Quality multilingual and multicultural education for lifelong learning

Abstract

The World Conferences on Education which took place in Jomtien in 1990 and Dakar in 2000 have contributed significantly to the mobilisation of the attention of policy-makers, the international community and civil society organisations with regard to the need of ensuring that the right to education for all people ‐ particularly language and cultural minorities ‐ is upheld both in developing and developed countries. This special issue of the International Review of Education (IRE) focuses on quality multilingual education as a political and technical response to the educational requirements of learners. Multilingual and multicultural competencies are viewed as a communicative proficiency which is necessary for people to fully function in the 21st century. The International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, mandated by UNESCO in 1993, spelled out four foundational pillars of education, namely Learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be. These should guide educational reforms that aim at facilitating profound qualitative changes in the lives of learners (children, youth and adults), be it at local, national or global levels (Delors et al. 1996, p. 22; Carneiro 2011). Therefore quality education encompasses the acquisition and application of competences (Rychen and Salganik 2003), the cultivation and use of positive values and attitudes by all learners. Learning to learn, which is part of learning to know, is a critical