Multiculturalism's five dimensions

James Banks, director of the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington, spoke recently with NEA Today's Michelle Tucker about the concept he's developed called "the five dimensions of multicultural education."

How did you develop the concept of the "five dimensions of multicultural education"?

I once gave a talk on multiculturalism at a school. When I was done, a math teacher said to me, "What you said is fine for social science, but it has nothing to do with me."

My first reaction was anger and frustration. But then I thought my role as a scholar is to get beyond that and realize that maybe other teachers think that also.

So I developed the "five...