The transition from a multicultural society to an intercultural society: Educational implications (original) (raw)
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Intercultural Education in Europe: The Bridge Teaching Values of Cultural Diversity
2020
The phenomenon of migration is not new in the history of humanity. Nevertheless, European countries are still facing difficulties when it comes to the integration of migrant children. In the present paper, intercultural education is seen as a solution to integrate and preserve migrant children's culture. Surprisingly, analysis of its theoretical approach revealed some significant practical weaknesses. As a result, this paper suggests that theoretical methods may not be enough to promote multicultural understanding based on equality, respect and diversity.
The Role of Intercultural Pedagogy in the Integration of Immigrant Students in Europe
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2014
In an world that is growing increasingly pluriethnic, the intercultural pedagogy is asked to promotes an intercultural approach based on the epistemological level thus recognizing the crucial need to invest in education as a means of fighting prejudices which arise from a lack of knowledge and a restricted mentality towards anything which presents itself as being different from common national cultural paradigms. Since, in school settings the pedagogy research engages with practical issues and becomes more action-oriented, it is primarily important to investigate the national approaches and attitudes to the integration of young immigrants into the different school systems. Moreover, it also focuses on the way the immigrant receiving countries recognize the role of intercultural education in fostering the training of individuals who can live in a complex and cosmopolitan reality which changes continuously.
A new intercultural framework for education is being developed as a pedagogical response to increasingly multi-ethnic societies in Europe. This framework has been gaining ground during the last decade within EU Institutions (Commission of the European Communities, European Commission, Council of Ministers, OECD, OSCE) and the Council of Europe Documents and replacing multiculturalism as the guiding framework. This shift has generated an ardent debate between multiculturalists and interculturalists. Indeed, there is much criticism of the interculturalist framework. This article positions itself within this current debate and offers a critical analysis of the conceptual mapping of interculturalism within which there are tensions, ambiguities, and often conflicting goals and strategies. In addition, this work highlights the problematic dynamics intrinsic in the theoretical framework of interculturalism as a political and philosophical framework as well as in its pedagogical manifestation in educational settings as intercultural education. We analyze this educational framework from a stance of sociology of education taking into account the institution of schooling as one that is contextualized in existing socio-political dynamics, narratives, and lived-realities.
Comunicação e Sociedade, 2019
This paper discusses the contributions of Cultural Studies and Social Psychology to the debates on the challenges inherent to the promotion of intercultural dialogue in Europe, in the current context of intergroup relations among several Others, facilitated by factors such as the intensification of migratory flows and the enhancement of information and communication technologies. To this end, we associate concepts and categories from different theoretical perspectives in these fields, in order to articulate discussions about identity processes, alterity, social representations, collective memory, symbolic asymmetries, coloniality of power, being and knowledge , to (re)initiate debates on complex phenomena that are intertwined in the development of intercultural dialogue. Therefore, different understandings about the concepts of multiculturalism and interculturality are presented, advocating the importance of a critical perspective in the understanding of interculturality, conceiving it as a project that starts from the experiences of the "subalterns", in order to seek the transformation of social, institutional and epistemic structures. This perspective allows people to (re)create different ways of being and relating to others, implying not only the mere recognition and tolerance of other cultures, but also their appreciation, in mutual dialogue and transformation.
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2011
This study is aimed at developing the theme of building living together relations in a multiethnic and multicultural society and of the contribution of intercultural education to promote social cohesion. Such themes are dealt with through the analysis of the scholastic experience of autochthonous and foreign preadolescents, particularly through the study of the scholastic dimension as a place where to form intercultural relations and where images of the world concerning the formation of citizenship and living together in a plural society are learnt. The study develops the results of a previous research carried out on a small sample (266 Italian students and 117 non Italian students). The results of the questionnaires administered to a larger and articulated sample are indeed analyzed (1314 students: 881 Italians, 317 immigrants and 116 children of mixed couples).
New Generations and Intercultural Integration in a Multi-ethnic Society
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2013
The aim of the study is to analyze integration processes of the new generations of immigrant origin, identity dimensions of new generations, the social practises and intercultural integration in European Societies that are undergoing deep transformation because of the growth of their multiethnic and multicultural character. Particularly, I have investigated integration processes taking into consideration the ways of selective acculturation, that is to say, in reference to recent explicative models: transnational approach and intercultural perspective. Such a question is dealt with considering an empirical research carried outon a sample of 1314 Italian and foreign preadolescents -in Abruzzo, a region in central Italy.
Multicultural Society as a Challenge for Coexistence in Europe
Religions
The aim of this article is to show that the intercultural way of education, which includes the interreligious dimension, is a fundamental way to create and maintain conditions for coexistence in a multicultural society. The background of this claim is represented in the belief that the starting point of every encounter with the other and the different should be the human being and its experience of humanity, not an intellectual polemic about doctrines and ideologies. Schools are particularly suitable for such a more personal manner of dialogue. The topic is discussed primarily in a philosophical way from a Christian (Catholic) perspective. The context of reflection is the European society marked by Christianity, secularization and, increasingly, Islam. Croatia is also mentioned, as the issue of multiculturality is becoming increasingly topical there. The context of cultural pluralism is presented first. Then, the necessity of dialogue based on the experience of everyday life is high...
Intercultural Competence in Education to Foster European Identity
Journal of Educational Sciences
The paper summarizes the results of a qualitative study that aimed to identify the positive outcomes and opportunities, as well as the risks related with the identity building in migration and living in a multicultural context. Research consisted of a 7-year longitudinal case study, during which the life-stories, conflicts, crises, and problem-solving strategies of 23 young people of Italian origin with migration experiences-some of which were still living in Southern Germany and some of which had returned to Southern italy-were observed. The sample was composed of both adolescents with intellectual disabilities or other psychological and social disorders and adolescents who seemed to have benefited from living and growing up in different cultures. From the biographies it was possible to identify the main risk and protective factors related to migration and life in a multicultural context, and the adequate coping ability associated with their development. Based on the main findings of the study it was also possible to hypothesize that migration can inhibit or facilitate the fulfillment of fundamental human needs. So, the qualitative data was analyzed in order to identify the needs which seemed to be related with the harmonious development of the personality and a tentative theory of fundamental needs of human development was proposed. Finally, the results suggest that intercultural education can play an important role in determining whether subjects experience enrichment and growth or increasing difficulties or mental illnesses and social disorders. Therefore the paper takes the position that education can be an effective measure for fostering stable, flexible and multiple European identities. Given the research results, intercultural education, as developed and applied in a European context, can be considered as the most appropriate approach.
INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT: ANALYSIS OF SELECTED EUROPEAN CURRICULA
The fi rst part of the article analyzes the most important stages in developing intercultural education and looks into the theoretical background of this specifi cally European educational concept. The author emphasizes the declarative orientation of European countries towards an intercultural approach (primarily through the work of the Council of Europe and other European institutions), but at the same time the approach is not yet well-established in practice, which can be seen from the fact that there is no common European model of intercultural education yet. Starting from this observation, the second part of the article provides an analysis of the way several national curricula in Europe promote cultural diversitiy in their own contexts. On the basis of the analysis of elements of intercultural education in the selected curricula, the author emphasizes the diversity of approaches and classifi es them into three basic types: liberal, multicultural and intercultural. According to the author, this typology corroborates the thesis that intercultural policies are still the by-product of the respective general national educational and cultural policies.