The Influence of the Media on Multicultural Education

by Irene Sarno
The primary goal of multicultural education is to create equal educational opportunities for students from diverse racial, ethnic, social-class, religious and cultural groups. The creation of inclusive learning environments, where educators work with families and communities to foster nurturing and accepting arenas, are supportive of the numerous goals of multiculturalism. However, factors such as racism, sexism, cultural behaviors and religious intolerance must be addressed in order to create effective instructional strategies. To that end, each of these factors, are influenced by different forms of media. These opinions must ultimately be identified, understood and sometimes defused.

As noted by Alice Udvari-Solner and Jacqueline S. Thousand in The Inclusive School(1995), goals and outcomes of multicultural education are to: foster human rights and respect for difference, acknowledge the value of cultural diversity, promote an understanding of alternative life choices, establish social justice and equal opportunity, and facilitate equitable power distribution among individuals and groups. (Chapter 5)

A popular strategy for supporting inclusive education is through the use of cooperative learning. This strategy groups students together in an attempt to assist in learning about each other’s culture. One’s “culture provides the blueprint that determines the way an individual thinks, feels, and behaves in society.” (Gollnick & Chinn, 2008, p.36) Thus, attempting to understand each other through interaction is paramount. It is important to note, this communication is difficult, since immigrants become more reserved around those who don't understand their language or their culture. Gollnick and Chinn highlight another interesting dilemma, in that educators often do not live, or have never lived, in the community in which their students live (p.36). These same educators also possess personal beliefs that are based upon their own culture and experience, which invariably are exhibited in their teaching.

Still, when schools employ a multicultural approach they make a commitment to become learner centered thus empowering the student. This is a result of direct interaction as well as increased communication utilizing the media. Media consists of print media such as books, newspapers, and magazines to film, radio, television, advertising, and many other multimedia forms, including video games, computer culture, etc. Since the media also provide role models, perceptions of proper and improper conduct, and provide crucial cultural and political information, they are an important form of pedagogy and socialization. (Kellner, 1995) Hence, media communication becomes a central part of our cultural experience, providing a valuable social and cultural resource. We cannot deny media’s role in forming and reinforcing societal attitudes which help construct our images and understanding of the world. Many are concerned about the negative influence they believe media exert on young people. Media can influence a target group as to how they conceivable “fit” into society. Thus, education must meet the challenge of sensitizing students to the inequities and injustices of a society portrayed in the media. (Lewis, 1996).

Consequently, media literacy becomes an important component of multicultural education since many people's conceptions of gender, race, class, religion and culture are constituted, in part, by the media. A media literate person is able to read, understand, evaluate, discriminate and criticize media materials. This becomes a critical method to determine how people view social groups, gender roles of masculinity and femininity, determine attitudes and behavior and distinguish between good and bad as well as right and wrong. Therefore, training in media literacy must begin at an early age in order to critically educate how to disseminate the media information (Kellner, 1995) as well as identify alternative media which promote healthy multiculturalism ideals. Thus, critical media literacy teaches students to learn from media, to resist media manipulation, and to empower themselves to develop skills that will enhance democratization and promote social change.

Multicultural education aims to create equal educational opportunities for students from diverse racial, ethnic, social-class, and cultural groups. Members of this diverse population must learn to understand and relate to one another. Through the teachings of media literacy one can attempt to disseminate the truth from fiction in order to effectively learn.


Gollnick, D., and Chinn, P., (2008). Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society, Eighth Edition, Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.

Udvari-Solner, A., and Thousand, J., (1995). Creating an Inclusive School. http://www.ascd.org/ed_topics/1995villa_ch5.html

Kellner, D., (1995). Media Literacies and Critical Pedagogy in a Multicultural Society. retrieved from: www.gseis.ucla.edu/courses/ed253a/newdk/medlit.htm

Lewis, J., (Summer 1996). Rethinking Media Literacy: A Critical Pedagogy of Representation, Afterimage, retrieved from: //findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2479/is_/ai_18627294