A Comparative Study Of Multicultural Courses In Chinese And American Primary And Secondary Schools

At present, the coexistence of multicultural has become the basic feature of the development of the world. It is a major issue for the countries around the world to promote the harmonious development of multi-national culture, and to deal with the challenges of cultural globalization progress. So the design and implementation of multicultural curriculum has been increasingly concerned by the countries around the world in order to cultivate students’multicultural awareness and ability.The multicultural education researchers, Banks as a representative, have made an outstanding contributions for the development of multicultural curriculum and teaching in elementary and secondary schools since the multicultural curriculum research emerged in the 60s of the 20th century in the United States, the results of their research have gradually improved the theory and practice of American multicultural curriculum. From 1990s, China began to actively carry out the development and practice of multicultural curriculum in primary and secondary schools, but it is still in the exploratory stage. Therefore, the comparative study on China’s and the United States’multicultural curriculum design concept and practice in elementary and secondary schools will help us to understand the present situation of multicultural curriculum development in China, analyze the problems existing in the design concept and practice,and further improve China’s multicultural curriculum construction drawing on the experience of the United States.This paper is divided into five parts, the first chapter expounds the background of the necessary implementation of multicultural curriculum in elementary and secondary schools in Chinese and American, and summarize the research status of Chinese and American elementary and secondary schools of the multicultural curriculum, the second chapter reviews the development history of multicultural education in China and America, and has carried on the comparative analysis and obtained the similarities and differences in development history of multicultural education; in the third chapter, the paper explains the two countries’upholding idea on the multicultural curriculum from the perspective of multicultural curriculum design concept, the analysis of differences between the two countries; the fourth chapter discusses the implementation of the type of multicultural curriculum in primary and secondary schools in China and the United States and lists the examples as well as, then carries on the comparative analysis; in the fifth chapter,the article introspects the multicultural curriculum in primary and secondary schools in China and America,and in order to provide some reference for the design and practice of China’s multicultural curriculum,it pointed out the advantages and disadvantages of the two countries.