As often curricular diversity can be broadened by teachers, many practitioner-oriented journals focus on conversations of diversification and problems of homogeneity. The two articles focused on here are Eliza Allen’s “Connecting the Immigrant Experience through Literature” and Maribel Santiago’s “Mendez v. Westminster, 1947: Teaching a New Chapter of History.” Both articles speak specifically of different ways teachers have adopted curriculum to better serve the needs of underrepresented populations in the classroom.

Allen writes about the ways different texts can allow students ways to process emotions generated from oppressive forces against their identity. She cites these moments as times of engagement in cultural experiences and daily realities. Allen focuses her article around the telling of a third grade student whose father had recently been deported (Allen 2015, 32). By using different books and creating a unit discussing issues of deportation, Allen found that her student saw the classroom and those inside of it as safe resources. This particular article hints at the long-lasting power of introducing a broad curriculum. She cites that these interventions of curricular content helped her student overcome significant trauma (Allen 2015, 34). Ultimately, Allen suggests that without such efforts, a multitude of students experience oppression that could be alleviated within the classroom and even during class.

Santiago writes of the various ways California has included the 1947 Mendez v. Westminster case into their schools curriculum. This famous court case outlined a forced integration of previously segregated Mexican schools. Santiago points out the prior erasure of this case in widespread curriculum as an example of curriculum often picking a singular narrative to tether historical understandings around. In this case, direct study of the Civil Rights Movement of the east coast, centered around African Americans “made more sense” than delving into local history (Santiago 2013, 36). Santiago argues that bypassing this rich and personal moment of historical justice further alienates particularly Mexican-American students in the classroom. Even after studying the attempts of one teacher to implement the Mendez case into her curriculum alongside the normally studied Civil Rights Movement, Santiago pointed out that this merely showed Latino students that their own history could perhaps be paralleled, yet not individualized (Santiago 2013, 38). Thus, fully diversifying one’s curriculum goes beyond mere mention of subjects in class.

Again, both articles provide teachers with various strategies for truly adopting a broader curriculum into classrooms. These articles prove particularly helpful, as often pleas for a more multicultural classroom depend heavily, and unfortunately, on initiatives taken by teachers.

Links to Articles:

Connecting the Immigrant Experience through Literature, by Eliza Allen. 

Teaching a New Chapter of History, by Maribel Santiago