking parents of
  deaf children

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What have we learned?

• Philosophy
• Language proficiency
• Multiculturalism
• Authentic assessment
• Metalinguistics

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Clarification of Philosophy

• CED standards now require a philosophy statement
• Program selection data
• Oral-aural
• Comprehensive
• Bilingual ASL-English

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Language Requirements in Teacher Preparation

• Entrance and exit requirements for BOTH ASL and
  English
• Addition of ASL Linguistics and Literature
  courses
• What about other spoken and signed languages?

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Assessment

• Qualitative methodology (e.g. NaVCA)
• Multiple Intelligences theory (thematic
  curricula)
• Observation of nonverbal cognitive behavior, e.g.
  problem solving
• Observation of nonverbal and verbal communication
  acts

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M.I. assessment format
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Metalinguistics

• Early awareness of bilingualism (e.g. word walls,
  story telling)
• Natural and second language distinctions

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Technology

• Polycom Via Video
• ASL CDs for parents and others
• Internet access at home and at school
• Smart Board

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Collaborative Action Research

• Children who are deaf with families who do not
  speak English or sign ASL
• Children who are deaf in balanced settings with
  children who are hearing (Day care, Preschool,
  K-1)
• Star Schools Project

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Research at Rancho Sordo Mudo
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• I am concerned bout human dignity, people who
  are persecuted, threatened with destruction, the
  aborigines of Australia. Each minority has a
  unique life experience that must be taught to the
  large entities by which the world today tends to
  define itself.
• -Francois Cheng

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For further information

• http//www.rohan.sdsu.edu/deafed/
• kchriste_at_mail.sdsu.edu