The Role of teaching/learning in the acquisition of multi cultural literacy: Survey of primary, secondary and university levels in Kenya
Date
2016-01-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
PAC University journal of arts and social sciences
Abstract
The cultural, racial and ethnic composition of Kenyan primary, secondary and university schools has become increasingly diverse. Because of this heterogeneity, multicultural literacy (ML) has emerged as an important component of the Kenyan education system. Unfortunately, little attention has been paid to examine the role of teaching/learning in the acquisition of multicultural literacy in the diverse dynamics of the Kenyan society. Thus, the research on which this paper is based set forth to examine the role of teaching/ learning in the acquisition of multicultural literacy in different educational tiers in Kenya. To achieve this objective, Eric Hirsch’s theory of cultural literacy guided the study. The study also employed the quantitative research design because of the need to correlate social variables with multicultural literacies. Learners from class 8, form 4 and fourth year undergraduate students were purposively sampled from the following three institutions: A primary school in Nairobi, a secondary school in Kiambu County and a university in Eldoret; all in Kenya. A pre-test comprising 30 items was given to all the 25 sampled students of each education level to measure their multicultural literacies. Students were then taught about the Maasai, Turkana and Nubian cultures. The post-test of the same questions as the pre-test was administered to the learners, marked and the scores recorded. To test the correlation, Levene’s test for equality of variances was employed. The study found that exposing the learners to information on the three cultures influenced performance in the post-test. Thus, the study noted that multicultural literacy enhances learners’
cultural awareness, acceptance of diverse learners, and develops a positive self concept for learners’ from diverse backgrounds. The study recommends the incorporation of multicultural literacy in the curriculum to build a cohesive society and to discourage the negative stereotypes that characterize some multicultural settings.
Description
Keywords
multicultural literacy, primary, secondary, university, cultural literacy
Citation
Version History
You are currently viewing version 2 of the item.