Beyond intellectual insularity: Multicultural literacy as a measure of respect

Abstract

We report on a survey of 942 grade 10 and 11 students from 10 urban and ‘rurban’ boards in 5 Canadian provinces that takes stock of multicultural education three decades on in the context of youth's multiple, multimedia spheres of learning. This survey is presented as an innovative research instrument measuring what young people know about the struggles as well as the intellectual, political and cultural legacies of racialized peoples globally and nationally and where they learned it (school, media, family, community). Bivariate analysis of demographic, knowledge and attitudinal questions suggests schools’ unique role in building a common knowledge base to combat Eurocentrism and cultural racism.