Cultural Differences and Self-esteem: Alternative Curriculum Approaches

Some of the literature on self-esteem gives the impression that the problem boils down to a minority of students being treated prejudicially by a school system and curriculum dominated by a single cultural viewpoint. So, students of non-English-speaking background are discriminated against by a curriculum which is ‘Anglo’ in its cultural emphasis. Students of working-class background find the middle-class, academic culture of mainstream curriculum alien. Girls face a persistent culture of sexism which forces them into particular ‘aptitudes’ and subject choices. It follows from this that curriculum, as a compensatory and empowering counter-move to this cultural dominance, needs to re-value those cultures of ethnicity, class and gender which are excluded by their difference, their non-‘normality’ as defined in terms of the dominant Anglo, middle-class male culture.