Transforming Education With Problem-Based Learning: Documenting Missed Opportunities for Multicultural Perspectives

The purpose of this article is to document a study where we problematized the notion of meaningful instruction in the context of problem-based learning for culturally and linguistically diverse students. We analyzed 32 lessons with independent measures of the levels of integration of multicultural content and culturally responsive teaching and found the “real-world and meaningful” problems, a key feature of PBL, are laden with mainstream-centric perspectives. Furthermore, the majority of PBL lessons lack attention to social justice, equity, and decolonization. The central argument is that trends in education cannot simply be taken off a shelf and replicated in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms without taking affirmative steps to support teachers’ understanding of the need for multicultural education. Implications include reforming teacher education and grants supporting teacher professional development toward the inclusion of multicultural perspectives.