Interview of Christine Sleeter on Multicultural Education: Past, Present, and Key Future Directions

This is an interview of Christine Sleeter on her work in multicultural education over four decades. Links to videos of this interview are available in the Appendix after the references. Transcriptions and videos of Dr. Sleeter’s interview provide plain-spoken content for teacher educators, school administrators, and teachers interested in advancing multicultural education and its critical and practical translation into public school classrooms. The main topics covered in this interview are: (a) the “origins” of multicultural education, (b) the basics of multicultural teaching in student and community relationships, (c) advice for new teachers coming into the profession, (d) discussions of White racism and what White teachers can do, and (e) the new social movement on ethnic studies curriculum. Broadly speaking, this interview provides a plain-spoken account of multicultural education’s past, present, and key future directions from Christine Sleeter, one of the field’s founding and most committed members.