Multicultural Education and Professional Development for Teachers
The Center for Documentary Expression and Art (CDEA) is committed to enhancing the abilities of Utah teachers to more fully address multicultural subject matter in their classrooms. In 1999, CDEA partnered with the Salt Lake City School District to create a two-semester, graduate level course that used one of CDEA’s major publications, Missing Stories: An Oral History of Ethnic and Minority Groups in Utah, to introduce K-12 teachers to Utah’s diverse society.
Titled “Multiculturalism and Storytelling,” the two-semester course contained a semester of immersion into Utah’s multicultural history, followed by a semester with an action research component that provided teachers with the tools to evaluate and improve their teaching techniques.
“Multiculturalism and Storytelling” also became a website CDEA developed from its professional development program. The website now contains twenty-four lesson plans that focus equally on Utah’s elementary, intermediate, and high school students and provide summaries of six action research projects. The website shares effective lesson plans and action research projects that were developed by teachers taking CDEA’s “Multiculturalism and Storytelling” class between 2000-2006 and encourages conversation and collaboration amongst Utah educators.
Click Here To Visit UEN’s site
Leslie Kelen, CDEA executive director and the instructor for the class’ first semester (far right), with teachers taking a “Multiculturalism and Storytelling” class.