LANGUAGE ARTS IN MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION
A wide variety of factors combine to cause difficulties for schools serving multicultural communities. Therefore, the range of competencies, both professional and personnel, required of personnel serving in such schools is also wide. Student attitudes in such schools often reflect conflicting values toward education, and educational personnel must be prepared to deal with these values, in order to preclude the development of barriers between the students and the schools (Grant, 1992). If students feel that they have little opportunity, regardless of education, to make significant achievements in society, they are not likely to place a high priority on academics. Educational personnel must also be prepared to deal with a variety of degrees of parental support for the educational process in schools serving multicultural communities. Without encouragement from home, most students will not perform well, and without parental support, schools often face frustration.
Language is often a major barrier for students in multicultural communities (Grant, 1992). The problems associated with students who speak little English, or who do not speak English as a primary language away from school must be appreciated and effectively dealt with by educational personnel in schools serving multicultural communities.
Cultural differences in the approach to learning and school are also sources of problems for students in schools that serve multicultural communities (Dicker, 1993). Educational personnel in such schools must be aware of such cultural differences, and must be prepared to deal with them.
Some educational authorities are of the opinion that a culturally pluralistic dimension should not be provided within a school, regardless of the cultural diversity of a student population (Dicker, 1993). This contention is based upon a presumption that any introduction of ethnicity into a school environ...