Multicultural Social Studies Now more than ever in our nation's educational history, multicultural education has become important. Due to the increasing diversity in our nation, the global economy, and the mobility of our workforce, classroom diversity is impacting our classrooms. With such a diverse student population, teachers must understand that each student will bring their own underlying knowledge and experiences to the learning environment. The task that is presented to teachers is to prepare students to understand and interact with all the different cultures present or with which the student may come into contact, while at the same time teaching content that does not offend the student's cultural identity. .Why is multicultural education important? “The Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (NCSS,1994b) support the belief that students should be helped to build a pluralist perspective based on diversity. This perspective respects differences in opinion and preference, race, religion, gender, class, ethnicity and culture in general.” (Hass & Sunal, 2011, p. 304) With the ever-increasing diversity found within this country and the interdependence between different cultures on a global platform, it is important that our students not only embrace these differences, but also understand the differences. Dr. Geneva Gay states: Multicultural education can alleviate these tensions by teaching skills in intercultural communication, interpersonal relationships, perspective taking, contextual analysis, understanding alternative points of view and frames of reference, and analysis of how cultural conditions influence values ​​and attitudes. ,beliefs, preferences, expectations and behaviors....... middle of document ....../pdf/session3/3.Multiculturalism.pdfBanks, J. (2008). Teaching strategies for ethnic studies. (8th edition). Boston: Pearson.Cushner, K., McClelland, A., & Safford, P. (1992). Human diversity in education. New York: McGraw-Hill. Fry, T. S. (2000). Multicultural Perspectives Help from in-service social studies teachers. TheJournal of Critical Inquiry Into curriculum and Instruction.Gay, G. P. (1994). A synthesis of scholarship in multicultural education. Retrieved May 5, 2012, from North Central Regional Education Laboratory: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/educatrs/leadrshp/le0gay.htmHass, M. E., & Sunal, C. S. (2011). Social studies for elementary and middle grades. Boston: Pearson. Kostelink, M., Whiren, A., Soderman, A. S., & Gregory, K. (2002). Guiding children's social development: from theory to practice. Albany, NY: Thomson Delmar.