Ryan Fries’ response to Thein, Beach, and Parks’, Perspective-Taking…Teaching Multicultural Literature to White Students

Ryan Fries’ response to Thein, Beach, and Parks’, Perspective-Taking…Teaching Multicultural Literature to White Students

In the article, authors Thein, Beach, and Parks discuss the process of using literature as a means of changing students’ cultural perspectives and how this process is often rejected by white students because they assume it implicates them as vicegerents of institutionalized racism.

The article observes Daryl’s classroom with the following racial breakdown:

Race White Asian-American African Latino

Number of Students 8 4 1 1

After a semester of multicultural literature that often challenged and allowed students to become engaged with each other, the assumption was made that the effect of such an approach resulted in a shift in white students’ perceptions of discrimination, oppression, and social class. Although the white students claimed that the class changed their perceptions, the actual effect was perceived to be minimal at best.

But Thein, Beach, and Parks argue that even if the change wasn’t as dynamic or fundamental as they would have predicted it did allow white students to “try on” new perspectives which could be considered a major shift toward a change in their perceptions. Just the process alone of challenging previously held biases and beliefs creates tension and this often results in authentic discourse within the classroom. It is a process not aimed at changing the student fundamentally, but rather to instill value in the perspectives of others coming from different racial, ethnic, and SES’s. Multicultural literacy also leads students to be skeptical of majority opinions and beliefs within in the text which can lead to skepticism and critical thinking outside literary examples.