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Global and Multicultural Literacy

This document discusses global and multicultural literacy. It defines global literacy as addressing issues of globalization, diversity, and social justice. Five keys to developing global literacy are outlined, including teaching in local mother tongues, fostering a love of reading, embedding literacy in other programs, and using technology carefully. Building global literacy in students means developing skills like inquiry, collaboration, and global citizenship. Multicultural literacy involves identifying biases in knowledge and viewing knowledge from diverse perspectives to create social justice. Qualities of multicultural teachers and literature are presented, along with ways to incorporate multicultural texts across disciplines. The document concludes that global and multicultural literacy are interconnected and important for addressing diversity in classrooms.

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841 views5 pages

Global and Multicultural Literacy

This document discusses global and multicultural literacy. It defines global literacy as addressing issues of globalization, diversity, and social justice. Five keys to developing global literacy are outlined, including teaching in local mother tongues, fostering a love of reading, embedding literacy in other programs, and using technology carefully. Building global literacy in students means developing skills like inquiry, collaboration, and global citizenship. Multicultural literacy involves identifying biases in knowledge and viewing knowledge from diverse perspectives to create social justice. Qualities of multicultural teachers and literature are presented, along with ways to incorporate multicultural texts across disciplines. The document concludes that global and multicultural literacy are interconnected and important for addressing diversity in classrooms.

Uploaded by

RYSHELLE PIAMONTE
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Global and Multicultural Literacy

Global Literacy

 Global literacy aims to address issues of globalization, racism, diversity and


social justice (Guo, 2014).
 It requires awareness and action consistent with a broad understanding of
humanity, the planet, and the impact of human decision on both.
 It also aims to empower students’ knowledge and take actions to make a positive
impact in the world and their local community.

Here are five keys for development:

1. Remember adult learning-. A holistic approach to literacy is needed which


supports adults especially women, to become literate and which also emphasizes
the role of learning within the family including intergenerational learning and
creating a learning environment in the home.
2. Teach in the mother tongue. In many developing countries, lessons are taught
in English or another non local language such as French, Japanese etc., from a
young age. Teachers are also often not proficient in the language they are
instructing in. Instead, children and adults should be learning to read and write in
their local languages. Parents may be demanding English but let’s not ignore
local languages.
3. Don’t just hand-outs books: Foster a love of reading. . It is important to plant
the need and the love of books first which leads to direct literacy as well as a
host of other gains by encouraging a love of school.
4. Embed literacy into other programs. Standalone literacy programs are not
necessarily the best approach. According to Newelle Jones that literacy and
numeracy should instead be embedded into community development projects.
5. Use technology- but use it carefully. According to a 2016 analysis of the global
literacy sector by the United States NGO results for development, donors focus
too much on technology at a time when there is a significant lack of evidence on
what types of technology interventions actually work. Critics including Princess
Laurentien warn that the digitalization of communication could have negative
impacts on literacy rates “We know reading and writing comes through talking,
but research shows that in this digital age, through social media we talk less to
each other (Devex).”

Building Global Literacy in Our Students

 It is used to convey a broader goal of fluency in skills and competence relating to


knowledge and understanding of nations and cultures.
 To enable students to thrive a global citizen, a world-wide mindset is the best
preparation, as well as an education that aims at appreciating the great diversity
of cultures and their life stories.
 The necessity for this kind of literacy is recognized by prominent educational
leaders, Albeit using slightly different terms. For example, among the terms used
are:

• Global competence- defined as the ability

1. to investigate the world


2. recognize perspectives
3. communicates ideas, and
4. take action

• Intercultural understanding- defined as the ability to

1) exhibit curiosity and basic knowledge about global cultures,


2) expect complexity and multiple perspectives,
3) see self as part of multiple cultures,
4) value cultural diversity,
5) be comfortable with ambiguity

• Cultural intelligence- defined as the capability to relate to and work effectively with
people from different cultures.

Global literacy promotes and encourages:

• Inquiry, reasoning and problem solving


• Collaboration
• Communication and an understanding of world languages and culture
• An understanding of globalized systems and political realities
• Responsible global citizenship
• Respect for diversity
• An understanding of the skills and technologies that is necessary for life in the
21st century.
• The ability for students to become advocates for themselves and their
city/state/country.

Multicultural Literacy

• consists of the skills and ability to identify the creators of knowledge and their
interests
• to uncover the assumptions of knowledge, to view knowledge from diverse
ethnic and cultural perspective and to use knowledge to guided action that will
create humane and just world
 Education for multicultural literacy should help students to develop the 21st
century skills and attitudes that are needed to become active citizens who will
work towards achieving social justice within our communities.
 Because of the growing racial language and ethnic diversity in our country,
multicultural literacy need to be transformed in substantial ways to prepare
students to function effectively in the 21st century.

Multicultural Teacher

 Delivers teaching and learning on the familiar context of the learners and attends
to their ways of thinking.
 Skills of Multicultural Teachers
1. Information and Communication Skills
• Media literacy
• Information literacy
• ICT literacy
2. Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills
• Critical thinking
• Creativity
• Intellectual curiosity
3. Interpersonal and Self-Directional Skills
• Flexibility and adaptability
• Initiative and self-direction
• Social skills and cross-cultural skills
• Productivity and accountability
• Leadership and responsibility
 Roles of Teacher
 Uses multicultural approach
 Promotes good human relationship
 Promotes social reform and cultural change.

Multicultural Literature

• To be able to integrate, use and make meaning of multicultural texts in the


classroom is a good starting point (Iwai, 2015).
• Because most books are primarily Eurocentric and tend to portray animal or
characters with characterized and values of mainstreams lifestyles, having
books that contains diverse perspectives allows students to not only be aware
of views of different from their own, but also see themselves in relation to those.
• By having students reflect on their own lives, they see how “rich” they are in
comparison into characters featured in multicultural literature which enables them
to express their emotions similar to those characters (Huang & Kowalick, 2014).
• However, when selecting and presenting multicultural texts for classroom, it is
important that teachers engage in authentic instruction. Reading a few books
here and these on diverse people sends strong messages about what is normal
and what is not.

This means that it is necessary to fully engage with the texts to ensure (Iwai,
2015).

1. Illustration accurately reflecting culture, story, people and events.


2. Authentic dialogue is facilitated.
3. Descriptions of authentic cultures are used in the text.
4. There are portrayals of all people, including both minority and majority as
individuals.
5. No stereotyping or tokenisms are the basis of texts.
6. There are varieties of genres for students to choose from.

Interdisciplinary Usage of Multicultural Texts

• One of the major tenets of being an effective teacher is being able to find
opportunities to incorporate different aspects of students’ learning and literacy
across the curriculum is the same with multicultural literacy.

Iwai (2015) also offers a few other approaches to using multicultural literature:

• Open-mind Portraits. Students illustrate a character’s face from a story and write
the character’s feelings and thoughts.
• Sketch-to-Stretch. Students draw sketches that illustrate important messages
and ideas from the story and share their drawings that reflect what the story
meant to them.
• Double entry journals. Students write quotes from the story in the left column and
reflections on the quotes in the right column.
• Interactive writing students write their thoughts and reflections about the topic or
story by interacting with their teacher and peers.
• Storyboards. Students select important events from the story and illustrate the
sequence of those events in graphic organizers.
The Interconnectedness of Multicultural and Global Literacy

• Every classroom contains students of different race, religion and cultural groups.
• Students embrace diverse behaviors, cultural values, patterns of practice and
communication. Yet they all share one commonality: their educational opportunity
• Teachers should teach their students that other cultures exist and that these
deserve to be acknowledged and respected, integrating a variety of cultural
context into lessons and activities, teaches students to view the world from
many angles, creates a respect for diversity and enables students to learn
exciting information.
• As classroom become increasingly more diverse, it is important for educators to
acknowledge an address diversity issues to integrate multiculturalism
information into the classroom curriculum.

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