Reflections on Multiculturalism in Developmental Education

Multiculturalism Incorporated: Student Perceptions

“…What was most striking about the responses we gathered was how deeply they embodied ongoing disagreements over multiculturalism that are represented in popular culture and that, as we have reported previously, inform the perspectives of our own faculty (Bruch and Higbee 2002;Bruch et al 2005). Of course, multiculturalism means different things to different people in different places.…”

“…We believe that this reflects an important kind of progress across higher education-a genuine effort to change patterns of institutionalized domination in favor of incorporation. At the same time, the progress achieved has not extended to the foundational understanding of knowledge that universities institutionalize; and this is largely true even in programs like ours that explicitly embrace multiculturalism (Bruch and Higbee 2002). Instead, universities have incorporated multiculturalism into underlying assumptions that see universities as essentially impartial, neutral, and equally open to all.…”

Assessing Our Commitment to Providing a Multicultural Learning Experience

“…The results drew attention to the need for discussion and consensus building regarding the meaning and implications of multiculturalism itself. After several decades of public and professional argument and redefinition, multiculturalism means many different things to different people (Bruch, 2001;Higbee & Bruch, 2002). Because it began with a set of specific commitments in the form of 12 "essential principles" (Banks et al, 2001), the assessment tool used for this study placed a relatively detailed definition of multiculturalism on the table for further discussion.…”

“…This project is of particular significance to developmental education because so many students from groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in higher education (Hardin, 1988(Hardin, , 1998 enter institutions via developmental education programs. It is important that we begin to engage in conversations regarding the definition of multiculturalism and its centrality to our work as educators (Bruch & Higbee, 2002). This article presents the findings of the administration of an adaptation of the Diversity Within Unity checklist to a higher education setting.…”

Pedagogy of Inclusion: Integrated Multicultural Instructional Design

“…We started with a brief open-ended survey of the GC faculty (Bruch & Higbee, 2002) as well as an analysis of the contents of the prominent journals in developmental education and learning assistance for the previous 10-year period. What we learned was that although the GC faculty considered multicultural awareness vital to teaching and learning, very little attention was paid in the developmental education literature to students' diverse social identities and how culture and other facets of identity might be related to learning.…”