this concept of assimilation was a major purpose of
schools. Other educators supported a “salad bowl”
approach—that is, keeping parts of each immi-
grant’s culture intact, so that individuals did not lose
their cultural identities. Many multicultural educa-
tors critiqued both of these positions, wishing in-
stead to have multiculturalism in education serve as
a social movement focused on undoing the inequita-
ble practices that had made those with certain cul-
tural backgrounds dominant over others in Ameri-
can society. Partly because of these differences of
opinion and definition within the educational com-
munity, critiques of multiculturalism in education
would abound.
On the level of the individual classroom teacher,
the 1980’s found many teachers planning some ac-
tivities focused on multiculturalism and diversity.
Some teachers attempted to incorporate various cul-
tures into the classroom (for example, international
foods, songs, language learning) while others fo-
cused on the more systemic changes that had to take
place if schools were to become truly multicultural.
Impact Multicultural education was beginning to
come of age in the 1980’s. Schools were realizing
that the face of America was changing and that stu-
dents needed to know how to live and work with peo-
ple who did not look, think, or talk as they did. Ef-
forts were made to develop educational methods
and approaches that would empower individuals of
many cultures. However, the work in the 1980’s was
only the beginning. Much of the scholarly work on
multiculturalism in education was published in sub-
sequent decades.
Further Reading
Banks, James A.Introduction to Multicultural Educa-
tion. 4th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2007. A classic
text that offers a concise and clear definition of
multicultural education and its goals.
Bennett, Christine.Comprehensive Multicultural Edu-
cation: Theor y and Practice. 6th ed. Boston: Allyn &
Bacon, 2006. Historical background, basic termi-
nology, and concepts of multicultural education.
Sleeter, Christine, and Carl A. Grant.Making Choices
for Multicultural Education.New York: John Wiley
& Sons, 2006. A very readable book that presents
the various approaches to multicultural educa-
tion that emerged in the 1980’s and have since
been refined.
Mar y C. Ware
See also African Americans; Education in Canada;
Education in the United States; Latinos; Minorities
in Canada; Native Americans; Racial discrimination.
Multiplex theaters
Definition Movie venues that show multiple
features simultaneously on multiple screens
In the 1980’s, individual, large movie theaters began to di-
vide themselves into several smaller viewing spaces, each
with fewer seats and frequently with smaller screens. The
move enabled each venue to show more than one film at a
time, usually with multiple starting times, thereby maxi-
mizing consumer access and economic profitability.
Movies in the United States were often first shown in
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in
lavish vaudeville theaters. The first single-purpose
movie theaters were more modest storefront venues
called nickelodeons, but as the cinema began to
court a wealthier audience, movie theaters began to
be constructed to resemble the lavish theaters of
vaudeville and the legitimate stage. These so-called
picture palaces featured stages, lighting grids, or-
chestra pits, and elaborate lobbies. Their auditori-
ums could seat up to two thousand viewers at once,
featured very large screens, and were usually located
in single, stand-alone buildings.
By the 1980’s, entrepreneurs began to divide such
large, single auditoriums into sets of smaller theaters
called multiplexes. They found it easier, for example,
to fill four theaters showing four films to three hun-
dred people each than it was to fill a single theater
with twelve hundred fans of a single film. As this exhi-
bition model became popular, multiplexes began
to be constructed in the emerging shopping malls.
The first such venues had anywhere from two to six
smaller screens, each with less seating capacity than a
standard theater. By relocating to the shopping malls,
the multiplexes were able to capitalize upon malls’
high volumes of foot traffic, drawing audiences from
passersby and shoppers, in addition to those who
made the trip specifically to see a movie. Although
smaller in size, they had the capacity to show several
different films at the same time, or the same film at a
variety of times, thus increasing public access, con-
sumer choice, and industry profits. Multiplexes grew
to include up to eighteen screens, gaining the capac-
ity to handle thousands of filmgoers per day.
680 Multiplex theaters The Eighties in America