Abstract

Education functions as the mechanism to nurture younger generations, based on the vision of how a society should be. Under this premise, while people describe America as a nation of nations, education becomes the arena where cultures compete for the position to be represented as America. As the demography of the United States becomes more diversified, different degrees of cultural, social, and political tension are still not explicitly addressed. In this regard, how education should acknowledge younger children’s cultural differences under the signifier, “America,” representing their commonality, becomes crucial. Teachers and educational administrators play a major role in transmitting knowledge to young learners are situated in the front line to deal with these confrontations and dilemmas. It is thus of significance to delineate philosophical perspectives inherent in the curriculum and instruction to teachers and visionary educational practitioners. Without this philosophical understanding, education may serve to perpetuate social inequality.