Field Of Intercultural Education Research Articles

Dunhuang Intangible Arts in the Perspective of Pedagogy and Cultural Studies: Innovative Practices of Intercultural Education and Construction of Cultural Identity

The purpose of this article is to discuss the innovative practice of Dunhuang intangible cultural heritage arts in the field of intercultural education and its role in the construction of cultural identity. Firstly, the article emphasizes the status of Dunhuang intangible cultural heritage art as an important carrier of Chinese traditional culture and a bridge of international cultural exchange, and in the context of globalization, focuses on how Dunhuang intangible cultural heritage art can promote the innovation of the education system and play a key role in global intercultural dialogue; secondly, based on the pedagogical point of view, it elaborates in detail on the way of integrating Dunhuang intangible cultural heritage art into the modern education system as well as the specific application and transformation in order to Then, from the perspective of cultural studies, it explores the role of Dunhuang NFA in the process of globalisation and its impact on individual and collective cultural identities, and reveals its contribution to the maintenance of cultural diversity, the promotion of cross-cultural exchanges and understanding, the strengthening of the local cultural identity, and the shaping of China's global cultural image; lastly, it extracts the practical experience and successful elements of cross-cultural education of Dunhuang NFA through the empirical analysis of the successful cases. Finally, through empirical analyses of successful cases, the practical experience and successful elements of intercultural education of Dunhuang non-heritage art are extracted, and it is concluded that combining Dunhuang non-heritage art with pedagogy and cultural research is of great significance in enriching the connotation of modern education, promoting the construction of cultural identity, and fostering the prosperity and development of global cultural diversity.

INCLUSION OF IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE STUDENTS WITH DISABILITY IN EDUCATION: A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

In the modern globalised environment, the extended immigrant and refugee crisis is at the centre of the scientific, social, and political debate. Meanwhile, the field of Intercultural Education is of paramount importance for social cohesion as the education system is affected by the aforementioned crisis. Against this complicated backdrop, the double challenge of the promotion of educational inclusion of students with diverse cultural backgrounds and disability should be the focus of attention for teachers and policymakers. The present study examines the issue of inclusion of immigrant and refugee students with disability. It employs the qualitative method of thematic analysis, collecting data through semi-structured interviews with teachers who work in Reception Classes and Typical Classes of Intercultural schools in the Prefecture of Epirus, Greece. The data analysis revealed that the participants highlighted the need for restructuring the Greek education system on two levels: the macro level and the micro level. This study underlines the need for systemic change and cooperation to create an environment without exclusion.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0758/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Wielokulturowość w perspektywie uczniów edukacji wczesnoszkolnej w Polsce i Islandii

In recent years, Poland has witnessed a gradual increase of foreign cultures, which is inextricably linked to a new challenge for educational institutions. On the one hand, schools have to face the influx of students for whom the Polish language and culture is not their mother tongue; on the other hand, they have to prepare Polish students for encounters with elements of culture other than their own, i.e. language, customs, traditions or religion. The article presents the results of a Polish-Icelandic research project, the aim of which was to learn the views of students of early childhood education on multiculturalism. Quantitative (diagnostic survey) and qualitative (content analysis) methods were used in the research. The research group consisted of 141 students, 71 from Poland and 70 from Iceland. The research was conducted from June 2022 to March 2023. The results showed that both the place of residence and the educational experience (Iceland has successfully applied systemic solutions to the integration of foreigners for many years) have a significant impact on how students understand and define multiculturalism. Of interest to the researchers were the analyses showing that, regardless of their place of residence, children of early school age are characterised by an open attitude towards intercultural contacts. Early school children are curious about other cultures, they want to exchange experiences and develop their knowledge in the field of intercultural education.

O wzrastającym znaczeniu edukacji międzykulturowej w edukacji, pedagogice społecznej i pracy socjalnej

The article contains reflections on the growing importance of intercultural education in the context of Polish pedagogical literature. Statistics related to the internationalization of the Polish social context are explored. The following scientific journals in Poland and Europe were selected, considered important in the discursive space of social pedagogy and social work: European Journal of Social Work, International Journal of Social Pedagogy, Pedagogika Społeczna quarterly, Pedagogika Społeczna NOVA (Social Education NOVA), Praca Socjalna (Social Work) and the journal Edukacja Międzykulturowa (Intercultural Education). Their content was analyzed in terms of topics in the field of intercultural education with the use of quantitative systematic semantic analysis to establish how many articles (directly related to intercultural education and intercultural context) and in what periods were published in the selected journals. This part of the article is its empirical section, based on desk research of the existing documents. The thesis on the growing importance of intercultural education in the fields of social pedagogy and social work was presented and arguments in support of this thesis were formed.

Missing links between intercultural education and anthropogenic climate change?

ABSTRACT How and why should intercultural education address anthropogenic climate change? The paper argues that anthropogenic climate change threatens biocultural diversity, leading to linguistic and species extinction and discusses the twofold preservation of cultural and biological diversity. The paper starts with a limited analysis of the research discourse from 2000 to 2019 on the climate crisis contained in the journal Intercultural Education. Looking for eventual missing links in the research discourse, the paper argues for a need to combine more explicitly both diversities and introduces Escobar’s call for alternative political ontology (2016, 2018), in order to reflect further on a Western situated posture. As a position paper, the article points to the need for developing a new line of research within the field of intercultural education (IE) based on the two intertwined dimensions of diversity.

Educação intercultural e Lócus de enunciação: inspirado em uma experiência educativa no México

O presente artigo aborda uma experiência político-educativa vivida no México e que corresponde a reflexões de questões emergentes de processos formativos de professores indígenas. Estes processos sugerem correlações da interculturalidade crítica com o bem viver, da decolinialidade do saber e do poder e das políticas epistêmicas. Essa experiência formaliza-se no projeto de pesquisa intitulado “Milpas Educativas: Laboratorios socionaturales vivos para el buen vivir”. Ele é capitaneado pelos membros integrantes da Red de Educación Inductiva Intercultural (REDIIN) no interior do Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS) e da Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA), em parceria com a Unión de los Maestros para una Nueva Educación en México (UNEM/EI). O objetivo é analisar como circularam algumas enunciações sobre o campo de estudos da educação intercultural que formou significados observados nesses espaços formativos, especificamente no projeto de pesquisa. A metodologia usa a perspectiva de lócus de enunciação para explicar uma aproximação analítica conjugada com as concepções do método indutivo intercultural e do pensamento decolonial, para entender como a interculturalidade crítica reverbera em três encontros ocorridos e pertinentes a cinco estados mexicanos, quais sejam: Chiapas, Yucatán, Puebla, Oaxaca e Mochoacán, em 2017. A investigação indica que as repercussões foram conduzidas para um processo formativo que procurou compreender distintas dimensões que caracterizaram a interculturalidade e apresentaram indícios nessa formação de pensamentos e práticas contra-hegemônicos. O estudo aponta para uma abertura de novos horizontes de aprendizados e para uma possível elaboração da proposta que denominamos de Política de Resistência.

Forum Inicjatyw Lokalnych Warmii i Mazur jako przestrzeń do rozwoju edukacji międzykulturowej

The Forum of Local Initiatives of Warmia and Mazury (FIL WM) is one of the leading projects from the range of social both integration and animation organized in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in 2010–2020 by the Association of Social Animators Forum from Warmia and Mazury. It is being realised based on the idea of social amination popularized by the Local Activity Support Center. It creates a multistranded space for animators’ and educators’ dialogue, including a place for: exchange of ideas and experiences about cultural education and its role in the development of the social potential of Warmia and Mazury; building a local cooperation network for the protection and multiplication of the cultural heritage of the region and searching for new methods and forms of work in the field of intercultural education, and also regional and artistic education. The article presents an analysis of this space along with its individual elements, and also a description of the program and organizational assumptions of the FIL WM.

Edukacja międzykulturowa jako element kształcenia pracowników służb społecznych

<p class="Standard"><span>Celem opracowania było uzasadnienie włączenia problematyki z zakresu edukacji międzykulturowej do procesu kształcenia pracowników służb społecznych. Przedstawiciele zawodów pomocowych przyczyniają się do poprawy funkcjonowania społecznego jednostek i grup poprzez szeroki wachlarz działań służących rozwiązywaniu ich problemów. Do nowych grup wymagających interwencji pomocowych w naszym kraju należą migranci. Jest to szeroka kategoria obejmująca osoby z doświadczeniem migracyjnym, a specyfika pracy z migrantem jest istotnym wyzwaniem współczesności. Oprócz rozwiązań systemowych praca z osobą pochodzącą z innego kraju, kultury, będącą innego wyznania czy mówiącą w innym języku wymaga posiadania dodatkowych kompetencji. Edukacja międzykulturowa oraz jej dotychczasowy dorobek teoretyczny i praktyczny umożliwiają przygotowanie do właściwego zrozumienia kontekstu problemu i niesienia skutecznej pomocy.</span></p>

Voz y participación de los estudiantes en la educación intercultural

This paper presents a multi-case study in the field of intercultural education and it refers to a project named “Voice of children and young people in the development of intercultural education”. The cases are critical action-research projects developed with three groups of middle and high school students. They participated in dialogic processes and shared leadership with their teachers. They co-designed projects, debated and became aware of critical issues related to cultural diversity in their educational communities. The purpose of the research is to analyze participatory processes and associated changes in relation to intercultural education and students’ voice frameworks. Personal changes of the students, such as self-awareness and attention to others and to relationships, and group changes such as cohesion, were underlined, as well as changes extended to other actors —teachers, other students, staff, tutors, and other members of the community— creating collaborative relationships, solidarity, and mutual recognition. There were visible changes during the most active period in which projects were held, but sometimes impacts still endured and deepened afterwards. This stresses the relevance of youngsters’ participatory projects engaged in intercultural processes and change.

Global teachers as global learners: Intercultural teacher training in international settings

The globally mobile teacher is a relatively new concept. This article draws on the experiences of seven teachers teaching in international contexts, who are currently undertaking an iPGCE (International Postgraduate Certificate in Education) – four of whom are co-authors of this article. Drawing on original data from written narratives and online discussions, as well as using collaborative writing as a form of inquiry, we locate these experiences within the field of intercultural education, problematize the notion of global mobility and identify the unique training needs of an emerging breed of teachers.

Qur’anic education and non-confessional RE: an intercultural perspective

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on the reported experiences of Muslim students that regularly shift between Muslim ‘supplementary education’ (including its traditional confessional focus on learning to read Arabic and then memorise and recite the Qur’an) and mainstream school education (including its ‘inclusive’ form of religious education’). The aim has been to better comprehend how these students make sense of this dual educational experience while negotiating the knowledge, skills, and values that are taught to them by two often seemingly disparate institutions. A further aim is to place our findings within the growing field of intercultural education. Though both types of education are often thought to be distinct and oppositional – the former as non-confessional and ‘modern’, the latter as confessional and ‘outmoded’ – both English and Swedish students were able to identify a degree of symbiosis between the two, particularly in relation to the process of memorisation. Thus, it became increasingly clear to the researchers that Muslim student reflection on their participation in both traditions of education had an intercultural dimension in the sense of encouraging dialogue and discussion across educational cultures prompting new knowledge and understanding. This article lays out some of the evidence for this conclusion.

‘Taking culture seriously’: implications for intercultural education and training

Albeit indispensable to understanding human action, the concept of culture has suffered from excessive enthusiasm in the fields of intercultural education as well as in intercultural teacher training, leading too often to culturalist stances. These excesses of intercultural education and training as well as their contradictory message (between praising and minimising – even ignoring – culture and cultural differences) have led some scholars to advocate for the abandonment of the concept of culture altogether. Rather than this radical and counterproductive approach, we propose a heuristic tool: the dialectical square of cultural difference, as well as three metaphors of culture, that should help teacher educators to foster a dynamic and complex understanding of culture and cultural difference among pre- and in-service teachers.

Explaining the Effectiveness of the Contrast Culture Method for Managing Interpersonal Interactions Across Cultures

One of the current challenges in the field of intercultural education comes from the limited availability of training efficacy studies. The present study focused on explaining the effectiveness of the Contrast Culture Method (CCM) as an intercultural education method for managing interpersonal interactions across cultures between graduate international students and their local counterparts in an academic program in Japan. By incorporating a qualitative methodology through the grounded theory, the study explained a context of domestic interpersonal relations across cultures in Japan. The result showed CCM’s effectiveness based on respondents’ reflective accounts, and supported the ideas suggested by the original study. The article concludes with future directions for research and application of CCM.

Steps towards intercultural education and the role of language learning

1 IntroductionIntercultural education and foreign language teaching become more and more crucial components of an educational process oriented to the building of a European as well as international citizenship in a global world1. However, literature either in the field of pedagogy of foreign languages or in the field of intercultural education, exhibits the awareness of a number of inadequacies. In particular, despite the declarations that appear in anyone of the two fields about the importance of the other, the attempts to make them converge towards an organic and coordinated teaching programme are rather poor, so that these remain two separate domains, apparently with no perspective of integration, although the general feeling is that this step is highly desirable, if not necessary.Both fields have a research side, often rooted in anthropology, linguistics, and sociology, as well as an applicative side, mostly expressed in the declarations of international organizations involved in programs of intercultural and social integration.On one side the definitions of intercultural education appear to be often imprecise, incomplete, and even simplistic. It is, in general, considered a method to teach in multi-ethnic classrooms avoiding behaviours of intolerance or even racism. In addition, although some of the political documents show awareness of some kind of relation of foreign language learning to intercultural education, the way how one affects the other and vice-versa is not completely explored.On the other hand, also language teaching, as defined in particular by the EU, has the final objective of making learners able to read any kind of text without difficulties and speak fluently about any subject, but an explicit mention of the integration between language and culture is missing.Nevertheless, many documents released by international organizations stress the importance of such an integrated educational program, in view of the increasing demand of reciprocal understanding between different cultures, due to phenomena such as an increasing flow of migrations or the economic, social, and cultural globalization.A better understanding of these concepts and the relations they have with one another is expected to be the base of a realistic educational programme, which goes beyond the many different and untested recipes.In the following paragraphs I will inspect both the institutional definitions and some of the scientific approaches. At the end I will propose to distinguish different levels or ways of language teaching, a hierarchy of intercultural education objectives, and an integration between the two.2 Intercultural education2.1 A basic definitionIntercultural education is promoted and, therefore, defined by international organizations such as UNESCO and EU.UNESCO Guidelines on Intercultural Education (ED-2006/WS/59) qualify it as a way to promote quality education for all. The frame of reference is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). According to this document,The major challenge when discussing the issue of education and multiculturalism is dealing with some of the inherent tensions that arise in reconciling competing world views with each other. Such tensions reflect the diversity of values, which co-exist in a multicultural world. Often, they cannot be resolved in a single 'either/or' solution. However, the dynamic interchange between competing aspects is what lends richness to the debate on education and multiculturalism. (p. 10)On a more practical ground, the European document Intercultural Education in Schools (IP/B/FWC/2006-169-Lot2-C01-SC02 27/04/2008) suggests thatEducation is intercultural when it recognises the fact of linguistic and socio-cultural plurality/diversity at the levels of organisation, curriculum content and teaching methods. In all subject matters, different perspectives are included, compared and analysed critically. …

Odkrywanie tożsamości żydowskiej w cieniu Holokaustu a dziedzictwo polskiej wielokulturowości – wyzwania dla edukacji i dialogu międzykulturowego

What constitutes a current challenge for intercultural education is the situation of discovering and specifying one’s own cultural (national, religious) identity by individuals or more or less numerous communities, which – due to some reasons and historical determinants – have been deprived of reliable knowledge and consciousness of their inherited identity. The individuals and groups who have not been shaped in their “indigenous identity” (and who have been frequently formed against the essential elements of their identity) start to function in a different (from the previous) way when they come to discovering and acquiring their “native identity”. They draw attention and orient their activity to the values associated with the discovered identity. They re-evaluate the process and effects of education to which they have been subjected and they undertake the rebuilding and completing the resources of “personal knowledge” in order to adjust them to the requirements of the new identity. The identity given (instilled) by the previous “course of life” is confronted with the identity to discover – along with its hidden (implicit) layers in one’s own existential experience. The sense of this experience is read “anew” and in the context of the subject matter appropriate for the acquired identity.What seems cognitively interesting for the analyses in the field of intercultural education are the situations when the previously unknown identity is discovered by mature people with a well-established social position, who practice intellectual reflection by profession – the reflection which is interwoven with revealing and specifying their own identity. In Poland, among the well-known figures who learned about their Jewish origin and faced the challenge of recognizing their identity anew are Jan Hertrich-Woleński (born in 1940, learned about his Jewish roots about 1980 as a middle-aged widely recognized philosopher in the current of analytic philosophy, deeply anchored in the philosophical-logical tradition of the Lviv-Warsaw School) and Romuald Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel (born in 1943 in the ghetto in Stare Święciany near Vilnius, as a son of Jakub and Batia Weksler, received and saved by Piotr and Emilia Waszkinel – a Polish married couple, learned about his origin at the age of 35 in 1978, already as a Roman Catholic priest who scientifically focused on French philosophy). What is suggested in the undertaken analyses in the area of intercultural education is applying the point of reference of Jan Woleński’s considerations focused on the “Jewish issues”, which to a large extent directly concern discovering and specifying his own cultural identity. On one hand, this is the confrontation with the past, especially with the shadow of the Holocaust, and also with discovering the cultural heritage of Polish Jews. This is making even with such education (in the times of communist Poland) in which the presence and activity of Jews in Polish history was marginalized. On the other hand, this point of reference means searching for such (also educational) solutions which will be currently optimal and will facilitate building a better future. Woleński formulates the idea of “double inclusivism” and, promoting this idea also with an educational goal, initiates discussion aiming at deeper insight into diagnosing the complicated Polish-Jewish relations and viewing their prospects (in 2001–2003 in the Jewish Culture Centre, Woleński conducted an authorial series of meetings with special guests, which he entitled “Poles and Jews – anew?”). Developing the idea of double inclusivism, he expresses the belief that “the Jewish issues will remain unsolved as long as Jews are treated by others as exceptional (mostly in the negative sense) and are treated as such by themselves (mostly in the positive sense). The Jewish inner exclusivism (a specific messianism), as I would call the idea of the chosen nation, and the applied (towards them) outer exclusivism are two sides of the same coin. They should be replaced by inner and outer inclusivism, that is by Jews’ acceptance of others and others’ acceptance of Jews”182. Implementing the idea of mutual acceptance (double inclusivism) understood in such a way requires appropriate intercultural education which will respect this idea.

Facing FGM/C through Intercultural Education: A Methodology for Secondary School Communities

Through this article we argue for the incorporation of methodologies and materials developed in the field of intercultural education into the school curricula that will serve to develop knowledge, generate debate and, ultimately, promote the acquisition of documented and structured opinions/ideas about such a controversial issue as Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C). Dealing with FGM/C merely by waving the flag of Human Rights can bring more discrimination and stigmatization to those women subjected to this cultural practice. In order to avoid these kinds of oversimplifications, we propose dialogic literary gatherings as an educational action for the analysis and understanding of FGM/C in secondary school communities.

Intercultural education in the European context: key remarks from a comparative study

The article focuses on some findings of a comparative study carried out by a network of scholars and researchers who are active in the field of intercultural education in the European context in the main ‘old immigration countries’ (United Kingdom, France and Germany), ‘new immigration countries’ (Italy, Spain and Greece) and some northern European countries (Netherlands and Sweden). The scholars involved in the study highlight that a structural ‘segregation’ of students with different cultural and social backgrounds can be largely observed in European schools. In fact, the long tradition of cultural and language homogeneity in several European education systems has in many cases led to the isolation of immigrant students in schools when they are placed in the contexts of lower social and economic opportunities. Another issue highlighted by the study relates to social equity as a major challenge for intercultural education. Inequalities between immigrant students and their native peers must be addressed by an intercultural approach that is able not only to promote cultural understanding but can also provide effective opportunities for immigrant students, challenging the problems of lack of achievement among immigrant students. A gap between statements of intercultural principles and assimilationist practices has also emerged from the study. Principles on intercultural perspectives in Europe often appear to be very innovative and exist on a progressive and democratic level. However, in the European context, real practices are often implemented under ‘assimiliationist’ and ‘compensatory’ viewpoints. Finally, the study raises fundamental questions about the critical revision of the project of European society. Indeed, one of the major current challenges in European education systems will be overcoming a persistent Eurocentric setting, building effective responses for all the students and providing all the pupils with skills that are indispensable for full active citizenship in an interdependent and pluralistic Europe.

Teaching intercultural awareness in the English as a foreign language classroom: a case study using critical reading

This paper reports on an educational intervention study that used linguistic and rhetorical approaches to critical reading, in order to teach intercultural awareness. The intervention was implemented with a group of Mexican college students learning English as a foreign language. The study focuses on changes between participants’ pre- and post-intervention articulated understandings of the targeted cultural context, namely the USA. The data was coded and analyzed using a complexity theory perspective and directed qualitative analysis. The results indicate that drawing students’ attention to the cultural situatedness of language use can increase their awareness of the multiple ideological positions existing in a cultural context. Based on these results, the paper argues that the field of intercultural education needs to take a linguistic turn in order to further its goals.

Intercultural education in Europe: policies, practices and trends

European societies have become increasingly diverse as a result of legal and illegal migration flows, and educationists are facing the challenge of how to address the presence of migrant students. In recent years, there has been increasing activity at European level in the field of intercultural education despite the principle of subsidiarity. This article draws on 30 European level policy documents published within the last decade to analyse the dynamics influencing intercultural education in Europe. These include European Union institutions (such as European Commission, European Council, and Council of Ministers) and Council of Europe documents. Our discussions are situated within historical and contemporary European immigration policy developments. We argue that the main emphasis of recent European level policies and directives is on fostering social cohesion through incorporating migrant students. In so doing, European organisations have had to deal with arguments surrounding the legitimacy of European policy initiatives in the field of intercultural education.

An Intercultural Education for Mexico: Career and Contributions of Sylvia Schmelkes

This article introduces Sylvia Schmelkes’s contributions in the field of intercultural education. An outstanding Mexican educational researcher, Schmelkes was General Coordinator of the Intercultural and Bilingual General Coordination (GCIBE) at the Mexican Ministry of Public Education from its inception in 2001 until 2007. This article provides a perspective on interculturality and a brief overview of the Mexican context as it has been marked by political transition preceded by the Zapatista insurrection in Chiapas. The article then describes Schmelkes’s approach and her most significant contributions to the work of the GCIBE. We argue that Schmelkes’s main contribution was her commitment to building bridges between the research findings, the Indigenous demands contained in the San Andrés agreements, and the Mexican state. The depth of the challenges faced by Indigenous education in Mexico, and the extent of racism in the country were some of the challenges faced by her direction.