Challenge to Equality: "We Made It, Why Can't You?", The

Multicultural Education, Spring 2007 by Bhavnagri, Navaz Peshotan, Pr�speri, Jorge Dante Hernandez

Students also need to read ordinary "peoples history" (Zinn, 1999) and of "unsung heroes" (Fleming, 2001; Zinn, 2000) from marginalized groups to be inspired. Willingham (2004) states that, "Students will gain an important personal perspective when they read an autobiography of an ordinary person who lived through an historical event that they are studying" (p. 52). Such empathic readings include autobiographies, actual diaries, letters, songs, ballads, speeches, and contracts and treaties by those who were colonized.

Fourth, teacher educators should invite victims of past and current colonization as guest speakers, to orally tell and dramatize their life stories. It would promote empathy, perspective taking, and emotional engagement in pre-service teachers, and be cathartic to those who are oppressed. When Segall (2002) directed colonized individuals to retell and dramatize their unspeakable stories of trauma, and revisit their memories of being "victims" as well as being "fighters," "survivors," "healers," and "community members," she helped them to see themselves as resilient and resistant to oppression.

Willingham's (2004) research review also concluded that the story format in teaching promotes clearer comprehension, better memory, and is more interesting and engaging than expository text. Therefore, teacher educators should finally encourage pre-service teachers to retell and reenact the stories that they have heard and dramatized by the oppressed guest speakers.

3. The Behavioral Goal:Educators need to promote social activism by the power of organizing and developing coalitions and providing participatory experiences for empowering students to act for a just cause.

First, encourage students to research on websites regarding the power of organizing and developing coalitions which resulted in social movements for African Americans (e.g., the abolitionist movement, the civil rights movement) and Native Americans (e.g., the American Indian Movement, the Assembly of First Nations in Canada) and activist organizations for just causes (e.g., the National Congress of American Indians, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the American Civil Liberties Union). Students would then be inspired to understand that even ordinary people like themselves can be change agents, and to believe that collective social activism works, and thus be mobilized to join organizations, coalitions, and campaigns (Zinn, 1995).

Second, provide students with participatory learning because they learn best when they are actively involved. Therefore, engage them to: (a) interview experts in the field; (b) do service-learning in agencies and services (e.g., health, education, jobs, crime) which impact marginalized groups; (c) volunteer at African-American or Native-American museums where they can experience the stories of these oppressed groups through reenactments, manuscripts, artifacts, movies, photographs, literature and recordings; and (d) participate in raising funds and writing campaigns for advocacy groups.