Chapter Reflection 1

The reading shows the sociopolitical background of multicultural education in the United States. Nieto and Bode (2012) use demographics that represent the montage of U.S. schools and society to portray the diversity in population and the need for multicultural education for all children from grade K-12. They explore students' lives by clearly looking at social class, race, ethnicity, linguistic and cultural groups while avoiding observation and stereotypes. Multicultural education concentrates on the need of inclusive concepts of race, class, and diversity while teaching students. According to Nieto and Bode (2012), “Multicultural education not only affirms issues of identity and difference but also assertively confronts issues of power and privilege in society” (p. 5). It is a set of methods and discipline in the U.S. education system that’s goal is to establish equal high-quality educational opportunities for students from diverse background. It also intends to help all students to acquire adequate knowledge and skills needed to be competent in a democratic society.
According to Nieto and Bode (2012), in addition to recognizing the goals of multicultural education, the first task is to understand the key terms relating to this topic including: equal and equitable education, social justice, the “achievement gap”, deficit theories. Each of the key terms suggests that the education system needs to provide every student with the same opportunity with due respect and fairness, making sure that they are on the right path of achieving success. The second task is to recognize the contribution of immigrants. The teachers need to emphasize that the United States is a country of past and new immigrants who plays a significant role in the country’s development and tries hard to adapt the culture and life style accordingly. Therefore, students from immigrant families should be treated unbiased making them an integral part of the society. The third task is to name the ideologies underlying educational structures. The educators need to plan a curriculum is accessible and significant to all students. The fourth task is to understand the changes in the United States in the recent past and how these changes have remodeled our schools. The growth of U.S population and immigration has been followed by an increase linguistic and class diversity. All teachers, regardless of their own identities and experiences, need to be prepared to teach effectively students of all backgrounds.
Despite numerous positivity, critics try to undermine multicultural education by calling for going back to basics, decreasing the educational principles and political struggles of legislation and policy. They fear how a multicultural prospective might result in curriculum change taking away the “common culture” (Nieto & Bode, 2012, p. 31). The authors respond by pointing how the implementation of new policies and reform acts such as No Child Left behind (NCLB) of 2001 have made both teachers and students focus on mastering test-driven basic skills ignoring overall quality of education.
To summarize the sociopolitical contexts of schooling, Nieto and Bode (2012) discussed that it is important to consider the possibilities of a multicultural education through the nature of schooling and the role of teachers. To gain a better understanding, these challenging issues should be examined under qualitative or ethnographic research. This will help people feel more connected to the education system as well as understand the effect of multicultural education on various division of the population as well as on the nation as a whole.

Reference List
Nieto, S., & Bode, P. (2012) Affirming diversity. The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (6th ed.). New York: Pearson Education.