Multicultural education and cosmopolitan citizenship

In the United States, canonical multicultural education (CME) advocates propose that schools should view children always as “different, not deficient”, that curriculum incorporate “multiple perspectives”, and that classrooms emphasize the “knowledge construction” process. The argument is made in this chapter that CME advocates need to argue directly for “different, not deficient” without relying on some commendatory meaning of “culture”. Furthermore, they must show that the “knowledge construction” process reduces to exposure of students to multiple perspectives. Finally, they must sketch a path for CMEʹs transcending its restricted focus on race and ethnicity by understanding its goal as the creation of cosmopolitan citizens.