Multicultural Education as Social Activism

Explores connections between multicultural education, social activism, and critical analyses of oppression.

"This book interweaves a strong theoretical framework with accounts of one's journey to understanding race, gender, and class and their influence upon identity, personal experiences, and reflections on one's own teaching as well as others. The book situates contemporary debates about multiculturalism in the U.S. within a larger international context of English-speaking countries, confronting difference. The author links theory to practice and discusses successes as well as frustrations in teaching multiculturalism as a social movement. She also critiques conservative and liberal approaches and problematizes radical critics in their dismissiveness. I found this book groundbreaking, thought provoking, and insightful regarding the personal, the political, and the pedagogical engagement in multicultural education." -- Sandra Jackson, DePaul University

"My understanding and appreciation of multicultural education as a broad, emancipative orientation toward schooling has been substantially expanded. Christine Sleeter unflinchingly addresses some of the most important issues in our society and in our schools." -- Jim Scheurich, University of Texas-Austin

"Multicultural Education as Social Activism is a vivid and rigorous inquiry and analysis of and about multicultural education. As author, Christine Sleeter also holds herself accountable for her own location derived from her racial, gender, and class positioning. From this point, her critique of conservative critics, education practitioners, and others who would employ (or dismiss) multicultural education possesses significant validity, i.e., she does not remove herself from the benefits of racism and class status as do so many (virtually all) of the critics of multicultural education." -- Carl Allsup, University of Wisconsin-Platteville

Connecting multicultural education with political issues of power and struggle, this book explores what multicultural education means to white people, given the unequal racial power relations in the U.S. and worldwide. It examines connections between race, gender, and social class, particularly as these connections play out for white women. While taking a feminist perspective, the author is also wary of the power white middle class women exercise in defining what counts as gender issues. Throughout the book, Sleeter argues that multicultural education was born in political struggle and can never meaningfully be disconnected from politics. Ultimately the quest for schooling for social justice is a political quest rather than a technical issue.

Christine E. Sleeter is Professor and Planning Faculty Member at California State University-Monterey Bay. She is co-editor (with Peter L. McLaren) of Multicultural Education, Critical Pedagogy, and the Politics of Difference and (with Joseph M. Larkin) Developing Multicultural Teacher Education Curricula; and editor of Empowerment through Multicultural Education, all published by SUNY Press. She is co-author (with C.A. Grant) of Turning on Learning; Making Choices for Multicultural Education: Five Approaches to Race, Class and Gender; and After the School Bell Rings; and author of Keepers of the American Dream: Multicultural Education and Staff Development.