Working With Multiracial Students

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America has always been considered the melting pot of the world, but in recent years with the climb in the number of interracial marriages, (Root 1996) American school systems must learn how to cater to the needs of multiracial students. In this paper, multiracial “refers to people who are of two or more racial heritages. It is the most inclusive term to refer to people across all racial mixes. Thus it also includes biracial people” (Root 1996). Multiracial students face problems with developing their racial identity and feeling approval from peers who are not mixed, making their experiences in school more difficult especially in a social context (Gibbs 1990 as sited in moss and davis). For current and future educators, this means that there will be a growing need to support students from mixed backgrounds and create curriculums that cater to their needs as well as give those students positive perspectives on their racial make up. This paper will explore the complications that multiracial students face with their identity development and how schools and teachers can positively impact this development.
Multiracial students face many problems coming to terms with their racial identity due to the inability to fall under a mono-racial category. In recent years, the amount of biracial births are out numbering the amount of mono-racial births, and these children will soon be entering the school system (Root 1996) with new unique problems when concerning their own racial identity. According to Poston, “Racial identity is defined as "pride in one's racial and cultural identity" (1990, p. 152 as cited in counseling biracial students). Compared to mono-racial peers, multiracial students are faced with constant conflicts over how to embrac...

... middle of paper ...

... all aspects that make up their racial identity (Root 1996). Multiracial inclusion can be laced into everyday activities and projects.

Works Cited

Harris, H. L. (2006). African american school counselors: Their perceptions of biracial individuals. Journal Of Professional Counseling: Practice, Theory & Research, 34(1/2), 1-19.
Chiong, J. A. (1998). Racial categorization of multiracial children in schools. Greenwood Press
Moss, R. C., & Davis, D. (2008). Counseling biracial students: A review of issues and interventions. Journal Of Multicultural Counseling & Development, 36(4), 219-230.

Wallace, K. R. (2004). Working with multiracial students : Critical perspectives on research and practice. Greenwich, Conn: Information Age Publishing.

Root, M., P., (1996) The multiracial experience: Racial borders as the new frontier. Copyright 1996 by Sage Publications, Inc.

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