BRINGING BANKS' MULTICULTURAL TYPOLOGY TO LIFE: 
When Curriculum and Pedagogy are Transformed

Patricia Espiritu Halagao
University of Hawaii, Manoa
U. S. A.

Transforming Passive Learning to Engagement
Learning Stations: Multiple, Simultaneous Activity Settings
Learning Stations: Goals, Procedure, and Content
Lessons Learned
Virtual Learning Stations
Creating Culturally Relevant Learning Stations
Conclusion
References

Banks’ (2002) typology on multicultural curriculum reform is one of the most widely referenced theoretical frameworks in both academic and practitioner journals in multicultural education.  He lays out four approaches to integrating multicultural content into the school and university curriculum:  the “contributions,” “additive,” “transformation,” and “social action” approach.  A brief summary of each is below.

• The contributions approach is the most commonly used approach in schools and focuses on the teaching of heroes, holidays, and discrete cultural elements. This approach is likened to teaching the “foods, festivals, and folk dancing” of cultural ethnic groups.  Ethnic heroes that are highlighted tend to reflect dominant social ideologies and be less radical.
   
•  The additive approach is when cultural content, concepts, and themes are merely added into the curriculum without disrupting the Eurocentric or mainstream canon.  Adding a book to the curriculum without changing its framework is an example of this approach.  In addition, the experiences of these cultural groups are still interpreted and viewed from the dominant perspective.
   
• The transformation approach restructures the curriculum so that concepts, issues, or events are viewed from different perspectives including the Eurocentric or mainstream perspective. In this approach, students read and hear the voices of the victors and vanquished.  They learn that knowledge is socially constructed and depends on one’s positionality.
   
• Finally, the social action approach extends the transformation approach by pushing students to make decisions and act on social issues important to them and their community.  Students create projects and engage in activities that allow them to take personal, social, and civic actions based on what they studied. [paragraph 1]

Teacher educators of multicultural education use Banks’ (2002) typology to help pre-service and in-service teachers move from integrating cultural content from a superficial level to a more socially reconstructive approach in their curriculum.  But to many of these students, these approaches are a theoretical jargon to learn and memorize, but not to incorporate into their daily teaching.  They find it difficult to understand these stages without seeing how they manifest in the classroom.  Without concrete examples, these approaches remain abstract or confusing.  One teacher educator described that her pre-service teachers still did not “get it” when “they managed to boil every stage down to heroes and holidays.”  Likewise, I recall taking one of Banks’ classes at the University of Washington as a graduate student and struggling over the meaning of these concepts and their practical application in my ESL classroom.  How can we move Banks’ multicultural typology from theory into practice? [paragraph 2]

Transforming Passive Learning to Engagement

As a professor in the area of social studies and multicultural teacher education, my pedagogical approach to teaching Banks’ multicultural typology has changed.  In the past, students read Banks and Banks’ (1997) chapter “Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform” in Multicultural Education Issues and Perspectives.  A discussion ensued as I solicited examples from them for each stage.  Students then drew their own interpretation of each stage to synthesize the main ideas of each approach while I also provided my own visual interpretation of each stage.   Afterwards, I guided students in developing transformative multicultural lessons that focused on examining a universal concept, issue, or event from diverse ethnic/cultural perspectives. [paragraph 3]

Despite the positive response I received from teaching in this manner, I was unsatisfied with the delivery of my instruction.  Lecturing and regurgitating the approaches to multicultural reform was too teacher-directed, transmission-oriented, individualized, and culturally irrelevant to students from Hawaii.  This was contrary to the pedagogical principals of multicultural education, which promotes a student-centered curriculum and instruction (Gollnick & Chinn, 1998).  Multicultural education encourages student engagement, inquiry, and cultural relevance (Au & Kawakami, 1994; Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1992).  It fosters critical pedagogy (Freire, 1989) and uses diverse instructional styles such as cooperative learning techniques (Kagan, 1994).  How can multicultural reform be taught in a pedagogical style that matches its transformational message? [paragraph 4]

Learning Stations: Multiple, Simultaneous Activity Settings

An equally transformative pedagogical approach was needed to teach multicultural curriculum reform.  In synthesizing the latest research on “educational diversity,” Tharp, Estrada, Dalton, & Yamauchi (2000) identified five universal principles that maximized teaching and learning for all students, especially students of color, language minority, and disabled students.  Tharp et. al. (2000, p. 20) organized their findings into “Five Standards for Effective Pedagogy:”

1. Teachers and Students Producing Together 

2. Developing Language and Literacy across the Curriculum

3. Making Meaning: Connecting School to Students’ Lives

4. Teaching Complex Thinking

5. Teaching through Conversation. [paragraph 5]

These five standards for effective pedagogy were used to redesign how I taught Banks’ (2002) typology.  One strategy that Tharp et. al. (2000) promote is “multiple, simultaneous activities” or simply learning stations.  When I asked pre-service teachers, what came to mind when I mentioned “learning stations,” they stated, “Elementary.”  Learning stations conjure up images of play dough, drawing, and reading cassette centers to them.  Although this strategy is predominantly used at the elementary level, it can still be appropriate for the secondary and college level.  [paragraph 6]

Learning stations create a classroom organization for multiple, simultaneous activity settings where differentiated activities and interaction occur.  This structure addresses the five standards for effective pedagogy because it creates a learning environment where there is joint productive activity, language development, meaningful and complex instruction, and academic dialogue. [paragraph 7]

Although the goals of learning stations are similar, the specific content and number and types of activity settings differ depending on the grade level and subject matter.  Activity settings can be designed for individuals or small groups where students can move around independently or as small groups.  Activities can occur in the classroom or in a location outside with resources related to the academic tasks.  Directions are posted at learning stations where students can work on tasks at their own pace or during a set time.  Activities may operate independently of the teacher or teachers may position themselves at one learning station for more direct instruction.  In all these cases, teachers must carefully craft an instructional plan to be enacted within a community of learners (Tharp et. al., 2000). [paragraph 8]

Learning stations that require groups of students to simultaneously move around and do differentiated tasks require intense planning and set up.  Tharp et al. (2000) advise starting out simple with two rounds of changes and gradually building to multiple groupings with differentiated tasks so students experience the process and instruction successfully.  Students must be eased into their roles, the procedure, which includes grouping and routing, and the expectations of each of the tasks carefully.  Tharp et. al. (2002) devote an entire chapter detailing the procedures to set up, implement the instructional activity, and debrief with students. [paragraph 9]

Learning Stations: Goals, Procedure, and Content

In this section, I outline my use of learning stations to teach Banks’ (2002) multicultural reform typology to twenty-three pre-service teachers in a cohorted secondary teacher certification program at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.  Prior to class, pre-service teachers read and reflect on background information about the four approaches to multicultural reform.  They write a 2-3 page paper comparing and contrasting the different approaches.  After we briefly review the four approaches in class and examine the etymology of each word, we move into learning stations. [paragraph 10]

I explain to students that we will be using learning stations to understand these four approaches deeply.  Although many of them have never experienced or used this strategy in their classroom, I believe they can manage five learning stations at once.  We discuss the goals, purposes, and benefits of learning stations.  I then divide the class into subject-oriented teams such as social studies, English, math, science, etc. and explain the procedure and directions:

There are 5 learning stations labeled around the room.  In stations # 1-4, you will find a folder that contains examples, artifacts, and materials that represent a particular approach to multicultural curriculum reform.  At some stations, there are posters on the wall.  You have approximately 20 minutes to look at these items carefully and decide as a group which approach is represented. You must also write down the name of each artifact and provide a rationale as to why you categorize it under a particular approach.  The folders are not arranged in any particular order.  I will spend the majority of my time at station #5 where you will apply the four approaches to multicultural reform from your content area.  Once we are done with the learning stations, we will discuss your answers and debrief. [paragraph 11]

Pre-service teachers become “detectives” piecing together their readings and clues from the folder to discern which approach is represented.  I overhear them discussing, disagreeing, articulating, and then coming up with a consensus on the items.  They keep track of their answers on a piece of paper that has been folded into four boxes and labeled with the four approaches.  When the timer rings, students move to the next station. [paragraph 12]

The contents of each folder in learning stations #1-4 reflect what I believe is a particular approach.  Each station’s folder consists of six items that I have collected over time that can be used primarily for social studies, although they have application to other subject areas across the K-12 curriculum.  In the folder I consider the contributions approach, I include several materials that exemplify culture as discrete and superficial:

• a picture of box of frozen lumpia (Filipino egg roll);
• a picture of hula dancers at the Merry Monarch Festival on the Big Island of Hawaii;
• a poster that identifies African American Inventions;
• chopsticks;
• an abacus; and
• a poster on Asian American History Month. [paragraph 13]

In the folder I consider the additive approach, the following items show how ethnic and cultural content is marginalized and told from the mainstream or western perspective:

• Shoal of Time by Gavin Daws (1968), which begins Hawaiian history with the “Western discovery of the islands”;
• a cartoon showing a White male history professor saying: “No Charles, you’ll find the abolitionist movement, Frederick Douglas, WEB Dubois, and Civil Rights in the Black Studies Department… this is U.S. History”;
• a catalog that sells supplemental resources for “African American History Month”;
• a copy of history textbook passage on Westward Movement along side a pocket book about Sacajawea;
• a Mercator Map vs. Peters Projection Map; and
• a measuring ruler entitled “Rulers of the Art World” that lists classical artists from around the world (majority are European with 2 Asians & 2 women added). [paragraph 14]

The folder designated the transformative approach contains items that show multicultural perspectives on a particular event and from voices traditionally marginalized.  The materials also promote multicultural education throughout the year.

• a resource catalog published by Change and Transformation;
• Double Victory: A Multicultural History of America in World War II by Ronald Takaki (2000);
• a picture of a group of students hugging a globe to symbolize multiple perspectives to view a concept, issue, or event in the middle;
• a McDonald's bag that celebrates “Black History Month… All Year Long”;
• a cassette/ DVD of slave narratives; and
• 1421: The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies (2003). [paragraph 15]

The social action approach folder contains materials that inspire students to make a difference in the world.  I include the following examples that relate to the elementary level to show how this approach is realistic and relevant to young students:

• a children’s picture book: ¡Sí, Se Puede! / Yes, We Can! by Diana Cohn (2002) about a boy who actively supports his mom in the L. A. Janitor Strike in 2000;
• a hotel workers strike flyer seeking better work conditions in Hawaii;
• a picture of youth planting trees as a result of Earth Day;
• a children’s picture book: Click Clack Moo : Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin (2000) about animals that stand up and fight for their rights;
• a letter written to Ann Landers about how kids can get involved in Martin Luther King Celebration through a program called “Acts of Kindness”; and
• an article, “Write the Truth” by Bob Peterson in Rethinking Schools Online (2000) about Fifth graders who researched how many U. S. Presidents owned slaves and demanded that their history textbooks address this and other issues of racism. [paragraph 16]

Learning station #5 is different from the other stations.  Students examine my visual representation of the four approaches to multicultural reform. See following link for visual: http://www.pinoyteach.com/curriculum/multicultural.htm.  They must brainstorm how each stage manifests in their content area.  For example, what does the contributions approach look like in science? What does the additive approach look like?  My role is to push students to see beyond a contributions approach that highlights women scientists to a more transformation approach which might examine the concept of evolution from multiple perspectives like the western, scientific, religious, and indigenous viewpoint.  For pre-service teachers in social studies, we discuss moving away from celebrating ethnic and female heroes to contextualizing them within historical movements.  We also question the notion of “discovery” and examine ways to represent events that do not privilege the western or mainstream content. [paragraph 17]

Learning station #5 serves several purposes.  First, it allows pre-service teachers to view Banks’ (2002) typology holistically, rather than as disconnected approaches.  They also have the opportunity to dialogue and apply each stage to their particular content area.  Lastly, this fifth station serves a logistical purpose.  Five learning stations keep the number of people to four per group allowing for more group interaction and participation. [paragraph 18]

Lessons Learned

When the final timer goes off, the class convenes for a large group discussion.  Groups of students present their findings, while the class responds to their answers.  Although I have my own ideas about which approach is represented by each folder, I am open to students’ analysis and reasons, especially when they counter me.  What follows is a lively debate over which approach is correct.  Students become actively involved with articulating their reasons.  For example, some students debated whether the McDonald’s bag that celebrated “Black History Month…All Year Long” by highlighting Black musicians and artists should be considered transformative.  Although the message, “All year long” promotes multicultural education throughout the year, students questioned if the focus on Black music and identity was stereotypical and superficial.  In addition, one student suggested that the kind of music and people portrayed were "safe" choices.  He pointed out that using less conformist heroes compared to more radical heroes and heroines like Josephine Baker in the African American community were traits of the contributions approach (Banks, 1997, p. 233). [paragraph 19]

Some students expressed that artifacts could be interpreted differently.  Students talked at length about the Mercator and Peters map. The Mercator map privileges the Western perspective, whereas the Peters map shows the world according to land area.  Students discussed how the Peters map could be an example of the additive approach because it did not change the entire curriculum, but only the perspective of the world.  While others believed the Peters map could be seen as transformative because it changed our view of the world undermining the Eurocentric global vision. These questionable items led students to categorize items within the same folder under different approaches.  Students noted that the integration of multicultural content in the curriculum could often be mixed and blended in actual teaching situations (Banks, 1997).  [paragraph 20]

The pre-service teachers also discussed how the artifacts could exemplify any of the approaches depending on how teachers used them in teaching.  One student remarked, “I find these objects without context really difficult to judge.”  It was difficult to distinguish the approach without knowing how the materials would be used in a classroom.  For example, if Takaki’s (2000) book Double Victory: A Multicultural History of America in World War II was used as a part of a unit on War in general or WWII  in particular, and other multicultural resources were brought in for other units, it could qualify as transformative.  A Native Hawaiian student suggested that the hula can be viewed as transformative, not contributory when the dance is critically analyzed as a cultural art form within a historical, political, and social context. [paragraph 21]

The level of critical discussions showed students actively thinking and engaged in the four approaches to multicultural reform.  In the end, students owned their decisions, articulated their positions, and provided evidence from the reading to support their ideas and answers.  Extension activities might include asking students to convert artifacts in the contributions and additive stage to the transformative or social actions approach.  Students can also come up with their own examples to fit any of the approaches. [paragraph 22]

After a large group discussion, a considerable amount of time is spent debriefing over the learning station activity.  Tharp et. al. (2000) recommend having students talk about the experience and highlight “successes and problem-solve irregularities” (p. 145). The feedback from my students on using learning stations to teach Banks' multicultural typology has been extremely positive.  When we evaluated the process, students appreciated the hands-on experience it provided.  The activity pushed them to apply what they learned from their theoretical reading of Banks approaches to multicultural curriculum reform.  They constructed knowledge with the instructor and their peers, which ultimately raised everyone’s level of understanding of these approaches.  [paragraph 23]

Virtual Learning Stations

The internet and online courses provide people access to information quickly and broadly.  The Electronic Magazine of Multicultural Education is just one example of this kind of dissemination of knowledge.  The College of Education at the University of Hawaii, Manoa also provides access to resources and educational opportunities to pre-service teachers from the neighbor islands of Kauai, Maui, Lanai, Molokai, and the Big Island of Hawaii.  To meet their needs, the College has developed statewide programs that are hybrid combining online teaching and face-to-face interaction.  I developed and teach the online multicultural education course for secondary teachers. [paragraph 24]

In this course, I incorporated an online version of my learning stations to teach multicultural curriculum reform called “Virtual Learning Stations.”  Pre-service teachers independently peruse each virtual folder that represents a particular approach.  Instead of handling items, they view photos of artifacts and connect to internet links displaying particular articles, books, or materials on line.  They then identify which approach was represented in each virtual learning station.  An online discussion forum is created for students to post their answers into a threaded discussion.  Students converse with one another exploring, agreeing, and disagreeing, thus recreating online what was formerly a face-to-face experience. [paragraph 25]

I have found the level of discussion even more lively and critical online than my face-to-face class.  One reason may be because students have more time to view the items and develop their arguments.  In addition, the inherent nature of the internet, where students are not face-to-face, may allow them to freely express their ideas and opinions.  When I asked these pre-service teachers their opinions on the Virtual Learning Stations at one of our face-to-face meetings, they overwhelmingly stated that they enjoyed and learned from this activity. [paragraph 26]

Creating Culturally Relevant Learning Stations

Tharp et. al.’s (2000) third standard for effective pedagogy is “Making Meaning: Connecting School to Students’ Lives.”  Teacher educators must select materials and examples for each learning station that reflect the experiences and demographics of both their pre-service teachers and the students they will be teaching.  I purposely selected examples that my largely Asian Pacific students could relate to such as the lumpia box, chopsticks, Asian Pacific American History Month, Shoal of Time (Daws, 1968), and Double Victory: A Multicultural History of America in World War II (Takaki, 2000). [paragraph 27]

However, it is equally important to expose students to a wide variety of artifacts that might not normally be a part of their everyday lives.  Although Native Americans, African Americans, and Latino Americans make up a small percentage in Hawaii, pre-service students must still be exposed to other ethnic group experiences and issues more commonly found in the continental United States.  [paragraph 28]

Conclusion

Moving away from traditionally lecturing about Banks’ (2002) typology on multicultural curriculum reform to using an engaging, hands-on style of learning stations is aligned with the pedagogical approaches of multicultural education.  As an avid believer of “practicing what I preach,” it is important to not only talk about multicultural educational theory, but to show or do it.  Theory is made practical when students are exposed to multiple and concrete examples.  If we want our students to understand and differentiate between the four approaches to multicultural reform, we need to provide culturally relevant and real-life examples for them to see, touch, and hold.  [paragraph 29] 

True learning occurs when students are encouraged to explore and question rather than pursue a correct answer.  There is a tendency for teacher educators to teach theoretical stages in a linear and static manner instead of as complex and contextual.  When given the opportunity to talk with one another and debate over the four approaches, students realize curricular resources can represent different stages of multicultural reform depending on how they are used.  Teacher discretion and implementation becomes emphasized.  Pre-service teachers are then able to envision multicultural practice in their classrooms.  [paragraph 30] 

Using learning stations to teach multicultural curriculum reform promotes student-centered pedagogy.  Collaborative inquiry, instead of individualized passive learning, is fostered.  Students converse and learn from fellow classmates.  In the debriefing that follows, both teacher educator and pre-service teachers are subsequently involved in joint productive learning.   Students are not perceived as receivers of knowledge transmitted by the teacher, but use their backgrounds to “enter into the conversation” with educators (Rose, 1989).  Teacher educators must be open to controversy and divergent opinions and also view their students as resources rather than receptacles of knowledge. [paragraph 31]

Lectures and one-sided discussions are an easy and safe way for teacher educators to display their knowledge of Banks’ approaches to multicultural curriculum reform.  But by doing so, pedagogical reform is compromised.  Designing a classroom environment and instructional activities through learning stations addresses the physical, pedagogical, and curricular criteria of effective pedagogy moving Banks' (2002) typology out from the realm of theory and into practical application. [paragraph 32]

References

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Banks, J. (2002). Introduction to multicultural education (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. A. M. (Eds.). (1997). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Cohn, D. (2002).  ¡Sí, Se Puede! / Yes, we can!. El Paso, NM: Cinco Puntos Press.

Cronin, D. (2000). Click clack moo: Cows that type. New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Daws, G. (1968). Shoal of time: A history of the Hawaiian islands. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.

Freire, P. (1989). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum Press.

Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. New York: Teachers College Press.

Gollnick, D., & Chinn, P. C. (1998). Multicultural education in a pluralistic society (5th ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill/ Prentice Hall.

Kagan, S. (1994). Cooperative learning. San Clemente, CA: Resources for Teachers.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1992). Culturally relevant teaching. In C. A. Grant (Ed.), Research and multicultural education (pp. 106-121). Washington, D.C.: The Falmer Press.

Menzies, G. (2003). 1421: The year China discovered America. New York: HarperCollins.

Peterson, B. (2002).Write the truth. Rethinking Schools Online,16(4). Retrieved May 1, 2004, from http://www.rethinkingschools.org/cgi-bin/hse/HomepageSearchEngine.cgi?url=http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/16_04/Writ164.shtml;geturl=d+highlightmatches+gotofirstmatch;terms=truth+write+peterson;enc=truth%20write%20peterson;utf8=on;noparts#firstmatch

Rose, M. (1989). Lives on the boundary: A moving account of the struggles and achievements of America's educational underclass. New York: Free Press.

Takaki, R. (2000). Double victory: A multicultural history of America in World War II. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

Tharp, R. G., Estrada, P., Dalton, S. S., & Yamauchi, L. (2000). Teaching transformed: Achieving excellence, fairness, inclusion, and harmony. Boulder, CO:  Westview Press.