Un-standardizing Curriculum

Book excerpt: How can teachers learn to teach rich, academically rigorous multicultural curricula under current standardization constraints? In her new book, Christine Sleeter offers a much-needed framework to help teachers take on this challenge. By contrasting key curricular assumptions with those of multicultural education, she reveals the aspects they share as well as the conceptual and political differences between them. Sleeter makes a strong case for what teachers can do to "un-standardize" knowledge in their own classrooms, while working toward high standards of academic achievement. This book provides detailed portraits of activist teachers committed to multicultural education, including the constraints and challenges they face, and guidance for teachers who want to develop their classroom practice, illustrating the possibilities and spaces teachers have within a standardized curriculum.