IMPROVING MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION: Lessons from the Intergroup Education Movement

Overview

Intergroup conflict has been a perennial problem in the United States since colonial times. This book describes how a group of educators, social activists, and scholars tried to reduce intergroup tensions and create schools where people of all groups could learn together and from each other. Demonstrating the link between the current multicultural education movement and the roots of intergroup education, this volume:

* Describes the debate over assimilation and Americanization in the 1930s and 1940s, helping us to better understand the complexities of curriculum reform in today’s pluralistic, democratic society.
* Extends our knowledge about educating students in a culturally diverse society by examining past efforts to respond to ethnic, racial, and religious diversity in schools.
* Includes descriptions of projects, approaches, processes, techniques, and materials used by intergroup educators such as John Granrud, Leonard Covello, and Hilda Taba.
* Provides an important departure point for educators to rethink why students segregate themselves at school and the role curriculum plays in this segregation.

Cherry A. McGee Banks is Professor of Education, University of Washington–Bothell.

Comments on the Book by Leading Scholars

“An outstanding achievement. Cherry A. McGee Banks's scholarship will aid all educators in their efforts to increase the depth and scope of their current knowledge of multicultural education.

—Carl A. Grant, University of Wisconsin–Madison

“Cherry Banks provides an important historical analysis of the intercultural movement that is long overdue. Contemporary conversations about multicultural education will be greatly informed by this compelling depiction of the lessons of this previous era.”

—Vanessa Siddle Walker, Emory University

Ordering Information:

Available from Teachers College Press
1234 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10027
Phone: (212) 678-3929
Fax: (212) 678-4149
http://store.tcpress.com/0807745073.shtml (Direct link to book)
http://www.teacherscollegepress.com/ (General website)