Multicultural education and multiliteracies pedagogy in the primary curriculum: Exploring the role of music.

摘要

Multicultural and, thus, multilingual classroom teaching is considered by some practitioners, to be a problem while to others, the pedagogical opportunities that evolve from teaching multicultural content are regarded as an advantage and a resource. This study explores teachers' views on multicultural education and a multiliteracies approach to learning, which makes use of multimodal teaching methods while preserving students' different ethnic and linguistic domains. As one of the multimodal ways, music was explored as a vehicle for supporting language development as well as for creating an inclusive classroom environment. Data were gathered through individual interviews with eight primary teachers, two observations, and a review of student work and visual representations of multiliteracies practices in the schools. Participants identified both benefits and challenges when incorporating multicultural education and multiliteracies. Music was considered a valuable tool in supporting ESL students in their language development as well as promoting respect for diversity.