A Brief Overview of Multicultural Education in Ethiopian: A Review

Abstract

Ethiopia is a country of pluralistic society, having at least eighty nations and nationalities having their own cultures, norms, values, etc. which can be considered as a resource for country’s heritage. Multicultural education is designed to address and promote belongingness, equality and recognitions among several different ethnicities in an educational system. It is a field of study and an emerging discipline aims to create equal educational opportunities for students from diverse ethnic, social-class, and cultural groups. Contrary to this fact, however, such diversities had not been given recognition during the former regimes for they used to implement assimilationist ideology. With this regard, the education activities of a country had been carried out from one dominant cultural perspective. However, following the 1994 education & training policy, major reforms were introduced in the education system of the country. The changes constitute a significant turning point in the history of education of the country. The designing of education system that is responsive to multiculturalism has much importance to the citizens. In general, the underlying goal of multicultural education is to contribute to the transformation of society and to the application and maintenance of social justice and equity. Accordingly, educators, educational theorists, researchers, activists, and everyone else needs to continue to practice and apply multicultural teaching and learning principles both inside and out of the classroom if there is a need to be beneficiary from it at large and to achieve the major goals. Keywords: Historical development, Multicultural education, Multiculturalism DOI : 10.7176/JPCR/42-02 Publication date :March 31 st 2019