How Learning about Diverse Cultures Promotes Higher-Level Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking is a buzzword that is often used by educators. So what exactly is it and how can we teach it to our children? Simply put, critical thinking is often described as open-ended, complex thinking. It allows for children to have different interpretations and perspectives on a topic, issue, or problem. This is an extremely important skill for children to have in the 21^st century, as we will be preparing them for jobs that may not exist today.

Educators often use Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy to engage children in critical thinking activities. The lower-level thinking activities often have to do with recalling facts or retelling stories (e.g., knowledge, comprehension). This leads children to believe that there is only one right answer to a problem. The higher-level thinking activities are more open-ended and may explore a character’s motivation in the story. The teacher may choose to compare and contrast two different versions of a story (e.g., analysis, synthesis).

Parents can also do this at home. For example, most children have heard the classic story of the three little pigs. However, have all children heard the wolf’s side of the story? The wolf’s perspective of this story can be found in The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. Another example would be the classic tale of Cinderella. Children can also gain exposure to the Chinese Cinderella, Egyptian Cinderella, Indian Cinderella, French Cinderella, Indonesian Cinderella, Mexican Cinderella, or Middle Eastern Cinderella. By reading a diverse set of Cinderella stories, parents can promote higher-level thinking skills for children by analyzing the similarities and differences in the stories. Children can identify how elements of the story can be different (e.g., each country’s unique culture) but how the plot is still able to achieve the same purpose.

Parents should also ask questions that promote critical thinking at home. Rather than asking your child for the right answer, ask more open-ended questions. Teaching children about diverse cultures is one way parents can make sure children are learning how to think critically about diverse issues, topics, and perspectives. When children begin to understand that their point of view is not the only point of view—-they begin to realize that there are multiple ways to see the world.  From this vantage point, children will learn to search for multiple ways to engage in complex problems that they may encounter in life.

For example, take the issues of when culture intersects with gender. In the United States, children are taught about gender-equality and how women and men should be treated equally. Women should not be oppressed or exploited. However, what happens when a culture dictates that women and men have different roles in society? What happens when their culture states that women and men should be treated differently? In some cultures (e.g., South Asian American), women can bring honor or shame to their family based on what they do in society. Thus, in these cultures there are more limits placed on women. Furthermore, in the United States which is a individualistic culture, children are taught that they should make decisions on their own interests, needs, or desires. However, in collectivistic cultures (e.g., Asian, Hispanic, Native-American) children are taught to think about how their decisions will influence family member. They are also taught to make decisions by respecting the wishes of their family members.

Through these types of questions, children learn to critically think through topics, issues, and perspectives. Diversity is complex and children will learn how to reason through these issues by looking at both worldviews: They will learn how the skill of reasoning can be applied from their point of view and from another person’s point of view. They will learn how to understand another person’s viewpoint, even if it is not their own. According to Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy, this is the highest level of critical thinking, evaluation—when a child can form an opinion and make judgments about the various ideas, interpretations, and perspectives that exist in society.

 

How Schools Can Limit Children’s Knowledge about Diverse Cultures

Schools can limit how children understand, communicate with, and interact with individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds. Most teachers are not allowed to discuss important aspects of culture, such as religion. Other teachers may need more knowledge or professional development to develop a deeper, more meaningful understanding of diverse cultures. As a result, children end up receiving a superficial and/or stereotypical understanding of the diverse cultures that they will encounter in life.

Dr. James A. Banks  a specialist in multicultural education notes how many schools use the contribution or additive approach to teach children about cultures. The contribution approach celebrates holidays, heroes, and special events. This approach mentions culture only during certain “special” times during the year (e.g., Martin Luther King in January). The additive approach, which is a step more advanced, adds cultural content, themes, and perspectives to the traditional, Euro-centric curriculum. An example Banks (2002) uses to illustrate this approach is that of a fifth-grade unit on “Westward Expansion.” Using the additive approach, teachers might add perspectives of Lakota Indians. However, the Lakota’s were already in the West. If we viewed this curriculum from the Lakota’s point of view it may be called “The Invasion from the East” (Banks, 2002). The traditional curriculum is Euro-centric and does not bring forth multiple perspectives. Unfortunately, both the contributions and additive approaches do not change the existing curriculum. As a result, children do not learn to understand the world from different viewpoints.

By only celebrating Cinco de Mayo in May or learning about Native American perspectives during “Thanksgiving” children are developing a very basic understanding of culture. Children are not taught to critically think about whether  Native Americans would call this day “Thanksgiving.” Some Native Americans have claimed that for them, this day would be called “A National Day of Mourning.” I remember going to school and learning about cultures through a multicultural week that highlighted the “contributions” of various cultures. This approach led me to develop a mainstream-centric perspective of other cultures.

We need curriculum that teaches children to view concepts, issues, themes, and perspectives from several ethnic perspectives and points of view. One way to teach this is by looking beyond the cultural contributions of an ethnic group. I remember learning about African American culture through African American History week. I developed a mainstream-centric view of African Americans. I learned about the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and so on.  We celebrated the end of racial segregation and discrimination. We celebrated everyone having the right to equal treatment.

However, it was never questioned why so many years after the civil rights movement—racial inequities still existed? We didn’t explore how African Americans may have felt about the civil rights movement and the changes that did not take place in society. Banks suggests the transformation approach of the curriculum so that children can view issues from more than one perspective. This requires restructuring the curriculum which schools often don’t engage in because it takes more time, effort, and training.

Parents can help children develop multicultural competence. Building multicultural competence requires children to have an awareness of their culture and an understanding of how their cultural worldview may be different from others. This can be accomplished by helping children develop a meaningful understanding of culture.

At first, children will have questions about the visible differences that exist.Parents should do their best to answer questions that might sound racist or stereotypical. By starting with the concrete, visible aspects of culture parents can then move to more abstract or invisible aspects of culture. For example, if you were discussing the Asian Indian culture, you could ask children to point out what they know about the culture. They may point out skin color, dots, saris, food, smells, etc. While this may seem like you are simplifying the culture to its basic elements (i.e. essentializing culture), these are the types of conversations that need to happen before you have can guide them to a more deeper understanding of their cultural values, beliefs, practices and worldviews. Through this process, we can empower our children to have the cross-cultural skills that they will need to understand, effectively communicate with, and interact with people from diverse cultures.