Is Multiculturalism an Instrument of Social Control?

When we discuss the subject of multiculturalism and multicultural education, great attention has to be paid to the danger of misusing multiculturalism as a cover to promote Anglo-American culture.
Throughout world history, schools have been instruments of social control. In America's early days, schools main purpose was to promote Anglo-American culture, English language, and to produce God-fearing, productive citizens with conform mindsets.
To this day, schools are used to produce human capital up to par with the demands of the economy. The most common practices include tracking of students of low-economic status and the (over-)emphasize of being punctual.

The question is whether multicultural education is failing our students in terms of workplace preparedness?

I believe that every time society is faced with a challenge, all eyes immediately turn to our schools and its educators. Because our world becomes “smaller” every day, multicultural education has become essential in preparing students for the global workplace. Students should become aware of the fact that, apart from their own culture, a multitude of other cultures coexist and often represent values foreign to them. Aside from cultural differences, students need to gain insight on the various religious beliefs, which often directly impact a nation’s culture and society. Many of my students thought that the fact that women are not allowed to work in certain Muslim countries was a product of fiction. I am not sure what prompted these students to challenge this fact; the enraging aspect to me was the students’ indifference and lack of motivation to conduct personal research in order to find out for sure.

A common response is: “What does it really matter to me?" or "Why should I care?"

Given the fact that according to studies the number of gifted students in China is as large as the entire American population, I find this attitude to be very dangerous!

All blame cannot be cast on our students alone, though. I have observed an attitude in educators across grade levels: try to avoid any uncomfortable subjects, such as racism, religion, gender issues, poverty, etc.
I feel that the reasoning for this can be found in our own upbringing: after all, many of us were taught not to “rock the boat” as well and we have consequently bought into many mainstream beliefs and stereotypes. To ensure authentic multicultural education we, as educators, cannot be afraid of potential conflicts and discussions due to differing viewpoints. We have to find our own viewpoint and stand up for it. The value of general tolerance towards all human beings is often superficial, because it lacks the foundational knowledge of the other cultures derived from an honest evaluation. I believe that it is said superficial tolerance that ultimately promotes indifference. Whether multicultural education will prove effective largely depends on the educator’s willingness (or unwillingness) to challenge his own belief system and become a world citizen himself. It is very interesting to me how multicultural education is the “in-thing” as well as a taboo at the same time.

I believe that the concept of culturally relevant teaching holds great potential and provides teachers with a great stepping stone to provide all of their students with a more appropriate and effective education. While the idea of culturally relevant teaching was developed in order to increase learning outcomes of students of color, its underlying principle should build the foundation for classroom instruction in general. I would rephrase the term of culturally relevant teaching into individually relevant teaching. Many of the materials which were developed for culturally relevant teaching can provide a teacher (especially those who are culturally challenged) with great insight into their ethnically diverse classroom. However, the level of learning outcomes will predominantly depend on the teacher’s ability to relate to the individual student, as not every African American student has the same learning style, personality traits, or social background.