Definition Of Multiculturism REVIEW OF LITERATURE
10 to this. The multicultural education movement first emerged in America in the 1960s
and 1970s as a respond toward ethnic revitalization movements and that slowly entered the periphery of the mainstream curriculum and education institution though
with the limited success Banks, 1979. Multicultural education defined by Lynch 1986 is the education which is
appropriate to democratic cultural pluralism. Therefore, the definition from James Lynch is not the fixed meaning of multicultural education, because there are lot
definitions that defining the meaning of multicultural education. In most general sense, multicultural education is an approach to teaching the
values of diversity into the classroom – it can be diversity in contents, methods, perspectives, educators, students and cultures. It is based on the definition that
[m]ulticultural education means different things to the different people Geneva Gay, , 1994
However, Montecions and Rios 1999 explain that multicultural education not only rely on the cultural characteristic of diverse group, but also emphasizes on social
problem particularly those associate with oppression, political power and the reallocation of economic resources. Furthermore, some restrict their focus to people
of color, while others include all major groups that are different in anyway from mainstreams American. Others definitions limit multicultural education to
characteristic of local schools, and still other provide direction from school reform in all settings regardless of their characteristic.
From the explanation above, we can conclude that multicultural education is a progressive approach for transforming education that holistically critiques and
responds to discriminatory policies and practices in education. It challenges and
11 rejects racism and other discrimination in schools and society to accept and affirm the
pluralism ethnic, racial, religious, linguistic, economic and gender among the students; their communities and teacher represent Lynch, 1986
Multicultural Education created to avoid the same mistakes with the past in dealing with multiculturalism issues. The goal of multicultural education is to help