Developing Intercultural Sensitivity & Empathy Through Multicultural Education

Abstract

The United States is becoming more and more culturally diverse every year (U.S. Census Bureau). However, state mandated social studies standards and curriculum either gloss over, reduce or completely ignore minority and racially diverse contributions to society. As evident by the current political climate in our country, students, now more than ever, need purposeful and deliberate multicultural education to become better, well-rounded members of society. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study was to examine if multicultural education, Choices Program, could alter the perspectives of 78 fifth grade students about people from cultures different from their own.

In order to measure students’ cultural sensitivity, the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) was utilized (Chen & Starosta, 2000). To measure students’ empathy, the Bryant’s Empathy Index (BEI) was used (Bryant, 1982). District created pretests and tests were used to measure students’ achievement.