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Excerpted from Understanding the Digital Divide from a Multicultural Education Framework (Gorski, 2001)

A multicultural education approach to understanding and eliminating the digital divide:

1. critiques technology-related inequities in the context of larger educational and societal inequities, keeping at the fore of the discussion the fact that those groups most disenfranchised by the digital divide are the same groups historically disenfranchised by curricular and pedagogical practices, evaluation and assessment, school counseling, and all other aspects of education (and society at large);

2. broadens the significance of "access" beyond that of physical access to computers and the Internet to include access to support and encouragement to pursue and value technology-related fields, educationally and professionally (at home, in school, in the media, by peer groups, etc.);

3. broadens the significance of "access" beyond that of physical access to computers and the Internet to include access to non-hostile, inclusive software and Internet content;

4. critically examines not only who has access to computers and the Internet, but how these technologies are being used by various people or identity groups or by those teaching various people or groups;

5. considers, in the context of studying access rates with this broader definition of "access," the larger socio-political ramifications of, and socio-economic motivations for, the expanding significance of information technology, not only in schools, but in society at large, and how the growing merger of cyber-culture with wider U.S. culture privileges those who already have access in the broadest sense;

6. confronts capitalistic propaganda, like commercials portraying children from around the world announcing their recent arrival online, that lead people to believe that these technologies are available to everyone, everywhere, under any conditions, who want to use them;

7. rejects as simplistic and patriarchal any program that purports to "close" the divide only by providing more computers and more, or faster, Internet access, to a school, library, or other public place;

8. rejects as inadequate any solution that aims to "close" and not "eliminate" the divide; and

9. conceptualizes the elimination of the digital divide as those actions that:
   1. lead to, and maintain, a present and future in which all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, disability status, age, education level, or any other social or cultural identity, enjoy equitable access--safe, comfortable, encouraged and encouraging, non-hostile, and valued physical, cultural, social access--to information technology including software, computers, the and Internet;

   2. lead to, and maintain, a present and future in which all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, disability status, age, education level, or any other social or cultural identity, enjoy equitable access--safe, comfortable, encouraged and encouraging, non-hostile, and valued physical, cultural, social access--to educational pursuits in technology-related fields including mathematics, science, computer science, and engineering;

   3. lead to, and maintain, a present and future in which all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, disability status, age, education level, or any other social or cultural identity, enjoy equitable access--safe, comfortable, encouraged and encouraging, non-hostile, and valued physical, cultural, social access--to career pursuits in technology-related fields including mathematics, science, computer science, engineering, and information technology;

   4. lead to, and maintain, a present and future in which all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, disability status, age, education level, or any other social or cultural identity, play an equitable role in determining the socio-cultural significance of computers and the Internet and the overall social and cultural value of these technologies; and

   5. lead to, and maintain, a present and future in which all of these conditions are constantly monitored, examined, and ensured through a variety of perspectives and frameworks.

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