Banks, James A.
Researchers: James A. Banks
University Affiliation: University of Washington
Email: jbanks@uw.edu
Research Question:
Describes research on the effects of multicultural education on the perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs of K-12 students
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Macmillan
Journal Entry: Handbook of Research on Social Studies Teaching and Learning, pp 459-469
Year: 1991
Findings:
- Multicultural curriculum includes the perspectives and experiences of diverse people who are part of US society and promote a pluralistic, democratic society.
- The chapter reviews literature on the effects of using teaching methods, curricula, and reinforcement techniques to modify racial and sex-role attitudes of students.
- The review finds that curriculum interventions can help students develop more positive racial attitudes, but the effects are not likely to be consistent.
- Inconsistency results from the use of different measures to test attitude change, variation in the duration of intervention, and variation in the social contexts of the studies.
- The literature suggests that curriculum interventions can help students to develop less stereotypical gender role attitudes.
- The results are inconsistent due to varied social settings, interventions, student ages, teacher attitudes and behavior, and duration of interventions.
- Studies have found that students’ perceptions of gender appropriate occupations can be modified.