The increasingly multicultural Europe
Multiculturalism, for many educational connotations,
will play a decisive role in shaping the future education system and European
society. Such education is called a multicultural education system, which will
provide equal opportunity for all
students with different social and cultural backgrounds to acculturate and
develop skills leading to an increasingly multicultural European society. However,
for such a high-quality education system, it is essential to minimize differences
and avoid polarization within itself.
What is intercultural
education?
Intercultural education provides a
common ground for all students (the future citizens). It helps them accept and
admire diversity in the society. By ensuring equal opportunity for all,
intercultural education seeks to change both individuals and the institutions towards
the making of a culturally plural yet mentally singular society.
It is all about the
advantages of diversity
All methods and materials will fail
if prejudice or partiality persists. For the successful intercultural classroom,
it is essential to change the mindset of teachers and mentors beforehand. So,
they should be convinced that there are obvious advantages for them.
The pluralism in
society is called multiculturalism
Intercultural education comes in
discussion with migration to Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, however, Antonio
Perotti notes otherwise. In his
book “The case for intercultural education,” he asks, “Was it
really necessary to wait for the settlement of millions of immigrants from
other continents in Western Europe in the 1970s and 1980s to acknowledge the
multicultural nature of society? Did people who were “different” not exist well
before the recent arrival and settlement of immigrants?” Perotti’s point of the argument is that pluralism
has been in Europe earlier before migration. Such pluralism is called multiculturalism.
How do we
define intercultural education?
During the period from the 70's to the
90's, the concept of pluralistic education originated. Many approaches were
proposed but most common of them include “immigrant
education,” “multicultural
education,” and “intercultural
education.”
At first, during the 70s, immigrant education was proposed by emphasizing on cultural
assimilation (e.g. removing the cultural background of the students). Thus it
focused on language learning with a view
to removing the shortcomings of the migrant students.
There were two major problems: due to heavy importance
on learning the new language, children lagged in the academic subjects and as
the classrooms were organized outside of the majority group, assimilation also
failed. Thus, immigrant education was an utter failure.
During
the 80s, multicultural education was proposed in many European countries. It
was the prelude to intercultural education. It also aimed to separate education
for migrant children but it focused much on integration than assimilation.
Students
were given the chances to celebrate cultural diversity through different
cultural events. However, the national culture of the concerned country was imposed
upon all students leaving the minority cultures to the corners. Thus, instead
of inclusion, it brought further separation.
During the 1990's, intercultural education
system began to develop. The positive aspect of this approach was to convince
the students of both the majority and of minority groups that there were
advantages for them all. This led to the acceptance of diversity minimizing the
immigrant issues.
Thus, at least
theoretically, all schools and teachers turned to intercultural education regardless
of the size and types of the classroom and school.
What are the differences between the
intercultural education and culture?
Intercultural education focuses on
all students irrespective of migrant or local backgrounds and culture is
delineated widely. As a result, it leads all to believe that a child born to
foreign parents is not different from a child born to local parents.
The advocates of this approach mainly aim to:
1.
View all students as the elements of the intercultural
classroom,
2.
Lead all students to accept diversity to
avail advantage of it,
3.
Fit all students in an inclusive modern society,
4.
Provide equal access for all to learning materials,
etc.
What are the most important competencies
to work with the young migrants?
1.
language and communication skills
2.
interpersonal skills and teamwork
3.
aboveboard
4.
wide caliber
5.
flexibility and creativity
6.
decisive thinking
7.
ability to address conflict and take the initiative
Cooperative learning
To
make intercultural education successful,
European educationalists and teachers were in search of appropriate teaching
methods and cooperative learning soon proved to be fruitful for them. It
improved the intercultural competencies of all students in general by breaking
down stereotypes and removing prejudices. It also enabled students to see
things from different points of view and to settle conflict or difference
peacefully.
A research from Elizabeth Cohen
Elizabeth
Cohen, a sociologist at Stanford University California wanted to find out the
social aspects that caused some students to lag behind others although they had
the same level of academic skills and did not have any learning disabilities. She
hypothesized that students’ status could significantly affect the students
access to the available learning materials.
She observed interactions in classrooms and
group work for several years and found that the more active the students were the more they learned. But, she concluded
that some students did not have the entry or forced by other students to keep
away from group tasks. These students talk less and gradually become inactive. Cohen
called such students, low-status students.
The purpose of
Cohen’s research is to devise such an intercultural classroom where all students
would be equally active and would go through the learning process equally. Therefore,
she has proposed an idea called the Complex Instruction, which has three main components:
1.
Multiple ability
curricula: These are designed to elevate
students’ thinking ability through group activities on a central concept or big
idea and the students of diverse backgrounds are facilitated to work reciprocally
to solve problems;
2. Special instructional strategies: The students are
instructed to use cooperative standards and play precise roles to control their
groups themselves; as such, the teachers can freely watch them and give
feedback and address status problems, if necessary.
3.
Equal access to
learning: Teachers learn to identify and address status problems among students to
ensure all students learn equally. They also learn to use status treatments to
change students’ perceptions of being smart and to convince that each student has
the intellectual ability to contribute to the groups’ success.