UNDERSTANDING MULTICULTURALISM AND VALUING DIVERSITY - A THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

The issues involved with the concept of multiculturalism have received much attention of late, but little has been offered within the physic al education and sport literature upon which to build a theory-based e xamination. This paper presents two specific approaches to understandi ng multiculturalism, valuing diversity, and taking proactive stances i n regard to educating about diversity in society and in physical educa tion and sport settings in particular. An adaptation of Chesler and Cr owfoot's (1990, 1992) organizational stages of multiculturalism and Be nnett's (1991, 1993) model of ethnocentric and ethnorelative stages of intercultural sensitivity are used as theoretical bases for understan ding in these areas.