Banksy Education Thought Research

James A. Banks is one of the most significant founders of multicultural education in the United States. His research and theoretical construction of multicultural education defines the development of multicultural education in America.Civil Rights Movement and transformative scholars influenced the formation of Dr. Banks’ early research and brought hopes to transform the mainstream ideology and became the sources of his commitment to social justice work. The research shows the evolution of his research and scholarship over more than4decades by overviewing his personal, professional and social context. Dr. Banks’ research expanded from Black studies, to ethnic studies, to multicultural education, and to diversity and citizenship education within a global context; however, all the areas reflect Dr. Banks’s effort to reduce racial inequality and advance democratic values. Black and ethnic studies focus on teaching student social studies for dicision-making and citizen action. Dr. Banks explored the history and paradigms of multicultural education and constructed five dimensions for the implementation of multiculturla education in schools. Among the above, knowledge typology and construction is the essential foundation for curriculum transformation. The approaches to multicultural curriculum reform conceptualized by Dr. Banks are most widely cited and have been used by many practitioners in the US as well as other countries. By analyzing the varing identifications an individual has, Dr. Banks holds that citizens should maintain balance among various identifications through citizenship education.Multicultural nation-states should strike a delicate balance of diversity and unity. At present, Dr. Banks tries to explore multicultural citizenship education in different nations to make the world more just and humane.A few characteristics have made Dr. Banks’multicultural educational research transformative. He has developed the concept of transformative academic knowledge and made the knowledge construction a foundation of his multicultural education theoretical system. This theoretical system is praxis-oriented with the characteristics of empirical and normative research.The research analyzes the common grounds and differences between the education of American and China, trying to bring implications to Chinese multicultural education from the dimensions of curriculum planning, curriculum content and implementation through the study of Dr. Banks’educational theories.