A Study Of American Social Studies Curriculum From The Perspective Of Multiculture

The development of global integration and the widespread application of new technologies such as the Internet have intensified the spreading and deepening of the global influence of multiculture.On the one hand,the proliferation of cultural innovation,cultural creation and cultural exchange makes multiculture gradually evolve into a social reality that all countries in the world are generally facing;on the other hand,the trend of multiculture which aims at respecting and understanding different cultures has become a great upsurge.Based on this,it has become a necessity for the education field to guide students to rationally understand multiculture and learn how to survive in a multicultural society.The United States is a typical multicultural country with the nature of multiracial and cultural diversity.The subject nature of social studies in school education determines that it plays an extremely important role in the interaction between multiculture and education.Up to now,American social studies has conducted a lot of educational exploration on multiculture in terms of curriculum.Compared with other countries and disciplines,its multicultural education practice is more representative and advanced.Therefore,taking multiculture as the perspective to scrutinize American social studies curriculum can not only enrich the existing research results in this field,but also bring beneficial inspirations for our moral education curriculum,which also shoulders the task of cultivating national personality,to better cope with multiculture.In view of this,this paper attempts to systematically sort out the history of American social studies curriculum under the influence of multiculturalism since the 1960 s from a diachronic perspective.On the basis of explaining the status quo of multiculture in the United States in different periods,this paper reveals the phased practice performance of American social studies,which under the multiculture effect,in three dimensions: curriculum objectives,curriculum contents and teaching methods,to analyze the impact of multiculture on American social studies curriculum,and to summarize the overall characteristics of American social studies curriculuminfluenced by multiculture,providing useful reference for us to respond to the multicultural demand and promote the development of moral education curriculum in China.Specifically,this paper contains the following chapters:The first chapter explores what is multiculture from the perspective of politics,sociology and pedagogy,and investigates the development process and connotation of American social studies,and expounds the necessity and feasibility of taking multiculture as perspective to see American social studies curriculum.In second and third chapters,beginning with the rise of the civil rights movement,taking curriculum guidelines for multicultural education that the National Council for the Social Studies in 1991 promulgated as the cut-off point,the development of American social studies multicultural education can be divided into two periods: 60 s and 80 s,20th century since the 1990 s.Those parts reveal the different period of American multicultural situation,based on the curriculum implementation way of the social studies curriculum in response to the relevant measures taken by the multicultural respectively,and summarize different period multi-cultural characteristics influence on American social studies curriculum.The fourth chapter,based on the three dimensions: value standpoint,practice exploration and development process,summarizes the overall characteristics of American social studies curriculum under the influence of multiculture from the1960 s to the present,and provides feasible suggestions for promoting the construction of moral education curriculum in China by referring to the experience and lessons of American social studies curriculum.The suggestions are: in terms of objectives,paying attention to the cultivation and improvement of students' multi-cultural ability;in terms of content,introducing proper controversial topics to promote cultural in-depth learning;in terms of methods,carrying out cultural sensitivity teaching with inquiry as the main line.