NON EUROPEAN CULTURAL HERITAGES IN POETRY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE (IN AND OUT OF SCHOOL)

Abstract

The provision of education in schools can play an important role in managing social change brought about by the varied cultural legacies of migration. Poetry can be especially well-suited to encouraging awareness, reflection and debate about cultural difference. This article reflects on ideas that could be impeding such acknowledgement in school poetry selections and teaching strategies and highlights poetry’s overlooked suitability to engage young people in the expression of cultural difference in a progressively globalized world where cultivating cross-cultural understanding and tolerance needs to be at the top of our agendas