Critical multiculturalism

Critical Multiculturalism is a pedagogy created by Shirley R. Steinberg and Joe L. Kincheloe that works at the intersection of power, identity and knowledge. Key to this theory is context and power.

Steinberg writes in Intercultural Conversations: A Reader (2001), that power "exists and as it changes can become more insidious and difficult to identify." ^[1]

"oppression in any form cannot be examined in an isolated context, but it must constantly be reexamined and that oppression's interaction with the lived world is redesigned and reconfigured constantly."

Westminster Studies in Education 1998 oe L Kincheloe and Shirley R Steinberg, Changing Multiculturalism Changing Education Series, Buckingham, Open University Press 1997. Pb 0 335 19483 4 Review by Dr Stephen Bigger, 1998. https://eprints.worc.ac.uk/242/1/Kincheloe%26Steinberg.pdf

White people therefore need to “rethink their understanding of their own ethnicity” and reformulate whiteness in terms of justice, egalitarianism and commun ity [p.30]. In a similar way, a study of the status of women requires a reformulation of masculinity by men. Race, gender and class are seen as linked as forms of oppression rooted in social and economic structures. These forces of oppression play out in the classroom, through which pupils construct their own understandings, sense of identity and aspirations. The result is a playing field that is by no means level. This demands a reconceptualising of curriculum from the principle of taking” the lives of all students seriously” [p.40]. Powerful organising concepts include “the power of difference” valuing the power and importance of difference. In fact we can view the classroom as “a central site for the legitimization of myths, lies and sile nces about non-white, lower socio-economic class and other marginalized individuals”[ p.41]. In contrast, “different ways of seeing” could be a powerful concept to underpin a challenging and transformative curriculum, encouraging “learning from difference”.

teachers need to have experienced transformation if they are to teach transformatively.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/42976757.pdf?acceptTC=true multiculturalism. Joe Kincheloe and I fervently believe that oppression in any form cannot be examined in an isolated context, but it must con- stantly be reexamined and that oppression's interaction with the lived world is redesigned and reconfigured constantly

It is important to never forget that power exists and as it changes can become more insidious and difficult to identify.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1176446.pdf

all of his work involves this extension of postmodern political theory into the realm of cognitive theory. This synthesis of postmodern, critical, and cognitive theory

the complications produced by a postmodern society's need to retain modernistic constructions and tendencies. critical realiza-tion that power pervades our society, and that those who hold power at-tempt to maintain their power through the essentialization, objectification, and manipulation of people. The basis for this politics of knowledge and what sustains the inequities of modernistic society is formal thinking. Post-Piagetian cognitive theory is elucidated by Kincheloe and Steinberg as post-formal theory.

Kincheloe explicates post-formalism in a four-part structure that includes etymology, pattern, process, and contextualization (

"post-formal thinking about thinking involves our ability to engage in ideological disembedding, the ability to remove ourselves from socio-interpersonal norms and expectations" (Kincheloe & Steinberg, 1996, p. 177). Etymology: Pattern: Kincheloe states that formal thinking as personified by the Cartesian- Newtonian paradigm (see Kincheloe & Steinberg 1998, and Kincheloe, 1998b) is unable to penetrate to the deeper hidden structures of reality. Proces: Post-formality sees "the world as a text to be read Post-formality responds to the modernistic bifurcation of logic and emotion by reconnecting "logic and emotion, mind and body, individual and nature, and self and other" Contextualizatin: The post-formal thinker realizes that to develop a full meaning about an ob-servation requires attention to the cir-cumstances and setting that surroundthe observation "post-formal thinkers engage in a running meta-dialogue, a constant conversation with self" (Kincheloe & Steinberg, 1996, p. 177)

draws upon the evolving theoretical position emerging in the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory in the 1920s, ^[2] The framework for Critical Multiculturalism was laid out in Steinberg's 2001 book, Multi/Intercultural Conversations: A Reader, but originally discussed in Kincheloe's and Steinberg's book, Changing Multiculturalism and further refined in her book, Diversity: A Reader, (2009). In Dr. Stephen Bigger's 1998 review of Changing Multiculturalism, he writes, "Multiculturalism, a problematic term, is clarified into a position called ‘critical multiculturalism’, described with approval inasfar as it explores “the way power shapes consciousness” (p. 25) and has an “emancipatory commitment to social justice and the egalitarian democracy that accompanies it” (p. 26) in contrast to “a moral emptiness to pedagogies that attempt to understand the world without concurrently attempting to change it”. Teachers need to have experienced transformation if they are to teach transformatively. The pedagogy comes out of the concern with the intersection of power, identity and knowledge (p.&

-- http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/42976757.pdf?acceptTC=true multiculturalism. Joe Kincheloe and I fervently believe that oppression in any form cannot be examined in an isolated context, but it must con- stantly be reexamined and that oppression's interaction with the lived world is redesigned and reconfigured constantly

It is important to never forget that power exists and as it changes can become more insidious and difficult to identify.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1176446.pdf

all of his work involves this extension of postmodern political theory into the realm of cognitive theory. This synthesis of postmodern, critical, and cognitive theory

the complications produced by a postmodern society's need to retain modernistic constructions and tendencies. critical realization that power pervades our society, and that those who hold power at-tempt to maintain their power through the essentialization, objectification, and manipulation of people. The basis for this politics of knowledge and what sustains the inequities of modernistic society is formal thinking. Post-Piagetian cognitive theory is elucidated by Kincheloe and Steinberg as post-formal theory.

Post-Formalism

In their 1996 work, Measured Lies: The Bell Curve Examined, Steinberg and Kincheloe write that "post-formal thinking about thinking involves our ability to engage in ideological disembedding, the ability to remove ourselves from socio-interpersonal norms and expectations...post-formal thinkers engage in a running meta-dialogue, a constant conversation with self." In 1999, Steinberg and Kincheloe teamed with Patricia H. Hinchey to write The Post-Formal Reader : Cognition and Education,' and Kincheloe continued to develop this idea for the next several decades.

According to a review of Kincheloe's work by Raymond A. Horn, Jr., "Kincheloe explicates post-formalism in a four-part structure that includes etymology, pattern, process and contextualization." More generally, postformal inquiry looks at questions of meaning and purpose, multiple perspectives, human dignity, freedom, and social responsibility. Curriculum and instruction based on postformalism involve detecting problems, uncovering hidden assumptions, seeing relationships, deconstructing, connecting logic and emotion, and attending to context. ^[3]

Kincheloe explicates post-formalism in a four-part structure that includes etymology, pattern, process, and contextualization (

"post-formal thinking about thinking involves our ability to engage in ideological disembedding, the ability to remove ourselves from socio-interpersonal norms and expectations" (Kincheloe & Steinberg, 1996, p. 177). Etymology: Pattern: Kincheloe states that formal thinking as personified by the Cartesian- Newtonian paradigm (see Kincheloe & Steinberg 1998, and Kincheloe, 1998b) is unable to penetrate to the deeper hidden structures of reality. Proces: Post-formality sees "the world as a text to be read Post-formality responds to the modernistic bifurcation of logic and emotion by reconnecting "logic and emotion, mind and body, individual and nature, and self and other" Contextualizatin: The post-formal thinker realizes that to develop a full meaning about an ob-servation requires attention to the cir-cumstances and setting that surroundthe observation "post-formal thinkers engage in a running meta-dialogue, a constant conversation with self" (Kincheloe & Steinberg, 1996, p. 177)