Multicultural Project for the Gifted: What's Your Perspective?

When discussing perspective, I like to use the old tale about the blind men and the elephant.  Essentially, the blind men learn that an elephant has been brought to the village.  The men have no concept of an elephant but want to touch it. As each man touches a different part of the elephant, they each provide a different description. For instance, one thinks it’s a pillar, another a thick branch, yet another thinks it’s ears are a giant fan. The point is that people can have different perspectives for the same experience, and that experience is subjective.

The idea of teaching gifted students multiple perspectives has been driven home by Dr. Donna Ford. In the Ford-Harris Multicultural For Gifted Education matrix,  teachers are provided a guide to help them infuse multiculturalism into the classroom, starting from merely introducing subjects involving race or ethnicity, eventually getting students to identify problems and take social action to improve circumstances. Faced with limited time and restrictive curriculum requirements, I created a method to teach my students about different cultures and perspectives. Dubbed “Operation Cultural Exchange,” students meet once a week during their lunch period to discuss culture, including its representation and impact on school campus. The ultimate goal for my students, in line with the Ford-Harris matrix, is to identify social injustices (in this case, stereotypes and misperceptions about culture) and take correction action, which will likely include conducting an awareness campaign.         

 To help you launch a similar project (if interested), I am listing a series of key points.

• While infusing multicultural education into your regular curriculum, it might be advantageous to start a lunchtime or afterschool club to provide you with more flexibility. My students meet once a week during their lunch in the school’s media center and eat while holding discussions.

• Consider recruiting other teachers or help from the community. I was lucky enough to have two university students coach the project as part of their pre-service teaching curriculum requirements.

• Stay open to possibilities. During the first few meetings, have students brainstorm what they might want to learn regarding race and culture. Are their cultures they want to learn more about? Are there issues on campus regarding race and stereotypes? Let the students’ interests lead the way. Also stay open about how students might investigate and gather information. Do they want to survey or interview other students? Do they want to collect data from the Internet? Maybe a combination of both methods.

• To provide different perspectives, you must bring in people with those different viewpoints. Consider approaching cultural centers in town and ask them to come speak to your students. You can also ask parents of various race and culture if they could share insights during class. Don’t forget, you can use video, books, and online resources as well.

• Inject food and music into your project! Why not hold a cultural celebration at the end of the project, where students can share different foods and play music?

• Increase the complexity of the project-especially if you want to challenge gifted children. I want my students to not only learn about various cultures but to investigate and ponder how cultural differences and lack of education could create tension and problems. Then, I want them to take it a step further by considering how they can solve those problems.

Multiple perspectives—we all have different ways of seeing the world and interesting customs and knowledge to share. Why not have your students share and celebrate these perspectives?

Thanks for reading,

Steve