Integrative Fourfold Teaching Approach for Multicultural Subjects - Journal Article - Vol. 33 No. 1-4

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dabgoudw

The article presents an “Integrative Fourfold Approach” for teaching multiculturalism in secondary and higher education. It outlines four general teaching perspectives on multicultural issues, then critically reviews each perspective from the vantage of the other three. The authors then propose an integrated approach combining all perspectives and describe four practical applications of the integrative framework for educators.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Problems with Teaching Multicultural Issues

Authors’ Integrative Fourfold Approach

Applications of the Integrative Perspective

Integrative Fourfold Teaching Approach for Multicultural Subjects Rockey Robbins Ji Hong John Chancey Sharla Robbins The Journal of Educational Foundations Vol. 33, No. 1, 2, 3, & 4 2020, pp. 57-76 Copyright 2020 by Caddo Gap Press Abstract This article describes an “Integrative Fourfold Approach” to teaching multiculturalism in secondary and higher educational settings. Four general approaches to teaching multicultural issues are presented, followed by critical reviews from each perspective of the other three approaches. Next, the authors propose a teaching approach that integrates all four of the perspectives. Lastly, four applications of the integrative perspective are described. Introduction Currently in the field of education, there is a great push to focus on diversity and inclusion, with the aim to increase safety for, respect toward, and acceptance of different cultures through teaching cultural competency programs. Ideally, educators would be inclusive through understanding and welcoming differences; however, education has along history of assimilating persons from different cultures into what is basically a White Euro-American system. Too often “social justice” and Rockey Robbins and Ji Hong are professors in the Department of Educational Psychology in the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma. John Chancey is an instructor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma City Campus. Sharla Robbins is in private practice with Hope Springs Therapy, Norman, Oklahoma. Their e-mail addresses are: [rockey@ou.edu](rockey@ou.edu), [jyhong@ou.edu](jyhong@ou.edu), [john.b.chancey@okstate.edu](john.b.chancey@okstate.edu), & [sharlarobbins@yahoo.com](sharlarobbins@yahoo.com) “diversity and inclusion”have been hijacked to serve this purpose rather than used to challenge our fundamentally “White” educational system and help educators accommodate it to culturally diverse needs and differences.While increasing diversity among student body, faculty, and staff, attempts to better understand people from diverse cultures can potentially be a beginning to changing an oppressive system. Profound positive change in regard to appropriateness and equality requires that teaching approaches, pedagogy, and more relevant curriculum changes take place to accommodate increasingly diverse populations (Patel, 2016) . To do so would be a step in a direction to disrupt what are basically white pedagogies that dominate formal education systems in the United States. In the U.S., k-20 classrooms consist of students who have a wide range of experiences and background culturally, linguistically, racially, and ethnically. Each student who has been embedded in diverse and multi-layered social contexts bring in their own cultural knowledge, unique ways to think and feel, and different ways to handle challengesand engage in help-seeking behavior. In order to tap into all students’potential and maximize each student’s learning, educators need to develop diverse approaches that draw oninvaluable resources of students’language, culture, history, and relational and communication styles (Gonzalez, Moll, & Ammanti, 2005; Rivet & Krajeik, 2008) . Instead of assimilating diverse groups into interactive styles of dominant society, the integrative teaching style attempts to accommodate the educational system to the diverse unique learning needs of students (Brown-Jeffy & Cooper, 2011) . An Indigenous person, the first author of this article, was inspired to create this integral teaching approach by the wisdom found in various tribal medicine wheels. In general, Indigenous medicine wheels have four directions, represented by different signifiers and colors (which vary according to different tribes and sometimes clans) . The four directionson the medicine wheels are often associated with critical dimensions of our lived reality, such as: mental, emotional, socia

FAQs

What is the core purpose of the Integrative Fourfold Approach described in the article?

The article aims to teach multiculturalism by integrating four teaching perspectives, using critical review to combine the strengths of each viewpoint into one coherent approach.

How do the authors evaluate different multicultural teaching perspectives?

They present four general approaches first, then offer critical reviews of each perspective from the standpoint of the other three, highlighting limitations and opportunities for improvement.

What are the main applications mentioned for the integrative perspective?

After proposing the integrated approach, the article describes four applications that show how educators can apply the integrative framework in teaching multicultural issues.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dabgoudw