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Appendix G: Position Paper on Multicultural Education
At the beginning of the 21st century, Americans find themselves in a much more culturally, religiously, ethnically, and racially diverse society than they did at the turn of the 20th century. Today, the United States is one of the most diverse countries in the world and its technology and world prestige has made it a center of international and global influence. Despite the increasing amount of multiethnicity, multiculturalism, and international transference of culture among various groups in the United States, stereotypes and negative views remain prevalent among Americans of different racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds. Most of these views, we believe, are a result of misconceptions and misinformation and are the remnants of a history in which the country has struggled to transcend differences of race, culture, ethnicity, language, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and class.
As one of the largest and most prestigious colleges of education in the United States, The University of Georgia College of Education plays a major role in helping provide accurate information and knowledge dealing with issues of diversity. We also intend to play a critical role in influencing the dialogue on race, ethnicity, gender, class, and other aspects of multiculturalism in order to help shape a more democratic society in the 21st Century. The College of Education has already taken a lead in these endeavors. In fact, in its official statement on multiculturalism, the college proposed that it "assist both students, staff and faculty in the development of knowledge and actions necessary to educate and counsel students from various cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds." It also proposed to "institute a process of continuous reflection and evaluation to accomplish the mission of multicultural education for an equitable democratic society." To facilitate these objectives, in 1998 the College of Education adopted a cultural diversity requirement for all students to ensure that graduates from UGA would acquire more understanding and respect for cultural differences within both domestic and global communities.
The Multicultural Task Force (MCTF) supports, in spirit, the College's Strategic Plan. In this addendum, we focus explicitly on a few of the issues and problems of equity and diversity within Georgia and the UGA community. At the moment, the student and faculty bodies at UGA do not equitably reflect the diversity of either Georgia or the nation. For example, while African Americans comprise a little over 30% of the Georgia population, they make up only 6.5 percent of the undergraduate student population and only 3.5 percent of the African American faculty at the University. Latino and Native American students are also underrepresented, making up about 1 and .14 percent of the student body respectively. In addition, Latinos and Native Americans make up less than 1 and .5 percent of the faculty respectively. These, among other problems pertaining to equity and diversity, need to be addressed aggressively in order for the College and University to make any significant progress with regard to equity and diversity on a regional, state, national, and global level.
In order to prepare teachers for the reality of an increasingly diverse society, the MCTF intends to continue to play an important role in assisting and informing the College of Education. Moreover, in order to promote greater equity and diversity in society, the MCTF's role also entails assisting and informing UGA about the need for proactive measures in making the student body and faculty more culturally diverse, and about the continued need for development of programs and policies related to multiculturalism and globalization. The College of Education and the MCTF must continue to take the lead in bringing to the forefront important issues of equity and diversity as connected with UGA, the Athens community, regional and national locations in the United States, and other global areas. In doing so, we can facilitate change in the social and political climates, thus creating a critical mass that can enable the presentation of different perspectives in our society that will hopefully lead to greater equity and democracy among all. In a separate document, you will find evidence of links from the MCTF's themes and vision to the goals, objectives, and strategic actions as described by the College Plan. The MCTF believes that the College and University must be proactive in strategies of recruitment, retention, research, dissemination, program development, community outreach and support, and we look forward to working with our colleagues in securing our common objectives.
Goal #1 Appendix A |
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