Curricular approaches to developing positive interethnic relations

Journal of Negro Education, The, Fall 1999 by Henze, Rosemary C

This article examines whether and in what ways curricular approaches can be helpful in building positive interethnic relations in a large, ethnically diverse high school. Through this case study of curricular reform, the author documents four curricular approaches teacher leaders used to explicitly address issues of race and ethnicity and explores the impact of these approaches on student learning. By tracing the process of curricular change, the case illuminates how teacher leaders and administrators created the conditions for these curricular reforms to be sustainable.

I think people forget that kids, even at this level-even though we don't consider ourselves kids, but really we are-just like kids tease each other in elementary school, why's he wearing that or he looks funny, it's the same thing in high school. It really is. I think because people don't know, they don't understand, they just act out in that way without knowing the consequences, the reasons, the justifications, or anything. So considering the fact that we don't learn very much [about race relations], race relations are pretty good, considering. But things would be a lot better if we had more education. (An African American high school student)

The young woman who made this comment points to the need, even in schools that have purportedly good relations among different ethnic groups, for more focused attention to race and ethnicity in the regular educational program. This school, normally considered peaceful, had recently experienced an incident in which an immigrant student from India was beaten after getting off the school bus by several African American and Pacific Islander American students. The beating occurred in full view of the bus driver, who did not stop or intervene. The student quoted above was surprised by the incident and deemed it tragic because "that's the only type of experience [the beaten student is] going to take with him." As a result of this negative impression, she claimed, "that's what he's going to think all African Americans are like. He's not going to see the good aspects, the people who do know, or the [Black] people who do understand." Like many of her peers, she wished more time could be devoted in the high school curriculum to addressing such issues.

In this article, I examine whether and in what ways curricular approaches can be helpful in building positive interethnic relations in a large, ethnically diverse high school. I begin by looking at what other researchers and theorists have said about the curricular reforms associated with multicultural education and about improving interethnic relations.

I then provide some contextual information about Ohlone High School,1 the research site that informs this article, and describe four curricular approaches to interethnic relations used in this school. My goals in this article are (a) to examine what these approaches offer students in terms of providing an enriched learning experience that prepares them for participation in a more democratic, respectful society; and (b) to better understand how teacher leaders and administrators can create the conditions that allow such curricular reforms to be sustainable.

MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION: AN OVERVIEW OF THEORY AND RESEARCH

A substantial body of research and theory has examined how schools can better meet the needs of students with diverse backgrounds. In practice, however, the notion of meeting the needs of increasingly diverse student populations is often oversimplified, as if everyone agreed on their nature and extent. Depending on how educators define these needs, different claims can be made about the strategies or approaches required to meet them.

Most educators agree, at least in theory, that one need is for all students to have access to academic success. The literature on how schools can meet this need, especially for students who traditionally have been underserved, is replete with recommendations. Among the most prominent currently is the critique of tracking-the sorting of students by presumed ability-and the concurrent movement to "de-track" by doing away with ability grouping (Fine, Weis, & Powell, 1998; Lipman, 1998; Mehan, 1996; Noguera, 1995; Oakes, 1985). Although de-tracking holds much promise as a way to address entrenched problems of unequal access to high-level curricula, it is limited in that it addresses only the need for equal access to academic success. It does not question whether the basic purpose of formal education might go further than simply preparing students of all backgrounds for success in mainstream society. Ladson-Billings (1995) suggests considering whether schools might serve additional purposes. Should schools, for example, play a role in nurturing students' sense of cultural or ethnic identity? Should they assist in developing positive human relations? Should they teach students to be critical, to question and challenge inequities that schools and other institutions perpetuate? These are value questions and cannot be easily settled by research. However, they are important because they underlie many of the debates that take place daily in school board meetings, district offices, and meetings between site administrators or teachers and parents.