Intended to foster cultural diversity and understanding, multiculturalism is vital in contemporary education.

It promotes knowledge of and respect for diverse cultures, Western and non-Western. Proponents argue that instruction and study about different experiences, whether shaped by race, ethnicity, religion, oppression, or privilege, could facilitate interaction and acceptance between individuals or groups with varied backgrounds. They also emphasize the use of instructional materials exploring racial and ethnic relations; immigration; or African American, Latino, and women's histories. Informing students’ appreciation of differences, such learning promises to decrease group stereotypes, increase social interactions, and instill values of tolerance.

Extensively instituted in K–12 curricula, the multicultural approach strongly influences postsecondary minority, women's, and international studies. It also intersects objectives of the National History Standards (1996), which many opponents charged with undermining Western culture. Multicultural perspectives are well represented by Teaching Tolerance, a school project of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama.