Multicultural Literature: An Overview of Best Practices

Abstract

The value of using multicultural literature in the educational setting has gained much support in the last few decades. At the same time, the exact meaning of multicultural literature, while having been debated and discussed, has not reached "consensus." These two facts create an interesting dilemma: while many educators want to incorporate literature from diverse cultures into their curricula, they are unsure of how best to accomplish this integration. Perhaps, initially reluctant because of their unfamiliarity with the representative cultures, teachers' hesitations are further fueled by the dynamic nature of the genre. This is all very understandable. And while I will not cover this continuing debate over definition, for the purposes of this article, my definition of multicultural literature will be borrowed from Glazier and Seo -- that is, those writings "that represent voices typically omitted from the traditional canon." The terms "multicultural literature" and "culturally diverse literature" will also be used interchangeably.