Two Ways of Travelling:
1. Formal intercultural
education
Formal intercultural education
includes academic programmes and initiatives that are developed
within and from the school.
School is, after the family, a principal
agent of socialisation through which children get not only
an academic education, but they also learn much of their
own cultural code. This cultural code needs to be the one
that is open to other cultures, religions and lifestyles.
Therefore, without the active support of the school, efforts
to introduce intercultural education are bound to see diminished
results, if not outright failure. It is for these reasons
that we include some thoughts about this area even though
this education pack is meant for use mainly in informal
education.
Intercultural education demands from the
school an important process of opening and renewal, matching
curricula to the reality of multicultural societies. Schools
are basing their work increasingly on the principle that
all are equal. Now intercultural education asks the school
additionally to acknowledge and respect cultural differences
between individuals.
In general the school should
make efforts to:
• try to create equal social and
educational opportunities for children from minority cultural
groups
• raise awareness of cultural differences
as a way to oppose discrimination
• defend and develop cultural pluralism
in society
• help children to deal constructively
with conflicts, by illuminating different interests and
searching for common goals.
The school's role as an agent
of intercultural education is double: towards minority groups
and cultures and towards majority groups and cultures.
Towards minority groups and cultures
The school's role as a means of
welcome, socialisation and inclusion to children from minority
groups is irreplaceable.
In this case, intercultural education
should develop programmes designed to fulfill the basic
needs of minority groups in establishing and gaining recognition
for themselves within society.
These programmes are based in mainstream
culture but are open to change and should allow children
to understand gradually the cultural code of mainstream
society and to gain the abilities and instruments for personal
autonomy and self-confidence within that society.
This last aspect should include:
• knowing something about your surroundings
and the human relations within it
• an understanding of the culture-specific
idea of time
• an understanding of economic relations,
especially of those on which employment and survival of
people depend knowledge about your close environment and
of associations outside the school which might be helpful
to you
• an understanding of the political
system and how to use it
Towards majority groups and cultures
Children and young people from
majority groups need to learn how to live together with
others in a positive, creative way.
It is necessary to introduce intercultural elements into
the school curricula that:
• reject an ethnocentric view of
culture or the idea that it may be possible to establish
a hierarchy of different cultures
• take into consideration - with
objectivity and respect - the characteristics of the different
cultures cohabiting within a specific area
• open up the school children's
view of the world, this is particularly important in places
where there are few minorities
And the school itself?
At the same time it is clear that
the school must rethink its own position. All too often
it transmits and reinforces negative stereotypes about other
groups and cultures. There needs to be constructive communication
about how the school is run between all those involved in
the educational process: teachers, children, parents, administrators,
local authorities, institutions. A variety of crucial structural
measures need to be implemented if intercultural education
is to work in and around the classroom. Good will is not
enough and action is needed. There are many examples of
good practice around Europe, here are a couple of recommendations:
• Intercultural education should be one of the
key factors in training for all teachers; one way for this
to have a real, personal impact on teachers would be for
them to spend time working in another culture, with the
tools to understand what is happening within themselves
- they would then be better equipped to help their pupils
learn to practise active tolerance,
• Text books and other teaching materials need
to be reviewed taking others as a starting point, so that
school children can learn to accept as "normal"
different viewpoints and perspectives - how do history textbooks
from different countries describe the Battle of Waterloo?
Which country or region of the world is placed at the centre
of maps used in geography lessons?
The difficulties involved in implementing
such changes within school systems are enormous, but so
are the gains to be made. Here is not the place to go further
into the arguments. If you wish to find out more then consult
the book by Antonio Perotti The Case for Intercultural
Education, which gives a brilliant overview of experience
gained by the Council of Europe in co-operation with educationalists
into the 1990's. Have a look too at chapter 5 of Compass
and its section on Education.
2. Informal Intercultural
Education
The objectives of informal intercultural
education coincide with those of formal intercultural education.
The differences between these means of intercultural education
lie mainly in the providers and the working methods. Depending
on the educational and political traditions with which you
identify, you may prefer to describe these processes in
informal education as "intercultural learning".
This is an important point to make, because it refers to
one of the basic principles guiding our approach in this
pack. We see young people as the subject of their own learning,
discovering themselves how to make sense of their world
and devise strategies for living peacefully within it.
Informal educators work with young people
in youth clubs, in youth organisations and movements, in
youth information and guidance centres, in free time activities
after school; on the streets; during international youth
exchanges; in hostels for young people and the young unemployed;
across the whole geographical and socio-economic spectrum
of Europe. Many of them are volunteers, giving freely of
their time because of the importance they attach to such
work. Even this list does not cover the whole spectrum of
those involved in organising informal youth activities.
Indeed, among the most effective providers are young people
themselves educating each other. [This approach, known
as peer education, is dealt with more specifically in DOmino
a publication also produced within the "all different
- all equal" campaign.] All of these situations and
more provide possibilities for informal intercultural education.
Informal education has several important
features which distinguish it from formal education:
• Informal education is voluntary,
it does not have the obligatory character of school which
sometimes leads pupils to reject approaches or subjects
which are a part of the curriculum
• Providers of informal education
have to make greater efforts to sustain the interest of
participants as the commercial world is very clever in providing
attractive alternatives
• In informal education there is
a closer relationship with participants, and this makes
communication easier (if at times more stressful!)
• The contents are adapted with the
participants to their reality and needs
• There is freer choice in the setting
of objectives and in matching them with relevant activities
• The active and participative methodology
applied in informal education makes for greater participation.
In many respects, of course, informal
education could not exist without the presence of formal
education and there is much room to improve the compatibility
between the two. It may be possible for you to adapt activities
contained in Part B for use in schools, but we have directed
our energies at their use in informal education with young
people. Here we look closer at the bases for these activities.
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