Long-Term Impact of a Critical Multicultural Curriculum: Awareness, Activism, Disillusionment, Segregation

• In Event: Culturally Responsive Teaching Across Contexts and Tools

Abstract

This study explores the effects of critical multicultural pedagogy on seven adolescents. Interviews and survey methodology have been used to determine the impact, four years later, of a carefully structured eighth grade curriculum centered on racism, white privilege, and anti-racist leadership. Findings indicate that participants are attuned to issues of social justice and continue to demonstrate an awareness of privilege and racism, but also express disillusionment and lament the lack of productive discussions of race in school since eighth grade. This research speaks to the need of fostering socio-economically and racially integrated schools where students can meaningfully engage in critical multicultural work in order for this pedagogy to have lasting effects.

Author

• Jill Ewing Flynn, University of Delaware