ABSTRACT
Unlike the general community college curricula, which are usually bound by the traditional academic emphasis on knowledge of content or by homogenized national standards, multicultural education reflects our culture and represents diverse forms and offerings. Multicultural education in community colleges ranges from the marginalized and very conservative international food fairs to comparative studies of various cultural traits and to work that encourages the empowerment of subgroups and the promotion of social change and reform. In brief, the sophistication or maturation of multicultural education is largely dependent on the leadership and cultural environment of the faculty as well as on the vocality of the local communities. Quite often the rhetoric about ideals has not been met with the reality of standard or comprehensive multicultural educational curricula. Many cogent and compelling factors prevent a consistent and comprehensive set of standards for multicultural education. However, because the community college environment is positioned to change and revise itself to meet social, academic, and cultural needs through education, one needs to review and assess those significant efforts across the United States to evolve realistic and relevant multicultural curricula in higher education. Community colleges choose to revise their history and place in higher education continuously, as they suffer the pains of change and growth, and this too infuses the multicultural curriculum. This chapter provides a tapestry of multicultural education that several community colleges across the country have tried to weave. This tapestry contains common threads as well as unique designs.
