Establishing a Learning Community as a Site to Explore Our Multicultural Selves

Establishing a Learning Community as a Site to Explore our Multicultural
Selves

Anne R. Freese and Amber P. Strong

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss how two teacher educators collaboratively
taught a multicultural education course designed around our principles
of a learning community. The learning community included preservice
teachers with very diverse cultural and educational backgrounds. We
discuss how the diversity became a resource and an opportunity for the
students and teacher educators to explore their assumptions, beliefs
and biases, and arrive at new understandings. We describe the learning
approaches we incorporated to establish an intellectually safe
classroom environment that allowed and encouraged open dialogue about
sensitive multicultural issues. The chapter includes a discussion of
the systematic inquiry we conducted into our teaching practices and our
students' learning. The results of the study show how students framed
and reframed their conceptions of multicultural education and developed
the skills of collaboration, risk taking, inquiry, and reflection.

Key names and key words: self reflexive journey, intellectual safety,
community ball, class anthology.


"The self-reflexive journey inward can allow one's multiple, contradictory
identifications and locations-in terms of race, gender, sexuality and
culture-to emerge, to 'come out' " (Asher, 2007, p. 71).

Description of our Learning Community
Context
The above quote has particular significance for our students in Hawaii
because of the blending of the many different ethnicities, cultures,
languages, social classes, and religions. Given this diversity, teaching
multicultural education in Hawaii provides a unique opportunity to draw
upon the rich multiplicity of cultures, ethnicities, religions, and
languages. However, along with that opportunity there are unique
challenges. Some students question why they have to take a multicultural
education course in Hawaii because they believe that people in Hawaii are
"color blind" (Okamura, 1998). They assume that racism happens somewhere
else, not here. Despite the seemingly harmonious nature of our diverse
society, underneath it all there are particular groups who have
historically been, and continue to be marginalized. We found that one of
our challenges teaching multicultural education was to find ways to move
beyond our notions of "color blindness" and to open up a critical dialogue
about race, prejudice, identity, and other socially divisive issues in an
effort to prepare our preservice teachers to be effective multicultural
educators. Related to this challenge was to the need to examine our
assumptions and find ways not to gloss over the sensitive issues, but
rather to take risks and critically inquire into our assumptions, biases,
and prejudices.

In this chapter we present a pedagogical approach that describes the
instructional practices that we incorporated in a required multicultural
education course for education majors. Anne had taught this course three
previous semesters and Amber, a graduate student and high school teacher,
collaborated in the teaching and systematic study of the impact of the
course on the students' views of multicultural education. We examine how
the learning community created conditions that encouraged students and
faculty to wrestle with and unpack tensions related to openly discussing
issues such as racism, discrimination and stereotyping, and to arrive at
new understandings. We discuss the theories that provide the framework for
our pedagogical approach, and describe the learning community as a site for
incorporating multicultural activities and practices in the classroom. In
addition, we explore the ways in which the learning community allowed
students to reframe and expand their thinking about multiculturalism.

Rationale
Defining a Learning Community as a Site for Exploring Multicultural
Education
The term "learning community" can be defined in many ways and has been
widely used as an approach for facilitating teaching and learning in
classrooms. Learning communities are sometimes simply defined by structures
or classroom configurations such as "group work," "cooperative learning" or
"whole class discussions." And although these classroom arrangements are
practiced with good intentions, they do not always foster the type of
caring community of inquiry that we believe is necessary for meaningful and
honest multicultural discussions. Therefore we would like to elaborate on
our use of the term "learning community" by drawing upon the work of
various philosophers and educational researchers.

As multicultural educators, our goal was to encourage pre-service teachers
to develop personal insights, multiple perspectives and empathy for those
who are different from themselves. To do this we drew upon Lipman's (1993)
description of "converting the classroom into a community of inquiry in
which students listen to one another with respect, build upon one another's
ideas, challenge one another to supply reasons for otherwise unsupported
opinions, assist each other in drawing inferences from what has been said,
and to seek to identify one another's assumptions" (p.15). We believe that
learning is socially constructed (Vygotsky, 1981; Rogoff 1990; 1993) and
that dialogue between community members is essential for creating the
climate and dispositions that are necessary for establishing a community of
inquiry.


By opening up communication among our students within a multicultural
learning community, we strove to free ourselves from being "ethnically
encapsulated" and to "help individuals gain a greater self-understanding by
viewing themselves from the perspectives of other cultures" (Banks, 2002,
p.1). Believing that effective learning communities must be authentic and
cultivate rich relationships between both teachers and students, we drew
upon Noddings' (2003) work regarding students' "longing for community." We
focused on cultivating a classroom environment in which students felt
connected and were given opportunities to develop meaningful relationships
with the instructors as well as with their peers.

Planning the Course
So how could we create the conditions in the classroom for a "self-
reflexive journey" that allows our "multiple, contradictory identifications
to emerge and to come out"? (Asher, 2007, p. 71) We wanted our learning
community to include a community of inquiry in which students felt
connected and intellectually safe to actively participate in written and
spoken dialogue. We wanted to create a space where they could explore their
assumptions and understandings about their multicultural identities and
multicultural education. We established the classroom as a site for
discussion, inquiry, reflection, and evaluation where we could practice
bridging the gap between our beliefs and biases, as well as our words and
actions. All of our class assignments and activities were driven by the
goal of having both the students and instructors reflect inward and discuss
their ideas as participants in an intellectually safe community of their
peers. We created conditions in the course that allowed the students to
wrestle with and unpack tensions and stereotypes, and socially construct
new understandings about multicultural education

With a sense of our shared commitment and shared philosophy, we co-planned,
co-reflected, and co-taught the course geared towards helping pre-service
teachers meet the needs of their future students. Considering the diverse
demographics of our classroom, our goal was to raise our students'
awareness of the complexities of multiculturalism in Hawaii and the issues
that they might face as teachers. We did this by incorporating a number of
structures and pedagogical approaches that support and encourage community.
Students were required to read the writings of scholars (Banks, 2002; Gay,
2003) and other authors who reflected a variety of different multicultural
perspectives. In addition, students wrote reflective papers, personal
histories, and discussed case studies about controversial issues. Following
is a description of the research and learning theories that guided our
teaching.


Dewey (1916) argued against seeing teaching as the transmission of ready-
made ideas, saying that "no thought, no idea, can possibly be conveyed as
an idea from one person to another . . . Only by wrestling with the
conditions of the problem at first hand, seeking and finding [his or her]
own way out, does [a person] think" (p. 188). Drawing on Dewey's work, our
goal was to problematize multicultural education and create an
"intellectually safe" (Jackson, 2001) environment in which the students
could openly discuss their assumptions and biases about race, class,
culture, religion, as well as gender, sexuality and disability issues. We
included aspects of self-study, described by Beck, Freese, & Kosnik (2004)
as a "personal, constructivist, and collaborative approach," to the study
of multicultural education. This was in contrast to a technical
transmission approach. We wanted to create a learning environment that
cultivated and supported the critical thinking that Dewey (1916) described.



In the learning community our emphasis on a personal approach focused on
our students' prior experiences and personal histories. We emphasized a
constructivist approach that included elements of inquiry, challenging
prejudice and convention, as well as the personal construction of
knowledge. While the term self-study suggests an individualistic approach,
it emphasizes that the views of individuals must be constantly brought into
dialogue with the views of others (Samaras & Freese, 2006). Knowledge
construction became an interactive process that enabled the students to
give expression to their unique experiences, insights, and interests
(Fosnot, 1989; 1996; Richardson, 1997).

The learning community and self-study concepts discussed above guided our
course goals, assignments, and instructional activities. We believed that
in order to operationalize a personal, constructivist, collaborative
approach, we needed to create a learning community that fostered
opportunities for social experiences and multiple perspectives. As we
implemented various learning activities and assignments, we kept in mind
Cochran-Smith's (2005) caveat that the process of preparing culturally
responsive teachers can create a sense of "stress and unrest" in both the
students and instructor because it is "not simply a matter of grasping or
understanding ideas – full blown and clear – that already existed" (p.553).
Rather it is a journey that involves "constructing uncertain knowledge
about race and teaching" that may lead to "feeling doubtful, confused,
angry and surprised by new realizations" (p. 553). Therefore, many of the
course assignments caused students to "problematize their selves in their
practice situations" with the objective being that the students would
"reframe" their beliefs and/or practices (Feldman, 2002, p. 971). We
realized that to be able to wrestle with sensitive issues in multicultural
education, students would need to take risks, and be open and willing to
share different perspectives. In order to accomplish this, it was
essential that the learning community be a safe and trusting environment.

Studying our Community of Inquiry
Applying Theory to Practice
We included a number of essential elements for approaching diversity and
building community. In order to foster participation, we introduced
learning community structures and designed activities for addressing
sensitive issues and sharing personal stories. During the course of the
semester, we regularly made the theories behind our pedagogical practices
explicit so that the students would make the connections between theory and
practice. We wanted the students to be fully aware of the pedagogical
practices that foster a learning community in which all students' voices
are honored. We included pedagogical strategies that supported the multiple
voices and perspectives of all students.


Community building and intellectual safety were introduced the first day of
class. As students and faculty introduced themselves they engaged in
making a "community ball" together as a class (Jackson, 2001). The use of
the community ball was an important strategy for facilitating conversations
and honoring multiple perspectives. The ball helped to focus the
discussions, encourage participation, and manage conversations so that no
one individual or individuals dominated the discussions. The ball
functioned like a "talking stick" in that only the person with the ball
could speak. Students had the choice of speaking or remaining silent (pass)
when they received the ball. As the semester progressed the ball increased
the participation of all members of the class. Following is one student's
reaction to the creation of the community ball.

The first activity that we did in this class was unusual but it set
the tone for the class throughout the semester. The twisting and
turning of yarn to create a ball was child like, but if it weren't for
that activity our class wouldn't be like what it was. The environment
in our class is something that you wouldn't expect in a college
classroom. Everyone got along and respected each other's opinions. I
also made friends I will always remember. With the ethnic diversities
and backgrounds, our class was an example of multicultural education.

Developing relationships and getting to know one another was a critical
part of establishing trust and a feeling of safety. We did this in several
ways. In the early weeks of the semester, a critical component of the
class involved students engaging in dialogue with each other by sharing
information about themselves initially through their personal artifacts,
and later through their multicultural collages. The personal artifacts
involved each student bringing five or six items or pictures related to
their background, interests, talents or anything that provided information
about who they were and what they valued. Through sharing our personal
artifacts and creating multicultural collages, we identified aspects of
ourselves that related to our multicultural identities using the
characteristics identified by Banks (2002) of race, class, ethnicity,
language, religion, exceptionality, gender, and sexuality. One student
described her reactions to the activities in her "lessons learned" paper.
We got to know one another beyond the superficial and found
connections and similarities that drew us together with others in the
class. The personal interactions and relationship building done in
the first several weeks of class opened the way for developing a
learning community.

Another way we established bonds between the students and the instructors
was through a file folder system. The first day of class each student
received a file folder that was used as a tool for reflection and a means
of communicating with the instructors. Each day at the end of class, the
students wrote several sentences describing their thoughts, reactions or
questions about the day's class. The file folders were a safe place to
share comments and not risk public embarrassment. The comments were also
crucial to us, the instructors, as a way of gauging the climate of the
class and as a guide as to what issues needed to be revisited or explored
further. Prior to each class session, we each read their reflections and
wrote responses on each file folder. The back and forth dialogue in the
file folders helped to build connections between the students and
ourselves.

Drawing upon the application of Vygotsky's ideas that learning is socially
constructed (Samaras & Gismondi, 1998), we created opportunities for
students to talk, share information, negotiate meaning and socially
construct their understanding about multiculturalism through dialogue. A
critical component of the class involved students engaging in dialogue with
each other by sharing and discussing insight papers they wrote on the
readings. The insight papers required students to analyze and explain
material in the small groups, share their reactions and different points of
view, and obtain feedback from one another. The small groups provided a
safe space for each person to speak and give feedback.

In addition to the small group interactions, the class came together as a
large learning community to engage in discussions on controversial and
sensitive topics. The group activities were designed to foster multiple
perspectives, to raise our awareness of differences between our beliefs and
actions, and provide opportunities to reflect on and reframe our beliefs
through interactions with others. We included a variety of readings,
videos, and current events to raise multicultural education issues and
problems. In order to provide relevance, we encouraged the students to use
their own multicultural experiences as topics to make connections during
those class discussions. They were also encouraged to draw on their
thoughts that they had expressed during written assignments, other
discussions, and their interpretations of the readings.


Drawing upon the work of Clandinin & Connelly (1990), we used students'
personal histories as a way to "help readers question their own stories,
raise their own questions about practice and see in the narrative accounts
stories of their own… with the intent "to foster reflection, storying and
restorying" (p. 20). Using the multicultural characteristics of gender,
race, language, ethnicity, sexuality, class, and ability/disability, the
personal histories were a way for students to inquire into their
assumptions, biases, and beliefs (Samaras & Freese, 2006; Zeichner &
Noffke, 2001). The personal histories became an opportunity for the
students to explore and better understand their prior multicultural
experiences. The learning community provided a structure/foundation for
students to share their personal histories about who they are as
multicultural individuals and what experiences have shaped the way they
think and act. The individual stories led to the creation of a class
anthology, a sort of multicultural text that included each of the students'
personal histories.

The students read the class anthology and conducted a content analysis of
all the personal histories. The systematic analysis of the anthology
allowed each student to examine the multicultural characteristics of their
peers and experience many different perspectives through each person's
unique and authentic multicultural history. This activity contributed to
the collaborative nature of the course because the students were working
together sharing their personal histories and analyzing the authentic,
"real life" data that led to new ways of thinking about multicultural
education. The analysis of the personal histories raised many questions
such as how much of one's identity is shaped by outside factors such as
race, ethnicity, culture, family, environment, religion. We questioned "How
much of our identity is a choice?" "What does it mean to be a minority in
Hawaii?" "Do we all struggle to define who we are?" "Who is marginalized in
Hawaii?" "Are there other factors besides race and ethnicity that
marginalize individuals?" By systematically examining the diversity within
our classroom, the students saw "through new eyes" the kinds of diversity
and multicultural experiences their future students will bring to their
classrooms in Hawaii.

By layering these essential course elements we were able to provide
multiple opportunities for our students to make connections, personally
reflect, and build our community of learners. This interplay between
written and verbal dialogue allowed students to listen and learn from one
another. It was only through these combined activities that we were able
to construct a meaningful community of learners in this multicultural
setting. (See Appendix A for a description of the course activities.)

Impact of the Pedagogical Approach
Methods
In order to examine the impact of the learning community on our students'
views about multicultural education we focused on several questions:
How did the learning community and pedagogical approaches impact
their participation and willingness to take risks and discuss
sensitive issues?
Was there evidence of transformation and changes in their thinking
about multicultural education?
To what extent were the students able to apply theory to practice
in their classrooms?

Participants
The participants consisted of twenty-four students ranging in age from
twenty to fifty-six years of age. There were seventeen females in the class
and seven males. Their religious affiliations included: Christian,
Catholic, Buddhist, and Jewish. Five of the students spoke English as a
second language. The students came from a variety of ethnic backgrounds
including Asian (Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Korean or mixed Asian
ethnicity), Hawaiian, part – Hawaiian, Caucasian and "hapa" (mixed
ethnicity). It is difficult to estimate what percentage of each ethnicity
was represented in the class because many of the students were of mixed
ethnicity, and did not identify strongly with just one ethnic group. The
composition of the class is representative of the rich diversity that
occurs in Hawaii classrooms. This sample of students closely matches the
demographic make up of the state of Hawaii which is very diverse in terms
of socio-economic status, ethnicity, religion, disabilities, and language.

Data Sources and Data Analysis
Data came from students' (1) personal history papers; (2) file folder
comments; and (3) "lessons learned" papers. Using the method of constant
comparison (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), we analyzed the students' work by
reading and rereading the personal history papers, the "lessons learned"
papers and the file folder comments. The student's folder comments were
directly linked to his or her personal history paper and the "lessons
learned" paper. The intent was to compare and contrast the students'
formative comments with the summative knowledge. We coded the data from the
data sources, identified themes, and made comparisons across the various
data sources. The analyses revealed powerful information about how the
learning community and pedagogical structures contributed to the
transformation in students' thinking about their multicultural identity and
led to an increased awareness of themselves and others. The primary themes
that emerged from the analyses included: (1) intellectual safety, (2)
breaking down barriers, (3) anthology as multicultural text, and (4)
identity formation/multiplicity of identities.

Findings
Intellectual Safety
The findings in this section suggested cognitive and affective outcomes.
The students' comments showed that they were very astute and "tuned into"
the classroom climate. Their initial comments early in the semester
indicated the importance of intellectual safety for creating trust and
openness. Students noted that when they didn't feel intellectually safe,
they suppressed or censored their feelings and ideas. When some students
took a risk and spoke out on a controversial issue in the early weeks of
class, they often wrote a note on their file folder apologizing and vowing
not to speak out again. While the person who took the risk felt bad about
sharing his/her views, others in the class wrote comments complimenting the
speaker and saying they admired his/her honesty and courage. Students'
comments revealed how building an intellectually safe environment fostered
openness to take risks and engage in discussions of sensitive issues. The
following quote emphasizes one student's feelings about the importance of
intellectual safety.
We found that a student must feel safe in the classroom environment.
This safety consisted nor only physical safety, but emotional safety.
This emotional safety comes from a feeling that the student's ideas
and questions can be given without judgment or criticism. As we
worked together in small groups, read each other's papers and were
able to present our opinions, our class became closer and our safety
was secured. It is a trust that is earned through multiple
interactions(How many students graduate from high school without truly
experiencing this type of safety?

By the end of the semester there was evidence that the pedagogical approach
cultivated a classroom culture, a sense of community, and a safe space for
students to work through hidden struggles and closed doors of their past.
The students broke down barriers and silences that often occur in
classrooms when discussing sensitive topics. Over time students felt safe
to share personal stories of racial slurs and discrimination they had
experienced due to disabilities, gender, ethnicity, and race. They revealed
stories of overcoming personal struggles (time spent in prison, drug
addictions, gang behavior, and sexual abuse stories). The stories resulted
in students reframing their assumptions about "others" by realizing that
these storied were from their peers sitting right there in our classroom.
They realized that issues of drugs, homelessness, disability, racial
biases, violence, and marginalization are not issues relegated to books and
movies, or situations removed from us. These insights became very
meaningful to the students because they involved the personal stories of
people they came to know and care about. One student described the value of
getting to know one another and its positive impact on the learning
community.
I feel that I am much closer to everyone now that I know their
personal histories, and this is a lesson that applies to the classroom
as well; when you know your students you can more effectively relate
to them. Further, when students know about each other, they feel more
connected to one another and this gives them an environment of safety
where they can learn.

Anthology as Multicultural Text
The sharing of the personal histories led to greater self-understanding and
awareness of multiple perspectives of individuals different from
themselves. The personal histories came alive because they were real life
stories set in familiar contexts in contrast to the narratives we read in
Banks (2002) and Gay (2003). Sharing each other's personal histories via
the class anthology resulted in a framing and reframing of one's beliefs,
biases, and sense of identity that occurred as a result of creating and
sharing our own multicultural text. One student concluded that
multicultural education "is a process of self-reflection and personal
thought that we must go through to change our ideas or biases that we
hold."

The collection of personal histories opened the students' eyes and hearts
to the tensions, contradictions, and prejudices they and their classmates
have experienced. Through the personal stories they saw the subtle, and
not so subtle, ways that individuals marginalize "the other." The real life
stories dispelled the beliefs about "color blindness" and tolerance in
Hawaii by revealing that stereotyping and discrimination can take on many
forms such as a type of "insiders" versus "outsiders." The students shared
how this mentality of stereotyping can result in discrimination towards
individuals in the military, towards Caucasians, disabled individuals,
people of different sexual persuasions, in other words, the "others."
These stories opened us up to confronting our assumptions and biases and
resulted in understandings that are critical to us as multicultural
educators. They also led students to redefine what is meant by
multicultural education as shown in the following student comment,
"Multiculturalism is about understanding who you are and who your students
are so that respect will prevail. As I learned, even an all "white"
classroom can and must be multicultural."

Multiplicity of Identities
The students also explored how identity is shaped by multicultural factors,
e.g., race, ethnicity, religion, language, sexuality, gender, and
disability. They opened themselves to their multiple identities and saw how
these multiple identities shape who we are and how we think and act. With
the mixing and blending of races and ethnicities students asked such
questions as, "Do I identify more with my mother's whiteness or my father's
Japanese culture?" "Am I multicultural if I am white?" The personal
histories helped the students see how each person struggled to define
his/her multicultural identity and saw that there were other factors
besides race and ethnicity that marginalize individuals.
One student explained:

When I first stepped into this class back in January, I had a general
idea about what the term 'multicultural' meant-I thought to myself,
I'm Asian-I'm a minority, I know what multicultural means. Boy was I
wrong. The anger and the irritation that I felt, as shown in one of my
earlier papers, was obviously going unheard and was directed at the
wrong audience. I thought my perspective was always right when it came
to racial issues and discrimination because I am Japanese-American and
I experienced prejudice for myself. But what I had failed to do [was
that] I failed to see through another person's eyes.

The students became more accepting of different religions because they got
to know people who were Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, as well as many
other religions. What came out of the discussions was the ability to see
beyond one's own unique experiences and interpretations. The open, honest
discussions and papers revealed the misconceptions we carry around with us.
First, I did not consider myself multicultural nor did I think I was
confused about my identity. I thought of multiculturalism as something
you were either born with or not. I did not believe it was something
to strive to, as in becoming a multicultural person. I thought that
people who practiced many traditions were multicultural. I even
mistakenly thought that someone could "look" multicultural.

Discussion/ Educational Significance of the Study
In this chapter we discussed how we systematically studied our pedagogical
approach to multicultural education and the creation of a learning
community. Through this study we saw the power of purposefully designing a
learning community curriculum that encouraged multiple perspectives and
voices. We found that the key was establishing a safe intellectual
environment, an environment in which the students could feel comfortable
discussing sensitive issues and sharing personal stories openly and
honestly. Within this safe environment we fostered relationships by
creating spaces for students to get to know one another through collages,
small groups and circle discussions, and by creating opportunities for
students to share their own stories situated in their own multicultural
experiences. By the end of the semester there was evidence that the
pedagogical approach cultivated a classroom culture, a learning community
and a safe space for students to work through difficult, sensitive issues.
Creating a learning community, a community of inquiry, made it possible for
the students to probe, take risks, and challenge their assumptions. Their
papers and lesson presentations demonstrated their personal growth and
commitment to change in their future classrooms.


The students' writings and discussions reflected honesty and trust, and
illustrated how they could look inward to understand themselves and explore
the roots of their biases and prejudices. Their writings and discussions
also showed how they looked outward to understand others. Rather than try
to have students leave the class thinking the way the instructors think
they should think, the students experienced one another's stories, and put
themselves in someone else's shoes and began to see through different eyes.
By giving them a safe space and allowing them to open up and share, we all
learned stories about multiculturalism in a profound and deep way.


Suggestions for Developing and Sustaining a Learning Community

Using the learning community as a context for teaching multicultural
education has valuable advantages for fostering open and honest discussions
as well as student reflection and participation. As a result of our study
we offer the following suggestions for developing and maintaining a
learning community as a site for multicultural education.
Create an environment of intellectual safety by explicitly defining
and modeling what it means in order to build trust and openness.
Establish ground rules for group process and equity in participation.

Use the physical environment to create community by changing the
classroom spaces (circle, small and large group) to enhance community
and increase student interaction and communication.

Introduce pedagogical structures that encourage all voices and allow
students to get to know one another beyond superficial connections.

Change the power structure so that students and instructors learn from
each other and become partners in the meaning making and inquiry.

Transform the curriculum by making multicultural concepts meaningful
and personalized to the students' prior knowledge, and by selecting
issues and assignments that reflect the cultures and experiences of
the students.

Create assignments that build off of one another so that students
begin to see multicultural education as a process of becoming, rather
than an end unto itself.

We would like to close the chapter with one student's description of what
he learned about becoming a multicultural teacher. He described this
process using the metaphor of a journey.
I realize that multicultural education is in fact a central element of
my journey as an educator. It is much more than teaching ethnic
tolerance to students; rather, multicultural education is something
that can transform student, teacher, and perhaps by extension, society
itself. I now realize that multicultural education is more than just
the gravy, it is in fact the meat; not sauce, but educational
substance. Throughout the semester, this class has led me to adjust
the way I thought of multiculturalism and to reevaluate not only what
multicultural education means, but my entire identity as a potential
teacher as well.


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Appendix A: Course Projects

Curriculum Implications for Multicultural Education
ITE 440


"1. Personal Artifacts: Students began the course by learning about "
"instructors based on the personal artifacts that their instructors "
"shared with the class. The students subsequently brought in their "
"own artifacts to share with their classmates as a way of building a "
"community of learners. "
"2. Community Ball- The students and instructors created a community "
"ball used to balance individual members' contributions to class "
"discussions. "
"3. Folder Comment System- Each student was given a file folder, and "
"at the end of each class they wrote comments and reflections about "
"the class. The instructors read the reflections and responded to "
"each student's comments for each class. Besides being a personal "
"form of student communication, the folder comments also served as a "
"formative assessment and a source of data for the instructors to "
"modify lessons and plan future learning activities. "
"4. Autobiographical Collages and Reflection Papers- The students "
"created autobiographical collages to visually represent their "
""multicultural identity" to the rest of the class. Accompanying "
"their collages were reflection papers that explained the students' "
"process of constructing the collage. "
"5. Insight Papers- Each week students responded to selected readings"
"and wrote a reflective one-to-two page paper. The reflections were "
"shared in small groups where the students wrote comments on each "
"other's papers and engaged in small group discussions before sharing"
"out ideas with the entire class. "
"6. Personal History Papers- The students wrote papers that: 1) "
"shared their personal history and family background; 2) critically "
"reflected on their race, ethnicity, social class, gender, sexual "
"orientation, exceptionality, language, religion and how these "
"multicultural characteristics impacted their own sense of identity; "
"and 3) discussed how their family background, culture and prior "
"experiences influenced their beliefs about teaching and student "
"learning. "
"7. Personal History Anthology- The students received copies of the "
"personal histories of everyone in the class. The collection of the "
"personal histories became a class anthology. Using the anthology as "
"a text, each student read the collection of personal histories and "
"conducted a content analysis of the readings. Each student wrote a "
"synthesis paper, based on the content analysis of the personal "
"histories. The resulting synthesis paper provided a collection of "
"multicultural profiles that highlighted the diversity and "
"commonalities of our class. "
"8. Team Lesson- The students translated the theoretical concepts of "
"the class into a lesson they prepared and presented to the class. "
"The presenters were to assume that our class was made up of the "
"types of students (age, content and multicultural components) that "
"they would be teaching in the future. At the end of the lesson the "
"presenters distributed the lesson plans to their classmates as "
"future resources. "
"9. Lessons Learned Paper- At the end of the course, the students "
"wrote a paper that synthesized the information that they learned "
"from the readings, their writing, class discussions, lesson "
"presentations, and other sources throughout the semester. "
"10. Other Class Activities- These included large group discussions, "
"guest speakers, simulations, concept mapping, lectures, and other "
"inquiry-oriented activities. "