But today teachers at all levels, seek ways to integrate the two. Scholars specializing in multicultural education agree that at its most fundamental level, multicultural education represents an orientation to schooling and the teaching-learning process that is grounded in the democratic ideals of justice and equality (Banks, 1995; Gay, 1994; Sleeter, 1995).
Some would argue that justice and equality have always been the focus of schools in America, but there is a body of historical and contemporary evidence which demonstrates that the schooling experiences of most students of color, as well as many white students from economically poor backgrounds, are inferior to those provided to white students from middle class. Due to this disparity, proponents of multicultural education are requesting a reorganization of the policies and conventions of public schooling. .
James A. Banks, professor of education and director of the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington in Seattle, is recognized as a leading scholar in the field of multicultural education. He has detailed five critical dimensions of multicultural education: content integration, knowledge construction, prejudice reduction, equity pedagogy, and empowering school culture and social structure. .
The goal of content integration is to expand the curriculum by encompassing contributions of diverse cultures into traditional disciplines of study. Obviously, this factor is easily realized through technology. For instance, teachers at all levels have used the World Wide Web to extend the available learning resources.
Electronic mail and multimedia technologies promote communication and interactions between diverse groups, with the purpose of helping the students learn more about the content they study in subject areas such as social studies, science, psychology, and even foreign language (Anderson, 1998; Baugh & Baugh, 1997; Cifuentes & Murphy, 2000; Cifuentes, Murphy, & Davis, 1998; Freedman & Liu, 1996; Roach, 1998; Sernak & Wolfe, 1998).
