Human Relations and Multicultural Education

If teachers are to transcend mono·cultural borders and advocate for social justice in libe;atory, critical pedagogical practice, then they must understand the relational and causative ethnogenetic layers of experience for students in the global community. Specifically, accommodating religious pluralism is a challenge facing educators today; Immersing themselves and their students in the lives ofothers through literary narratives provides one immediaie. and accessible strategy for exploringethnogenetic experiences and crossing monoculturalborders. History runs thick in all of us. 1 Tharp's Ethnogenetic funnel as.Framework to Pluralism Today's educational process is challenged by one of the most unique conditions ever faced-preparing future generations for active, meaningful engagement in a world that is instantly and in myriad ways contingently connected, interrelated, and ever changing. The diversity in today's classrooms is not what is new, for classrooms in this nation have always introduced strangers to strangers. A unique factor in the 21st century is that schools. no longer collect students from a local, segregated, community funnel, but from.an integrated, world-wide funnel. Languages, customs, histories, religions, styles, and perceptions are literally world's apart. How do we avoid the failure Nikki Giovanni (1993) warns against? Correspondence should be sent to Tonya Huber-Warring, Educatio