Cultural Awareness.

Educational assumptions are needed which are more complex and capable of relating to the diverse needs of students living in a pluralistic or multi-ethnic society. The purpose of the educational system according to a pluralistic model would be to prepare students for life in a multi-ethnic society and indeed a culturally diverse world.

Universities have expanded their curricula offerings to absorb the increased number of high school graduates with diverse needs and abilities. This forced educators to develop new curricula and instructional programs which made it possible for greater numbers of students to obtain a university education rather than a select few. Universities have also changed to enable educational processes to expand into diverse areas of instructional methodologies and away from the established tradition to give students an opportunity to become fully engaged in the process.

The need for experiences which will prepare students to engage the University, their community and the world effectively has become more and more apparent. It is becoming clear that a great deal of work must be done to bridge the cultural cleavages which exist in our educational institutions. Yet Universities still continue to promote the image of America as a melting pot within which individual differences are boiled down into "a single blended stew" in spite of the fact that this image is not congruent with social reality.

Many students coming in to higher education have very little understanding of social reality. They lack contact with people who exhibit life styles different from their own. They are unconscious to the extent to which individual and institutional forms of racism systematically reduce the opportunities of some groups while increasing those of others. If the reality is not recognized, then it is clear that people will continue to think in terms of stereotypes and simplistic ideas which are not complex enough to help resolve problems which are arising.

There have been a number of attempts to analyze the impact of college on students, but none of them were based on educational programs designed to build cultural awareness or cultural sensitivity. They do, however, attempt to determine the effects of college on attitudes such as prejudice, ethnocentrism, dogmatism and authoritarianism.

Developing cultural awareness is seen as one of the most urgent tasks before the educational community. This task must be conducted at all levels, allowing students to be taught by instructors of cultures not like their own, developing curriculum,and programming which will provide insights to cultural differences and provide alternative methods of classroom instruction which better fits the learning styles of all students. This represents only a part of the task, but nevertheless, a very important part and one which demands our attention.