Leveraging a Multicultural Classroom to Promote Living Together in Peace

Luz Vanegas, 2nd Grade, Charlotte East Language Academy

Curriculum Unit (PDF)

Synopsis

Multicultural experiences in the classroom provide a rich tapestry of learning for children of all ages. Through multicultural peace education, children can gain a critical social consciousness with local to global understandings. When their awareness of the world around them is paired with their efforts to find connections among people globally, they can generate multicultural understandings toward peace.
Children’s learnings in multicultural peace education can be embedded in meaningful, real life experiences. In this unit, my second graders will gain an appreciation of education as a privilege when they can understand the importance of living together in peace through caring for each other and sharing.
With the integration of other subjects and multiculturalism children’s literacy, students will learn how to develop critical social consciousness, be better prepared with understanding and use the tools that they need in order to make a difference. This means, solving problems peacefully, recognizing multiple versions of learning and letting one another’s voices contribute to bring the comprehensive wisdom they need to weave a global tapestry for peace with the strong threads of the multicultural human experiences.