Implications for Multicultural Development

Multiculturalism has received a great deal of attention over the past 15 to 20 years. Many have advocated that true inclusion and multiculturalism cannot occur if the traditions, perspectives, and voices of nonmainstream and/or non-Western communities are not heard, appreciated, or incorporated within mainstream society’s value system. Although a general consensus among social scientists exists that globalization requires a more authentic valuing and understanding of diverse perspectives, very little attention has been paid to the mechanisms by which a multicultural perspective is developed. With the progressive trends in globalization, it is crucial that our nation’s youth be able to fully interact with individuals from diverse backgrounds. Multiculturalism facilitates this process. Development of a multicultural perspective, hence, is the mechanism by which an acknowledgement of diversity is transformed into an ideological process that fully extends substantive inclusion of multiple cultural perspectives into a society. This chapter explores the cultural basis of knowledge acquisition and introduces a model to explain the process by which a multicultural worldview can be developed. The current chapter will consequently survey developmental factors (i.e., biological, psychological, and environmental) that facilitate childhood knowledge acquisition.