Educational Equity: Multicultural Literature

This course is  a foundational course intended to provide learners with an overview of high-quality multicultural books used in K-12 settings to advance educational equity. The topics include multicultural perspectives, culturally responsive teaching and learning, equitable instructional practices, and high quality multicultural reading selections. This course will focus on multicultural perspectives of advocacy for the educational process and rights of diverse students which are embedded in culturally responsive teaching and learning through the analysis of high-quality multicultural reading selections, and equitable instructional practices to promote respect for all individuals. According to the U.S. Census 2020 data, people of color represented more than 43% of the total population which denotes the urgency for culturally responsive teaching and learning principles. Our students have backgrounds and experiences that enable them to participate in the rich dialogue among peers about content. Educators play a vital role in promoting these diverse cultural backgrounds and incorporating the funds of knowledge in the curriculum.  It is also important that students and teachers are taught to examine curricular materials for the accuracy of content, the expertise of the authors, respect, purpose, equality, race and ethnicity, congruity between narrative text and illustrations, developmentally appropriateness, differentiation, and analysis of the equity of the materials. These evaluative criteria can support the selection of curricular materials that are culturally affirming to various ethnic groups, are accurate in the historical information, and the authors have conducted research in the field.