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Multicultural Education
Multicultural Education:
From Theory to Practice
Edited by
Hasan Arslan and Georgeta Raţă

Multicultural Education: From Theory to Practice,
Edited by Hasan Arslan and Georgeta Raţă
This book first published 2013
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © 2013 by Hasan Arslan and Georgeta Raţă and contributors
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN (10): 1-4438-4740-2, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4740-7

TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables .............................................................................................. ix
List of Illustrations ..................................................................................... xi
Foreword .................................................................................................. xiii
Chapter One:
Foundations of Multicultural Education
Bi-, Cross-, Multi-, Pluri-, or Trans-Cultural Education?

Georgeta Raţă .............................................................................................. 3
Multicultural Education: Approaches, Dimensions and Principles

Hasan Arslan ............................................................................................. 15
History of National and Ethnic Minorities in the Carpathian Basin:

Present-day Concept and State of Multicultural Education in Hungary
and the Neighbouring Countries
Edit Rózsavölgyi ....................................................................................... 35
Multicultural Education in the Ancient World: Dimensions of Diversity

in the First Contacts between Greeks and Egyptians
Nicola Reggiani ......................................................................................... 57
Teaching Diversity: A Perspective on the Formation of Youth by Means

of Cooperation and Self-Esteem
Dana Percec and Maria Niculescu ............................................................. 71
Making Sense of Education for Diversities: Criticality, Reflexivity

and Language
Fred Dervin................................................................................................ 85
vi Table of Contents
Chapter Two:
Political Context
Language, Social Class, Ethnicity and Educational Inequality

Kevin Norley ........................................................................................... 103
Two Models of Education in Croatian Multilingual and Multicultural

Schools: A Case Study
Ljubica Kordić ......................................................................................... 119
Engaging Multicultural Students in a Cosmopolitan Curriculum:

Living Vicariously through Research Projects
Naghmana Ali.......................................................................................... 133
Educational Policy towards the Ethiopian Immigrant Community

in Israel: Multiculturalism or Fake Multiculturalism?
Lea Baratz, Roni Reingold and Chana Abuchatzira ................................ 145
Education towards Collective Characteristics in a Plural Society:

Can Two Talk together, Except They Be Agreed?
Sara Zamir ............................................................................................... 165
Multicultural Counselling in Education

Ercan Kocayörük and Mehmet Ali İçbay ................................................ 177
Development of Intercultural Communication Competence

in the Czech Educational System through Relevant Frameworks
Lucie Cviklová ........................................................................................ 185
Chapter Three:
Classroom Practices of Multicultural Education
Teacher Education in Preparing Student Teachers for Diverse Classrooms

Sari Hosoya and Mirja-Tytti Talib .......................................................... 205
Raising Cross-Cultural Awareness of ESP Economics Students

Nadežda Silaški and Tatjana Đurović...................................................... 225
Classroom Strategies and Actions in a Multicultural Classroom:

A Perspective from the FYRoM
Lulzime Kamberi ..................................................................................... 233
Multicultural Education: From Theory to Practice vii
Joint Effort for Early Childhood Education: A Continuous Cooperation

between Family and Kindergarten
Mona Vintilă............................................................................................ 241
Introducing Hebrew Language and Culture in an Italian High School

as a Key for Multicultural Intercomprehension
Davide Astori .......................................................................................... 251
Strengthening Self-Efficacy in the Framework of Multicultural

Education: The Case of Israeli Pre-Service Teachers
of Ethiopian Descent
Efrat Kass and Roni Reingold ................................................................. 263
Implementation of Active Citizenship in Multicultural Education

Programs
Salih Zeki Genç ....................................................................................... 283
Intercultural Training of Pre-Service Teachers in Multicultural

Vojvodina (Serbia)
Biljana Radić-Bojanić and Danijela Pop-Jovanov ................................... 297
Informal Intercultural and Interlinguistic Education Materials:

A Case Study (Romanian Banat)
Eliana-Alina Popeţi ................................................................................. 307
Being a Minority or a Majority in Transylvania (Romania)

Ioana Roman............................................................................................ 319
Chapter Four:
Language Education in a Multicultural Context
Considering Multi-Confessionalism while Teaching English in Russian

Higher Education Institutions
Svetlana Polskaya .................................................................................... 339
Perceptions of Turkish EFL Teacher Candidates on Their Level

of Intercultural Competence
Yeşim Bektaş-Çetinkaya and Servet Çelik .............................................. 345
viii Table of Contents
Multicultural Dimension in an International English Course:

A Russian Experience
Polina Terekhova and Alena Timofeeva ................................................. 363
Teaching Chinese in a Multicultural Context

Xiaojing Wang......................................................................................... 383
Linguistic Equality in Multicultural Societies

Dubravka Papa......................................................................................... 405
The Importance of Bilingual Education of Minority Language Speaking

Children and the Situation of Bilingual Schools in Hungary
Márta Galgóczi-Deutsch and Edit-Ilona Mári ......................................... 411
Teaching Minority Languages, Histories and Cultures in a Multicultural

Context: The Case of Ruthenian Education in Vojvodina (Serbia)
Mihajlo Fejsa ........................................................................................... 423
Metalanguage in Multilingualism
Sonja Hornjak .......................................................................................... 433
Contributors ............................................................................................. 441

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1-1. Hungarian population in the Carpathian Basin per region .....................49
Table 1-2. Hungarian population in the Carpathian Basin per country ...................49
Table 3-1. Examples of practices and activities in Culturally Responsive
Pedagogies ......................................................................................................216
Table 3-2. Adults: children ratio ...........................................................................247
Table 3-3. Staff qualification.................................................................................248
Table 3-4. Ethnical background of the children ....................................................248
Table 4-1. Attitude: Percentages of the participants who agreed with the given
statements .......................................................................................................353
Table 4-2. Knowledge: Percentage of the participants who indicated having a
moderate to a great extent of knowledge about the indicated cultural
elements ..........................................................................................................355
Table 4-3. Intercultural Skills: Percentage of participants who agree with the
given statements ..............................................................................................357
Table 4-4. Awareness: Percentage of the participants who agreed with each
statement .........................................................................................................358
Table 4-5. Distribution of participants’ language backgrounds .............................389
Table 4-6. Students’ Attitudes to teachers’ instruction language ..........................394
Table 4-7. Students’ attitudes to teaching approaches ...........................................395
Table 4-8. Students’ response to learning difficulty in acquiring Chinese ............395
Table 4-9. Number and rate of minority groups ....................................................414
Table 4-10. Comprehensive chart of non-bilingual and bilingual education and
their features based on May (1997) and Skutnabb-Kangas (1997)..................420
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1-1. Austria-Hungary. Empire of Austria (Cisleithania):

1. Bohemia, 2. Bukovina, 3. Carinthia, 4. Carniola, 5. Dalmatia,
6. Galicia, 7. Küstenland, 8. Lower Austria, 9. Moravia,
10. Salzburg, 11. Silesia, 12. Styria, 13. Tyrol, 14.
Upper Austria, 15. Vorarlberg; Kingdom of Hungary (Transleithania):
16. Hungary proper 17. Croatia-Slavonia; Austrian-Hungarian
Condominium: 18. Bosnia and Herzegovina ....................................................37
Figure 1-2. The ethnic groups of Austria-Hungary in 1910. Based on
“Distribution of Races in Austria-Hungary” from the Historical Atlas
by William R. Shepherd, 1911, File: Austria_hungary_1911.jpg. The names
of cities were changed to those in use since 1945 .............................................38
Figure 1-3. The end of Austria-Hungary after the Trianon Treaty ..........................44
Figure 2-1. Attitudes of the minority population in Tenja about Croatian (CRO)
and Minority Languages (ML) ........................................................................126
Figure 2-2. Attitudes of children towards Minority Language and Croatian .........127
Figure 2-3. Attitudes of children towards the future of Minority Languages in
Croatia ............................................................................................................128
Figure 3-1. Acquisition of Active Citizenship (European Commission 2007) ......293
Figure 3-2. Bilingual add in Romanian and German .............................................312
Figure 3-3. Bilingual add in Romanian and Hungarian .........................................313
Figure 3-4. Bilingual add in Romanian and Serbian .............................................314
Figure 3-7. Poster presenting the most representative Romanian and Hungarian
poets ................................................................................................................315
Figure 3-8. Need for education in Romani and Hungarian students (numbers).....327
Figure 3-9. Causes of school absenteeism in Romani and Hungarian students
(in numbers) ....................................................................................................328
Figure 3-10. Employment and education of Roma and Hungarian students’
parents (in numbers) ........................................................................................330
Figure 4-1. Up & Up, Book 10, p. 56 ....................................................................373
Figure 4-6. Results across the scale of appropriateness of teaching materials.......378
Figure 4-7. Hispanics by origin (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual
Demographic Supplement to the March 2002 Current Population Survey) ....413
FOREWORD
The book “Multicultural Education: from Theory to Practice” gives a

comprehensive and multiple perspective to the field of multicultural
education studies. Academic teaching staff, researchers, teachers, social
workers, politicians, students and all other related persons will get
significant benefits from constructial knowledge to experiential
applications. The book is divided into four chapters, and each chapter
provides different perspectives and case studies through several papers in
order to make more clear and understandable the theory and practices. The
book begins with the foundations of multicultural education to the first
chapter. Then, the politics context is discussed. The third chapter focuses
on the classroom practices of multicultural education through case studies
and different educational levels. The last chapter underlines one of the
most relevant topics: language education in a multicultural contact.
The first chapter is dedicated to the foundations of multicultural
education. Georgeta RAŢĂ’s study of bi-, cross-, inter-, multi-, pluri-, or
trans-cultural education clarifies the epistemological foundations of
definitions of multicultural education. These concepts are very often
misunderstood among faculty members, teachers and politicians for school
politics. Semantic clarifications and specific definitions of the concepts are
provided in a wider linguistic context in an attempt to better illustrate the
differences between language dictionaries and literature. The author
provides us proper and clear meanings of the concepts of bicultural, cross-
cultural, intercultural, multicultural, pluricultural and transcultural. The
paper written by Hasan ARSLAN presents the issue of Multicultural
Education: Approaches, Dimensions and Principles. The author examines
the approaches, dimensions, perspectives, principles and characteristics of
multicultural education. Then, the school types and teaching strategies are
handled in the learning environment. The academic success of
multicultural education depends on understanding of dimensions,
principles and characteristics of multicultural education so that school staff
members, parents, and the community accomplish multicultural goals. The
paper History of National and Ethnic Minorities in the Carpathian Basin:
Present-Day Concept and State of Multicultural Education in Hungary
and the Neighbouring Countries, written by Edit RÓZSAVÖLGYI,
presents how governments face the consequences of history and how they
xiv Foreword
try to resolve the problems accumulated over the past centuries by means
of a multicultural policy while discussing the political background of the
Carpathian Basin. Another paper gives an ancient historical perspective to
multicultural education and examines the first contacts between Greeks
and Egyptians. Nicola REGGIANI takes a particular case related to one of
the ancient world’s most multicultural countries, Egypt and discusses their
contacts with Greeks. The author stresses similarities and differences, and
to discuss possible scenarios related to multicultural education. Dana
PERCEC and Maria NICULESCU’s paper focus on Teaching Diversity: A
Perspective on the Formation of Youth by Means of Cooperation and Self-
Esteem. The authors argue that lifelong learning through learning change
and intergenerational culture creates an intercultural communication that
build an attitude towards learning and accepting diversity and give up
discrimination and prejudice. Fred DERVIN underlines the concept of
“othernesses” in research and practice. The author proposes to make sense
of education for diversities through criticality, reflexivity and language.
The combination of these aspects can make education for diversities a
fairer, less hierarchising and complex place and these three aspects of
education should be taken into consideration by teachers, principals,
teacher assistants, students teachers and researchers so that diversities
flourish.
The second chapter contains papers in Political Context. The paper on
Language, Social Class, Ethnicity and Educational Inequality by Kevin
NORLEY argues that the increasing segregation and division within
society in general and education in particular, that results in communities
living separate lives with little commonality. The relationship between
language, social class, and achievement is overwhelming. Educational
policies should be set for a move in the direction of the goals of
multiculturalism. Ljubica KORDIĆ carries out a research on Two Models
in Croatian Multilingual and Multicultural Schools: A Case Study. The
author attempts to explore the difference between two models of education
in Croatia and the differences in attitude towards a specific language
between young people and their parents. Also, the paper argues that how
the demographic factors, legal status, economic strength, and the
educational system affect the subjective ethnolinguistic vitality of two
multilingual communities. Another research paper was written by
Naghmana ALI on Engaging Multicultural Students in a Cosmopolitan
Curriculum: Living Vicariously through Research Projects. The
qualitative research paper examines students who came from different
cultural, ethnic, and educational backgrounds through reflective
discussions. The data are derived from the reflections that students had
Multicultural Education: From Theory to Practice xv
about visual presentations and class observations. A further study of Lea

BARATZ, Roni REINGOLD and Chana ABUCHATZIRA criticize the
policy of the Ministry of Education in Israel against Ethiopian immigrants
related to multicultural education through analyzing two cases. The
authors claim that the ministry of education reveals the adoption of the
principles of cultural pluralism to enable the immigrants to preserve their
heritage: however, it is not clear whether the new policy is a fake
multiculturalism or not. Sara ZAMIR draws attention upon the issue of
socialization towards collective characteristics within a plural society
based on immigrants. The author argues that the educational methods of
socializing both during the era of the “melting pot” as well as in the new
era of multiculturalism have different characteristics, and arguments about
multiculturalism have continued from the law of compulsory education of
1949 of the Israeli Ministry of Education. Ercan KOCAYÖRÜK and
Mehmet Ali İÇBAY underline the issue the multicultural counselling
education. The authors clarify the multicultural educational training
programs in three groups: student mastery, increase in knowledge and
student empowerment. The necessity of multicultural counselling comes
from different cultural perspectives. The authors present how counselling
has been shaped and practiced in various cultures.
The third chapter is dedicated to Classroom Practices of Multicultural
Education. The paper on Teacher Education in Preparing Student for
Diverse Classrooms by Sari HOSOYA and Mirja-Tytti TALIB presents
increasing cultural diversity at schools and how teachers can be prepared
as culturally responsive teachers who can facilitate the academic success
of all students. It is argued that teachers should have knowledge of
theories, skills to practice desirable methods, and intercultural competence
in order to become a skilled agent for multicultural and diverse society.
The reasons of many international business failures are explained by the
lack of cross-cultural competence in the paper of Nadežda SILAŠKI and
Tatjana ĐUROVIĆ. The authors argue that economics students graduate
without having enough skills about the cross-cultural competence.
Teaching cross-cultural awareness in a business context may enhance the
success of economics students in their future business life. Lulzime
KAMBERI’s study of Classroom Strategies and Actions in a Multicultural
Classroom: A Perspective from the FYRoM attempts to answer the
question “What are the problems that teachers face teaching in a
multicultural context and which approach do teachers take in order to
solve the problems they may encounter?” Ethnic, religious, cultural, and
political issues seem the most salient problems in creating a multicultural
class environment. Mona VINTILĂ’s study is trying to indicate the
xvi Foreword
importance of cooperation between family and kindergarten. The author

claims that combining care and education of a young child is the best way
for the most efficient result in the development of the children at this age.
This effort makes possible to acquire the intercultural skills from the early
stage of education. A longitudinal observation was applied to a private
kindergarten to get results. The research project on Introducing Hebrew
Language in an Italian High School as a Key for Multicultural Inter-
comprehension was conducted by Davide ASTORI in the “M. Gioia” High
School of Piacenza. The author shares with us the research findings of the
research so that how to educate students multiculturalism through inserting
culture in the curricular formative process of a high school program.
Another case study Strengthening Self-Efficacy in the Framework of
Multicultural Education: The Case of Israeli Pre-Service Teachers of
Ethiopian Descent written by Efrat KASS and Roni REINGOLD. The
authors try to shape guiding principles for establishing a pre-academic
education program in order to strengthen the sense of self-efficacy of pre-
service teachers of Ethiopian descent. The paper Implementation of Active
Citizenship in Multicultural Education Programs, written by Salih Zeki
GENÇ, underlines the importance of active citizenship in the process of
multicultural education. The author attempts to embed the dimensions of
active citizenship: protest and social change, community life,
representative democracy, and democratic values to the educational
programs in order to keep alive the multicultural education. Biljana
RADIĆ-BOJANIĆ and Danijela POP-JOVANOV’s paper present the
issue of Intercultural Training of Pre-service Teachers in Multicultural
Vojvodina. The authors claim that foreign language teachers should have
multicultural and intercultural teaching skills to become competent
intercultural communicators and successful teachers of the 21st century.
That is why pre-service teachers should acquire multicultural intercultural
skills in the educational process. Ioana ROMAN, with his paper entitled
Being a Minority or a Majority in Transylvania, tries to reveal the
problems of Romani ethnicities in general and not on interethnic
cohabitation, no matter the nature of the ethnicity. The debate focuses on
the problem of multiculturalism and stresses the idea of the same rights
regardless of ethnicity, religion or social category. Research data obtained
from questionnaires and interviews were processed regarding the issues of
Hungarian ethnics and Romani ethnics.
The last chapter deals with Language Education in a Multicultural
Context. Svetlana POLSKAYA’s paper tries to answer a question in
teaching English: Considering while Teaching English in Russian Higher
Education Institutions. The author argues that people of various
Multicultural Education: From Theory to Practice xvii
nationalities and religions live, work and study together in Russia. The
majority of Russian state schools fail to provide an adequate level of
English language knowledge. It seems that a number of negative
consequences such as spreading national stereotypes, unnecessary conflict
situations affect teaching English in Russian Higher Education Institutions.
The research paper Perceptions of Turkish EFL Teacher Candidates on
Their Level of Intercultural Competence by Yeşim BEKTAŞ-
ÇETİNKAYA and Servet ÇELİK examines whether Turkish teachers of
English are sufficiently prepared to deal with cultural matters and to guide
the development of intercultural competence in their students or not
through applying both qualitative and quantitative approaches to pre-
service ELT instructors in order to provide the perceptions of the
participants. Polina TEREKHOVA and Alena TIMOFEEVA share a
Russian experience related to multicultural education in an international
English course. The authors argue that a clear and well-structured EIL
syllabus with supplementary materials can serve not only as guidelines for
students’ daily work but also as a tool for teachers’ own professional and
sometimes even personal development. The study presents a number of
practical implications for teaching and shows how they can implement
syllabus and material design. Another research paper, Teaching Chinese in
a Multicultural Context, written by Xiaojing WANG underlines the
influential factors in teaching Chinese in the United Kingdom and
discusses about the difficulties of teaching Chinese in a non-Chinese
dominant environment. Dubravka PAPA’s paper Linguistic Equality in
Multicultural Societies emphasises the importance of accepting the use of
regional and minority language in a democratic society such as the EU.
The author argues that the legal framework for regulating the status and
rights of language minorities is not enough in order to protect for minority
rights although one of the main goals of the EU is to protect and preserve
cultural diversity. Márta GALGÓCZI-DEUTSCH and Edit-Ilona MARÍ
underline The Importance of Minority Language Speaking Children and
the Situation of Bilingual Schools in Hungary in their studies. The authors
claim that bilingual education is the best way to support students’ better
school achievement from the primary level and lay down the foundations
of later academic success because bilingual education contributes to the
preservation of culture, language, better academic achievement and career
perspectives. The study carried out by Mihajlo FEJSA aims at presenting
the importance of preserving the community identity in the smallest
national minority, Ruthenians in Serbia. The author argues that the
effective safeguarding of the collective identity of the Vojvodinian
Ruthenians relies on the full implementation of the novel legal provisions.
xviii Foreword
A multicultural curriculum decreases stereotypes, prejudice, and bigotry

from preschool to higher education through providing a sense of being
inclusive history, science, etc. Finally, in her article Metalanguage in
Multilingualism, Sonja HORNJAK approaches the use of metalanguage.
The author focuses on analysis of the use of metalanguage in studies on
multilingualism and underlines the classification and representation of
such terminology. It is claimed that metalanguage is expanding and
becoming richer in response to changing social circumstances and the
study of metalanguage, is extremely beneficial, not only for linguistics, but
also society.
Hasan ARSLAN
CHAPTER ONE
FOUNDATION OF MULTICULTURAL
EDUCATION
BI-, CROSS-, INTER-, MULTI-, PLURI-,
OR TRANS-CULTURAL EDUCATION?
GEORGETA RAŢĂ
Introduction
Since its first conceptualisations in the 1960s, multicultural education
has been re-conceptualised, re-focused, and transformed. Moreover, the
concepts of bicultural education, cross-cultural education,
intercultural education, multicultural education, pluri-cultural
education, and trans-cultural education – apparently all synonyms of
multicultural education – have been used frequently (some of them
interchangeably) and can be found in books, documents, and school laws
all over the world. Yet, it has emerged from numerous studies that there is
an on-going failure to provide a clear semantic definition or a distinct
epistemological foundation for these concepts. The basic principles of
such types of “education” are very often misunderstood or are scarcely
known or heeded among teachers and those responsible for school politics.
In view of this situation, it seems both appropriate and necessary to
provide short semantic clarifications of the concepts as well as more
specific definitions of multicultural education based on research and
literature.
Semantic clarifications and specific definitions of the concepts above
are provided in a wider linguistic context in an attempt to better illustrate
the differences between language dictionaries, on the one hand, and
literature, on the other hand, where certain terms are used in an improper
or unclear manner – a source of reinforcement of prejudices and
stereotypes in education. Thus, we have also analysed the meaning of
bicultural, cross-cultural, intercultural, multicultural, pluricultural
and transcultural and of the nouns corresponding to them: biculturalism,
cross-culturality, biculturalism, multiculturalism, pluriculturalism
and transculturalism.
4 Bi-, Cross-, Inter-, Multi-, Pluri- or Trans-Cultural Education?
Bicultural, Biculturalism, Bicultural Education

The word bicultural “of, relating to, or including two distinct cultures”
(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bicultural) was first used in
1940. It occurs in a number of phrases such as bicultural child / education
/ identity / mama / programme / support. One is not necessarily a
bicultural if he/she is a bilingual (“using or able to use two languages
especially with equal fluency; of or relating to bilingual education”).
(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bilingual) There is a clear
distinction in literature between monocultural bilinguals (people that live
in a country and speak their mother-tongue and a foreign language),
bicultural monolinguals (people that immigrate to an English-speaking
country as adults but do not speak English) and bicultural bilinguals
(people that immigrate to an English-speaking country in their teens and
speak English). (Marian & Kaushanskaya 2005: 1484) According to
LaFromboise, Coleman & Gerton 1993 (in Ramírez-Esparza et al. 2009:
100), though, bilinguals tend to be bicultural, i.e. individuals who have
two internalized cultures that can guide their feelings, thoughts, and
actions. (ibidem) Being bicultural also involves becoming part of the host
society. (Phinney et al. 2001: 506) According to Fries (http://www.tesol-
france.org/articles/fries.pdf), when applied to an individual, bicultural
suggests mixing or multiplicity, the ability to function in at least two
different groups.
Biculturalism, defined as “the presence of two different cultures in the
same country or region,” appeared in the middle of the 1950s.
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/biculturalism) It can occur in both
bicultural and multicultural societies (Chen, Benet-Martínez & Bond
2008), and is the first step towards multiculturalism. Biculturalism and
multiculturalism should not be understood as synonyms. For Ozturgut
(2006: 3), in the USA, in areas with bicultural population, “Advocating for
Multicultural Education, as it is defined and practiced today in U.S.
schools, whether K-12 or higher, has become a shallow application of a bi-
cultural education.” There is no biculturalism without bilingualism.
(Padilla, Fairchild & Valadez 1990) Biculturalism is fostered by
bicultural education. (Gibson 1984: 107) Another term for biculturalism
is biculturation. (ibidem)
Bicultural education is “a strategy for providing instruction in two
cultures”. (ibidem: 108) Bicultural education is seen as a synonym of
bilingual education (ibidem: 95, 107), for whom “the purpose of
multicultural (or bicultural) education is to produce learners who have
competencies in and can operate successfully in two different cultures.”
Georgeta Raţă 5
Cross-cultural, Cross-culturality, Cross-cultural

Education
The word cross-cultural, first attested about the same time as bicultural
(1942), means “pertaining to the identification and analysis of distinct
features of human behaviour in different cultural, geographic, and social
settings” (http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Cross-
culturalism), “dealing with or offering comparison between two or more
different cultures or cultural areas” (http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/ crosscultural), “(Sociology) involving or bridging
the differences between cultures”.
(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Cross-cultural) To see how important it
has become, suffices to read the following list of occurrences of cross-
cultural: cross-cultural adaptability / alcoholism / analysis / attitude /
communication / competence / counselling / definition / difference /
discussion / element / encyclopaedia / influence / institute / inventory /
issue / leadership / management / meaning / objective / partner / poetics /
psychiatry / psychology / research / sample / selling / solution / study /
subject / supervision / survey / topic / transition. Intercultural and
transcultural are sometimes substituted for cross-cultural.
(http://medical -dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Cross-cultural) For
Hamiloğlu & Mendi (2010), cross-cultural and intercultural are
interchangeable. Fries (http://www.tesol-france.org/articles/fries.pdf)
distinguishes between cross-cultural “something which covers more than
one culture [in a non-interactional way]” (e.g., a cross-cultural study of
education in Western Europe, which compares aspects of education in
various countries separately, without any interaction between the various
educational systems) and intercultural “something which covers more
than one culture [in an interactional way]” (e.g., a cross-cultural study of
the experiences of students / teachers who move from one educational
system to another).
The corresponding noun is cross-culturality, understood as “a process
which aims at transcending cultural differences which give rise to
obstacles impeding communication. [It is] a process whose purpose is to
capitalize on these differences, thus generating mutual enrichment”. (Why
Cross-culturality?)
The first definition of cross-cultural education is, to our knowledge,
the one given by Smith (1956, in Métraux 1956: 578) almost 60 years ago.
For him, cross-cultural education is “the reciprocal process of learning
and adjustment that occurs when individuals sojourn for educational
purposes in a society that is culturally foreign to them, normally returning
to their own society after a limited period. At the societal level, it is a

process of cultural diffusion and change, involving temporary ‘exchange
of persons’ for training and experience.” Nowadays, this type of education
is labelled “educational travel”. (Bodger, Bodger & Frost 2010)
Intercultural, Interculturality, Intercultural Education

The word intercultural “of, relating to, involving, or representing
different cultures” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/intercultural),
“between or among people of different cultures” (Webster’s New World
College Dictionary), “something that occurs between people of different
cultures including different religious groups or people of different national
origins” (http://www.yourdictionary.com/intercultural) was first attested in
the middle of the 1930s. It occurs in a wide range of collocations:
intercultural centre / communication / competence / conflict / connection /
consciousness / contact / definition / dialogue / education / encounter /
exchange / experience / festival / institute / inventory / learning / marriage
/ negotiation / network / programme / relation / resource / service / skill /
society / study / training. Intercultural and cross-cultural should not be
used interchangeably. (see the explanation above under Cross-cultural,
Cross-culturalism, Cross-cultural Education)
The word interculturalism “a government policy regarding the
relationship between a cultural majority and cultural minorities, which
emphasizes integration by exchange and interaction” (http://www.
duhaime.org/LegalDictionary/I/Interculturalism.aspx) does not belong to
the biculturalism, multiculturalism, pluriculturalism and
transculturalism series. It is supplanted by interculturality “the
encounter between hegemonic and non-dominant cultures as well as
frictions, overlapping, interdependencies, potentials for conflict and
mutual interference caused by this”. (http://www.lbs.ac.at/academic-
programs/research-development/ working-definition-of-interculturality)
The notion of interculturality, which underscores the conflictual
encounter of divergent culture-based ideas and patterns of behaviour,
should be clearly distinguished from multiculturalism (and its political
and legal claims of separate cultures which exist side-by-side) and from
transculturality (and its emphasis on transcultural fusions and hybrid
forms). One of the ways to reach interculturality is through language
teaching. (Trujillo Sáez 2002)
The Council of Europe has defined intercultural education in terms
of “reciprocity”. (Rey 2006, in Portera 2008: 483) Intercultural
education is about “developing an understanding of and valuing others
Georgeta Raţă 7
and […] understanding of and valuing self”. (http://ve.ese.ipcb.pt/index.

php?option=com_content&task=view&id=34) Intercultural education
and multicultural education are not synonymous: “Multicultural
education uses learning about other cultures in order to produce
acceptance, or at least tolerance, of these cultures. Intercultural Education
aims to go beyond passive coexistence, to achieve a developing and
sustainable way of living together in multicultural societies through the
creation of understanding of, respect for and dialogue between the
different cultural groups.” (UNESCO Guidelines on Cultural Education:
18) Portera (2008: 481) also distinguishes between intercultural
education, on the one hand, and multicultural education and
transcultural education, on the other hand. In many areas of the world,
intercultural education is identified with bicultural education: in Peru,
for instance, they have implemented bilingual intercultural programmes
as an alternative to the hegemonic model of schooling promoted by the
evangelic North-American missionaries with the complicity of the
Peruvian state. (Gashe 1998, in Akkari 1998: 106)
Multicultural, Multiculturalism, Multicultural Education

Multicultural, a term first attested in 1941, is defined as “relating to or
containing several cultural or ethnic groups within a society” (http://
oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/multicultural), “of, relating to,
or including several cultures; of or relating to a social or educational
theory that encourages interest in many cultures within a society rather
than in only a mainstream culture” and “(Sociology) consisting of, relating
to, or designed for the cultures of several different races”. (http://
www.thefreedictionary.com/multicultural) The term occurs in a number of
phrases, among which multicultural advocate / apparition / area /
association / awareness / career / centre / coalition / committee /
community / consortium / cookbook / council / counselling / diversity /
education / literacy / literature / menu / programme / resource / society /
team / workforce.
Multiculturalism, attested at the beginnings of the 1960s, is defined
as “the state or condition of being multicultural; the policy of maintaining
a diversity of ethnic cultures within a community,” “the state or condition
of being multicultural; the preservation of different cultures or cultural
identities within a unified society, as a state or nation,” “the view that the
various cultures in a society merit equal respect and scholarly interest”
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/multiculturalism), “a philosophy
that appreciates ethnic diversity within a society and that encourages
people to learn from the contributions of those of diverse ethnic

backgrounds”. (http://www.citizenwarrior.com/2008/09/definition-of-
multi culturalism.html)
The National Association for Multicultural Education defines
multicultural education as “a philosophical concept built on the ideals of
freedom, justice, equality, equity, and human dignity as acknowledged in
various documents, such as the U.S. Declaration of Independence,
constitutions of South Africa and the United States, and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations”.
(http://www.nameorg.org/resolutions/definition.html) For Gibson (1984,
111), multicultural education is “a normal human experience.” For Nieto
(1996, in Scherba de Valenzuela 2002), multicultural education is
antiracist, basic, important for all students, pervasive, education for social
justice, a process, and a critical pedagogy. Gay (1994: 3) claims that
multicultural education means “learning about, preparing for, and
celebrating cultural diversity, or learning to be bicultural.” For other
authors, multicultural education is “a vehicle for people who have
different value systems, customs, and communication styles to discover
ways to respectfully and effectively share resources, talents and ideas”.
(Meier 2007) Portera (2008: 485), multicultural education is a synonym
for multiculturalism: “Educational intervention, defined as
multiculturalism, multicultural education or multicultural pedagogy, works
from the de facto situation of the presence of two or more cultures, and
aims at the recognition of commonalities and differences.” Maybe the
most comprehensive definition of multicultural education is the one
given by Banks (2010: 20), for whom it is “a broad concept with several
different and important dimensions [...]: (1) content integration, (2) the
knowledge construction process, (3) prejudice reduction, (4) an equity
pedagogy, and (5) an empowering school culture and social structure.”
Gorski (2010) focuses on the third dimension of Bank’s definition,
claiming that multicultural education is “a progressive approach for
transforming education that holistically critiques and responds to
discriminatory policies and practices in education.”
Pluricultural, Pluriculturalism, Pluricultural Education

Trujillo Sáez (http://www.ugr.es/~ftsaez/aspectos/LEA.pdf) claims that
pluricultural is a synonym for multicultural, and that one can become
pluricultural through language learning. The term appears in
pluricultural awareness / competence / Europe / identity / nation / people.
Georgeta Raţă 9
Pluriculturalism is defined as “an approach to the self and others as

complex rich beings which act and react from the perspective of multiple
identifications”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluriculturalism) According
to Coste, Moore & Zarate (2009: 20), pluriculturalism is to be
distinguished from multiculturalism.
Portera (2008: 485) considers that pluricultural education is a
synonym for multicultural education. Santos (2012) suggests that
pluricultural education in a cultural context such as that of Bolivia
should rely on contextualisation of the English language (that focuses on
known and familiar situation where learners see the useful sense of the
language for real communicative purposes), a principle that favours the
national pluricultural education and makes the students learn English with
a practical sense.
Transcultural, Transculturalism, Transcultural Education

Transcultural, a term first attested in 1951, is defined as “relating to or
involving more than one culture; cross-cultural” (http://oxforddictionaries.
com/definition/english/transcultural), as “involving, encompassing, or
extending across two or more cultures” (http://www.merriam-webster.
com/dictionary/transcultural), and as “extending through all human
cultures”. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/transcultural) It occurs in a
number of phrases such as transcultural association / centre / character /
communication / competence / dialogue / dimension / diversity / dynamics
/ element / encyclopaedia / English / ideal / image / medicine / nurse /
nursing / psychiatry / relationship / subject / subjectivity / tool.
Transculturalism was first defined by Fernando Ortiz in 1940 as “a
synthesis of two phases occurring simultaneously, one being a
deculturalization of the past with a métissage with the present [and the
other one] the meeting and the intermingling of the different peoples and
cultures”. (Cuccioletta 2002: 8) Tassinari (ibidem) defines
transculturalism as “a new form of humanism, based on the idea of
relinquishing the strong traditional identities and cultures which in many
cases were products of imperialistic empires, interspersed with dogmatic
religious values.” He claims that “Contrary to multiculturalism, which
most experiences have shown re-enforces boundaries based on past
cultural heritages, transculturalism is based on the breaking down of
boundaries.” Cuccioletta (idem: 1) defines transculturalism as “seeing
oneself in the other” and advances another synonym for transculturalism
in his approach of the relationship between interculturality,
multiculturality and transculturalism, concluding that “The policy of
multiculturalism [...] has created borders and boundaries, while social

multiculturalism or transculturalism left to a conscious ebb and flow of
interculturality, emanating from the grass roots and not imposed and
defined by government, projects this vision.” (idem: 9) For Lewis (2002),
transculturalism means “integration of a political aesthetics with a
cultural civics.” Slimbach (2005: 206) claims “Transculturalism is rooted
in the quest to define shared interests and common values across cultural
and national borders.” Transculturation or transculturism means
“cultural change induced by introduction of elements of a foreign culture,”
“(Sociology) the introduction of foreign elements into an established
culture”. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/transculturation) According to
Pratt (1992: 6), ethnographers use the term transculturation “to describe
how subordinated or marginal groups select and invent from materials
transmitted to them by a dominant or metropolitan culture.”
According to Portera (2008: 484), the concept of transcultural
education “refers to something that pervades culture (as in the fields of
cross-cultural psychology or trans-cultural psychiatry).”
Conclusions
The six types of education above have been defined in the following
terms: bicultural education is a strategy for providing instruction in two
cultures (Gibson 1984); cross-cultural education is a reciprocal process
of learning and adjusting in a cross-cultural context (Smith 1956);
intercultural education is also about reciprocity (Rey 2006);
multicultural education is a philosophical concept (http://www.nameorg.
org/resolutions/definition.html), a human experience (Gibson 1984), a
process and a pedagogy (Nieto 1996), a process of learning (Gay 1994), a
vehicle (Meier 2007), a concept (Banks 2010), an educational approach.
(Gorski 2010) Pluricultural education and transcultural education are
not clearly defined. The authors cited above fail to provide a clear
semantic definition or a distinct epistemological foundation for these
concepts. Thus, on the one hand, bicultural education is considered a
synonym for both intercultural education (Gashe 1998) and
multicultural education (Gay 1994), while pluricultural education is
considered a synonym for multicultural education (Portera 2008); on the
other hand, intercultural education is considered an antonym of
multicultural education because of the difference in character between
the two – active vs. passive. (UNESCO Guidelines on Cultural Education)
We could not find two identical definitions of multicultural
education either, except for dictionary ones. In time, educators have tried
Georgeta Raţă 11
to make this concept fit their particular focus, seeing multicultural

education as:
- a classroom climate issue or teaching style that serves certain groups
while presenting barriers for others;
- a shift in curriculum (e.g., adding new, diverse materials and
perspectives to be more inclusive of traditionally under-represented
groups);
- an education change as part of a larger societal change in which we
explore and criticize the oppressive foundations of society (capitalism,
exploitation, socio-economic situations, white supremacy, etc.) and
how education serves to maintain the status quo;
- an institutional and systemic issue (e.g., funding discrepancies,
standardized testing, tracking, etc.).
The choice of the focus in a multicultural education approach (age, class,

culture, ethnicity, exceptionality, gender, historical truth, language, race,
religion, sexual orientation, and social class) depends on language, socio-
political context (school policies, school type), teacher expectations, and
teacher preparation. Instead of suggesting our own definition of
multicultural education, we would like to quote Banks (2010: 3) for
whom “Multicultural education is at least three things: an idea or concept,
an educational reform movement, and a process.”
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MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION:
APPROACHES, DIMENSIONS AND PRINCIPLES
HASAN ARSLAN
Multicultural education incorporates the idea that all students, regardless

of their social class, race, ethnicity, religion or gender characteristics,
should have an equal opportunity and freedom to learn. Schools should
carefully examine the idea and teach their students all ideas, values,
rituals, and ceremonies (Arslan 2009).
Multicultural education is an equitable education for all students
regardless of ethnic and cultural background or religious affiliation. From
this perspective, multicultural education is implemented to enhance
tolerance, respect, understanding, awareness, and acceptance of self and
others in the diversity of their cultures (Irwin 2001).
Multicultural education represents the ways in which we differ from
each other, including ethnicity, race, religion and gender characteristics
(Tileston 2004). Some of these differences are highly visible at one
extreme while others are totally invisible at the other extreme. (Greene
2003) However, it does not make sense to focus on a visible site of
differences. The key point is to understand and accept differences in
students, be they visible or invisible.
Culture is a particularly crucial element that provides a general design
for living and patterns for interpreting reality, and it consists of behaviour,
ideas, attitudes, habits, customs, beliefs, values, language, rituals, and
ceremonies (Nobles 1993). Culture is a way of life that includes
knowledge, belief, art, customs, and other capabilities and habits
(Seckinger 1976). In any country, there are usually a number of
communities or sub-societies that regard themselves as distinct, and these
sub-societies develop certain values and practices, and so possess their
own sub-culture. They may have professional, economic, geographical,
political, religious, racial, ethnic, or language differences that form a
particular background (Kneller 1971).
People live in a more complex society in which diversities have to be
together (Akyol 2006). Schools are thought to have an important function
16 Multicultural Education: Approaches, Dimensions and Principles
in establishing social integration in the society, in perceiving the

diversities as richness not the reason of separation, and in making this
opinion prevalent in the society. The policy of multiculturalism helps
teachers achieve harmony in the schools (Banks 2001a, English 2003). It
is important for students to learn about different cultures, races, and
religions and study different histories, languages, and modes of life.
Students having different lifestyles and cultures have an opportunity to
meet each other at the school, and they are affected by the others’
lifestyles and cultures. Multicultural curricula help students understand
each other (Arslan 2009, Elrich 1994). Multicultural curricula provide a
lens to understand their own culture and others and connect to a larger
global community. It is important to teach multiculturalism at all school
levels not only to understand their society but also the world cultures.
Post-modern curricula are open and place a high value on human thought
(Bruner 1986).
Multicultural curricula require an understanding and recognition of the
values of the diverse groups (Hodgkinson 2000), and the issue of “whose
values” gains central significance posing challenges to leadership and
wisdom. Riley et al. (1995) engage with the issue by discussing the extent
to which the leader’s values and beliefs, the school’s values and beliefs
and the community’s values and beliefs can be harmonized for
effectiveness.
To create a culturally sensitive education, educational policy must set
goals for culturally diverse students. These goals for culturally diverse
schools are to establish settings where all students are made to feel
welcome, are engaged in learning and are included in the full range of
activities, curricula, and services. Principals and teachers must work
collaboratively with school staff members, parents, and the community to
accomplish goals. The benefits of culturally diverse schools are numerous
and include preventing academic failure and reducing dropout rates. At the
end of multicultural education, academic success of culturally diverse
students increases (Richards, Brown & Forde 2004).
Multicultural curriculum should help students recognize and
understand the values and experiences of one’s own ethnic cultural
heritage, promote sensitivity to diverse ethnicities and cultures through
exposure to other cultural perspectives, develop awareness and respect for
the similarities and differences among the diverse groups, and identify,
challenge and dispel ethnic/cultural stereotyping, prejudice, and
discrimination in behaviour, textbooks and other instructional materials.
The goals of multicultural education were defined by Gollnick &
Chinn (1990): promote the strengths and value of cultural diversity,
Hasan Arslan 17
promote human rights and respect for those who are different from
oneself, promote equity in the distribution of power and income among
groups, promote social justice and equality for all people, and promote
alternative life choices for people. However, Bennett (1995a: 17) claims
the major goals of multicultural education are the development of the
intellectual, social, and personal growth of all students to their highest
potential and the elimination of stereotypes through the reduction of
racism and bigotry.
In addition to the above authors, Sleeter & Grant (1994) explain the
goals of multicultural education:
- To acquire the skills, attitudes and knowledge necessary for increasing

an individual’s ability to function effectively within a multicultural
environment;
- To develop the ability for seeking information about the economic,
political, and social factors of various cultures;
- To foster the affirmation of all cultures;
- To provide individuals with opportunities for experiencing other
cultures and recognizing them as a source of learning and growth;
- To build an awareness of an individual’s cultural heritage that provides
a basis for personal identity;
- To increase tolerance and acceptance of different values, attitudes, and
behaviours.
Even if most policy makers and educators accept the importance of

multicultural education, the implication of multicultural programmes has
been problematic. The idea of multicultural education is to establish
justice, equality, and freedom for every member of the society, regardless
of ethnic, racial, religious, gender, language, and social class background
(Sinagatullin 2003). The problem is how to implement these ideas in
educational programmes and develop proper contents, approaches,
dimensions, strategies and frames of multicultural education so that all
students have equal opportunities to learn at school. Education systems
should develop the fundamental humanistic characteristics and meet the
demands of students regardless of ethnic or cultural backgrounds. The idea
of multicultural education should be a continuing process and reform
movement that all children have an equal chance to experience school
success (Banks 2001a).
Need for Multicultural Education

The number of migrant people increases in all countries. Arutunian,
Drobidzeva & Susokolov (1999) state that demographic change affects
student structure in classrooms and educational policy should include
multicultural implications. There are three types of migration: (a)
pendulum-like and seasonal, (b) vertical, and (c) external. Increasing
polarization of human societies between the rich and the poor adds not
only to economic but also religious, racial, ethnic, political, and sexual
polarisation: these changing demographic factors need multicultural
education to keep societies democratic, free and peaceful. Arutunian,
Drobidzeva & Susokolov (ibidem) claim ethnocentrism is increasing and
causes tensions and conflicts in societies. Increasing number of children
with physical and mental disabilities need subsequent care and educational
approaches in both mainstream and special classrooms. The rise of
ethnocentrism and the growing number of children with disabilities make
multicultural education necessary. Additionally, Baruth & Manning (1994)
add four factors that affect the rise of multicultural education:
- Civil rights movement;

- A rise in ethnic consciousness;
- A more critical analysis of textbooks and other materials;
- Loss of belief in theories of cultural deprivation.
Characteristics of Multicultural Education

Multicultural education has several characteristics that hold students
together in the educational environment and empower peace and freedom
in the society. Ovando (1998b) and Nieto (1996) describe several key
characteristics of multicultural education in our society:
- Multicultural education is an ongoing and dynamic process;

- Multicultural education is critical pedagogy because both students and
teachers involved in a multicultural teaching and learning process do
not view knowledge as neutral and apolitical;
- Multicultural education is antiracist;
- Multicultural education is basic because, along with other disciplines,
it represents an integral component of education;
- Multicultural education is pervasive in the overall schooling process;
- Multicultural education is vital for the majority and minority students;
- Multicultural education is aiming at school justice.
Hasan Arslan 19
Dimensions of Multicultural Education

Banks (2001a) divides multicultural educations into five dimensions that
can be used as a guide by teachers. Students can only share knowledge and
values when the teachers apply certain techniques and methods that
empower the academic achievements of students from different ethnic and
social groups.
The first dimension is content integration, which needs the infusion of
ethnic and cultural content into the subject area instruction. However, it
may not be necessary to integrate equally multicultural content in different
subject areas. The inclusion of ethnic and cultural content may be easily
applied to social studies. There may not be so many opportunities for
mathematics and sciences. Content integration provides a better
understanding of oneself and others, facilitating interactions between
oneself and others.
The knowledge construction is described as a second dimension by
Banks (idem). This dimension helps learners understand and determine the
influence of cultural assumptions, perspectives, and biases on the way
knowledge is constructed within a subject area. Teachers may ask students
some questions related to historical, religious, racial, ethnic, political and
sexual perspectives in order to construct knowledge about multicultural
ideas.
The third dimension is prejudice reduction. Teachers are required to
help students develop expected and tolerant attitudes to different ethnic,
racial, religious, and cultural groups. As a result, students are expected to
behave respecting each other both at school and out of school. If this
dimension is neglected at school, some misunderstanding may happen
among social groups in society. This dimension helps students develop
positive feelings about various cultural groups through instructions that
give positive images of ethnic people.
Equity pedagogy, the fourth dimension, has some specific goals in
facilitating and improving the academic achievement of students from
different racial, cultural, gender, religious, and social class groups. This
dimension insists on using a variety of teaching styles and approaches
congruent with the learning styles of children from different ethnic,
religious and cultural groups. Equity pedagogy is encouraged when
teachers teach the learning styles of the various divergent groups and
modify them to suit the cultural and social class groups of their students.
Teachers should use a combination of a wide variety of teaching styles.
The fifth dimension is empowering school culture, which include all
members of the school staff. Creating or empowering school culture
cannot be the responsibility of the principal or teacher alone. A strong and

multicultural school culture empowers students from diverse backgrounds
and promotes gender, ethnic, religious, and social-class equity. To create
and empower an expected school culture, the total school environment
must be re-shaped. Empowerment is a process in which the culture of the
school promotes equality for students from diverse groups. The procedure
includes examining the teachers’ ethnic and racial attitudes and the
influence of these attutides on the ethnic students’ academic performance.
To implement multicultural education successfully in the school
environment, one of the prime focuses should be on the school’s latent
curriculum because it represents a powerful part of the school culture
communicating the school’s attitudes toward a whole range of problems,
including how the school views the students as human beings and its
attitude toward males, females, and students from various ethnic, religious,
cultural and racial groups (idem).
Multicultural Perspectives
There are two main multicultural perspectives – vertical and horizontal:
1. Vertical Perspective: Multicultural education consists of several

enlarging layers. A classroom can be seen as the bottom layer, a school
can be seen as a larger layer and the country as an even larger layer.
They are called “class layer,” “school layer,” “country layer,” etc. The
multicultural goals of a particular layer may coincide with those of
other layers in the hierarchy (Sinagatullin 2003).
2. Horizontal Perspective: Multicultural education may incorporate a
single variable or a diversity of variables in a particular class, school,
country or larger socio-geographical area. The general idea firmly
remains intact: creating equal opportunities and quality education for
all students. In one school, teachers may place greater emphasis on
ethic issues, in another institution, on teaching children with alternative
health, in still another school, on bilingual education. A rural school
may be concerned with a problem of quality education and equal
informational opportunities for all students (ibidem).
Approaches to Multicultural Education

Banks (1997b) claims that educational equality is that ideal toward which
people work but never attain, because, for instance, such categories as
racism, sexism, and discrimination against people with disabilities will
Hasan Arslan 21
exist to a certain extent no matter how hard people work to do away with
these problems.
There are many interpretations of multicultural approaches in the
literature. Banks (1997a, 1997b), Eldering (1996), and Sleeter & Grant
(2001) examine multicultural approaches. Banks (1994) discusses about
three major groups of approaches: curriculum reform, achievement, and
intergroup education. Each group has different conceptions, strategies and
paradigms. Curriculum reform has four sub-approaches: the contribution
approach, the additive approach, the transformative approach, and the
social action approach. The contribution approach is linked to the content
of ethnic and cultural groups’ heroes, celebrations, and holidays. The
additive approach presupposes an addition of cultural content and concepts
to the curriculum without changing its basic purpose and structure. The
transformative approach entails some changes in the curriculum to enable
the students to view problems, events, and concepts from various cultural
and ethnic perspectives. The social action approach enables learners to
follow activities and take civic actions related to the concepts and issues
they have studied.
The second approach is the achievement approach, which aims at
increasing the academic achievement of low-income and disabled
students, as well as students of colour and women. Two conceptions are
important in the achievement approach: cultural deprivation and cultural
difference.
The intergroup education approaches are related to fostering the
development of students’ more positive attitudes toward people from
different ethnic, cultural, religious and gender groups as well as toward
their own group (McIntosh 2000).
Nicholas (1999) categorizes multicultural approaches into two
approaches quite different from Banks’ and Eldering’ perspectives –
assimilationist and multicultural:
- Assimilationist Approach: In many societies, assimilationalists claim

that education should help all students from various groups acquire
knowledge, skills, and values that are needed to participate in the
mainstream culture. They are not generally against integrating a
multicultural content into the curriculum. However, they do not give
support to construct an education grounded on an equal and unbiased
basis for all ethnic, cultural, religious, and immigrant groups.
- Multicultural Approach: Education in an ethnically and culturally
diverse society promotes cultural pluralism and social equality, and
that all students should have access to quality and equitable education
and be able to function effectively in an independent world.
Eldering (1996) claims there are two main approaches in multicultural

education: a particularistic (ethnic and cultural groups) and a universalistic
approach (all groups). According to the position of minority groups,
multicultural education can follow the disadvantaged, enrichment,
bicultural approach, or the collective equality approach.
The disadvantaged approach focuses on students from various ethnic
and cultural groups that have educational disadvantages even if the
majority groups do not. This approach of multicultural education tries to
remove these disadvantages.
The second approach, the enrichment approach, is aimed at students
from specific ethnic and cultural groups and is based on monocultural
courses, which are designed to address the ethnic, religious, language, and
cultural needs of ethnic and cultural groups. These courses are intended for
all students, regardless of their ethnic and cultural background.
Another approach is the collective equality approach, which focuses on
the collective equality of groups rather than the equality of individuals.
The collective equality approach has two sub-approaches. The first one
focuses on the equal rights of the diverse ethnic and cultural groups in
society. The second assumes to make the entire school system more
multicultural (Griego-Jones 2001).
Sleeter & Grant (2001) describe five approaches:
- Teaching the exceptional and culturally different;

- Human relations;
- Single-group studies;
- Multicultural education;
- Education that is multicultural and social reconstructionist.
The first approach, teaching the exceptional and culturally different,

focuses on students in the existing social structure and culture. This
approach takes exceptional or culturally different students by using
strategies and culturally relevant materials according to students’ learning
styles.
The human relations approach focuses on assimilating individual
students into the dominant verbal and practical activities of the classroom.
The approach encourages instruction that insists on collaborative learning
among students.
Hasan Arslan 23
The third approach is based on the separate teaching of knowledge

about a particular group both to its members and to others. The
multicultural education approach emphasises the promotion of social
equality and cultural pluralism. Curriculum in this approach is organized
around the contributions and perspectives of a certain group both to its
members and to others.
The final approach is the multicultural and social reconstructionalist
approach that is based on promoting social and structural pluralism. This
approach involves students’ active and democratic decision-making,
prepares educators to make both formal and informal curricula
developmentally appropriate and culturally authentic, and supports the
idea that effective classroom management is based on teachers’ knowledge
of self, students and their families, and communities (Koza 2001).
Multicultural Education and School Types

Before examining possible multicultural strategies, approaches, and
dimensions, it is reasonable to realize the school types in the school
system because each school has different kinds of student structure that
need various strategies and approaches. There are at least six types of
institution: institutions with monoethnic (monolingual) student population,
institutions with multiethnic (multilingual) learning groups, institutions for
exceptional students and student with learning and behavioural problems,
institutions for gifted students, urban and rural institutions, institutions
with a bilingual-bicultural learning public (Fields 2010).
1. Institutions with monoethnic (monolingual) student population: These

institutions may be located in ethnically and linguistically
homogeneous societies. There are both talented and low-achievement
students in the same classroom. Students may come from both wealthy
and low-income families, from families with different religious beliefs,
or they may be students with alternative behaviour and health issues. In
these schools, there may be a dominant culture and students from
minority cultures who do not possess the official or dominant
language. Such schools may be located in both urban and rural areas.
Schools with monoethnic curriculum present one way of perceiving,
believing, behaving, and evaluating, and reinforce negative myths and
stereotypes about minorities.
2. Institutions with multiethnic (multilingual) learning groups: This kind
of schools may be located in ethnically heterogeneous nations and
relatively homogenous nations. These institutions may have students
from different immigrant, achievement, social class, ethnic, culture,

and religious groups. Such schools may be located in both urban and
rural settings. These types of institutions are common in many
societies.
3. Institutions for exceptional students and students with learning and
behavioural problems: There is a variety of special institutions ranging
from schools for students suffering from learning disabilities and
behavioural problems to institutions for the profoundly handicapped.
These institutions generally have students from different ethnic,
religious, language, and social class groups. Interaction between
teacher and student relies on the principle of tolerance and mutual
understanding.
4. Institutions for gifted children: These schools have elite students with
special cognitive and intellectual abilities. These students have high
academic and creative performance. The idea is to use the intellectual
potential of the students for the nation’s further progress. However,
placing talented learners into elitist schools may violate the rules of
educational and personal equality and equity.
5. Urban and rural institutions: The location of schools has both
advantages and disadvantages. The strategies of rural and urban
education and rural and urban residents’ lifestyles vary more or less
distinctly. Each school has its own school culture. Rural schools have
various characteristics. These schools may have separate or joint
functioning, staff issues, monocultural or multicultural enrolment,
various curriculum content, settled-permanent or nomadic-mobile,
mainland or island location.
6. Institutions with a bilingual-bicultural learning public. These
institutions exist in countries represented by the majority and minority
segments of population and two or more ethnic groups whose
languages have more or less equal status in the nation. Educational
institutions with bilingual or bicultural student populations should
encompass students from different social class, gender, religious, and
academic achievement groups.
It is impossible to design an ideal multicultural approach capable of fitting

each educational institution in all societies, even if some basic
multicultural contents, approaches, and strategies may be relevant in all
classrooms across all cultures. For this reason, the multicultural is
categorized into two major approaches: particularistic and universalistic.
The particularistic approach expects to meet the needs of all students and
particularly those of a particular ethnic or cultural group. On the other
Hasan Arslan 25
hand, the universalistic approach aims at addressing members of all ethnic,

linguistic, gender, and social class groups in a given academic group
(classroom, school, etc.).
Teaching Strategies in a Multicultural Classroom

The basic principle of multicultural teaching is to create a learning
environment so that students from diverse cultural groups have an equal
opportunity to learn. Multicultural literature shows that the students’
cultural background plays a crucial part in the learning process.
Banks (1991) points to three kinds of knowledge necessary for teachers
to be effective in the classroom:
- Social science knowledge about their societies and about the diverse
cultural and ethnic groups that make them;
- Pedagogical knowledge that can help teachers make effective
instructional decisions and become skilful in the classroom;
- Subject matter content knowledge.
Gay (2000) states that a culturally responsive pedagogy is critical in

developing a curriculum since it emphasizes the needs of a multicultural
and diverse group of students. Educational strategies enhance the learning
process. Gay (ibidem) outlines culturally responsive teaching into
characteristics: validating, transformative, empowering, comprehensive,
multidimensional, and emancipatory. First, validating draws on the
cultural knowledge, traditions, and styles of diverse students while
affirming and extending their strengths and competencies. Second,
culturally responsive education is transformative: implications rely on
each student’s strengths and extend them further into the learning
processes. Third, the culturally teaching process is empowering: teachers
expect all students to succeed and develop structures that enhance the
probability of student success. Fourth, culturally responsive teaching is
comprehensive because teachers use cultural referents to impart
knowledge. Fifth, multidimensional teaching can be taught through
multiple perspectives. Finally, culturally responsive teaching is
emancipatory: students are given the freedom to move beyond the
traditional canons of knowledge and explore alternative perspectives.
Jennings (1995: 171) advocates four kinds of multicultural classroom
environments to develop a culturally responsive curriculum:
- Teach children to respect the cultures and values of others;

- Promote the development of a positive self-concept in those students

who are most affected by racism, sexism, handicapism, or other
prejudicial attitudes that tend to label students different from the norm;
- Help all students learn to function successfully in a multicultural,
multiracial society;
- Encourage students to view people of diverse cultures as a unique part
of a whole community.
Models of Multicultural Education

Boyer & Baptiste Jr. (1996: 130-135) provide the following guidelines for
the school environment toward multiculturalism to build a model of
multicultural education:
- The official endorsement of multicultural transformation by school

boards, curriculum councils, staff development centres, service centres,
curriculum advisory groups, and others;
- The creation of a policy on diversity in the curriculum, clearly stated
and submitted to any policy-making body;
- Suggestions for curriculum leadership whether it is through various
committee, commission, or large group activities;
- Developing an understanding of multicultural curriculum development;
- Accepting the tenets of multicultural curriculum, assuring equity and
social justice, and eliminating curriculum bias and instructional
discrimination;
- Increasing ethnic and linguistic literacy by understanding how second
language learning occurs;
- Analyzing societal institutions (e.g., how museums and galleries
embrace diversity);
- Recognizing poverty and learning relationships, i.e. how impoverished
learners approach the schooling experience;
- Understanding national programmes, resolutions, mandates, and
official endorsements;
- Examining stereotypes and images;
- Activating demonstration lessons, learning from colleagues who are
creative in integrating an ethnic content;
- Analyzing library holdings, collaborative efforts with teachers,
librarians, parents, and community people;
- Employing current ethnic content;
- Reviewing the testing programmes;
Hasan Arslan 27
- Reviewing the students activities programmes, how inclusiveness is

handled;
- Examining school food services (Are cultural foods offered?);
- Assessing school social services (Does the school social service effort
provide an understanding of cultural factors in service provision?);
and
- Conducting a curriculum analysis (how direct instructional time,
ethnic, racial, and linguistic groups are emphasised in the curriculum).
Banks & Banks (2010) provide a model of multicultural education. They

describe four levels or approaches of multicultural education into the
curriculum:
- The contribution approach is level one and it is the most used approach
in multicultural education because it is easily practiced. A school
initially attempts to integrate ethnic and multicultural content into an
existing curriculum. The approach puts emphasis on heroes, holidays,
and some discrete cultural elements in the curriculum. The use of
culturally dominant characters is excluded from this perspective. The
contribution approach is very easy for teachers to integrate in the
curriculum with ethnic content.
- The addictive approach is supposed to add content, concept, themes,
and perspectives to the curriculum without changing its basic structure,
purposes, and characteristics. This approach is sometimes
accomplished by the addition of a book, unit, or course to the
curriculum. The approach is second level in implementing
multicultural education in the curriculum. It allows teachers to add
ethnic content into the curriculum without restructuring it. The
approach includes ethnic content from the perspectives of mainstream
historians, writers, artists, and scientists. The approach does not let the
teachers help students understand that different cultural and ethnic
groups often share different points of view about the same historical
events. The addictive approach fails to help the students’ view of
society from the perspective of a diverse culture.
- The transformation approach changes the basic assumptions of the
curriculum and enables the students to view concepts, issues, themes,
and problems from the perspective of diverse, ethnic, and cultural
groups. The mainstream-centric perspective of the curriculum is only
one of the perspectives from which issues, problems, and concepts are
viewed. The approach uses the infusion of different perspectives,
frames of references, and content from various groups. This approach

presents a multiple acculturation perspective.
- The social action approach contains all the elements of the
transformative approach. However, it adds components that require
students to make a decision and take actions related to the concepts and
issues studied in the course. The major purpose of this approach is to
educate students for social criticism and social change and to teach
them decision-making skills. In addition, this approach helps students
acquire the knowledge, values, and skills they need to participate in
social change without being victimized or ethnically excluded.
Multicultural Curriculum
Students are to be taught in a manner that reflects their surroundings,
personal experiences, and new learning experiences that integrate their
social and economic awareness. For example, many textbooks and
resources have been developed to enable educators to present a holistic
overview of past, present and future life-learning events (Banks 2001).
Regardless of the students’ cultural backgrounds, educators are expected
to provide all students with the skills allowing them to learn from each
other as well as the new concepts presented in class (Fields 2010).
Nieto (2003) advocates a combination of theories and concepts such as
integrated multicultural curriculum, professional multicultural preparation
programmes for teachers and administrators, the monitoring and
encouragement of student interaction, and consistent work within the
guidelines of the school reform act will ultimately benefit all public school
students. He also states that developing the curriculum to fit multicultural
classrooms can help many students understand their diverse nature.
Professional, multicultural programmes can make educators more aware of
their cultural diversity.
Life-centred Curriculum
Bandura (1997) describes life-centred curriculum as a positive means to
teach students the life skills of social adjustment. Teachers learn through
multicultural development programmes; all students are not equal; there is
no single formula for teaching all students. In a life-centred perspective,
curriculum is presented to students to enable them succeed in future
educational opportunities in the school environment. Bandura argues that
many skills are essential for students to become their own advocates as
they venture through life. The skills and abilities to make decisions, set
Hasan Arslan 29
goals, organize time, and become responsible students in society are taught
with important key concepts in life-centred roles throughout school.
Teachers in multicultural development programmes learn that as students
are provided with classroom and school responsibilities, such as helping in
planning club activities and school events, having a voice in choosing new
textbooks, and working on the school newspapers, they develop positive
assertiveness and self-determination skills.
Implementing Multicultural Teaching

According to Harrington (1994: 57), being multiculturally aware means
being able to recognize, interpret, and understand the cultural
fundamentals that contrast with one’s own behaviour, values, and beliefs.
In other words, it is important for teachers to understand how their
students live within their traditional upbringing.
Multicultural development programmes are essential for the growth
and competence of the classroom teacher. These programmes instruct
teachers on how to recognize and teach ethnically and culturally diverse
students. Teachers learn to use versatility in their teaching styles to
develop classroom environments in which all students can learn (Nieto
2003, Sleeter 1996).
Gorski (1997) states that teachers are the leaders of cultural diversity
and multicultural education. Without having qualified teachers and
multicultural curricula, it is impossible to be successful in classrooms.
Gorski defines three major components to multiculturalism – curriculum,
teacher, and student – and focuses on teacher development programmes
that should use a curriculum that explores several ethnic groups and
demonstrates real-life ethnical situations.
Teachers should be trained in similar situations in their diversity
programmes to gain first-hand experience of multiculturalism. The
essential issues that should be addresses in multicultural development
programmes include the following considerations (Fields 2010):
- Every teacher must have a clear understanding of his/her own attitudes

and prejudices when dealing with any ethnic group;
- Available support groups must exist for teachers to learn about the
multicultural issues they will face in their classrooms: to this end, it is
important that each group be small but as diverse as possible;
- Additional training is a must for all teachers if they are to integrate
new material on multiculturalism into their classrooms: confidence in
answering students’ questions is a vital element in the programme;
- To be effective in the classroom, teachers should be dedicated to

providing the best possible learning environments for all students.
Gorski (1997) argues that teachers should be taught that all students come
to school with their own stories and levels of awareness. Students in a
multicultural classroom need to understand and learn why they should
respect each other’s values. All classes have rules that apply both inside
and outside the classroom. All students must understand the applicable
rules in a diverse classroom.
Teachers are expected to work according to their expertise,
understanding, outlooks, and beliefs in order to educate their students
effectively about as many diverse cultures as possible. Teachers are not cut
from the same mould: each has developed his/her own effective teaching
techniques to communicate effectively with diverse co-teachers,
administrators, and students. Multicultural education is a tool to empower
all teachers to teach in a diverse classroom. Sleeter (2000) believes that, in
order for multicultural students to achieve significant goals in life, teachers
must be educated academically as well as worldly. Students will thus have
the opportunity to understand their own diversity and use their diversity to
strengthen themselves and those around them.
Ladson-Billings (1994) identifies five areas that play an important role
in the education of multiculturally diverse population:
- Teachers’ confidence in their students;

- Teacher training;
- Learning atmosphere;
- Classroom management;
- Curriculum objectives.
Banks (1994) proposes five dimensions of multicultural education:
- Integrating curriculum (cross curriculum teaching with a multicultural

approach);
- Developing knowledge (teaching students about other cultures);
- Teaching cultural differences (teaching students to understand and
respect others’ cultural, ethnic, and racial differences);
- Developing fairness in pedagogy (teaching about society, differences,
and other cultures);
- Teaching culture and social structure.
Hasan Arslan 31
Conclusion
Approaches, models, dimensions, levels and principles do not fully
support major goals and principles of multicultural education. Teacher
knowledge and reflection are very important considerations in designing
and implementing multicultural courses. These courses change and
transform knowledge. The students should be able to envisage just how
issues of cultural diversity manifest in the classroom (Nord 2000). Some
implementation of successful teaching strategies should be available for
teaching in a diverse classroom.
Teachers face some new challenges such as diverse population and
school reform in the class setting. Changes in schools are major challenges
for teachers. Multicultural education perspectives provide a system in
which teachers can accept and affirm diversity (Bennett 2002).
Multicultural education is designed to help the teachers process the
concepts learned. Each teacher is required to teach a lesson in a classroom
setting to a small diverse group of teachers. Teachers are expected to work
within expertise, outlooks, beliefs and understanding in order to educate
their students about as many diverse cultures as possible. Multicultural
educational programmes have been approved by different national
commissions on education. Multicultural classrooms are learner-centred
and rely on teachers that know and attend to the knowledge, beliefs, skills
and background that each student brings to the classroom. It is time to be
empowered to teach all students regardless of their ethnical, cultural,
racial, and religious backgrounds. Teachers should be aware of their own
beliefs about the different issues of diversity and about how these beliefs
affect their actions, behaviours and school achievements. They need to be
advocates of equity in the classroom.
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HISTORY OF NATIONAL AND ETHNIC
MINORITIES IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN:
PRESENT-DAY CONCEPT AND STATE
OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION
IN HUNGARY AND THE NEIGHBOURING
COUNTRIES
EDIT RÓZSAVÖLGYI
Introduction
In the present paper, we would like to examine how and why the
actualization of the cosmopolitan model represented by the first
Hungarians to live in the Carpathian Basin, according to which economic
integration was the pillar on which the country’s existence rested and
which was devoid of the fear of the other, and otherness, instead, enriched
the country, changed over the course of history. Hungary’s first monarch,
Saint Stephen (997-1038), set forth the following teachings to his son
Prince Imre in his work Admonitiones ‘Admonitions’: “unius linguae
uniusque moris regnum imbecille et fragile est.”1 Cohabitation with other
ethnic groups was a natural part of the life of Hungarians and a
continuation of the traditions of their nomadic migrations embarking from
the east.
However, when presenting arguments about the current situation, Ignác
Romsics, an acknowledged academic of 20th century Hungarian history
posits
“From a nation and nationality viewpoint, Central and Central-Eastern

Europe is comparable to an area littered with minefields where the
explosion of one mine may trigger the explosion of another one, and even
the entire region could be set aflame in the worst case scenario.”2 (Romsics
2005: 348)
36 National and Ethnic Minorities in the Area of the Carpathian Basin
Our aim is to pursue how modern governments face the consequences of

history and how they try and manage to resolve the huge amount of
problems accumulated over the past centuries by means of a multicultural
education policy.
We posit that education has an enormously important role in
developing a multicultural perspective in people, in whom discrimination
and xenophobia are not present. This is not so easy to realise given the
particular historical and political background of the Carpathian Basin.
Cohabitation among two or more ethno-linguistic communities and the
joint exercising of power within a given state is not impossible today
either. However, this ideal state presupposes an understanding of the moral
values of every ethnic community, the assurance of their future, as well as
their unperturbed cultural reproduction.
Historical Background
Hungary’s medieval history can shortly be summed up with the notion of
congregatio populorum used generally during that era. Ever since its
foundation, various ethnic groups arriving from both the west and the east
found their place in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary in the form of
regional political and economic units. They could preserve the use of their
own language if local isolation and the introspective nature of their
communities enabled them to do so. Ethnic and linguistic diversity was
considered positive. The issue of nationality did not exist, nor did the
modern concept of nationality. After 150 years of Turkish occupation
(dating from the lost Battle of Mohacs to the liberation of Buda in 1686),
spontaneous and organised settlement movements carried on feeding the
migration of masses of people. Ethnic relations in the Carpathian Basin the
way we know them today evolved during the 18th century. Connections
and the mode of cohabitation between various nationalities were
reminiscent of the medieval model, which perfectly suited the feudalistic
national ideology, according to which the natio ‘nation’ incorporated the
nobility, no matter which ethnic group it happened to belong to, and not
the entire population of the country (Rózsavölgyi 2007). As a consequence
of the Treaty of Carlowitz (1699) endorsing the expulsion of the Ottoman
Turks, the entire area of Hungary and Transylvania was ceded to the
Hapsburg Empire. The Hapsburg Monarchy was formed as an outcome of
a long historical process, and was ethnically, linguistically and culturally
such a heterogeneous empire that had never existed before in the history of
Europe and has never occurred since. From 1288, its regional centre was
gradually transferred from the west to the east, mainly after 1699, when a
Edit Rózsaavölgyi 37
substantial ppart of the Hunngarian region ns was effectiively amalgam

mated into
the estates oof Hapsburg ruulers. Howeveer, Hungary neever integrated into the
Monarchy aas strongly as the ruling fam mily would haave liked it to.. In 1867,
a constitutioonal monarchhic union bettween the croowns of the Austrian
Empire andd the Kingdoom of Hungary created the Austro-H Hungarian
Monarchy or Austro-Huungarian Em mpire as a rresult of the Austro-
Hungarian C Compromise. By the begin nning of the 20th century, the total
area of the eestates integraated in this neew empire waas 676,000 km m2 (Figure
1-1), in whhich 51,000,0000 people beelonging to 112 nationalitiies3 lived
around 19100 (Figure 1-2).
Source: http:///en.wikipedia.oorg/wiki/Austria-Hungary#Linnguistic_distribu
ution
Figure 1-1. A
Austria-Hungarry. Empire of Austria (Cisle ithania): 1. Bo ohemia, 2.
Bukovina, 3. Carinthia, 4. Carniola, 5. Dalmatia,
D 6. G
Galicia, 7. Küsttenland, 8.
Lower Austriia, 9. Moravia,, 10. Salzburg,, 11. Silesia, 1 2. Styria, 13. Tyrol, 14.
Upper Austriaa, 15. Vorarlberrg; Kingdom off Hungary (Trannsleithania): 16
6. Hungary
proper 17. C
Croatia-Slavoniaa; Austrian-Hun ngarian Condoominium: 18. Bosnia
B and
Herzegovina.
However, leet’s go back foor a moment tot the end of the 18th and beginning
b
th
of the 19 ccentury. It wass during this period
p that huuge changes to
ook place
in the Carpathian Basin, representing a rupture with the past. Conflicts

broke out in a multiethnic Hungary between Hungarians and other ethnic
groups as an outcome of the nation-building aspirations of Hungarian
liberal nationalism.
Germans
Hungarians
Czechs
Slovaks
Poles
Ukrainians
Slovenes
Croats, Serbs
Romanians
Italians
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Austria_Hungary_ethnic.svg.
Figure 1-2. The ethnic groups of Austria-Hungary in 1910. Based on “Distribution

of Races in Austria-Hungary” from the Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd,
Edit Rózsavölgyi 39
1911, File: Austria_hungary_1911.jpg. The names of cities were changed to those

in use since 1945.
Liberalism, which took to the stage in the 19th century, was accompanied
by the emergence of the modern doctrine of nationalism and the concept of
nation-state. We need to go back to the 1789 French Revolution to
understand the concepts of “nation” and “nationalism” in the modern
sense, which posited that every citizen of France belonged to the French
nation and were, hence, equal legal residents. This represented a major
shift from the medieval concept of natio, since it rejected the idea of a
class-based society and introduced the concept that equal access must be
ensured to political power for every member of the political unit. The
nation became the foremost political playing ground of modernity,
alongside the ideal of democracy and the concept of citizenship which
became inseparable from the former. The significance of nationalism is
embedded in the ideology that promotes the legitimisation of the modern
nation. One of the most acknowledged researchers in this field, György
Schöpflin, defined nationalism as
“[...] a modern doctrine, which is used to justify the nation in its modern
sense. It builds on the following main principles: the world is subdivided
into nations and nations only; every individual is a member of a nation and
one nation only; every nation has a unique past and future; in all
probability, every nation can be linked to a specific area, which in given
cases is symbolic.”4 (Schöpflin 2003: 10)
Therefore, the ideal of a bourgeois national state was born, which became
a model for the peoples of Central-Eastern Europe by the time they began
to evolve into civic nations. However, contrary to Western Europe, the
state developed in a different context in Central and Eastern Europe, which
can be attributable to the region’s deficient social structure. While, in the
West, there were signs of the formation of civil society and the entire
structure of social stratification (aristocracy, gentry, bourgeoisie, peasantry
and an evolving proletariat) at the end of the 18th century, only the nobility
and the peasantry, or even only the latter in some places, existed in the
eastern regions of Europe. Peoples living in this area did not have their
own state structure, since they lived in empires comprised of diverse
nationalities at various levels of subordination. The historically formed
political boundaries were not aligned to ethnic boundaries, nor did they
form a homogeneous unit from a linguistic perspective. The bourgeoisie
was weak because of their economic and social arrears.
National evolution in the Central-Eastern European region engendered
different changes to that of the classical French development path. Two
main avenues of development can be differentiated. One is represented by

ethnic groups with a broader social structure, having their own nobility
and a feudal past (Hungarians, Croatians, Poles), whilst the other is
characteristic of ethnic groups with lacking feudal social structure, not
having their own leading class and feudal history. In the latter case,
intellectuals played a key role in formulating national ideology and
fostering national culture. They created myths because of their political
shortcomings. They eagerly searched for true or assumed motifs in the past
and present that strengthened their sense of national self-awareness.
Research on the development of the consciousness of being a nation
among the peoples of Central-Eastern Europe and comparison of national
literatures dealing with this argument show that, at the beginning of the
19th century, the so-called national myths and legends had a strong
intellectual influence. One of the most powerful myths examined which
peoples were the first to occupy the Carpathian Basin and, consequently,
who had more right to rule over the others. In other words, the question
was who in the distant past had secured a dominating power in this region,
who had a more ancient and profound culture and, therefore, the right to
dominate. The Panslavic theory and the Daco-Romanian theory are
examples for this. To use Dobossy László’s (1993) words,
“I call intellectual constructs [...] that present and interpret a past situation,
state or event, by embedding it in the illusions and dreams of the present
disregarding the real circumstances of its formation, national myths [...]. In
other words, they fail to present historical facts, but are, instead, aligned to
present-day beliefs or possibly desires. The ultimate consequence of this is
that ethnic groups living side by side and often even interknitted are given
an ideology engendering suspicion, hatred and hostility.”5
These myths played an important role in Hungarian public opinion, too.

The tragic events that unfolded over the course of Hungarian history (the
Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1241 and the Turkish conquest during the
16th century), as a result of which the Hungarian population was
decimated, offered a backdrop for theories6 that shed doubt on the
Hungarians’ leading role as a nation in the Carpathian Basin, giving rise to
the fear that Hungarians were doomed to die out, unless they made a
monumental effort to avert this. This prevailing atmosphere of concern,
associated with the worry that “the nation is decaying,” led to an all-
embracing awareness of national identity: there could only be one type of
Hungarian, because this was the only way they could survive. This is why
assimilation offered by 19th century liberalism was characterised by “the
nation is one, Hungarians are united” (Rózsavölgyi 2003).
As demonstrated above, ethnicity did not represent a serious problem

before the modern era; assimilation was not on the agenda either, since the
form of governance and administrative structure the monarchy represented
was capable of controlling a mixed population in the given economic
context, which was acceptable for the various ethnic groups. However, the
different kind of state required greater consensus, which could be reached
through ethnicity. This is why the state strongly promoted assimilation.
The modern state needs to put in place a certain degree of ethnic
homogeneity, which can be realised with the help of the education system
(Schöpflin 2003). Therefore, animosity between Hungarians and non-
Hungarians ensues from the principle of the bourgeois state and the
organisation of the modern order of work.
Beyond the relative majority of the Hungarian population7, the way in
which, besides Germans, Hungarians were at a more advanced level in
terms of social development in relation to the rest of the ethnic groups, and
particularly because of how the nobility, the best organised power of the
Kingdom of Hungary in the era, was practically Hungarian (accounting for
80% of the natio) was what decided which ethnicity would become the
state-forming nation in the Carpathian Basin. Due to the lack of
bourgeoisie, this Hungarian nobility, more specifically, the Hungarian
liberal reform opposition launched the fight for civic transformation and
national independence against Hapsburg absolutism in the Carpathian
Basin region. It made sense to them that the Hungarian language should
consolidate the civic nation state within the boundaries of their historical
state.
The theory justifying the grounds of this aspiration was born in the
1840s, which, using modern terminology, we call “political nation.”
According to this concept, language alone is not a sufficient nation-
creating factor; only ethnic groups that had a continuous political élite
representing some kind of historical consciousness and a continuous link
with a state that had existed since the Middle Ages can aspire to become a
nation. In other words, only Hungarians and, within certain limits,
Croatians were entitled to claim a nation status in the Carpathian Basin.
Consequently, Croatian liberals were recognised by the Hungarians as a
nation, in the sense of a distinct nationality; however, the rest of the
nationalities lacking historical feudal social structures were not.
Politicians confronted serious contradictions on account of how many
different ethnic groups lived within the boundaries of the Hapsburg
Empire and in Hungary. If favouring one language (Hungarian, German)
over the rest, the right of the other ethnic groups to use their own mother
tongue would have been neglected. However, it would have been
impossible for the modern state to function if the idea of a unified state
idiom had been abandoned. With its complex institutions (railway, post,
etc.), the new bourgeois state of the 19th century demanded
monolingualism in the administration of a given region. At the same time,
while linguistic consolidation is in the interest of state administration,
fostering the native language benefits modern production, since the
expertise needed can be perfectly acquired in the mother tongue. A
dilemma arose as an outcome of the confrontation of the above interests:
How well should non-Hungarian ethnic groups learn to speak Hungarian?
What should the language of instruction be? From this point on, the nation
issue coupled with that of the language caused serious problems for every
Hungarian political trend.
This was the first time in Hungary when the question of language was
connected to human rights. At the beginning of the 19th century, the
Hungarian nobility was aware of the fact that the Hungarians could be the
leading nation within the boundaries of the state if Hungarian was
designated the region’s native language. From this point on, the mother
tongue served as proof of the national existence of a language community
(Rózsavölgyi 2012).
After the repression of the 1848-1849 Hungarian revolution and war of
independence, the Hapsburgs deprived Hungary of political power and
every legal form of expression of opinion. At the same time, they applied
the principle of divide et impera ‘rule and divide’ to combat the linguistic
separatism arising in several places, which reinforced ethnic animosity.
The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, which led to the creation of
the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, guaranteed political consolidation in the
Carpathian Basin up to the beginning of the 20th century. At the time, this
was the only realistic political solution for every nation in the region.
Hungary’s economy was booming. The peaceful era during the next five
decades promoted entrepreneurship and lured capital from the west. The
rapid pace of development and the strengthening of the economy
reinforced aspirations of national independence.
The Hungarian nation concept during the 1848 revolution and the
reform age was rather based on a certain type of “acceptance” and not on
force, although they undoubtedly counted on many people becoming
Hungarian as a result of the civic progress programme and being educated
in Hungarian. The 1848 revolution abolished feudal privileges and
liberated the villeinage by individually giving everyone new civic rights,
without distinction of nationality. The construction of the entire structure
of civic nations could get underway. However, beyond the rights of the
individual, the various national movements demanded collective
recognition, as well as territorial and political entitlements later on. Since

they were denied these, they set themselves against the new Hungarian
state with increasing vehemence and related to the Hapsburgs.
By the turn of the 20th century, Hungarian culture, economy and trade
were practically unimaginable without the contribution of the other ethnic
groups, especially Jews. The success of the Jewish people was frightening,
as was the thought that Jews would become Hungarians if things
continued this way. It was stated that Hungarian culture could not be learnt
and that the Hungarian ethnic group and Hungarian culture had to be
protected. So the process of integration, beside assimilation and
dissimilation, could not be articulated because the Hungarian awareness of
national identity did not accommodate this. To become integrative, it
would have to get rid of being driven by fear, after which it could be
acknowledged that there were many kinds of Hungarians and that this did
not mean that the nation was decaying (Rózsavölgyi 2003).
The Hungarian model of modernity failed in 1918, primarily because it
was unable to tackle the multi-ethnic nature of the state. The modern state
was incapable of assimilating the ethnic minorities as soon as they began
to gain awareness of their own identity.
The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was dissolved by the Treaty of
Trianon on June 4, 1920 as the conclusion of World War I. At that
moment, a truly multi-ethnic state ceased to exist, and its various parts
were divided among the newly-created nation states. As a consequence,
Hungary became a more or less homogeneous country both from ethnic
and religious perspectives; however, some 3.5 million Hungarians were
placed under the jurisdiction of foreign governments in a new
neighbouring state in the position of ethnic minority from one day to the
next (Figure 1-3).
The disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy led to the birth
of several nation states and created the opportunity for societies of
different ethnicity to provide multi-faceted native language education
aligned to civic labour training demands and to fulfil their national
aspirations. However, it dismantled the exchange system relying on the
complementary areas of labour, expertise and of the economy. In place of
the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, four independent states emerged,
namely, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Poland,
Romania and Italy took their share from the former territories of the
empire.
Hungary lost 67% of its territory and 60% of its population. Since
1920, according to the rearrangement of the Central European region,
Hungarians have been living in eight different states (Hungary, Slovakia,
Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Austria). About 30% of

Hungarians inhabiting the Carpathian Basin have established themselves
as a linguistic and ethnic minority and diaspora outside the borders of the
majority nation, under the threat of losing their identity due to various
forms of discrimination manifested at a social, economic and political
level (Kollár 2010).
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hungary#Linguistic_distribution.
Figure 1-3. The end of Austria-Hungary after the Trianon Treaty

Consequently, the boundaries of the linguistic and the political community

are not aligned in the case of the Hungarians even today. While, before
1920, approximately half of the population of the Kingdom of Hungary
claimed that Hungarian was not their mother tongue, later on,
approximately 1/3 of native Hungarians became foreign citizens residing
outside the borders of the Hungarian state. During the implementation of
the Paris peace treaties (1919-1920), the ethnic composition of the
Carpathian Basin was not taken account of to the extent it could have
been, which contributed to the outburst of World War II twenty years
down the road (Romsics 2000). The typical language problems of the
Hapsburg Empire and the Monarchy resurfaced in the new states;
however, no solution was found.
The situation became even more critical after World War II. In the
socialist countries, internationalism and monocultural homogeneity,
whether real or only apparent, were posited. In practice, this meant
nationalism and the disappearance of ethnic conflicts for 40 years.
Communism tried to disregard ethnicity and attempted to create a class-
based identity superior to the nation. Ethnic minorities were subjected to
hardship, which in turn strengthened distrust among ethnicities. Minorities
were afraid of assimilation, whilst the majority felt frustrated, hence
conserving the traditional intrinsic fear associated with the survival of the
group, which is typical of eastern European ethnic groups in the modern
era.
Multicultural Perspectives
Hungarian foreign policy and geopolitical projection are based on three
main commitments made after the political changes of 1989: (a) European
integration; (b) cooperation with neighbouring countries; (c) safeguarding
the interests of Hungarian minorities beyond Hungarian political borders.
The Hungarian nation exists as a linguistic and cultural community of
which Hungarians living beyond its borders are an integral part (Article D
of the Basic Law).
The education system also needs to respond to multi-ethnicity. As we
mentioned above, education plays a key role in society: school reflects
society and incorporates the impacts of economic, political and social
changes, whilst governments use it, or may use it, as a means of
actualizing their policies. The global phenomenon of multiculturalism has,
over recent years, perceivably influenced education in Hungary.
Multiculturalism and its ensuing education have a different meaning
for the countries of Western Europe and those of Central and Eastern
Europe. While, in the West, the task focuses on the issue of resolving the
integration of migrant labourers in society and the field of instruction, the
challenge in the East primarily relates to educating their own minorities,
fostering their traditions and language and only focuses on processes
facilitating the integration of immigrants to a lesser degree, since there are
far fewer of them in these countries. This strongly correlates to the
geopolitical context that has evolved in this region over the course of
history, namely, the way in which the destiny of ethnic groups living in
this area has always been closely interconnected with the fate of other
ethnicities. National identity is historically determined in Central-Eastern
Europe, contrary to regionalism characteristic of the West. While, in
Western Europe, minority education focuses on fostering the language and
traditions, the main goal in Central Europe relates to preserving and
strengthening national identity.
In Hungary, minority legislation introduced after the political changes
of 1989 began to approach European standards. Today, legislation
pertaining to minority education conforms to EU-level regulations.
However, in the context of routine daily practice, basic rights are
sometimes abused, most frequently, the ban on negative discrimination,
which has been a basic constitutional right in Hungary ever since 1989
(Section 2 of Article XIV of the Basic Law of Hungary).
In Hungary, multicultural education takes account of different
demands, plural values formulated in a diverse society incorporating a
range of cultures. In the narrower sense, this refers to issues associated
with the situation and schooling of ethnic minorities. They can be grouped
into the following three distinct categories:
- Autochthonous, historical minorities;

- Hungarian minorities across the border;
- Non-Hungarian refugees and migrants residing (temporarily) in
Hungary.
Autochthonous, Historical Minorities

Act LXXVII of 1993 regulates the rights of national and ethnic minorities
(http://www.nek.gov.hu/data/files/156899249.pdf). Ministry of Education
and Culture Decree 32/1997 (XI.5) sets forth the detailed series of
directives concerning the principles of national and ethnic minority
education. Point b) of the first paragraph of Article 48 of the Public
Education Act also focuses on instruction of ethnic groups.
In accordance with the first paragraph of Article 61 of Act LXXVII on

the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities, the following groups qualify
as autochthonous historical minorities of Hungary: Bulgarian, Gypsy,
Greek, Croatian, Polish, German, Armenian, Romanian, Ruthenian,
Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian and Ukrainian. The expressions nemzeti
kisebbség ‘national minority’ and etnikai kisebbség ‘ethnic minority’ are
used as synonyms in the texts of legislation, whilst usually Gypsies are
referred to as an ethnic group colloquially and in political dialogue and the
rest are denoted as national minorities based on how the former have no
motherland, whilst the latter do.
Based on the data of the census of 2001, 4.34% of the population of
Hungary belongs to one of the national and ethnic minorities listed in the
Act. Only the German (1.18%) and the Roma (2.02%) exceed the 1%
threshold (Tóth-Vékás 2001).
The Roma population has a special status among the minorities. Based
on research, their estimated number is 500,000-600,000 of the 10 million
of inhabitants in Hungary. Their fate is intertwined with poverty, social
exclusion, prejudice and problems manifested in the domain of education
and employment.
Ban on discrimination constitutes one of the basic principles of
minority policy, more specifically education (Point 2 of Article XIV of the
Basic Law of Hungary). Intolerance at school affects the Roma minority,
which is why, over the past few years, the Government has taken measures
and amended legislation to attempt to avoid the negative discrimination of
them.
Historical minorities in Hungary have the right to organise ethnic
schools, classes and student groups, hence ensuring native language
education from preschool through high school to higher education.
However, the lack of teachers and financing prevents the attainment of
these goals (Imre 2009).
Positive discrimination is realised by supporting minority education
institutions.
The problems, needs of minority groups were neglected during the
socialist era. They were either educated together with the majority within a
context of full integration or were segregated and placed in special
classes/schools at the periphery of society. The political changes induced
shifts, drew attention to different needs and recognised that the integration
of linguistic and ethnic minorities was in the interest of the majority
society, too. Today, the concept of multiculturalism has been incorporated
in basic teachers’ training. Annex 4 of Ministry of Education Decree
15/2006 (IV.3) on Teacher Training prescribes that the teacher must be

capable of representing multiculturalism oriented educational practice.
Calls for applications announced within the framework of the National
Development Plan promoted the dissemination of the concept of
multiculturalism. Numerous good practices have since evolved in the field
of multicultural education (Torgyik 2009).
At the same time, there is still much work to be done in respect of the
cultural heritage, language and identity of ethnic or national minorities
living in the country to satisfy human rights commitments assumed by
Hungary within the framework of universal, regional and bilateral
agreements. The most pertinent problem is the absence of a stable, clearly
structured implementation system. Requirements set out in international
and bilateral commitments are not adjusted to national legislation on
minority rights in respect of public administration competences. Therefore,
for example, bilateral minority protection memorandums of understanding
concluded with Ukraine, Croatia, Slovakia, Serbia-Montenegro, Romania
and Slovenia have only partially been implemented and the Ombudsman
for Minority Rights had to intervene by putting forth several proposals.
Themes pertaining to education are continuously on the agenda. Most
recommendations put forth are geared towards improving the quality of
minority education, expanding the scope of bilingual and native language
instruction, creating the professional conditions required for this (native
language trainers, teaching material and textbooks) and ensuring financing
for national minority education institutions catering for a limited number
of students, with special regard to the stable functioning of bilingual and
native language schools.
The report issued in 2010 by the Parliamentary Commissioner for
National and Ethnic Minority Rights on the assessment of the enforcement
of minority cultural rights (http://www.kisebbsegiombudsman.hu/data
/files/165788766.pdf) summarised shortcomings and put forth numerous
recommendations, which, however, the Minister responsible for social
policy did not accept in his response issued on 30 April 2010 (Tóth 2011).
Hungarian Minorities across the Border

Demographic research commissioned in 2003 by the Government Office
for Hungarian Minorities Abroad assessed the ethno-demographic status of
the Hungarian population in the entire Carpathian Basin based on census
data gathered in 2001-2002 (Gyurgyík 2005). We present the data
regarding the Hungarian population in the Carpathian Basin in the
following two tables broken down according to historical Hungarian
regions (Table 1-1) and countries indicating the political affiliation of

these regions (Table 1-2).
Table 1-1. Hungarian population in the Carpathian Basin per region
Country Hungarian population

(N) (%)
Slovakia 520,528 9.7
Subcarpathia 151,516 12.1
Transylvania 1,415,718 19.6
Voivodina 290,207 14.3
Croatia 16,595 0.4
Mura region 5,212 41.0
Burgenland 6,641 2.4
Total 2,406,417 11.7
Table 1-2. Hungarian population in the Carpathian Basin per country
Country Hungarian population

(N) (%)
Slovakia 520,528 9.7
Ukraine 156,600 0.3
Romania 1,431,807 6.6
Serbia 293,299 3.9
Croatia 16,595 0.4
Slovenia 6,243 0.3
Austria 40,583 0.5
Total 2,465,655 2.5
The ratio of the Hungarian population in the Carpathian Basin beyond the
borders of Hungary is declining. In overall terms, the population of
Hungarian communities in regions inhabited by Hungarians annexed from
the motherland in 1920 has decreased from 16.3% to 14.9% over the past
20 years.
The ethnocratic minority policies of the neighbouring countries
profoundly transformed the ethnic structure of the Carpathian Basin. The
Hungarian ethnic character has been preserved beyond the Hungarian
political border in Csallóköz (Žitný ostrov) and Mátyusföld (Matušova
zem) in Slovakia; Beregszász District (Berehove) in Transcarpathia; the
border region of Bihar (Bihor) and Szatmár (Satu Mare) counties in
Romania; Székelyföld (Secuimea) situated far away from the Hungarian
border in Transylvania (Romania); some northern and other districts by the

Theiss in Voivodina. The majority of the Hungarian minority population
now lives in the diaspora, which is a clear threat to their ethnic identity
and culture.
They struggle with severe handicaps in relation to the majority nations,
especially in the field of tertiary education. They are in an increasingly
worse position, and the system of education of Hungarian minorities in the
Carpathian Basin will be less and less capable of offering modern
alternatives to young people (Kollár 2010).
In accordance with Article D of the Basic Law of Hungary,
“Motivated by the ideal of a unified Hungarian nation, Hungary shall bear

a sense of responsibility for the destiny of Hungarians living outside her
borders, shall promote their survival and development, and will continue to
support their efforts to preserve their Hungarian culture, and foster their
cooperation with each other and Hungary.”8
(http://www.kormany.hu/download/0/d9/30000/Alapt%C3%B6rv%C3%A
9ny.pdf)
Caring for Hungarians with foreign citizenship could begin after the
political changes of 1989. Act LXII of 2001 on Hungarians Living in
Neighbouring Countries and connecting decrees lay down the legal
framework for this. Two modes of promoting the education of Hungarians
across the borders have evolved, namely: (a) they are entitled to study in
Hungary and (b) Hungary supports schooling in Hungarian language in the
neighbouring countries. In both cases, the intention of the Hungarian
Government relates to strengthening the position of Hungarian
intellectuals living beyond its borders in the countries of which they are
citizens without encouraging their long-term migration to Hungary (Fleck
2004). Comprehensive assessments on results have not been compiled to
date.
Non-Hungarian Refugees and Migrants Residing

(Temporarily) in Hungary
Migration to Hungary represented a new challenge for the Hungarian
education system, since relevant experiences did not exist in this regard.
Lack of professional expertise and financial problems reinforce
intolerance, which is why it may occur that migrant children are exposed
to similar discrimination to which Roma people are subjected. At the same
time, we also have the opportunity to witness numerous good practices,
which are primarily called to life by civil society organizations and
associations. Regular cooperation with the non-profit sphere on behalf of

the Government is still not in place; however, progress has been made in
this area as well.
Act XXXIX of 2001 and connecting decrees regulate the right of entry
and stay of foreigners, as well as the placement, allocation of migrants
approved refugee status. The public education act rules their instruction.
From January 1, 2002, schools must enrol every migrant child residing in
Hungary.
Hungary is fundamentally a transit country, and the high rate of
fluctuation causes difficulties for educational institutions. Problems arising
in connection with migrant schooling can be deduced to the following
three reasons: (a) the institutions admitting migrant children are not aware
of relevant legislation; (b) the teachers lack the professional expertise to
educate non-native students; (c) socio-cultural differences between
Hungarians and migrants.
The concise overview of minority education sheds light on how some
of the numerous problems arising exist independent of the minority status
and ensue from difficulties hampering Hungarian public education (such
as financial obstacles, teachers being overloaded, the high number of
students in a class, lack of equipment) and are only in part minority-
specific.
The way in which the legislative framework has been put in place
represents major progress in our opinion; however, there is still much
work to be done in regard to transposing this into practice, as well as in the
area of encouraging acceptance on behalf of the general public. A new
approach, attitude needs to be introduced in society as a whole, which,
instead of emphasizing otherness, shifts the focus to what can be learned
from one another and how different cultures can complement one another.
Serious legal abuses also occur, primarily to the disadvantage of the
Roma minority; however, migrant children are also targeted.
As regards historical minorities, there is little room for movement for
making progress in respect of the enforcement of minority rights.
Non-governmental organizations have neither been integrated in the
decision-making process regarding minorities relating to education and
other areas, nor in the implementation of the commitments, although major
steps have been taken in this regard over recent years.
At present, minority rights have become increasingly prioritised in
many regards in society, taking into due consideration the complex nature
of the composition of the population.
Conclusion
The demand for the acceptance of multiculturalism is growing in the
Carpathian Basin in the 21st century, which is coupled by the number of
rights guaranteed for minorities. However, their declining population
reduces their power to enforce their interests and maintain their
institutional system, which poses the threat of slow assimilation.
Fears associated with the uncertainty of survival agonise every Central
and Eastern European nation. They see a threat of their existence in their
neighbours. The past appears sinister and the future potentially dark. This
is why preserving and strengthening their ethnic identity is what is most
important to them, which they try to attain by protecting their language.
Protecting the language is the foremost obligation of every member of the
cultural community and is more important than anything else. It is more
important than human rights, democracy, the constitution or international
treaties, since the language is the only tangible symbol of belonging
somewhere offering some sort of security. During the course of its
political activities, every community relies on its identity; however, this
reference point is hidden under a civic mask. Language plays a pivotal role
in the reproduction of hidden and camouflaged civic ethnic norms.
Language carries cultural and political meta-messages.
Every major European model of identity policy relied on the hegemony
of the largest ethnic component within the state, which forced its own
model on everyone else. The adaptation of this model in Central and
Eastern Europe had tragic consequences for several reasons. Neither of the
dominant ethnic groups demographically outnumbered the others, nor did
they have an efficient state that could have successfully offered civic
status in exchange for assimilation.
The development of Central Europe differs from the model known in
the West. Imported transformation initiatives propelling modernization
gained ground in this region from the 16th century, which were basically
responses to needs that arose elsewhere. This sort of subordination to an
external political or cultural power is what is characteristic of the countries
of the Carpathian Basin and which develops reactions coupled with
dependence and self-pity. It is, by no means, simple or pleasant for a group
of people to attempt to determine themselves from this weak position.
They attempted to grasp cultural power, seeing they were in a weak
position to gain control of political power. This is what came to form the
basis of the ethnic determination of their nation, the Central European
response to the challenges of the French Revolution.
Major positive changes can nevertheless be observed over the past few
years in the domain of inter-ethnic relations. Ethnic groups in a hegemonic
status (Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovenia) are willing to offer
concessions to groups speaking other languages which, however does not
mean that those in a minority position are offered the opportunity to reach
civic status, which remains the exclusive privilege of the dominant groups.
“Judging 10 years of postcommunist inter-ethnic relations necessarily

depends on what we choose as a criterion of success. If stability is
designated as this criterion, which can be measured on the grounds of the
absence of aggression and decrease in tension, then, besides Yugoslavia,
the results are good. However, if we apply a more complex, sophisticated
criterion and also include the full attainment of civic status in the
assessment, the picture is not as favourable. However, the West is just as
responsible for these shortfalls as the postcommunist countries are, since
the West stubbornly refused to understand the nature of multi-ethnicity and
mixed it up with multiculturalism. According to the more rigorous
criterion, this problem will only be resolved in the long run if Central and
South-Eastern Europe creates its own modernity model and finds the
means to integrate every ethnic group in the structures of democracy”9
(Schöpflin 2003: 158-159).
Notes
1. ‘A country with a single language and set of customs is weak and fallible…’
Admonitiones is the first book of the work Corpus Juris Hungarici published
in 1207 and is also included in several medieval codexes. The following is
considered its most authentic modern publication: Imre Szentpétery, 1938:
Scriptores Rerum Hungaricarum II. Budapest, 619-627.
2. “Közép- és Kelet-Európa nemzeti-nemzetiségi szempontból ma egy olyan
aláaknázott területhez hasonlítható, ahol az egyik akna felrobbanása
előidézheti a másik robbanását, s legrosszabb esetben az egész térség lángba
borulhat.”
3. 12 million Germans (24%), 10 million Hungarians (20%), 6.5 million Czechs
(13%), 5 million Poles (10%), 4 million Ruthenians (8%), 3.2 million
Romanians (6%), 7 million Yugoslavs (of which 5% Croatian, 4% Serb and
2% Slovenian), 2 million Slovaks (4%), 500,000-1,000,000 Bosnians (1-2%),
0.7 million Italians (1.5%) (Romsics 2005: 304).
4. “…olyan modern doktrína, melyet a – modern értelemben használt – nemzet
igazolására használnak. Legfőbb alaptételei a következők: a világ nemzetekre,
és csakis nemzetekre oszlik; minden egyén egy nemzet tagja, és csakis egy
nemzet tagja; minden nemzet egy csakis rá jellemző múlttal és jövővel
rendelkezik; valamint, minden valószínűség szerint, minden nemzet egy
bizonyos – adott esetben szimbolikus – területhez kapcsolható.”
5. “[…] nemzeti mítosznak, […] azt a szellemi konstrukciót nevezem, amely egy
múltbeli helyzetet, állapotot, eseményt úgy mutat be, s olyként értelmez, hogy
a keletkezés valódi körülményeivel mit sem törődve a jelen ábrándjainak és
álmainak ködébe burkolja... Vagyis: nem a múlt tényeit, hanem a jelen
hiedelmeit, esetleg kívánalmait követi. Ennek pedig nem lehet más
következménye, csak az, hogy az egymás mellett, sőt gyakran egymásba
fonódottan élő népekben ideológiai tápot kap a gyanakvás, a gyűlölet, az
ellenségeskedés.”
6. For example, in a historical-philosophical treatise of great importance, Ideen
zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (‘Ideas for the Philosophy of
the History of Mankind’), between 1784-1791, Johann Gottfried von Herder
writes about the Hungarians as follows: “In some centuries, it will not even be
possible to discover the language of the Hungarians so few in number and
wedged in among other peoples” (Dobossy 1993).
7. Although the Hungarian ethnic group was the relatively largest one in a
country comprised of many nationalities, it (including Croatia and
Transylvania) only represented 40% of the overall population (approximately 6
million of the total population of 14 million). Consequently, the Hungarians
were effectively in minority in the civic nation in which every citizen of the
country was a member with equal rights.
8. “Magyarország az egységes magyar nemzet összetartozását szem előtt tartva
felelősséget visel a határain kívül élő magyarok sorsáért, elősegíti közösségeik
fennmaradását és fejlődését, támogatja magyarságuk megőrzésére irányuló
törekvéseiket, egyéni és közösségi jogaik érvényesítését, közösségi
önkormányzataik létrehozását, a szülőföldön való boldogulásukat, valamint
előmozdítja együttműködésüket egymással és Magyarországgal.”
9. “A posztkommunista etnikumközi viszonyok tíz évének megítélése
szükségképpen függ attól, hogy mit választunk a siker kritériumának. Ha a
kritérium a stabilitás, amelyet az erőszak hiányában és a feszültségek
csökkenésében mérhetünk, akkor a mérleg Jugoszláviát leszámítva nem rossz.
Ha azonban igényesebb kritériumot alkalmazunk, és a megítélésbe bevonjuk a
közpolgáriság teljes elérését, akkor már kedvezőtlenebb a kép. Ám ezekért a
hiányosságokért ugyanannyira felelősség terheli a Nyugatot, mint a
posztkommunista országokat, minthogy a Nyugat makacsul félreértette a
multietnicitás természetét, és összekeverte azt a multikulturalizmussal.
Hosszabb távon a problémát a szigorúbb kritérium szerint csak az fogja
orvosolni, ha Közép- és Délkelet-Európa kialakítja saját modernitásmintáját, és
megtalálja a módját, hogyan integrálja az összes etnikai csoportot a
demokrácia struktúráiba.”
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the Consciousness of Nationality]. INFO-Társadalomtudomány 25
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nemzetiséginyelv-oktatásra [How the Expansion of Foreign Language
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[Good Practices in the Field of Multicultural Education]. In E. Kállai
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Hungary in the Light of International Commitments].
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vilmos-5.
MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION
IN THE ANCIENT WORLD:
DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY
IN THE FIRST CONTACTS
BETWEEN GREEKS AND EGYPTIANS
NICOLA REGGIANI
Introduction
When keeping to the research of new strategies aiming at a multicultural
education capable to fit contemporary needs1, it is useful to analyze
examples from Mediterranean Antiquity that can be compared to current
problems and offer a challenging key to interpretation and comparison2. A
diachronic perspective is indeed helpful in better understanding the
dynamics of cultural phenomena, and past civilizations assume an
exemplary value which is often enriched by the chance of observing the
results of dynamics that can be compared to modern trends.
This paper aims at presenting a particular case related to one of the
ancient world’s most multicultural countries, Egypt, and discussing it as a
source of issues about education and integration between different
languages and cultures. The topic of (multicultural) education in ancient
Egypt, especially in the Greco-roman period, is well studied3, but the case
presented here seems to have many points of contacts with a modern
situation (an educational programme managed by the United States just
before the Second World War) and, therefore, it will be fascinating to
compare the two events in order to stress similarities and differences, and
to discuss possible scenarios for a decidedly “multicultural” education.
58 Multicultural Education in the Ancient World: Greeks and Egyptians
The Ancient Case: Psammetichus I and the Greek

Mercenaries
Ancient Egypt used to have a specific vocation for multicultural
encounters: its linguistic experience too arose from a concrete demand of
relationships with different people4, such as Greeks. It seems that the first
Greeks came to Egypt seeking a fortune as merchants and/or mercenaries5,
in the first half of the 7th century BC, in an early stage of the reign (664-
610 BC) of Psammetichus I, founder of the so-called XXVI Dynasty (664-
525 BC)6. From the end of Assyrian domination up to that time, Egypt was
divided into different reigns, but Psammetichus managed to conquer and,
therefore, to unify the country again, taking advantage of the efficient
military techniques of the new “immigrants”7.
He decided to reward the Greeks for having helped him and, among
various grants (such as stable settlements in the Egyptian chōra),
according to Herodotus (II 154, 2), he decided to send some Egyptian
children to the Greeks so that the former could learn the latter’s language
and, later on, become the interpreters between the two people:
“To Ionians and Carians, who had helped him, Psammetichos gave plots of
lands on which they could settle; the plots were separated by the Nile, and
he named these properties ‘The Camps’. In addition, he gave them all the
other rewards he had ever promised to them. Moreover, he entrusted
Egyptian children to them to be taught the Greek language, and it is from
these Egyptians who thus learned the [Greek] language that the present-
day interpreters in Egypt are descended.” (Herodotus II 154, 1-2)8
Psammetichus’ position is rather unusual, considering the general cultural

closure of ancient Egypt (which we can still find in later time, in the clear
controversy against the inadequacy and ineffectiveness of Greek language
as a mean for translating Egyptian texts (Assmann 2001: 465-466). Indeed,
he seems to subvert the traditional Egyptian behaviour towards strangers,
whose languages were known and tolerated (and sometimes used for
international diplomacy), but assimilated into the local frame9; in
particular, it is worth noting that, during pharaonic times, foreign children
(almost from Nubia) called hrdw n k3p (‘the children of the [royal]
nursery’) were brought up at the royal palace so that they could learn
Egyptian and
“[…] as Egyptized people, they go back to the countries in which they will
exercise their authority: in one word, Egyptians prepare homoglot
Nicola Reggiani 59
interlocutors within the same circle to which they officially correspond in a

foreign language.” (Donadoni 1980: 8)
Furthermore, stranger mercenaries (and prisoners) were forced to forget

their own languages and to learn Egyptian, as it is reported on a stela of
the age of Ramses III:
“Once they were brought back to Egypt, they were put into a fortress…
They heard the Egyptian speech (mdw.t) while accompanying the king; he
let their speech be dropped; he reversed their tongues.” (Borghouts 2000:
11-12, revised against the Italian translation by Donadoni 1980: 8)
Therefore, Psammetichus can be considered as a sort of forerunner of later

times, when Egyptians – now governed by a Greek-speaking and Greek-
thinking ruling class – would be forced to learn the “others’ language” in
order to communicate (Clarysse 1993 and, in general on Greek education,
Cribiore 2001), while Greeks learning Egyptian were exceedingly rare,
mostly urged by economical matters10; in other words, it was
“[…] an event of great significance, since it was the starting point of

Greek-Egyptian bilingualism, which will be one of the most interesting
topics after Alexander the Great’s conquest of Egypt and the establishment
of a ruling class of Greek language and culture, whose linguistic and
cultural interaction with the Egyptian one is a very studied but not still
completely solved problem of the Hellenistic and Roman ages.” (Pernigotti
1999: 30)
What makes the episode of Psammetichus so singular, even – in a sense –

a milestone in the history of multicultural education is the voluntariness of
the decision?
“The settlement of the Greeks in Egypt was clearly depending on a

strategic plan by Psammetichus I, as it is shown by the fact that the
Egyptian king also made sure to train a group of interpreters in order to
make connections between the newcomers and the Egyptians easier.”
(Pernigotti 1999: 29)
The Egyptians were not urged by contingent needs; it was a deliberate

choice by the Pharaoh, who (fore)saw the importance of knowing the
“immigrants’ language” in order to establish profitable relationships with
them (this can be clearly argued from Diodorus of Sicily, who states that,
from then on, Psammetichus used to rely on the Greeks for government
issues and to maintain a large number of mercenary troops (Diodorus of
Sicily I 67, 1-211). Of course, he could not foresee that Greeks would
become the new rulers of Egypt, yet his choice is surprising, meant to
learn the foreign language rather than teach his own – which was, at that
time, the dominant one.
Education can mean either a form of (social / cultural) command12 or a
form of integration13; the latter potential would never be exploited in
Greco-roman Egypt14, while the “openness” of earlier times was clearly a
means, not for integration but social, political, cultural and linguistic
domination. Psammetichus’ choice appears quite clear: he aimed at both
(a) controlling a useful but also threatening group of powerful
“immigrants” by means of the knowledge of their language (the
understanding of what they said), and (b) saving the traditional closure of
Egyptian language (and culture), meanwhile preserving its power and
strength. In fact, while the influence of Greek would be always strong
during the history of Egypt, the original Egyptian cultural tradition,
constantly withstanding adaptations and contaminations, apart from
apparent syncretism (Kanazawa 1989), kept itself powerful and
independent (but only culture did so).
Therefore, a seeming act of intercultural integration through education
(learning the “others’ language”) was, in fact, an act of supremacy and – in
a manner of speaking – “nationalism,” rapidly overthrown by succeeding
events. Let us turn now to the modern side of the question, analyzing
another unique example of “multicultural education” which may be
studied in parallel with the ancient case.
The Modern Case: The U.S. Army Specialised Training

Program in Foreign Languages
In order to operate in the outcoming Second World War, the United States
Government decided to start a programme of intensive language training
since, in that country, the period between the two wars had been
characterized by cultural and linguistic isolationism. The so-called Army
Specialised Training Program (ASTP) in Foreign Languages (or Foreign
Area and Language Program – FALP) (Nugent 2007: 12ff.) was
established in December 1942 as a part of a more general project (Civil
Affairs Training School – CATS) aiming at ensuring technical and
professional skills for men involved in the prosecution of the war:
“[...] [d]uring W[orld ]W[ar] II, the US Army did not seek knowledge
about global processes that threatened to stir up potentially dangerous
peoples living along the external frontiers and the internal lines of fracture
Nicola Reggiani 61
of an expanding capitalist order. Instead, the military was in need of a

single, overarching conceptual framework that would facilitate direct
territorial administration of diverse peoples living in scattered, war-torn
areas. [...] The military sought a form of knowledge that would assist in its
efforts to govern these areas – that would allow its soldier administrators to
know the territories for which they would be responsible before they
actually began governing them, and that would make it possible for these
soldier-administrators to deepen their understanding as they governed. In
other words, military planners sought of a form of knowledge that would
equip soldiers with conceptual armature they could use to effect the day-
to-day administration of occupied territories (Europe, Africa, Asia, and the
Pacific).” (Nugent 2007: 7)
The primary aim of the experimental project was “to develop in trainees ‘a
command of the colloquial spoken form of the language’” (Velleman
2008: 388):
“[...] [t]his command includes the ability to speak the language fluently,
accurately, and with an acceptable approximation to a native
pronunciation. It also implies that the student will have a practically
perfect auditory comprehension of the language as spoken by natives.”
(Agard et al. 1944, in Velleman 2008: 388)
Such languages were mainly less-commonly taught idioms like Arabic,

Bengali, Burmese, Chinese, Finnish, Greek, Hindi, Japanese, Malay,
Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Swedish, and Turkish, but also Italian, Spanish,
French (Velleman 2008: 387ff.). The great importance given to speaking
abilities led to combine, in the teaching practice, a “linguist scientist” and
a “native-speaking ‘guide’”15, a method that was very criticized by
academics because, while “[t]he former lacked the pedagogical knowledge
of the skilled language teacher [...] the latter was not a member of the
profession, frequently misunderstood his or her role, and in many cases
was an ‘illiterate’ layperson.” (ibidem: 393ff.)
Some Concluding Reflections

The ASPT lasted for only one year, and was officially closed in February
1944, chiefly because of the lack of men in field operations: “the ASTP
served no need recognized as immediate by most elements in the Army.”
(Palmer 2003, in Velleman 2008: 402) We do not know how long
Psammetichus’ experiment did last but, apart from evident differences16,
we are entitled to draw attention to some interesting similarities between
the two episodes.
In both cases, in a context of cultural and linguistic closure and the

urge of military needs – basically for the control of stranger populations17,
they established a language educational experiment that was centred on the
learning of the “others’ language,” by means of the employment of “native
speakers,” rather than of foreign “scouts” in field operations, as used to
happen in ancient pharaonic times, when people called ı̉’3w.w
“interpreters” or “foreigners” are attested, probably
“Egyptianized foreigners who were used not only as interpreters but as

scouts, spies, agents, couriers and foremen or mercenaries.” (Fischer 1964,
in Donadoni 1980: 4)18
Linguistic experimentation was not new to Psammetichus19, who was

credited with having tried to discover the primordial language by isolating
newborn children (Sułek 1989); his further endeavour has some points in
common with the theories of Leonard Bloomfield, one of the founders of
American structural linguistics and one of the inspirers of the ASTP:
“‘Listening and speaking go first’ is the essence of [Bloomfield’s]

language teaching theories, which is embodied in the following two
aspects: on the one hand, the first aspect of the teaching ideas is informant,
on the other hand, it is overlearning. The former is also called native
speaker, because Bloomfield considered that the language learners should
get a great number of opportunities to listen and imitate speech from native
speakers as possible as they can and then should obtain the nearly standard
and native pronunciations and speech. When the language learners imitate
the speech of native speakers, native people could check immediately
whether the language learners’ pronunciations reach the standard and
native level, at least those could be accepted by natives. Native speakers
must correct suddenly their pronunciations if the learners’ pronunciation
does not up to the standard. The latter is also called over practice;
Bloomfield considered that learning a language is not only to learn
language knowledge, but also to practice the language.” (A Survey on
Bloomfield’s Structural Linguistics in Foreign Language Instruction.
Online: http://www.p-papers.com/tag/astp)
The comparison between the ancient linguistic learning experiment and

the modern one leads us to some interesting remarks. In both cases, the
context is a long period in which what we can call “linguistic education”
was devoted to teaching the “dominant” language (Egyptian and American
English) to people speaking different idioms but living in the “dominant”
speakers’ country; this corresponds, in both cases, to a linguistic (and
cultural, generally speaking) isolationism. Specific (military) needs led to
Nicola Reggiani 63
a significant shift in “educational” methods, causing the experimentation

of a new model based on learning the “others’ languages.” U.S. ASPT was
limited in time and purposes, but we can take Psammetichus’ project as a
litmus paper to analyze the aftermath of such a learning model. Greeks
became the new rulers of Egypt: probably we will never know how much
the creation and isolation of Greek specific settlements, not assimilated
into Egyptian social tissue, affected later Greek entrance in the country,
but the risk of creating isolated, non-integrated groups is clear and real20.
On the other hand, even an educational policy aiming at teaching the
“dominant” language is destined to create a “vertical assimilation,” and by
no means a true integration.
The results of this enquiry are evident: an educational model based on
the learning of the “others’ language” is methodologically and
conceptually limited (so much that the ASPT programme had a very short
life and many criticisms), but nevertheless it can help to think about the
possible scenarios of integrations, since a possible combination of both
moments (teaching and learning) seems to be a positive answer for the
question of a truly “multicultural” education.
Notes
1. For a general introduction to multicultural education development and issues
see Banks: “A major goal of multicultural education, as stated by specialists in
the field, is to reform the school and other educational institutions so that
students from diverse racial, ethnic, and social-class groups will experience
educational equality. […] Multicultural education theorists are increasingly
interested in how the interaction of race, class, and gender influences education
[…]. However, the emphasis that different theorists give to each of these
variables varies considerably.” (Banks 1993: 3-4)
2. For a very general overview about antiquity as a key to interpret modern
linguistic issues see Reggiani (2012).
3. Cribiore (2001: 15ff.) and Thompson (2007), with further bibliography.
4. Donadoni (1980: 3); for multilingualism in ancient Egypt see Bernini &
Reggiani (2011: 50ff.), with further references. A recent volume on this subject
is Papaconstantinou (2010).
5. Bettalli (1995: 54ff.), Assmann (2001: 405-406), Caporali (2012: 120-126).
For this phenomenon in the more general area of Eastern Mediterranean, see
Luraghi (2006); in general, for Egypt, see Laronde (1995). It is not relevant
here whether the Greek mercenaries were sent to Egypt by king Gyges of
Lydia with the geopolitical aim of weakening Persian domination (Braun 1982:
36-37, Bettalli 1995: 58-59, Pernigotti 1999: 26-27, Caporali 2012: 117-118)
or not.
6. See Pernigotti (1999: 21-24). It was not the very first time that Egypt came in
contact with Greek people since we have evidence of contacts as far as from
the Bronze Age, but from the 7th century such contacts became much less
transient, marking the beginning of a long-term (and closer and closer)
relationship between the two people (Braun 1982: 32-35). On Psammetichus I,
see Lloyd (1982).
7. The Herodotean tale about the prophecy speaking of the “bronze men
appearing from the sea” who would help the king to defeat his enemies is well-
known: and when “some Ionians and Carians who had sailed out for plunder
were driven off course to Egypt and forced to land there […], they put on
bronze body armour, so that an Egyptian who had never seen men armed in
bronze delivered a message to Psammetich[u]s […] that bronze men had come
from the sea.” (Herodotus II 152, 3-4; transl. by A. L. Purvis, from Strassler
2009: 189). It was thanks to their hoplitic bronze armours and tactics that the
Greeks managed to help the king in such an effective way (Braun 1982: 35-36,
James 1991: 708ff., Bettalli 1995: 53-73, Pernigotti 1999: 21ff., Caporali
2012: 116-120 with reference to different traditions about the arrival of the
Greeks in Egypt).
8. Τοῖϲι δὲ Ἴωϲι καὶ τοῖϲι Καρϲὶ τοῖϲι ϲυγκατεργαϲαμένοιϲι αὐτῷ ὁ Ψαμμήτιχοϲ
διδοῖ χώρουϲ ἐνοικῆϲαι ἀντίουϲ ἀλλήλων, τοῦ Νείλου τὸ μέϲον ἔχοντοϲ, τοῖϲι
οὐνόματα ἐτέθη ϲτρατόπεδα. Τούτουϲ τε δή ϲφι τοὺϲ χώρουϲ διδοῖ καὶ τἆλλα
τὰ ὑπέϲχετο πάντα ἀπέδωκε. Καὶ δὴ καὶ παῖδαϲ παρέβαλε αὐτοῖϲι Αἰγυπτίουϲ
τὴν Ἑλλάδα γλῶϲϲαν ἐκδιδάϲκεϲθαι· ἀπὸ δὲ τούτων ἐκμαθόντων τὴν γλῶϲϲαν
οἱ νῦν ἑρμηνέεϲ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ γεγόναϲι (Herodotus II 154, 1-2). The passage is
cited, but not much commented, in the main reference works about Herodotus
(Lloyd 1993: 137, Murray & Moreno 2007: 355, Donadoni 1980: 1, Caporali
2012: 45-46).
9. “[L]’ideale politico è quello dell’assimilazione” [“the political ideal is that of
assimilation”] (Donadoni 1980: 9, and passim for more references).
10. A letter written on papyrus by a mother to his son in the 2nd century BC clearly
shows how studying Egyptian language was, for a Greek, a purely economic
matter: πυνθανομένη μανθά|νειν ϲε Αἰγύπτια | γράμματα ϲυνεχάρην ϲοι | καὶ
ἐμαυτῆι, ὅτι | νῦν [νῦγ pap.] γε παραγενόμενοϲ | εἰϲ τὴν πόλιν διδάξειϲ | παρὰ
Φαλου [...] ῆτι \ἰατροκλύϲτηι/ τὰ | παιδάρια καὶ ἕξειϲ | ἐφόδιον εἰϲ τὸ γῆραϲ
(“on hearing that you are learning Egyptian letters I rejoiced you and myself,
because now you may go [to] the city and teach the servants at the house of
Phalou [...] es, the doctor who uses washes; and you will have spending money
for your old age”). The text was published as UPZ I 148 and then republished
as Chrest. Wilck. 136 (for papyrological abbreviations see Sosin et al.’s
Checklist of Greek, Latin, Demotic and Coptic Papyri, Ostraca and Tablets at
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/texts/clist.html) (Rémondon 1964,
Bagnall 1995: 27, Sosin & Manning 2003: 208, Bernini & Reggiani 2011: 51
n. 27 and 54-55).
11. It is worth noting that the mercenary Greeks referred to themselves as
alloglossoi ‘foreigners’ as ‘those of alien speech’ (Caporali 2012: 129). For
Greeks in Egypt after Psammetichus I see Caporali (ibidem: 130ff.).
Nicola Reggiani 65
12. For some modern considerations about this matter see Payne 1927, Giroux
1980, and the cases analyzed by Finch 1984, Bell & Stevenson 2006: esp.
139ff., Bonnie 2011).
13. Integration is, of course, the main purpose of multicultural education, to which
the present volume is devoted. For more contemporary perspectives on this
theme see Stromquist & Monkman (2000).
14. Egyptian schools and Greek schools would always be separated and
independent from each other (Maehler 1983, Tassier 1992, and Thompson
1992, with further bibliography).
15. “A representative of the language relevant to the area under consideration was
considered essential to the group [i.e. the planning group or ‘area committee’
established for each culture/language area to be taught].” (Nugent 2007: 20)
16. The most important difference between the two cases is that Psammetichus
intended to control an “immigrant” group resident in his country, while
FALP/ASPT was intended to handle “military government in occupied
[foreign] territories” (Matthew 1947, in Nugent 2007: 22).
17. “Originally conceived of as military police, FALP personnel were to be trained
in police procedure as well as in the cultural characteristics and communicative
practices of subject populations [becoming] a kind of cultural police force”;
moreover, “[t]he architects of military government believed that it was
essential to familiarize their soldier-administrators with the linguistic
conventions and the cultural patterns that characterized specific peoples and
areas – in the belief that this knowledge would prove invaluable in efforts to
establish sound, stable, military government” (Nugent 2007: 12-13).
18. Fischer 1964 (in Donadoni 1980: 4); for the interpretation of the word as
“foreigners” (not “interpreters”) see Goedicke (1960, 1966), and in general
Helck & Otto (1975: 1116). It seems that the word (together with its synonym
3’’) bears the same meaning as Greek barbaros ‘babbler’ (Borghouts 2000:
10-11).
19. To his reign are dated the oldest known texts written in the new Demotic
script: the establishing of his power over all Egypt favoured the spread of such
new writing throughout the whole country (Depauw 1997: 22, with further
references), and that “was crucial in establishing greater administrative
uniformity” (Manning 2010: 22, 24), though we are not able to say whether it
happened under or beyond Psammetichus’ control. The idea of a precise
linguistic policy can be found in Capasso & Pernigotti (1997: 80-82).
20. Relationships between Egypt and Greece became closer and closer after the
reign of Psammetichus: his successors carried on his policy concerning Greek
mercenaries (Braun 1982: 37ff., and part. 49-52, Bettalli 1995: 61ff., Caporali
2012: 130ff., in particular, “Amasis [...] used Greek mercenaries to protect
himself against native Egyptian reaction to his dynasty’s dependence on and
favouritism of non-Egyptians – a vicious political circle from which there was
no escape” (Young 1992: 48)), who established a strong, mixed community
and no doubt contributed towards spreading Greek culture in Egypt (Caporali
2012: 153). Greek mercenaries played a certain role also during Persian
conquest and domination of Egypt (ibidem: 162-183, Mallet 1922), and it is
likely that Alexander’s arrival in Egypt was made easier thanks also to the
Greek culture spread in Egypt with such contacts (Manning 2010: 22: “[...]
Greek presence cannot have been without impact”), not only to Egyptians’ hate
towards Persians (“the native population were clearly more than happy to see
the back of the Persians and acquiesced in the change of masters without
opposition” (Lloyd 2011: 86)). We know of a Macedonian renegade, Amyntas,
who arrived in Egypt in 333 BC with 3000 mercenaries, and succeeded in
getting control of the city of Pelusium (in the Nile’s Delta) and raising an
Egyptian rebellion, temporarily defeating Persian troops (Diodorus of Sicily
XVII 48); some other revolts “were probably the result of Greek involvement
with certain elite families in Egypt, who made for good bedfellows in
opposition to Persian rule” (Manning 2010: 26); and Greek garrisons were
placed by Alexander in the strategic cities of Memphis, were Greek
mercenaries had already been settled by Amasis, and, again, Pelusium (Lloyd
2011: 87). It is often said that the Egyptians’ acceptance of Greek rule was due
to Alexander’s and the Ptolemy’s’ respectful attention for local traditions and
structures (Lloyd 2011: 86ff.), but of course Egyptians could not know it at the
beginning of the conquest: “the Macedonian takeover of Egypt, and the
subsequent formation of the Ptolemaic dynasty, was only the culmination of
past centuries of direct and sustained Greek engagement with Egypt”
(Manning 2010: 27-28).
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TEACHING DIVERSITY:
A PERSPECTIVE ON THE FORMATION
OF YOUTH BY MEANS OF COOPERATION
AND SELF-ESTEEM
DANA PERCEC AND MARIA NICULESCU
Lifelong Learning through Learning Change

and Intergenerational Culture
Past, present and future are taught in their interaction, the human race’s
chance to live in harmony consisting of their ability to predict future by
learning. Our goal to learn and to take over the responsibility of
development can be achieved by teaching and learning change.
Change is a well researched phenomenon, which has been used by
science as an open way to progress. Change also has to be contained, so as
to prevent chaos, as we need both order and a clear project with a view to
taking action and growing. The famous American anthropologist Margaret
Mead (1970) put forward a fundamental grid of analysis of the
contemporary culture, which is passed on, from one generation to another,
via role models. The researcher used to single out three types of culture:
- Post-figurative culture, the adult’s model, referential for the child and
the young person: in this frame, the cultural model of the past and the
experience of the past are outstanding references. The intergenerational
relationship is directed from the adult to the child. This was typical of
19th century societies, where change was slow. The message to be
taken in was the following: “I was young, you hadn’t been old yet.”
- Configurative culture, the culture of the post-war decades, specific to
changing societies, where present is the young person’s role model: his
peers, rather than the adults. This culture may see the generation gap
manifesting itself in the clash of values between youngsters and adults.
In order to avoid the risk of social failure, support is needed, the adult
being invited to position himself/herself in the middle of the young
72 Teaching Diversity
generation. It is a time when phrases like “When I was young...”

should be avoided. If used, such words should not engender pressure,
but should be, at most, a relaxed evocation. The message of this type of
culture is “I’m the young one in this age, so let me live and see what
happens.”
- Prefigurative culture is typical of highly dynamic societies, such as the
contemporary world, with its waves of changes, where stability is
reconfigured: in this culture, the link between the adult and the
youngster is hard to find, with values dwindling. The young generation
lives in a different world, more often than not adopting superficial,
non-values in terms of language and fashion especially, fake role
models imposed by the popular culture. In this frame, the future is
prefigured, depending on emerging values, while new qualities are
unpredictable.
Skill Development: A Major Goal of Lifelong Learning

Education and training are extremely influential in helping people succeed,
move on, and continue to be successful in life. The more and more
complex transition of young people from the initial training to active life
may well indicate what the society has prepared for them. The chance of
getting a decent job is obviously a key result of successful learning, of
skills that can be displayed in the working environment. Thus, learning
facilitates a successful, professionally and socially satisfactory life (Schon
1983). The goals of the Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning are
conceived in accordance with the provisions of the Memorandum on
Permanent Learning published by the European Commission as early as
October 2000, a community document which imports the duty of
implementing life-long learning from the European Councils in Feira and
Lisbon. The six key messages of the Memorandum are the following:
- Securing universal and continuous access to learning with a view to

building and renewing the skills needed for an active involvement in
the society of knowledge;
- The substantial increase of the level of investment in human resources
with a view to capitalizing on the most valuable European resource, its
citizens;
- Developing teaching and learning methods and contexts in order to
ensure the continuum of learning throughout one’s life;
Dana Percec and Maria Niculescu 73
- The significant improvement of understanding and appreciation of

participation to learning and its results, especially non-formal and
informal learning;
- Securing the necessary conditions for easy access to quality
information and counselling about opportunities in education
throughout Europe and throughout one’s life;
- Offering the opportunities of lifelong learning as closely to the
beneficiary as possible, in their own communities and with the support
of ICT equipment, wherever necessary.
Knowledge, information and data, if well understood and used, can create,
in time, with practice, skills, abilities, competences. The combination of
informational and operational resources, when transformed in habits,
alongside the adoption of an attitude suitable to the context, creates
competences. The force of a country’s development stems from the value
and skill of its citizens, the common denominator of the development force
being human competence (Desgagné & Laroche 2010). That is why the
integrative educational act, focused on human nature, on the subordination
of social requirements, needs, and expectations, creates values for the
human being with a view to their development and integration in society.
People can best prove their social skills, even their managerial skills, in a
productive, professionalized act, as development implies social, economic,
political, and spiritual modernization, securing our society’s compatibility
with other developed societies (Păun 1999, Niculescu 2010). A person’s
skill consists not only of their practical experience, but of their ability to
link and combine practices. Competent activity, as well as practical
experience, is defined by “know-how.” Guy Le Boterf, French specialist in
skill management, argues that team competence cannot be reduced to the
sum of individual competences making it up. It largely depends on the
quality of the interactions established among individual competences.
Therefore, it is built by experience, contact with reality, and collective
action. To Le Boterf (1998), a competence emerges if there is know-how
(savoir agir), as well as will (vouloir agir) and power or ability (pouvoir
agir). It is, therefore, essential that the level of demand in education
should rise together with the offer. Each person must be able to follow
his/her own free choices in learning/education, which means that
education and training systems must be adapted to individual demands and
needs. In this spirit, European documents insist on aspects of lifelong
learning related to non-formal and informal learning, as stipulated by the
Memorandum on Permanent Learning adopted by the Commission of the
European Communities, in Brussels, in the year 2000:
- Learning in non-formal contexts is the integrated learning during

planned activities, with learning objectives, which do not follow a
curriculum explicitly and may vary in time. This approach depends on
the learner’s intention and does not automatically lead to the
certification of acquired knowledge and skills.
- Learning in informal contexts represents the result of daily activities
related to work, family and leisure and is not structured around
learning objectives, duration, or support. It is independent of the
learner’s intention and does not automatically lead to the certification
of acquired knowledge and skills.
Lifelong learning takes many forms: it is practiced in an official,

institutionalized environment as well as outside traditional systems of
education and formation. The three education concepts – formal, informal
and non-formal education – complement one another in lifelong learning
programmes. Formal education takes place in schools, ending with a
certificate or a diploma; informal education represents the spontaneous,
more or less organized influences of an environment, family, group of
friends, media on an individual; non-formal education develops the skills
one holds dear at home, at the workplace, in community, sometimes at
school, but always outside the official curricula. While formal education
offers a basis, non-formal education can then personalize one’s formation.
In other words, a person is more motivated to understand a problem and
respond to a procedure one has learnt not only by heart but with one’s
heart. The combination of resources creates and develops skills a person
can demonstrate in certain situations, as stipulated in the same
Memorandum on Permanent Learning (Art. 329):
1. The main goals of lifelong learning are related to the complex

development of a person and the sustainable development of a society.
2. Lifelong learning is centred on the formation and development of key
skills and skills specific to one area or qualification.
Cultural Diversity: Intercultural Skills

In the modern world, cultural or linguistic diversity depends mainly on
two aspects: the more and more intense migration and the use of new
technologies of information and communication. Due to the globalization
of the economic, social, and political life – more conspicuous every year,
one can notice the increased mobility of citizens from all continents and
the rising number of migrants of various ethnicities and persuasions
currently living and working in Europe. In the past decades, Europe has
witnessed the growth of multicultural communities, which need the

recognition of intercultural skills enabling them to take part in the social
and political life of their host countries. As a result of globalization,
migration and radical political and social events like 9/11, intercultural
education has become a priority. This type of education consists of social
skills necessary to all citizens and essential for an authentic dialogue and
mutual understanding. We believe this skill to be vital, in a world which,
on the other hand, is not free from racism, anti-Semitism, or xenophobia,
also present in the social and political life of the communities. These
negative phenomena pushed the concepts of intercultural learning and
intercultural education to the forefront, together with the concept of
learning change. Both are to be considered essential aspects of lifelong
learning. Moreover, as observed by Kuehnen et al. (2011), border-crossing
communication and border-crossing reputation have recently become
terms that are often equated with the quality of education.
Such phrases as multicultural education, intercultural approach,
intercultural communication, intercultural society, multi-/intercultural
diversity, intercultural cooperation, positive attitude, or self-management
add new meanings to the above-mentioned concepts and values. It can,
thus, be argued that the major goal of multicultural education is that of
preparing young people for life in a multicultural society which becomes
more and more intercultural. This view is in accordance with the concept
adopted by the European Council and the UNESCO International
Commission for 21st Century Education, which, in 1996, considered that
one of the main aims of education should be “learning to live together,
learning to live with others.” The specific objectives of multicultural
education are, in our opinion, the following:
- Gaining knowledge and cultural literacy, which will have a significant

impact on individual and group behaviour;
- Gaining knowledge and information about one’s own culture(s) and
other cultures;
- Building skills and habits concerning life in a multicultural/
intercultural society (raising awareness about one’s own cultural
determinations, stereotypes and prejudices, identifying them in others,
the ability to relativize points of view, communicational and relational
skills);
- Building attitudes of respect for cultural diversity, for one’s own
cultural identity and the others’ identity;
- Stimulating participation and action in the sense of promoting the

principles of an intercultural society and fighting discrimination and
intolerance.
From the practical experience of several projects we have coordinated in

the past few years, both at the level of university education and as
members of a Romanian NGO devoted to the promotion of role models
among the young generation, non-formal education and furthering
multiculturalism (the “Cultural Alternative” Association in Timişoara,
Romania), we can surely argue that the intercultural dialogue that would
help achieve those goals is more necessary now than ever before.
Multicultural education and cultural diversity belong to constructivist
pedagogy, learning through co-operation, project-based pedagogy, as well
as the integrated cross-curricular approach and the school-community
partnership. Autonomous learning, with a focus on the principles of one’s
personality’s permanent education, has become the key to professional and
social success. The individuals who have developed autonomous learning
skills obtain the best results in various areas of human activity and
interaction. Successfully applied in different circumstances, autonomous
learning can be a significant source of satisfaction, leading, among other
things, to the formation of communication and social skills, as well as to
the formation of self-management skills. We believe these skills are
essential for the development of the human personality and the ideal
manifestation of social actors in the development of a society. Cultural
diversity and communication among people with different cultural
backgrounds is a priority, which can best develop in environments where
people co-operate and work in teams.
Research on Intercultural Exchange among Youth:

A Case Study
Education sociologists insist on the importance of all social actors in the
process of community school development: teachers, parents, students,
local officials, etc. They must all feel part of this process and contribute to
the development of consciousness of responsibility. This is actually what
we call “empowerment,” following a pioneering observation made by
Christine E. Sleeter as early as 1991, that multicultural education and
empowerment are interwoven, facilitating, together, one of the most
powerful educational reforms. It is noteworthy, more concretely, that
various social actors should have the opportunity to take measures leading
to positive results, each in the field of activity they are skilled for, in work
teams, in projects they coordinate and carry. This was our main goal in the
research we carried during the application of a Youth in Action project in
the summer of 2012. The project took place in a summer camp in Greece,
with participants from Greece, Romania, and France. The target public
was made up of young people with ages between 14 and 30, accompanied
by three adult leaders from each country. All in all, there were 39 persons
in the summer camp at Igoumenitsa, Greece. Diversity was apparent in
terms of age and gender, level of education and training (the participants
were high school students, university students, MA and PhD students,
newly employed youngsters, etc.). As for the activities carried out during
the project, they corresponded to three of the above-mentioned dimensions
of the area of skill formation, namely the cognitive dimension, the
operational dimension (of habits, skills and abilities) and the attitudes.
Next, we will present some of the activities of the project which are
connected to our research on cultural diversity and the contribution of
multicultural education to the evolution of society and its citizens. Starting
from the assumption that any skill is formed by field practice and can
develop in the way it gains material relevance in various contexts, we
argue that the inter-/multicultural communication skill can be strengthened
through direct co-operation and the direct manifestation of a positive
attitude towards the others. This hypothesis is translated in the
understanding and tolerance one should have in various circumstances,
guided by the motto of otherness, “the other one beside me.” The Youth in
Action project enabled us to test this hypothesis by bringing together 39
people of various ethnicities and persuasions in a holiday context (the
project took place in August, at the peak of the tourist season in Greece),
in a youth camp situated in a beautiful and less populated (and popular)
area by the Ionian Sea, Igoumenitsa. According to the European Council
financing the series of projects generally known as “Youth in Action,” a
Youth Exchange is a project where young people work and live together in
an international group for a specific time. It consists of a series of
preparation, implementation and follow-up activities. For the duration of
the Youth Exchange, young people undertake a joint programme of
activities with specific roles and objectives. Young people from different
countries and backgrounds co-operate with each other supported by
experienced youth workers and leaders. They develop personal,
professional and intercultural competences. Youth Exchanges foster the
mobility of young people in Europe. They encourage initiative and
creativity in young people, facilitate their active participation in the project
and thereby provide an intercultural learning experience. Offering the
added value of a European dimension, Youth Exchanges are quality-
checked regarding content criteria and implementation. This project brings

youngsters together in the same camp and teaches them to live together for
a period of 9-10 days, with the chance of a follow-up, the next year. In
terms of educational policies, of Creativity and Culture, the Youth in
Action project stipulates that EU member states and the Commission work
together in order to increase opportunities for young people to experience
culture and to develop their talent and creative skills. This includes making
new technologies available to empower young people’s creativity,
promoting specialized training in culture, new media and intercultural
competences (for youth workers, or encouraging partnerships between
culture and creative sectors and youth organizations and youth workers).
Consequently, supporting young people’s creative energy and capacity for
innovation can:
- Help them develop their potential and find a job;

- Contribute to their personal development and feeling of belonging to a
community;
- Strengthen their awareness of a common cultural heritage;
- Promote active citizenship and participation;
- Develop intercultural and multilingual skills;
- Lead to a better understanding of cultural diversity.
The research we carried took the form of focus groups organized around a
questionnaire. The activities took place in a youth camp at Igoumenitsa
between 5-13 August 2012 where the 30 youngsters with ages between 14
and 30 from the three countries – Greece, France, and Romania –
accompanied by the adult leaders were given the chance to know one
another, to interact and promote themselves by means of non-formal and
informal education and with the help of their own culture, testing the
meanings of democratic citizenship, intercultural communication and
cultural diversity in a natural environment, which favoured the
development of a positive attitude towards “the other one beside me.” The
focus groups envisaged such topics as learning through direct interaction
among youngsters, the presentation of each culture with its specific
elements, as well as the organization of theme parties, with painting,
singing, reciting poetry and dancing – cultural activities devoted to each of
the three groups. The focus group method enabled us to get familiar with
the others’ experiences and opinions, to reflect on a comparison between
our own reality and the others’ reality (Krueger & Cassey 2005). These
elements helped us better appreciate such notions as cooperation and
mutual gain, leading to the improvement of all our lives. This exercise of
awareness raising can be continued with life stories, lived experiences

within the family or community of which each youngster is a member. The
role of the debate group was also that of suggesting new ideas about the
main topics of the project, of clarifying available options, of reacting to
certain lines of action, of recommending action, of learning how to make
decisions, of planning or assessing a situation. The moderators of the focus
groups triggered debates on the following topics:
- Shaping an attitude towards learning and accepting diversity;

- Manifesting respect for cultural partners;
- Developing listening skills, as active listening, in fact, being
sympathetic towards the other;
- Eliminating discrimination and prejudice;
- Building and developing the necessary linguistic skills to communicate
in a foreign language (the official languages of the project were
English and French, but an attempt was also made to speak Greek and
Romanian);
- Adapting to new situations, learning change;
- Getting involved by means of intercultural learning/education and
bringing new experiences to fruition.
The groups were made up of 6 to 8 persons, and the debates were

moderated by the adult leaders, who were trained in the area of
multiculturalism and cultural diversity. Four focus groups were conducted
in the manner described above. The questionnaire took into account the
main objectives of the project, as well as the needs of the project members:
mainly the need to understand the benefits of the manifestation of
multiculturalism and cultural diversity. The experiment was meant as a
formative assessment, the resulting feedback being used in the application
of similar projects in the future. Here are some of the questions launched:
- What area of your life did this project improve:

• Communication/relations/social life;
• Developing a positive attitude towards cultural diversity;
• Developing communication skills in a foreign language;
• Developing a civil attitude of cohabitation, respecting one’s own
values and the other’s values;
• Growing respect for nature and natural harmony;
• Others: specify.
- Did this programme provide you with opportunities to co-operate,
know each other, communicate?
- Mention 3 actions which favoured the development of your

communication and cooperation skills and which raised your
awareness about the importance of teamwork.
- What was your position in the team?
• Leader;
• Communicator;
• Technician;
• Negotiator;
• Artist;
• Practitioner;
• Others (specify).
- Name 3 persons with whom you communicated and from whom you
learnt about intercultural communication.
- Enumerate 3 activities which helped you gain new friends and
determined you to invest in this new friendship by joining the project
activities next year.
- Did the project activities help you better understand the notions of
cultural diversity and the impact this diversity has on the formation and
development of your personality?
- Does the true understanding of otherness help you become better, more
tolerant citizens?
- Did the project activities help you identify common values, which
bring different cultures together?
- What new qualities or needs did you discover during these 9 days of
cohabitation and to what extent are they relevant to your life?
Learning about the culture of another community was favoured by

experimenting, by participating in significant cultural events presented by
each national group. The conclusions of our qualitative mini-research are
the following: Cultural diversity was a reality materialized during the nine
days of leisure and time spent together. Cultural plurality implies both the
protection of differences and the promotion of intercultural dialogue,
which acknowledges the fact that each individual can contribute to the
enrichment of human experience and can make an effort to project private
experiences to the universal level. Multiculturalism is not an enemy of
European universalism, but its counterpart. Multicultural societies are
given realities, where people belonging to different groups come together
in concrete life situations. The moral and religious pluralism does not
exclude the existence of a common set of values and principles laying the
foundations of civil identity in a given social and physical space.
Multiculturalism implies understanding, appreciating and capitalizing on
one’s own culture, as well as the respect stemming from a genuine interest
in the culture of the other. It is a process taking place at the crossroads
between cultures. In this context, the role of our project was that of
teaching the young generation how to live together in a world of linguistic
and cultural differences by accepting them and by identifying the values
that may erase these differences. Multicultural education in the modern
society can also be regarded as a way to discover the richness and variety
of life in general. Tolerance of the unknown, the unfamiliar and the search
for complementary aspects should become first-hand attitudes and
priorities. Some of the skills necessary in such an approach can be gained
by direct observation. The identification of common values can be a
difficult mission unless it is doubled by the acceptance of the benefits
deriving from such diversity. Therefore, such projects as the Erasmus,
Comenius, Grundtvig, Youth in Action, etc. are meant to complete what
family and schools do to develop freedom of spirit and tolerance of our
fellows and the others. In an environment characterized by cultural and
linguistic differences, solutions for a harmonious cohabitation could be
identified due to this project, which implied practicing co-operation and
communication skills and the development of a positive attitude towards
the others, in a beneficial, authentic multicultural context. The youth and
their adult leaders learnt to live together in an open society, based on the
authority of shared values. A major notion that became apparent was that
regarding multiculturalism as dignity and respect for the individual should
be a significant lesson to be taught and learnt. Secondly, it became obvious
that democratic values of tolerance are easier to grasp when they stem
from experience rather than formal instruction. The major aim of the
project is the development of a fundamental respect for different lifestyles,
working and learning styles. Valuing diversity implies more than tolerance
of different environments and mentalities; it facilitates the exploration and
discovery of the unfamiliar, engendering a wide range of communication
styles and thoughts. Moreover, valuing diversity leads to the strengthening
of connections in the community, enabling the youth to be successful in a
plural, more and more complex society. Thus, the youngsters will learn
how to understand points of view which are different from their own, in
accordance with the social and professional environment in which they
will evolve. The gradual building of such an attitude will lead to more
flexibility about new learning experiences. Diversity stimulates critical
thinking, a major aspect of the contemporary society, where innovation is
essentially based on co-operation. The skills of sailing in an ocean of
cultural differences are needed in a world which has developed through
technology and the improvement of travelling and communication
facilities. The genuine exchange of ideas – the key to innovation and

progress – requires sensitivity and commitment towards the others’
opinions, values, and ideas. Multicultural education can also build superior
skills of negotiation and survival in a complex social and occupational
environment. Given the current demographic mutations and the growing
diversity of the global labour market, this should be a priority in the young
generation’s training for life. The real challenge is that of being able to
offer youth an improving, optimal communication experience, which may
encourage the individual to open towards the other, sometimes after
getting rid of or reconsidering prejudices and stereotypes. This relevant
experience, which allows for introspection and responsibility, builds
essential skills – of participation and transformation of community life.
Conclusions of the Applied Research

The questionnaire applied to four mixed focus groups, with participants
from different countries and communities, of different ages, genders and
levels of education and cultural literacy led to significant conclusions
about intercultural communication, which impose a series of further
demands:
- To build an attitude towards learning and accepting diversity;

- To show respect to our cultural partners;
- To listen carefully to and be sympathetic towards the other;
- To give up discrimination and prejudice;
- To build linguistic skills that will enable us to communicate in foreign
languages;
- To learn how to adapt to new situations.
Sociologists believe a given amount of time is necessary for the individual

to become familiar with the values of a new culture in order to be able to
establish a hierarchy that will enable them to grasp the new spiritual
environment. The individual embracing a new cultural environment will
be faced with a different system of perceiving reality, with a different set
of cultural views and a different manner of relating to culture. In this case,
the individual should be able to explore common symbols and similar
cultural elements, which may enable a smoother passage from a world of
values to another, richer and more tolerant of heterogeneous values. The
common elements can be converted into supports and catalysts of the
integration process. Multicultural education represents, therefore, an
ideological option in democratic societies and aims at training youth as
future citizens, offering them the tools necessary to make good choices
and find their way in the context of multiplying value systems. The young
generation must have the proper training to face the cultural mutation
imposed both on minorities and the majority. The intercultural approach of
our project generated a series of reflections on diversity, democratic
citizenship and building an attitude of spiritual autonomy, based on
education and self-education. The project enabled us to transform the
specific objectives of intercultural education into expected results, the
following aspects emerging from the analysis of the applied questionnaire:
- Gaining knowledge about culture in general and its impact on

individual and group behaviour regarding one’s own culture or other
cultures;
- Developing skills to live in a multicultural society (growing aware of
one’s own cultural background, understanding various points of view,
being able to communicate and relate to others);
- Building attitudes: respect for cultural diversity, for the identity of
one’s own culture and the others’ culture, as well as the rejection of
discrimination and intolerance;
- Stimulating participation in terms of promoting the principles of a
society based on diversity and multiculturalism.
The intercultural perspective on education – in the case we have evoked,

on non-formal and informal education – may have such effects as
diminishing conflicts and even eradicating violence in certain groups, by
means of building modern patterns of behaviour, such as:
- Communication skills (listening and speaking);

- Co-operation in all learning groups, from children playing in schools to
interethnic groups;
- Self-respect and tolerance of other opinions;
- A positive attitude towards individuals from different cultures or
speaking different languages;
- A peaceful and responsible solution for interpersonal problems or
conflicts.
Education engenders culture, while familiarity with culture creates values.

The intercultural approach cannot be reduced to a cumulative presentation
of knowledge and values but implies building an attitude of respect and
openness towards diversity, an attitude emerging from the constant
communication with others and a proper insight into one’s own cultural
norms. The main purpose of the Youth in Action project of 2012 was
understanding and promoting the cultural values of diversity, while
learning to live together in the public space, in a harmonious environment.
Understanding the implications of cultural diversity is a key objective in
the globalization process, as well as a formidable challenge for our
contemporary society.
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MAKING SENSE OF EDUCATION
FOR DIVERSITIES:
CRITICALITY, REFLEXIVITY AND LANGUAGE
FRED DERVIN
Introduction
“To try a concept on an object is to ask of the object what we have to do
with it, what it can do for us. To label an object with a concept is to tell in
precise terms the kind of action or attitude the object is to suggest to us.
All knowledge properly so-called is, therefore, turned in a certain direction
or taken from a certain point of view.” (Bergson 1938: 199)
Many adjectives are used in global research worlds to talk about education
for what I shall call diversity for now: cross-cultural, metacultural,
polycultural, multicultural and intercultural – but also global and
international (Dervin, Gajardo & Lavanchy 2011, Grant & Portera 2011).
These “labels” can appear interchangeably – without always being defined
or distinguished. The multicultural and the intercultural represent the most
widely used notions, which have been discussed extensively in education
scholarship and practice. Many researchers and practitioners have
attempted to define their characteristics by establishing borders and
boundaries, through which they have often tended to be opposed, namely
in geographical terms (the US vs. Europe, Northern vs. Southern Europe,
etc. – Palaiologou & Dietz 2012). Some European researchers have even
demonized the “multicultural,” asserting that multicultural education
celebrates only cultural differences (see the example of “multicultural
fairs” – Kromidas 2011) and ignores similarities, individuality, and the
importance of relations, interaction and contexts – as the “intercultural” is
said to operate. However, even if multicultural education and intercultural
education have different origins (Abdallah-Pretceille 1986) – the former is
related to Civil Rights Movements while the latter to mass immigration in
Europe, amongst others, Holm & Zilliacus (2009) argue that, today,
multicultural and intercultural education can both mean different things:
86 Making Sense of Education for Diversities
“[...] it is impossible to treat and draw conclusions about intercultural and

multicultural education as if there was only one kind of each since there
are several different kinds of both multicultural and intercultural
education.” (ibidem: 23)
With the birth and spread of critical and more “political” approaches to
education for diversity worldwide, does this mean that the dichotomy has
lost much of its relevance? Have the enduring rivalries between the two
notions been finally put to rest? What is, then, left of them? How can that
be used and integrated in what I would like to refer to as education for
diversities?
The inspiration for this article comes from the fact that I was appointed
professor of multicultural education in a Finnish department of Teacher
Education in 2012. Having always worked within the field of language and
intercultural education before that, this appointment made me reflect on
the dichotomy mentioned earlier. Many of my colleagues wrote to me
saying that they were confused by my new title – some of them even
accused me of being a “traitor”! What I quickly realized was that, even
though there is a wide array of labels, many and varied intersections
between authors claiming to belong to different trends were noticeable.
Politically, they differ but, when one looks at research and practice, they
are so complex that it is impossible to define one approach in precise
terms. When I set up my research group at my new department, I decided
to call it Education for Diversities (E4D) in order to avoid having to
position the group within one label or another. For me, multicultural and
intercultural mean the same as long as they are used in a critical manner,
especially in relation to the concepts of culture and identity, in relation to
questions of power and justice but also, as will be my main claim in this
chapter, in relation to criticality, reflexivity and language.
Edward Said’s words (1978) reassured me:
“Fields, of course, are made. They acquire coherence and integrity in time
because scholars devote themselves in different ways to what seems to be a
commonly agreed-upon subject matter. Yet it goes without saying that a
field of study is rarely as simply defined as even its most committed
partisans – usually scholars, professors, experts, and the like – claim it is.
Besides, a field can change so entirely, in even the most traditional
disciplines like philosophy, history, or theology, as to make an all-purpose
definition of subject matter almost impossible.”
My goal was, thus, to take the “best” of the intercultural and the
multicultural and to blend them to propose a field that would reflect the
way we should deal with education for diversities today.
Fred Dervin 87
In this article, I will use the term education for diversities to refer to
authors who belong to any strand of research working on “othernesses” in
education. Though also a very much contested and political term, diversity
in the plural indicates a move from a mere emphasis on people from the
outside (migrants, “Others”) to taking into account the diverse diversities
from within: in other words, anyone who is considered or who constructs
themselves to be different (Dervin 2011, 2012). This allows me to put an
end to a certain hierarchy which tends to be established between
“othernesses” in research and practice, and to question “imagined”
oppositions between us and them. In Finland, for example, the use of the
labels migrant and diverse are problematic in this sense as they tend to be
used in daily doxic discourses but also in research to determine “certain”
children who were born in Finland of migrant parents, thus excluding them
from the label “Finns.” My interest in this chapter rests upon critical points
that we need to reflect on, consider and use in both practice (e.g., in
school) and research. Three aspects are discussed in what follows:
criticality, reflexivity and the importance of language.
Entry Point: Criticality

“Imagine an infant removed immediately from its place of birth and set
down in a different environment. Then compare the various ‘identities’ the
child might acquire in its new context, the battles it would now have to
fight and those it would be spared. Needless to say, the child would have
no recollection of his original religion, or of his country or language. And
might he not one day find himself fighting to the death against those who
ought to have been his nearest and dearest?” (Maalouf 2001: 24-25)
When we use such notions as the “multicultural” or the “intercultural,” we

have to deal with the tired old notion of culture. For Debray (2007: 27),
“in the fauna of vague things, culture ranks amongst the most dangerous as
it can lead to infinite misunderstandings.” The problem with the word
culture is that it is a very imprecise and lose concept, which can be used
for different purposes: making sense of us vs. them, providing one’s
interlocutors with easy explanations (excuses, manipulating our way out of
a situation, etc. – Breidenbach & Nyíri 2009). For Ingrid Piller (2011:
172), “Culture is sometimes nothing more than a convenient and lazy
explanation.” Brubaker (2004: 9) argues that the tendency to use
“multichrome mosaic of monochrome” cultural blocs is problematic and
yet a common phenomenon in our societies. I would add that it is also
frequent in research and educational practices.
Anthropologist Alban Bensa (2010: 56) maintains that the

monochrome and often meaningless use of the concept of culture often
evacuates continuums, social hybridation, and mélange (‘mixing’), which
constitute any group of people. Postmodern and some constructivist
approaches have clearly demonstrated that the contemporary individual,
depending on the possibilities and liberties offered by his/her gender,
socioeconomic position, etc. is, before all, a “cultural programmer” rather
than a “member of a culture” (Lull 2000: 268). Abdallah-Pretceille (2006:
15) contends “each person has the possibility to express and act by using
[…] cultural reference codes which they have freely chosen.”
In order to be useful, the concept of culture and what we do with it as
practitioners and researchers should, thus, reflect these elements but also
allow us to work from a more dynamic and “liquid” perspective (Bauman
2004), which takes into account both differences and similarities across
individuals and groups. As such, Arendt (1958: 155) reminds us
“If people were not different, they would have nothing to say to each other.
And if they were not the same, they would not understand each other.”
For Hoskins & Sallah (2011: 214), our use of the concept of culture
should, thus, include, for instance, the “knowledge of the political systems
and how historically they have been created (at global, European, national
and local levels) including how these structures have developed in
relationship to the key concepts.” Relying on cultural facts and “recipes”
appears increasingly as a highly contested approach, especially as, when
defining a culture, no one can claim that the retained elements characterise
all those who are included in this entity. Anne Cheng (2010) explains
“doing” culture corresponds, in a way, to “walking” or “dancing”: “we are
permanently unbalanced and only movement can allow us not to fall and
to move on.” She also questions the approach that consists in
systematically comparing cultures (and, thus, ignoring the real thing:
people) because this implies solidifying something that is always in
movement, always changing (ibidem). As a specialist of China, Cheng
notes that even though the country has never ceased to change, we still
tend to consider it and the Chinese as “pieces in a museum” (ibidem). For
her, comparison can be used if it is an exit point and not an entry point.
The comparison of cultures to trigger intercultural or multicultural
awareness and encounters has been a strong tool in education (Abdallah-
Pretceille 2011). According to Holliday (2011), cultural comparison is
always accompanied by ideology and easily leads to ethnocentrism, and
(implicit and explicit) xenophobic but also xenophile comments. Anne
Philips (2010: 20), a professor of political and gender theory, rightly
Fred Dervin 89
claims “cultural difference is more often read as cultural hierarchy than

cultural variation. There are said to be ‘better’ and ‘worse’, ‘more
advanced’ and ‘more backward’ cultures.” Like all social categories, we
need to bear in mind that culture is “perspectival, historical, disrupted by
the movement of people and re-constitutive of the phenomena (it) seek(s)
to describe” (Gillespie, Howarth & Cornish 2012: 391). According to
Cheng (2010), if we ignore these aspects, “we look at each other as
inanimate objects and dialogue ends.”
The idea of culturalism has been used in anthropology and other fields
to refer to the use of static cultural differences to explain intercultural
encounters. Culturalism is the reduction of the self and the other to cultural
“alibis” (often national culture) (Bauböck 2008, Abdallah-Pretceille 1986).
Ethically and epistemologically, culturalism is presented increasingly as
unacceptable in research and practice as it shows a lack of awareness of
interdisciplinary discussions around the concept of culture. Furthermore, it
reveals limited reflexivity and criticality from the actors who use it in
these fields.
I believe that this is the first point of entry of making sense of
education for diversities. Rejecting culturalism entirely is essential, i.e. the
use of a static understanding of the concept of culture, which overlooks
contextualised and intersubjective interaction between complex persons
and leads to “plural monoculturalism” (Sen 2001) rather than dialogue. In
their book, Seeing Culture Everywhere, Breidenbach & Nyíri (2009: 281)
give the following example which I qualify as “culturalist.” This is taking
place in a lecture hall in Australia:
“One day, the lecturer asked [a Japanese student] to demonstrate how

Japanese people greet each other. Atsushi lifted his hand, wiggled his
fingers, and said ‘hello.’ Not satisfied, the lecturer insisted: ‘No, I mean
how do you greet people in a formal situation?’ Atsushi shrugged and
repeated that this was how he greeted people. Getting annoyed, the lecturer
– who was, of course, expecting Atsushi to perform a bow – said ‘Okay,
then, how would you greet the Emperor?’ Atsushi, feeling harassed,
responded that he would prefer not to meet the emperor. Finally, the
lecturer was obliged to perform the bow herself, but Atsushi felt
stereotyped and kept complaining about the incident for weeks.”
It is easy to see the danger of the culturalist approach in working on

education for diversities. In this excerpt, the lecturer is trying to meet a
cultural aspect (greetings in Japan) rather than an individual who has to
negotiate these elements in different micro- and macro-contexts and in
relation to diverse interlocutors.
In a recent article, Hoskins & Sallah (2011: 114) explain clearly how
the focus on culture “hides unequal power relations, including poverty,
violence, structural inequalities such as racism and the possibilities of
multiple identities.” In the excerpt, the lecturer uses her “power” to impose
her own representation of the Japanese on the class – which leaves Atsushi
“feeling harassed” and “culturalised.” Hoskins & Sallah add that this is a
way of putting aside important discussions “of the wider structural forces
of capitalism, racism, colonialism, and sexism.” (idem)
Paying Attention to Ideology: Reflexivity

“The reductionism of high theory can make a major contribution, often
inadvertently to the violence of low politics.” (Sen 2001: xvi)
The second point I wish to make is that, whenever we discuss diversities

and/or multiculturalism-interculturalism, we are very much influenced by
ideologies and that an awareness of this is essential to act upon in a
critical, reflexive and ethical way. Shi-Xu (2001: 283) defines ideology as
“symbolic power whereby one group becomes dominated, excluded,
prejudiced against by another – ‘symbolic violence’ – and which is
smoothed over or turned ‘natural’ or ‘universal’ through
‘commonsensical’ ways of thinking and speaking.” If we refer to our
previous discussion on the word culture, it is easy to see how researchers
and practitioners can easily impose their views and categories of their own
self and the other in their research participants.
Reflexivity is, thus, important in order to avoid contributing to the
“violence of low politics” as Sen puts it in the opening quote to this
section.
Martine Abdallah-Pretceille (2006: 480) makes a first important point
related to ideology when she asserts “No fact is intercultural at the outset,
nor is the quality of intercultural an attribute of an object, it is only
intercultural analysis that can give it this character.” As such, as a
practitioner or a researcher, we might decide that such or such a situation
is intercultural or multicultural without even consulting the people who
are taking part in the situation – and who may not consider it as such but
just an act of interaction between friends, lovers, etc. The labels that we
use always tend to be viewpoints and beliefs that we need to question. In
his book on the intellectual, Edward Saïd (1996: xi) reminds us that our
role is to “break down the stereotypes and the reductive categories that are
so limiting to human thought and communication.”
Fred Dervin 91
Hoskins & Sallah (2011) call for a more political approach to these
issues. They ask us to interrogate systematically such phenomena as
discrimination and inequality in our own work (forms of sexism, racism
and colonialism – ibidem: 123) and to question the power relations and
their consequences for representation in what we present in e.g., our
research results (ibidem). For example, this means, in the case of an
interview, to examine our own discourses and potential influence on what
our research participants are saying and not present them as being solely
responsible for their words. It is not enough to say that research
participants felt at ease and that there was no boundary between them and
us. The use of digital recorders, even if agreed upon with the participants,
can represent “symbolic violence” that we cannot just ignore or justify by
saying “after a while, the participants forgot that they were being
recorded.” Is such a claim valid? How do we know? This all implies taking
seriously into account the proposal of moving away from researching on
informants to researching with research participants (Midgley, Danaher &
Baguley 2012). This would, I believe, trigger more justice in the way we
do research and work with diversities in education.
In his book, Intercultural Communication and Ideology, Adrian
Holliday (2011: 18) notes that
“Many (people) might consider that a lot of intercultural communication

has nothing to do with prejudice or issues with the Centre-West, but with
‘innocent’ unfamiliar cultural events, practices, behaviour and values such
as different management styles, family relations, dress codes, forms of
address, attitudes to privacy, and modes of getting things done.”
He also criticizes the lack of political discussions amongst practitioners

and researchers about issues of inequality, hegemonies, poverty, etc.
(ibidem). For him, ideology in research and practice also derives from the
overemphasis on culture (see previous section) and the ignorance of the
intersection between identity markers such as social class, age, gender,
emotions, etc. (ibidem: 187). For the anthropologist Amselle (2010: 79),
this means that we should “hear” our participants rather than “listen to”
them. For example, it is not up to us (the dominants) to decide on their
“culture” or even “language” to characterise them (ibidem).
Another important point that Holliday (2011: 187) makes is that the
Other also constructs “discourses of culture,” so instead of trying to
answer the questions “what is their culture?” and “how does their culture
allow them to communicate with others?” we should explore such
questions as “how do they present and co-construct the culture they are
claiming to be representative of?” and “how and why do they put its
characteristics into scene when interacting with others?” (“in my culture

we do”; “you’re not from my culture so you can’t understand”).
Often the way research participants speak to researchers or
practitioners tend to mimic how the latter speak to them. The formulation
of questions and comments, the concepts that we use often lead them to
reinvest these elements. As such, with Brubaker (1994: 10), we could say
that research participants “have a performative character” (in reference to
Pierre Bourdieu). In all forms of interaction, “people not simply
‘understand’ each other; rather, they are acting with and upon each other.”
(Shi-Xu 2001: 285) This means that what a participant does or says is
“jointly negotiated and constructed” (ibidem) with a researcher or a
practitioner. It is important to note that this phenomenon applies to any
kind of data or genre such as narratives, interviews, focus groups,
questionnaires, etc. We also need to be critical of the idea that e.g.,
“narratives” are more subjective and reveal more than interviews. Any act
of interaction is intersubjective, and even a questionnaire involves at least
two people interaction (the person who asks questions and the one who
answers).
Language is Central in Working with Diversities

The aspect of language is often absent from discussions of diversities in
education though it is central, as education has often been described as
being ideologically biased towards languages (Risager 2007). Most of the
time, intercultural interactions and the collection of data take place
through the use of a language or of different languages, “mother tongues,”
foreign or second/third languages, and lingua francas. This is why we
need to problematize consistently and in a coherent way the following
aspects.
Just like culture, the notion of language needs to be revised and
complexified in order to make sense of education for diversities. For many
individuals in the world, their daily lives revolve around the use of many
languages, not just one. Answering a question such as “what is your
mother tongue?” may be difficult for them and require positioning, i.e.
decide on only one language to identify oneself. There is, here, a danger of
leading to simplistic boxing. In our daily lives, we also use different forms
of the same language depending on contexts, interlocutors, power
relations, etc. This means that it is not because we share a first language
(often called “mother tongue”) with an individual that we systematically
understand each other. Marc Augé (2010: 17) explains “a volatile, fluid
and invisible boundary can separate those who appear to be similar and
Fred Dervin 93
subtly unite those whose language and culture appear to place a distance
between them.”
Like culture, language can sometimes be too easy an explanation for
misunderstandings or non-understandings: “you can’t understand, you
don’t speak my language” or “it is impossible to translate into your
language or in another language.” The “natural” and “biological” links that
are often made between language and culture are somewhat deterministic
and problematic as they seem to imprison individuals in cultural and
linguistic cells. The example of the word sisu in Finnish and the usual
argument that is impossible to translate it into other languages will serve
as an illustration. An important element of (imagined) Finnishness, the
word was “invented” at the end of the Winter War in 1940 to describe the
Finns’ perseverance during the war against the Russians. Used today to
create a strong sense of national identity, the Sisu argument is often used
to construct us vs. them. In fact, there are many equivalents in other
languages, for example, in English, it can translate as strength of will,
determination, and/or perseverance. Laypeople, scholars and educational
practitioners alike use the sisu argument to describe and determine Finns
(Brueggeman 2008) often failing to note the ideology behind it as it places
problematic boundaries between people from different countries (Finns are
more perseverant or stronger than others). Who can decide on such
elements? Who has the right to claim superiority? Pullum’s (1991) great
attack on what he calls the great Eskimo vocabulary hoax or the fact that,
in order to explain the link between culture and language, we often use the
example of the word snow in Eskimo, could aptly apply to the word in
Finnish. The problem with these arguments is that they tend to biologize
culture through language and allow people who use them to place artificial
and hierarchical boundaries between “cultures.” As researchers and
practitioners, we need to question these elements not to allow exclusion,
hierarchization and potential symbolic and physical violence to emerge.
Another aspect that we need to bear in mind is that language is always
political and power-ridden. For Lakoff (1990: 17), a specialist of the
question, “our every interaction is political, whether we intend it to be or
not; everything we do in the course of a day communicates our relative
power, our desire for a particular sort of connection, our identification of
the other as one who needs something from us, or vice versa. Often,
perhaps usually, we are unaware of these choices; we don’t realize that we
are playing for high stakes even in the smallest of small talk.” For the
researcher and practitioner, this means consciously and explicitly taking
this fact into account when working on diversities. Interaction is always
between two individuals a minima and “we cannot give an undistorted
account of ‘a person’ without giving an account of his relation with others.

[…]. No one acts or experiences in a vacuum.” (Laing 1961: 81-82) The
researcher is as much responsible of what is shared as the participant.
Linguistically, power can be attached to different identity markers
(social class, gender, generation, etc). In terms of interaction with
diversities, the power relations between e.g., the researcher and the
researched, especially in relation to the “native” and “non-native” statuses
of the actors involved, should also be taken into account. The so-called
“native” usually has more power than the non-native speaker (Dervin &
Badrinathan 2011). Chen (2011) examined this aspect in the context of
ethnographic interviews and showed how languages spoken in this context
can affect interviews and power dynamics. I do not agree fully with her
claim thought that power relations are less prominent if the interviewer is a
non-native speaker of the language used during the interview. Again, as
has been stated a few times in this chapter, it is a combination, an
intersection of different aspects that play a role in power relations
(language + social status + gender, etc.) – not just one.
This leads me to the question of translation. Too often in research on
diversities in education, the act of translating is hardly problematized.
When we translate data from one language/different languages to another,
we make certain choices using certain tools, as to how we express and
construct words, phrases and ideas. These choices can be extremely
difficult or subjective. The example of certain pronouns in some languages
is telling. As such, in the French language, the “chameleon” pronoun on
(which can translate in English as a generic ‘you’, ‘one’, but also as ‘we’
or ‘I’, depending on the context), can serve a specific purpose in relation
to identification and any translation in English or any other language needs
to be explicitly positioned (Boutet 1994). Another example is that of code-
switching and code-mixing, i.e. the use of different languages in one
utterance, which should be indicated clearly in our translations as they
often allow speakers to construct identity – they are not just innocent
“moments” in a text (Alam 2011).
Bradby (2002) and Temple & Edwards (2002), amongst others, have
looked into issues of translation and interpreting in relation to diversities
in education and call for a transparent, honest and problematizing
discussion on researching multilingually. Maria Birbili (2000) has also
reflected on the challenges involved in collecting data in one or different
languages and presenting the results in another. She also calls for
transparency in terms of translation-related decisions that “have a direct
impact on the validity of the research and its report.” (ibidem)
Fred Dervin 95
Furthermore, Birbili (ibidem) mentions the following aspects as being

problematic: “gaining conceptual equivalence” (especially in relation to
“emotional connotations” that a word might not have in another language),
“comparability of grammatical forms” (see the French pronoun on above),
and “making participants’ words accessible and understandable.” The
scholar offers certain solutions for dealing with these essential issues from
which we could learn (ibidem). A first technique is to use back translation
(translating an excerpt back into the original language) and to discuss the
choices made with others (translators, other scholars but also people who
know the context).
In a similar vein, González y González & Lincoln (2006) also propose
to include the data in the original language too in our articles for the sake
of transparency. The authors (2006) suggest answering in writing the
following questions: “What is the first language of the researcher? Can the
research be carried out adequately in the researcher’s language or would it
be more appropriate to use the language of the research participants? Are
the researcher and translator the same person? If not, what position is the
researcher taking toward the research? How does that differ from that of
the translator?”
The next point about the centrality of language is that of transcription,
an analytical tool we use to work with naturally occurring talk.
Transcribing data is always a political act in the sense that it consists in re-
presenting a social phenomenon in words only and is “only ever partial
representations of the talk (they) record.” (Liddicoat 2011: 27) If one
asked different researchers to transcribe e.g., the same interview, they
might all come up with different transcriptions (even individual
researchers) and, thus, with different results and different views on the
participants. Transparency is, thus, vital here.
In general, for a transcription to be fair, one needs to mention and
discuss the context where the interview took place (time, place, actors,
etc.). Standard practice in transcribing data when working with diversities
is to use orthographic transcription. For Liddicoat (idem: 32), this type of
transcription is not “a neutral representation of the language but rather it
contains a partial theory of the sounds and units of the language […] and is
based on a particular variety of the language.” This is why, when we
transcribe, we make certain decisions that need to be explained and
clarified.
For Chauvier (2011: 18), the semantic aspect of language (i.e. its
meaning, the transmission of a piece of information) is not the only aspect
to be taken into account. Other aspects contributing to the relation between
interlocutors (researchers-practitioners and participants) are also contained
in the words they use, express and co-construct. Liddicoat, thus, maintains
that we also need to make allowance for spoken language characteristics
found in the speech such as stress, intonation, volume and length of words
(ibidem: 33) to make our analyses even more valid. The scholar (ibidem:
39) also stresses the importance of including speech sounds in our
transcriptions (breathing, laughter, “smile voice” – a smile accompanying
a sound, etc.) as they play a meaningful role in the interaction we are
considering and, thus, in the meaning that is being co-created and
negotiated. Other elements such as pauses and silences are also important
in meaning-making and should be included when analysing naturally
occurring talk (ibidem). We need to make these explicit and use them
throughout our analyses of data.
My last point about language is related to the still widespread idea that
the researcher should not be heard in his/her research work, that the work
should not be “visceral.” Though, sometimes, denounced as “navel-
gazing” (Jarvie 1988), reflexivity and voicing are essential to re-imagine
both participants and researchers, to turn research into a real “political”
experience rather than a structural exercise (Bensa 2010: 21). Too often,
researchers who try to be reflexive, intersubjective and critical satisfy
themselves with mentioning either at the beginning, in the methodological
section of their work, or in the review of the results, the necessity to take
into account the fact that the results rely on the co-construction of
discourses and actions between the researched and the researcher, but they
fail to integrate it throughout the work. According to anthropologist Eric
Chauvier (2011: 156), the processes behind producing and constructing a
study should be considered as an object of the study to be examined to
make research “fairer.”
Conclusion: Towards Actors’ Diversities Competences?

To end this chapter, I would like to summarize the three central points that
I have proposed to make sense of education for diversities (but also
multicultural and intercultural education). These three aspects need to be
consistently and coherently be taken into consideration by all the actors
involved in such education: teachers, principals, teacher assistants, student
teachers and researchers.
- Criticality was presented as being the first component of what I wish to

call “diversities competences,” especially in relation to contested and
polysemic concepts that we use on the street, in practice and research.
Being critical towards our own “boxing” of our students through the
Fred Dervin 97
use of these terms is but the basis of working on education for

diversities. This also implies being aware and paying attention to
potential (implicit) discrimination, injustice and inequalities on
structural and individual levels (Hoskins & Sallah 2011: 114).
- Reflexivity relates to the constant attention that should be paid to
ideologies “lurking” behind how we conceptualise and do research, or
work with diversities in education. For Hoskins & Sallah (idem) this
also means “Critical thinking towards your own beliefs and actions and
towards others.” This entails analyzing one’s own discourses and the
co-construction of discourses with research participants that we
analyse in our work or actions. The notion of power difference
between us researchers/practitioners and our participants is also
essential here and must be taken seriously into account.
- Finally, language, without which the two previous elements are
impossible, must also be systematically discussed: do we encounter
problems when dealing with diversities linguistically? How do we
translate from different languages and how can we make this process
more transparent? What transcription systems are we using and are
they complex enough to help us include as many elements of the
interactions as possible?
Making sense of education for diversities from a renewed perspective

involves the competences mentioned above. Though they are not really
that new (anthropologists have already dealt with these issues for several
decades), it is the combination of these aspects that can make education
for diversities a fairer, less hierarchizing and complex place where
diversities can flourish.
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Crossings. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 1 (2): 1-12.
CHAPTER TWO
POLITICAL CONTEXT
LANGUAGE, SOCIAL CLASS, ETHNICITY
AND EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITY
KEVIN NORLEY
Based around ideas that education should be used as a tool for

transforming society and eliminating injustice, as opposed to preserving
structures of power and privilege that maintain the status quo, theories of
multicultural education began developing in the 1960s as a means to
challenging discriminatory policies and practices in education.
Whilst some have advocated the need for policies and practices to be
more inclusive of underrepresented groups through changes to the
curriculum that introduce diverse materials that reflect the experiences and
voices of the students, along with learning styles that facilitate student
centred learning, thus allowing each student the opportunity to reach their
full potential and to become socially and critically aware, others have
argued that the aim of multicultural education is to challenge people to
recognise and address the fact that, according to Gorski (2010), “problems
in education are themselves symptoms of a system that continues to be
controlled by the economic elite” and “schools consistently provide
continuing privilege to the privileged and continuing struggle for the
struggling with very little hope of upward mobility.”
According to Wilson (2002), multicultural education can give ethnic
minorities a greater sense of identity through allowing them to learn more
about their own culture’s contributions in subject areas not normally
covered in a traditional curriculum and in so doing, help to eliminate the
crux of stereotyping, prejudice, racism, and bigotry, and lead to the
reduction of fear, ignorance, and personal detachment.
However, opponents of multicultural education can point to how
schools and communities are becoming more and more divided along
racial and ethnic grounds, with research from the OECD (2011), for
example, showing that the UK’s school system is socially segregated, with
immigrant children clustered in disadvantaged schools.
In a project entitled Measuring Diversity at Bristol University, the
aim of which was to provide up-to-date and comprehensive information on
the complex, and sometimes sensitive, issue of ethnic breakdown in local
104 Language, Social Class, Ethnicity and Educational Inequality
authority schools in England to policy makers and researchers, Burgess,

Greaves & Speight (2010) concluded that there were patterns of divided
communities with pupils much more likely to attend school with people
from their own ethnic group. In Bradford, for example, the scene of race
riots in 2001, statistics showed that almost all pupils at 10 out of 28
secondary schools were from the same racial group whilst in another
example, figures showed that in Blackburn, four out of nine secondary
schools in the area attracted more than 90 per cent of students from a
single ethnic background. In further examples, statistics showed that in
Oldham, about 80% of pupils from the sizeable Pakistani and Bangladeshi
communities go to schools where they will meet few white pupils whilst in
Camden, North London, more than three quarters of Bangladeshi pupils go
to mostly non-white schools.
In the report, it is argued that children’s future attitudes and
perspectives on society are strongly influenced by their peer groups at
school and that naturally, if they play, talk and work predominantly with
children of their own ethnic background, then they will be less inclined
later in life to mix with and embrace people of other backgrounds and
alternative viewpoints. Furthermore, if people were to look around a
typical university campus (where there are predominantly educated young
people), they would observe people from different ethnic minorities
mixing and integrating to a greater degree than in colleges of further
education (where the young students are generally less well educated),
where there is a greater tendency amongst young people from ethnic
minorities to stick together, reflecting a general observation that the
further down the socio-economic ladder people are the greater is the ethnic
division.
At a segregation seminar, Nick Johnson (2007), the director of policy
for the Commission for Racial Equality (which preceded the Equalities
and Human Rights Commission) argued “Britain risks becoming a ‘mini
America’ dominated by racially determined schools” on the basis “those
schools with more control over their admissions selected advantaged
white, middle-class pupils who were more likely to succeed” and that as a
result, they were “a ‘ticking time bomb’ of growing racial segregation
waiting to explode.” Furthermore, Sir Trevor Philips (chair of the
Equalities and Human Rights Commission, which superseded the
Commission for Racial Equality in 2007) stated in a speech at an event
entitled How fair is Britain?, given on 11th October, 2010,
“multiculturalism has failed” and that “Britain is becoming an increasingly
segregated society.” Meanwhile, if we consider that in America, research
has indicated that ethnic minority students are disproportionately poor,
Kevin Norley 105
drop out of school, are suspended or expelled, and achieving far below
their potential relative to the ethnic majority (Bennett 1995), then it is
clear that any form of envisaged multiculturalism has not been realised. It
has been argued, however, by Padilla (2004: 130) that the focus of studies
on ethnic minority students has often been “from the perspective of their
failure in the education system, or how to improve our understanding of
factors associated with (under)achievement” and “few studies have
examined ethnic minority students with respect to their success in
education.”
Multicultural goals may be ambitious and noble, calling for the
transformation of society through changes to the education system, etc.
Nevertheless, how have such goals clearly not manifested themselves, why
has multicultural education not been as Wilson (2002) puts it, “the
potential catalyst to bring all races together in harmony” and how can its
goals be, or go some way towards being, achieved? This chapter argues
that the pathway to the aims of multicultural education, whether at an
individual level, institutional level or wider societal level, is best served
through a challenge to the dominant class culture, through its associated
language, where children are failing, and a deeper and broader
understanding of how, and why, society perpetuates entrenched advantage
through language denied to those from lower socio-economic groups.
Over recent years, successive waves of foreign immigration have taken
place within typical urban working class areas, such as the East End of
London that are synonymous with socio-economic deprivation,
overcrowding and low educational achievement, etc. Within the context of
this demographic transformation of British Society, which has seen an
ever increasing number of immigrants to Britain and with it, an increasing
linguistic diversity, it is even more important to have a greater
understanding of the existing dominant culture that those immigrants,
along with their culture and language, are being absorbed into, in order to
fully make sense of the trials and tribulations of the resultant multicultural
society. The dominant culture in these areas was that of the white working
class. Although, traditionally, working-class communities in the past
valued education, with the spirit of working men’s institutes and technical
colleges, etc., a study by Ofsted (1993), Access and Achievement in
Urban Education, raised concerns that increasingly high unemployment
levels following the demise of traditional industries in post-industrial cities
were impacting on old-fashioned support for education within those
communities, particularly where entire families were out of work. Prior to
becoming Tony Blair’s education advisor, Adonis & Pollard (1997) argued
that since the second world war, existing class divisions had widened, and
a new class division, namely the Underclass and the Superclass, had been
added on.
More recently, the head of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw (Paton 2012),
raised concerns that white working class boys in deprived areas were
growing up with no hope of a decent education or career because of an
anti-school culture promulgated by families that fail to set proper
boundaries or fully understand the difference between right and wrong. He
backed this up with evidence that white British boys from poor families
who qualify for free school meals lag behind fellow pupils throughout the
school system and achieve the worst results aged 16 of any ethnic group
apart from gypsy and traveller children.
With regard to ethnic minority achievement, the ability to succeed
within education is, of course, partly dependent on the culture from which
any particular group originates, but it is also partly dependent on, and
clearly also affected by, the culture into which they are immersed.
Research on ethnic minority achievement by Dustmann, Machin &
Schönberg (2010: 273) shows “at the beginning of primary school […]
ethnic minority pupils (with the exception of Chinese pupils) lag behind
white British-born pupils.” Then, the research (ibidem: 272-273), which
uses administrative data for all pupils in state schools (primary and
secondary) in England to “document and evaluate explanations of
achievement gaps between ethnic minority and white British- born
individuals in England” asserts that, “with the exception of black
Caribbean pupils, ethnic minority pupils gain substantially relative to
white British pupils throughout […] schooling.” Resulting from these
assertions, the research (ibidem: 273) concludes “conditioning in English
as a mother tongue substantially reduces achievement gaps” and that “the
impact of language declines as children become older.” However, the
research does not consider the degree to which ethnic minorities are
influenced by the type of English language they are immersed in or the
impact of social class on language development.
Differences between ethnic minority achievement, and reasons for
those differences, are explained in the Swann Committee (1985) which, in
its study based on the education of children from ethnic minority groups,
concluded that the reasons behind Asian pupils outperforming West Indian
pupils in schools lay within their respective cultures. It argued that Asian
families’ structure and community organization are stronger and tighter
knit than those of Afro-Caribbean communities, allowing Asian children
to have a stronger sense of identity and higher levels of self-esteem and
self-confidence, providing them with a firmer foundation on which to base
their educational success.
Kevin Norley 107
Furthermore, research by Sewell (2000) concerning the under

achievement of black people in education found, based on interviews with
black students themselves, that the increase in commercialization
surrounding the negatively perceived, non-academic aspects of Afro-
Caribbean culture was partly to blame for their underachievement and that
on the whole, black students saw enjoying black culture as more important
than doing well at school. Sewell also found that the culture of
underachievement in black education is matched by under expectations of
teachers. In addition, in looking at the history of how black and Jewish
people have become integrated into British society, Saggar (1998) argues
that black people have become more integrated in the British working
class whilst Jewish people have become more integrated in the British
middle classes.
Norley (2012: 161) argues that as EAL (English as an Additional
Language) learners will be influenced by the language they hear around
them, those minorities that are prevalent in urban, working class areas are
more likely to adopt non-standard English features and colloquialisms of
the culture into which they are suffused. This in turn, he argues, as with
native speakers from working class backgrounds, who use non-standard
English, affects the way in which such learners are able to achieve.
However, it is not just urban areas that are affected. A report by
Hollingworth & Mansaray (2012: 4, 5) from the London Metropolitan
University’s Institute for Policy Studies, gives examples of how migration
histories “complicate the ‘ethnic’ category further” due to “different social
class histories of different ethnic and linguistic communities.” The report,
in which they attempt to “identify which linguistic minorities are at a
‘disadvantage’ in education in England and to identify where they are
located,” highlights the fact that Britain is becoming more ethnically and
linguistically diverse every day, beyond London and urban areas typically
associated with multi-ethnic populations, and cites as an example how
“many of the widest attainment gaps” in education are “present in local
authorities with substantial Pakistani ethnic minority groups…who tend to
speak Urdu, Punjabi or Mirpuri and experience economic disadvantage.”
The report suggests, on the basis of this increasing diversity, that more
research is needed into the attainment and educational experiences of
ethnic and linguistic groups.
The correlation between social class, ethnicity and language is clearly
made by Honey (1997), who argues that schools have been failing
working-class and ethnic minority children through not insisting on the
exclusive use of Standard English; he states that:
“[...] to give access to standard English to those members of society who

have not acquired facility in it through their parents, is an important
priority in any society concerned with social justice and the reduction of
educational inequalities.” (Honey 1997: 5)
Entwhistle (1978: 32), in emphasizing the differences between the social

classes in terms of their different cultures and associated linguistic
differences, explains the difficulties that working-class children have
traditionally had in schooling as being partly due to “the inability of
working-class speech to support academic discourse.” Furthermore,
Bernstein (1964: 25), in studying social relationships and how they tend to
generate different speech systems (or linguistic codes), argued that the
failure of children from working-class origins to profit from formal
education was “crudely related to the control on types of learning induced
by a restricted code.” In outlining the difference between what he defines
as ‘elaborated’ and ‘restricted’ codes in terms of class structures, he states
that:
“[...] children socialised within the middle class and associated strata can
be expected to possess both an elaborated and a restricted code whilst
children socialised within some sections of the working class strata,
particularly the lower working class, can be expected to be limited to a
restricted code. As a child progresses through school it becomes critical for
him to possess, or at least be orientated towards, an elaborated code, if he
is to succeed.” (Bernstein 1964: 5)
The importance of the correlation between speaking and listening, and the
development of reading and writing skills was clearly illustrated (2010) in
a radio 4 interview with Sir Jim Rose, an ex-head of Ofsted, who was
commissioned by the department for Children, Schools and Families to
carry out an independent review of the primary curriculum, the largest
review of its type for forty years. During the interview, the focus of which
was to explore the effects of ‘word poverty’ on formal learning, it was
recognised that a high percentage of children in some areas of the country
started school with such poor language skills and such a limited
vocabulary, that they were not able to start reading. Sir Jim Rose went on
to attribute the lack of reading and writing skills amongst some school
children to the fact “reading and writing feed off speaking and listening”
and “if they can’t say it they can’t write it.”
It is apparent that pupils’ lack of language and reading skills
disadvantages them in their early education and that this disadvantage
deepens as they progress through their education and the gap between
them and those pupils from more middle class backgrounds, who have
Kevin Norley 109
more developed language skills, and hence more competent reading skills,
gets wider and wider.
The degree to which literacy skills can affect people’s individual lives
as well as the society in which they live is highlighted in a report by the
National Literacy Trust (2009: 2) which argues that a lack of literacy skills
“not only impacts upon an individual’s personal success and happiness,
but also affects their family, the community they live in, and society as a
whole.” The report, entitled Manifesto for Literacy (2009: 2, 3 and 4)
also goes on to state that those with poor literacy skills “earned less, voted
less, had lower aspirations, higher rates of family breakdown, and poorer
mental and physical health” and that as a result, literacy problems “cause
acute social, economic and cultural problems that undermine and divide
communities.” However, as stated in the Manifesto, “Literacy difficulties
are not spread evenly across the population; they are disproportionately
focused amongst certain groups, in particular groups with lower socio-
economic status.” In addition, Orr (2012) argues that:
“Britain has finally had its longstanding difficulties with literacy rubbed in
its face just as the money to tackle the problem is ebbing away. I feel so
angry that this failure has been ignored or denied for such a long time,
even though it has been apparent for many years. The left, on the whole,
has spent the last decade excusing an education system that lets down the
people whom it is supposed to care for most.”
However, within education, it is not just the literacy skills of students that
are of concern; The Nutbrown Review (2012) into early years’ education
and childcare qualifications reported that nursery staff and child minders
were being allowed to work at pre-school groups without demonstrating
even basic numeracy or literacy skills. Furthermore, there is the issue of
teachers in the post -16 sector being able to enter on to, and achieve, a
certificate in education (Post Compulsory Education) without the need for
a level two literacy or numeracy qualification, and then only having to
obtain it if, and when, they try and obtain QTLS (Qualified Teacher in the
Lifelong Learning Sector) status. With level 2 literacy and numeracy
qualifications, which until July 2012 was obtainable through passing on-
line tests consisting of forty multiple choice questions, QTLS status can be
applied for, entitling teachers to work in the compulsory education sector,
following recommendations from the Wolf Report (2011). As a result, this
low expectation of literacy skills amongst teachers, not surprisingly,
transposes itself into low expectations of their pupils, and goes some way
to explain the differential between pupils’ literacy, and hence exam
achievement, levels.
Year upon year it is reported that soon after formal education begins
bright working-class children fall behind in their education, and although
there has been a plethora of research and reports highlighting the fact that
pupils from deprived areas under-achieve (e.g., Ofsted 1993, National
Literacy Trust 2009), partly as a result of attending under performing
schools, there has been little accompanying research into how the use of
standard English, along with higher expectations of literacy standards can
be used as tools for the promotion of equal opportunity, social equality for
those children, and the goals of multicultural education.
The issues raised concern learners, within an educational or
professional environment, being able to utilize Standard English, whether
through speaking or writing, or both, for their own advantage, and hence
not being disadvantaged when it comes to accessing the curriculum.
It is clear that language use is determined by one’s socio-economic
status or social class/group (as well as age and gender), and the context in
which the language is used. However, I also believe that in order for
literacy to be a tool for providing greater equality of opportunity for all
regardless of socio-economic status or ethnic group, then the effects of
non-standard English use on the educational achievements of some social
and ethnic groups needs to be given greater consideration. Promoting the
principle of equality of opportunity is not enough when what is required
for the provision of equality of opportunity is not understood or provided
for. The results of this lack of understanding are all too apparent when we
see the consequences for the many people from lower socio-economic
groups who are left behind academically.
What is perceived of as poor or incorrect grammar and pronunciation
is passed on from generation to generation within the home environment.
Pupils entering the education system using non-standard English leave it
several years later (whether it be from school, FE College or training
provider) having rarely, if at all, had their use of non-standard spoken
English challenged or corrected where for academic purposes, it needed to
have been, a factor which, it can be argued, contributes significantly to the
cycle of failure that many users of non-standard English enter.
Education is not neutral with respect to inequalities in society and any
consideration of what is involved in counteracting disadvantage should
involve consideration of the origins of different groups of students. It has
been argued that education favours middle class students more than
working class ones on the basis that their system of values and culture
more closely identifies with that of the teachers and the educational system
they are in. Add to this arguments by Bernstein (1964), the National
Commission on Education (1993) and Hoggart (1958), concerning the
Kevin Norley 111
effects of culture, language aspirations and perceptions on working class

children in education, then the size of the disadvantage facing them
becomes accentuated.
Does not the fact that class society, and its effects upon people’s
education and life chances continues in spite of whatever Government
policies are in force and whatever changes are brought about within the
education system as a result, mean that in many ways, one system is the
concomitant of another? A case in point here is the continued failure of
working class children when the ‘tripartite’ system of schooling gave way
to comprehensivisation (McCulloch: 1998). Although it was hoped that
the introduction of comprehensive schools would lead pupils to have
“more flexible views on social class” and “break the class system of the
previous system” (Mortimore & Mortimore 1986: 5), the move towards
comprehensivisation of schools, which was aimed at creating greater
equality between the social classes came under attack for failing to meet
the needs of those for whom they were designed to help most, namely
working class children. As Gleeson & Hodkinson state:
“From the 1960s onwards, studies show the educational system, be it based
on grammar and secondary modern schools or on comprehensive schools
failing large numbers of young people, especially the less able of working
class origins.” (Gleeson & Hodkinson 1995: 14)
With regard to changes within comprehensive schools toward mixed

ability teaching, which were brought about in part to help reduce the
stigma for working class children placed in lower streams, research found
that teachers, in attempting to treat pupils the same, actually highlighted
differences between them by using teaching methods which were only
suitable for some and that pupils from the same social class background
tended to stick together (Ball 1986). Research also found that mixed
ability classes reduced the opportunity for pupils from working class
backgrounds to experience success as they were in competition with better
resourced and supported middle class pupils, and that such classes allowed
differences between pupils in terms of parental support and
encouragement, linguistic ability and social class culture to be accentuated
(ibidem). The issue of how schools help to reinforce class divisions was
likewise made quite forcibly by Adonis & Pollard (1997) when he stated
that:
“The comprehensive revolution tragically destroyed much of the excellent

without improving the rest. Comprehensive schools have largely replaced
selection by ability with selection by class and house price. Middle class
children now go to middle class comprehensives. Far from bringing the

classes together, England’s schools, private and state, are now a force for
rigorous segregation.”
In brief, a capitalist system relies on a lower working class, or underclass,

generally less educated and culturally diverse than people of other classes,
to carry out the more menial jobs, or indeed to be unemployed, and to act
as the lower strata of society to help maintain the positions of the higher
strata. With only so many professional, skilled and well-paid jobs
available, there is a certain logic to maintaining such a status quo. A more
socialist system, on the other hand, has its roots in the working class, and
historically oppressed and marginalized sectors of society. These diverse
sectors of society have a culture and the language they use to communicate
is part of that culture. To try and amend or criticise that language (even
though it would potentially benefit them and increase people’s chances of
a better education and expose them to a wider culture) is seen as an attack
on lower socio-economic groups rather than an attack on the injustices that
create them, and generally is not given due consideration.
Therefore, in effect, one system is the concomitant of the other in as
much there has been no clear cut desire or movement within departments
of education of political parties to challenge or improve the spoken
language of the working class.
A draft letter written by Norley (2012: 123) to his Member of
Parliament, based on what he perceives to be the correlation between
youth unemployment and the lack of some young people’s communication
skills and, hence, qualifications, outlines what he describes as “a
compelling case for elocution, and/or the constant and consistent
correction of grammar, to be introduced to all state schools” on the basis,
in part, that it would reduce the “dialectic mismatch, hence giving students
greater access to all parts of the curriculum.” In response to the letter, his
Member of Parliament included a letter from the Minister of State for
Schools, Nick Gibb, in which he states, “While recognizing the point Mr
Norley makes about elocution I believe it is important to give teachers the
freedom to teach without prescription from Whitehall.”
Why then, if one was to trawl the towns and cities of Britain, would
one hear people speaking non-standard English disproportionately
represented amongst the inner city schools, FE colleges, people on council
estates, people in traditional working class jobs, the service sector in
general, the unemployed, and those involved in gang culture and/or street
crime, along with their victims. There are, of course, many successful
working people, but for every sportsperson, businessperson, pop star or
actor/actress, etc. who makes it in their career, many more fail to achieve
Kevin Norley 113
to anywhere like their full potential, caused, in part, by their lack of

language and its effect on their academic and cultural development.
I would argue that it is not the so called middle class system of values
that are responsible for the failure of working class children (as is
sometimes perceived), more that it is the failure of many schools and
colleges, and policy makers, to bring working class children and their
associated culture into line with this middle class system of values (at least
in terms of language use and expectations) that is more likely to blame for
their failure. As Zera & Jupp argue:
“If we are serious about including people with a history of educational

failure, people for whom education is a second language, ethnic minority
groups, then we have to reproduce for them some of the things that the
middle class take for granted. Sooner or later we will have to recognise the
lack of a convincing strategy to combat educational failure. Sooner or later
the country will have to make changes to the sacrosanct mainstream so that
the norms for one group become the opportunities for all.” (Zera & Jupp
1999: 138)
There appears, however, to be resistance to this line of reasoning within

education based on the notion that one should not be judgmental,
undermine or seek to change another social class or cultural system of
values, whilst at the same time seeing elements of one’s own social class
or culture somehow as a barrier to success of another. This is in part due to
a problem that policy makers, managers, educationalists and teachers alike
have in education of trying to represent and promulgate a class of people
whom they themselves do not identify with. This, combined with the
aforementioned fact that some social groups exhibit a resistance to
education on the basis that they see it as reflecting the values of other
social classes (National Commission on Education 1993), only reinforces
the social class divide that exists within society and reflected in education.
Blame, however, does not need to be put on middle class values or
working class resistance to education, but neither does a complacent
attitude of language use (and its association with class culture) being of
equal worth when, generally speaking, one leads to greater academic
success in education, greater levels of attainment in post-16 education and
training, and greater life chances. Furthermore, it can be argued that, in
looking at the dominant class culture that is represented amongst those
who fail in education, ways need to be looked at to change that culture if
we consider that in general terms, class society exists as a result of deep
rooted historical and injustices, we must challenge not only the causes of
those injustices, but the consequences of the culture produced by those
injustices and not, through policies, educational or otherwise, which do not

address the issues, consolidate them or be in denial of them. Purves (2012)
argues that as children grow older:
“It is wicked not to emphasise the difference between chatty street slang
and formal, universally understood, clarity and correctness. It is cruel
because there is an adult professional world out there in which these
children must engage, and because the more vulnerable may come from
homes where they rarely hear, or read, any language related to that world.
One of the worst blights on British society is poor social mobility: if
you’re born poor, you’re likely to stay poor, get a job or none, live in poor
housing, eat poor food and die early [...]. If you’re born to an educated
professional family, however dim you are, the outlook is rosier. We all
know that this is a national disgrace, and all sorts of panaceas are offered.
But one of the best ladders out of deprivation is an ability to write and
speak clearly, pleasingly and with a confident command of language. This
does not mean sounding like Prince Charles, abandoning a regional accent
or using highfalutin literary language. Nor does it mean adopting the
meaningless jargon of snake-oil business pretentiousness [...]. It just means
getting an awareness of grammatical rules, clear meaning, suitable words
for particular uses and occasions [...].” (Purves 2012: 17)
Clark & Ivanic (1997: 55) have argued that schools’ literacy policies
exclude “powerless social groups [...] from contributing to the collective
store of knowledge, cultural and ideological activity.” Moreover, whereas
the children of middle class families are, generally speaking, able to
compensate for low literacy standards in schools, working class children,
again generally speaking, are not. The effects of parental social class
origin on their children’s education have been well detailed in the studies
by Douglas (1964) and Jackson & Marsden (1964). With such a disparity
between literacy and language standards of different social groups, it is
clear that the goals of multicultural education cannot be realised. However,
Gorski argues that:
“It is rare that any two classroom teachers or education scholars will share
the same definition for multicultural education. As with any dialogue on
education, individuals tend to mould concepts to fit their particular
contexts and disciplines.” (Gorski 2010)
However, what is generally agreed upon is the fact that the difference
between those who leave school with poor language skills and little in the
way of qualifications and the 7% of the population who go to private
school, and who are disproportionately represented amongst the highest
paid professions and society’s wealthiest people, is vast. Having vastly
Kevin Norley 115
different forms of spoken English within the education system, and all that
that entails in terms of its correlation with literacy standards, critical and
social awareness, and achievement is one way that allows some social
groups to achieve at the expense of others.
With recent research constantly and consistently suggesting that not
only is the gap between rich and poor in British society getting wider but
that the opportunities for social mobility between social classes are lower
now than at any time in the previous forty years, the issue of the continued
malaise of an education system and society that allows a substantial
minority of students to fail, needs to be addressed.
Low literacy skills, and their correlation with poor language and
communication skills thrive in an environment which is becoming
increasingly divided between rich and poor. As well as the link with
poverty, it has been argued that a disproportionate number of perpetrators
and victims, of street crime, including those involved in the 2011 summer
riots, are represented in those from lower socio-economic backgrounds
and have poorly developed verbal skills which can make reasoning with
others difficult. This quagmire is further complicated by the fact that
achievement gaps between groups that are ethnically and visibly different
have, as Dustmann, Machin & Schönberg (2010) comment, “the potential
to create social disruption, segregation and dissonance.” In general, amidst
the country’s festering inequalities, it is those who lack language and
literacy skills who are in greatest competition for work and resources,
supplying the needs of a society hooked on preserving social class through
political organisations, businesses, educational institutions and, of course,
that old chestnut, human nature!
Perhaps ironically, the goals of multicultural education, through which
equality of opportunity can truly be aimed for and realised, are best served
by standardization of language within an education context. The driver for
change should be literacy standards, including an understanding that,
regardless of a school’s location, or the social and ethnic make-up of its
pupils, standard English use will be expected, along with a substantial
challenge, particularly in areas of social deprivation and segregation, to the
culture of low expectations of teachers and pupils alike, and proponents of
the goals of multicultural education should embrace this change. Without
such changes, along with an understanding of how and why such changes
need to occur, and the tempering of political ideologies in such a direction
the goals of multicultural education cannot be realized.
As discussed earlier, multicultural education has not been without its
critics. Bennett (1995: 29), for example, argues “to dwell on cultural
differences is to foster negative prejudices and stereotypes, and that is
human nature to view those who are different as inferior.” However,

cultural differences do not have to be dwelt upon, but in some cases, it
could be argued, to be in denial of them, due to cultural sensitivities,
instead of challenging them, when evidence may clearly suggest that
attitudes towards education, determined by culture and expressed through
language and particular anti-social activities, that are negatively perceived
by the majority of other cultural groups, are disproportionately engaged in
by certain cultural groups, could exacerbate those negative prejudices and
stereotypes.
Measures need to be urgently taken in order to ameliorate the
increasing segregation and division, rooted in socio-economic status and
ethnicity, within society in general, and education in particular, that results
in communities living separate lives with little commonality. Although the
evidence for the relationship between language, social class, and
achievement is overwhelming, a small sample of which is detailed earlier,
further specific and comprehensive research needs to be carried out into
the correlation between the use of Standard English, and educational
achievement and specific goals of multicultural education. Within this
context, a framework can be set in which the correlation between spoken
English and the development of learners’ literacy skills and all that that
entails in terms of providing a greater access to curricula and a wider
culture, is investigated. If shown to be evident, innovations can be sought,
and changes implemented, to reverse the trend towards cultural separation;
a higher degree of integration can occur, along with improved life chances,
and the scene can finally be set for a move in the direction of the goals of
multiculturalism.
References
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Ball, S. (1986). The Sociology of the School: Streaming and Mixed
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Class. London: Falmer Press. 83-100.
Bennett, C. (1995) Comprehensive Multicultural Education: Theory and
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Burgess, S., Greaves, Ellen & Speight, S. (2010). Measuring Diversity in
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ations%20for%20quality%20-%20Nutbrown%20final%20report.pdf.
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Falmer Press. 124-134.
TWO MODELS OF EDUCATION
IN CROATIAN MULTILINGUAL
AND MULTICULTURAL SCHOOLS:
A CASE STUDY
LJUBICA KORDIĆ
Minority Languages and Education in Croatia

Education in Minority Languages (MLs) in Croatia has been especially
promoted after the Republic of Croatia ratified the European Charter for
Regional or Minority Languages in 1999.1 Croatian language policy
concerning the languages of national minorities living in Croatia is
determined by the Law on Education in Languages and Letters of National
Minorities passed in 2000. Under this law, there are three models of
education programmes concerning MLs in Croatia: Model A (all courses
are held in the ML), Model B (science subjects are taught in Croatian and
humanities in the ML), and Model C (Croatian is a language of instruction,
whereas the ML is an elective course, including learning history and
geography, music and arts of the mother country of national minority).
According to the Government’s Report on Implementation of the
Constitutional Law on National Minorities and spending of funds from the
State Budget for the needs of national minorities for year 2008, altogether
10,260 students were included in education programmes for national
minorities in Croatia in 2008. Model A, including about 9,000 students, is
mostly implemented in the pre-school and the primary school systems.
More precise data on the situation at all education levels concerning MLs
are offered in the Report of the Government of the Republic of Croatia on
the implementation of the Framework Convention on the Protection of
National Minorities of 20042. That year, in Croatia there were 30
kindergartens educating children in Italian, 6 in Serbian, 2 in Czech and
Hungarian, whereas the Jewish, Germans and Austrians were instructed in
one kindergarten each; 72 primary schools and 20 secondary schools had
their courses organized according to one of the three basic models of ML
education. In primary schools, 20 programmes were in Hungarian, 19 in
120 Models of Education in Croatian Schools
Serbian, 17 in Italian, 11 in Czech, 4 in Slovakian, and 1 in Ruthenian and

Ukrainian each. In 2004, in 20 secondary schools, ML courses were
organized mostly in Serbian (7), Hungarian (5) and Italian (4). In Croatia,
there are 4 faculties offering programmes for education of teachers of
MLs: the Faculty of Philosophy in Pula (Italian), the Faculty of
Philosophy in Zagreb (Hungarian and Czech), the Faculty of Teacher
Education in Zagreb (Serbian), and the Faculty of Teacher Education in
Osijek (Hungarian). In the primary schools of the Slavonia-Baranja
County, situated in northeast Croatia, mostly Model A and Model C of
ML education are applied. Using a case-study approach, this paper
explores the differences in application of the two models and their impact
on the status of the respective ML in its local community. Model A is
applied in the village of Tenja situated on the outskirts of the regional
centre Osijek, and Model C is applied in the village of Darda, 10 km north
of Osijek. Before presenting the features of application of the two models,
demographic and linguistic environments of the two communities are
described. Additionally, by means of a survey conducted among children
attending these models of education and their parents, the attitudes of the
minority population concerning the status and the future of their ML in
Croatia are explored with reference to the specific model of education and
ethnolinguistic features of their community.
Goal and Methodology

The goal of the paper is to explore the differences between the two models
of education of (and in) MLs in Croatia and the differences in attitude
towards a specific language between the young people included in these
two models of ML education and their parents in order to establish which
model achieves better results with respect to the quality of usage and the
status of ML in Croatia. The hypothesis was that better results would be
achieved in Tenja than in Darda because: (a) in Tenja, Model A is applied,
by which all courses are held in the ML, and in Darda, Model C, by which
the ML is taught as an elective course; (b) Tenja is a more homogeneous
community ethnically and linguistically than Darda. In many other
respects, the two communities are similar: both are situated near the
regional centre of Osijek, and their inhabitants migrate to Osijek to work
on a daily basis and live in similar social and economic conditions. The
methodology used in the first part of the paper is a combination of
descriptive method, analysis method, and the comparative method. The
second part relies on a survey conducted among students included in the
ML programmes and their parents. In this paper, only one segment of a
Ljubica Kordić 121
wider survey is used, which was developed within a larger European

project, the Penetration of Standard Languages in Multilingual Peripheral
Areas of Europe, conducted by Professor Sture Ureland from the
University of Mannheim (Germany). In the Conclusion section, the results
of that part of the survey are compared with respect to the model of ML
education and the ethnolinguistic structure of the respondents’ community.
Thus, this paper offers an overview of the subjective ethnolinguistic
vitality of two multilingual communities by presenting attitudes towards
MLs and show how it is influenced by objective vitality factors such as
demographic structure, legal status, economic strength, and the education
system in these particular linguistic communities (Ehala 2009: 124).
Demographic and Linguistic Picture of the Villages

of Tenja and Darda
Current language policy concerning the languages of national minorities
living in Croatia is determined by the Law on Education in Languages and
Letters of National Minorities of 2000. Education in MLs in Croatia has
been especially promoted after the Republic of Croatia ratified the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 19993 and
especially after publishing the National Framework Curriculum for
General Compulsory Education in Pre-primary, Primary and Secondary
School in 2008. The Constitutional Law on National Minorities of 2002
defines national minority as a group of Croatian citizens who traditionally
inhabit the territory of the Republic of Croatia and differ with respect to
their ethnicity, language, culture, and religion from other citizens.4 This
law guarantees national minorities the right to equal use of their language
in the representative and executive bodies of those local communities,
municipalities and counties in which a national minority makes up 1/3 of
the population. Local authorities are entitled to choose the model of
education in their primary and secondary school which they find most
suitable for the demographic, social and economic conditions, as well as
conditions connected with the teaching staff employed in the respective
community. In Croatia, there are 22 national minorities: Serbs, Slovenes,
Slovaks, Hungarians, Italians, Czechs, Jews, Germans, Austrians,
Bosniaks, Albanians, Russians, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Bulgarians,
Poles, Romani, Ukrainians, Ruthenians, Romanians, Turks, and Vlachs
(Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, purified version 2010). The war
events of 1991 concerning the rebellion of some of the Serbs who fought
for separation from the territory of Croatia as a newly established
independent state influenced a substantial decrease of Serbian population
in Croatia from almost 12% before the Homeland war of 1991 to 4.5%
today. According to the population census of 2001, the municipality of
Darda, including 3 smaller villages (Mece, Švajcarnica and Uglješ), was
inhabited by 7,062 inhabitants (Darda itself was inhabited by 5,394
persons). The national structure of the inhabitants is as follows: Croats
rank first (51.87%), followed by Serbs (28.43%), Hungarians (8.23%),
Romani (2.97%), Romanian (1.69%). Other minorities represent less than
1%: Germans, Bosniaks, Montenegrins, Slovaks, Slovenians,
Macedonians, Albanians, etc.5 A post-war ethnolinguistic structure of
Croatia (after 1991) was characterized by Croatian ethnic homogenization
(Živić 2007), which reflected on the Darda community, too. The most
striking change refers to the Serbian national minority, which, in 1991,
represented 37.42% of inhabitants of Darda. Because of intensive
emigrations after the war, the number of Serbs decreased to 28.43% and
the number of Croats increased from 35.77% to 51.87% (Turk & Jukić
2008: 199, 201). The percentage of Hungarians did not change, whereas
the number of Romani slightly increased to almost 3%6. In the village of
Tenja, the Serbs represent 30% of 6,747 inhabitants (the Croats share
65%). Before the war in 1991, the Serbs represented 54.5% and the Croats
36.7% of inhabitants of Tenja.7 The ethnic structure of Tenja changed to a
greater extent than that of Darda after the war: in Darda, the Serbian
population decreased by 9%, in Tenja, by 24.5%. According to Report on
Implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of
National Minorities issued by the Government of the Republic of Croatia
in February 2004, the most striking reasons for changes in the
demographic structure are the following: (a) territorial dispersion, which
contributes to the weakening and, eventually, breaking of ties within one
national minority; (b) movement of the population to cities and
urbanisation which causes breaking of ties based on indigenous economic
activities and breaking of ties with minority cultures; (c) population
migration, not only from villages to towns, but also interregional and
oversees migration, especially during and immediately after the war of
1991-1995; (d) higher level of education which allows higher social
mobility of members of national minorities; (e) mixed marriages as an
institute that polarizes the ethnic component of the society – this is very
typical for members of the Serbian national minority who live in
cities/towns and in areas that were not affected by the war; (f) weakening
of cohesive elements of the ethnicity which are being replaced by
identification with one’s professional or social group or regional affiliation
(citizens of Istria, Lika, Kordun, Dalmatia, Slavonia, Gorski Kotar); (g)
consequences of the war that was waged in Croatia between 1991 and
Ljubica Kordić 123
1995.8 The survey shows to which extent the models of education

influenced the attitude of the respondents towards their mother tongue, and
whether post-war demographic changes represent a significant variable in
the making up of their attitudes, which should be discernible from the
answers of older respondents.
Minority Language Education in Tenja and Darda

Primary Schools
According to the Law on Education in Languages and Letters of National
Minorities of the Republic of Croatia9, local communities inhabited by
minority populations have the right to choose the model of ML education,
which is most appropriate to the needs of the community and its
conditions concerning the teaching staff and general working conditions of
the respective school10. As mentioned at the beginning, three models of
ML education are applied in Croatian primary schools. In 2010, in
Croatian primary schools, the most common model was Model A11: it was
implemented in 38 primary schools, the languages of instruction being
Hungarian, Serbian and Italian. Model C comes next with 2,527 students,
and the languages taught are Albanian, Czech, Hebrew, Hungarian,
Serbian, Macedonian, Slovene, German, etc. Only one primary school
applied Model B, in which sciences are taught in Croatian and humanities
in the respective ML – in this case, Czech. Local authorities of Darda have
chosen Model C as most appropriate for their multilingual community and
the work conditions of their school. In this model, the ML is taught as an
elective course. The choice of the respective ML must be confirmed by the
parents. Once the agreement is signed, the child is compelled to attend the
courses in the ML (2-5 hours a week during the entire primary school
education). Apart from Serbian and Hungarian, these 5 hours a week
include 1 hour of Serbian or Hungarian national history and 1 hour a week
of national folklore of the two countries. In the school year 2009-2010,
there were 128 children in Darda attending the ML programme: 105
children attended the Hungarian ML programme and 23 children attended
the Serbian ML programme. Although there is a substantial number of
pupils belonging to the Romani minority in Darda, courses in Romani are
not held. As the principal of the school explained, the reason was the lack
of interest of the Romani population for those programmes. The reasons
the parents named were poor results of their children in regular courses
and poor social and economic conditions they lived in. In Tenja, Model A
was introduced right after Eastern Slavonia, separated during the period
1991-1995 by the Serbian paramilitary forces from the territory of the
Republic of Croatia, was peacefully reintegrated into the territorial body of

the Republic of Croatia. Since then, in every generation of this school
there was one class attending all the courses in Serbian. There is also a
folklore group fostering Serbian national songs, dances and culture. The
textbooks are mostly translations of Croatian books into Serbian, but
several books are printed in Serbia according to Serbian curricula. The
only precondition is that the book be approved of by the Croatian Ministry
of Education, Science and Technology. All the school documents are
bilingual, as well as the students’ certificates. In the school year 2009-
2010, there were altogether 130 students included in the ML programme in
the Primary school of Tenja.
Survey
In order to explore the impact of the two models of education on the
attitudes of the minority population towards their language, one segment
of a very complex survey (43 questions) is discussed in this paper. In
2010, the author of this paper conducted the survey in the two villages and
published a complex analysis of the complete survey in two separate
studies: Minority Languages and the Language Policy in the Rural Area of
Baranya (Croatia): A Case Study12 and Serbian as a Minority Language in
Croatia: A Slavonian Case Study13. Taking into account the purpose of the
present paper, only part of the survey dedicated to the attitudes of the
respondents is discussed with specific reference to the specific model of
education in these two multilingual communities. First, the demographic
structure of the respondents’ body is presented and then their answers are
analysed and compared: first, the answers of the children and their parents
in every village are analysed and compared. Additionally, the differences
in answers between the children included in two different models of
education are discussed. More positive answers are expected from the
Tenja group. As for the adult respondents, no significant difference in the
answers between both groups is expected. A noticeable difference in the
answers would indicate that variables like ethnic homogeneity of a local
community or political viewpoints of respondents influenced the
difference in attitudes.
Demographic Data
The first group of respondents are children attending the 7th and the 8th
grades of the primary schools in both villages. The sample of respondents
was rather small: in Tenja, there were altogether 15 students attending
Ljubica Kordić 125
school in Serbian (12 took part in the research), whereas, in Darda, 53

children attended the ML programme. Children are 14-15 years old,
mostly girls (in Darda 36 girls and 17 boys, in Tenja 7 girls and 5 boys).
As for the national minority of the Darda respondents, 21 respondents are
Serbs, 20 Romani, 6 Hungarians, and 2 Romanians. The Bosniak, the
Albanian and the German national minorities were represented by 1
respondent each. The parents of the children participating in this survey
made up the second group of respondents. Some parents did not want to
take part in the research, so there were altogether 52 respondents in this
group (11 from Tenja, 41 from Darda). All the parents from Tenja
indicated Serbian as their ML. They are mostly women, by education
mostly of secondary school level. As for Darda, 18 parents out of 41
claimed they were Romani, 11 Serbs, 5 Hungarians, and 2 Romanians,
whereas the Bosniak, Albanian and German nationalities were represented
by 1 respondent each. There were 2 respondents who declared having “no
nationality.” Twenty-three respondents were women and 18 men. Two
respondents have a high school education, 18 are qualified factory
workers, craftsmen or exercise other secondary school education-based
professions; the others are housewives. Because of the small sample,
standard statistic methods were applied: the method of descriptive analysis
and the F-test.
Attitudes of Students Attending Minority Language Programmes and

of Their Parents
The questions were: Do you like speaking your mother tongue (ML)? Do
you like speaking Croatian? Should your ML be more present in the media
and public life in Croatia? Should it be passed on to future generations?
At first, a general conclusion for both communities is drawn, and the
answers to every question are discussed separately. Then, the answers are
discussed and analysed with specific reference to the model of education
and specific ML. Additionally, differences in answers between children
and adults are compared and discussed, as well as possible differences in
answers between the two groups of adults.
Attitudes of the Tenja population (model A). In the Tenja sample, all
the students said they liked speaking their ML (Serbian). Out of 12
students, 11 like speaking Croatian, 1 student does not. As for the future of
their ML, 9 respondents think Serbian should be used more in public
media, and 3 choose to answer “I don’t know.” Eleven of them think their
ML should be passed on to younger generations; 1 student is indecisive.
All adult respondents say they like speaking Croatian, most of them (10
126 Modelss of Education in
i Croatian Schhools
out of 11, i.e. 90.9%) like

l speaking their ML (11 respondent does not
answer that question). Seeven parents (63.6%)
( answ wer their motheer tongue
should be ussed more in media
m and in public,
p and 4 aare indecisive (“I don’t
know”). Ninne respondentts (81.8%) thiink their languuage should beb passed
on to future generations; two
t responden nts think it shoould not (Figu
ure 2-1).
Children Parents
10 11 9
7
12 11 9 4 11
0 0
1 0 3 2
0 0
1
Figure 2-1. A
Attitudes of the minority
m populaation in Tenja aabout Croatian (CRO)
(
and Minority Languages (MLs)
We can seee that the atttitudes of thee respondentss about their ML and
Croatian as the official language
l are generally possitive. There was only
one responddent in the group
g of childdren expressinng a negativee attitude
about speakking Croatian. As for the future
f of the M ML, most resspondents
would like tto be exposedd to it more in the media (75% of chilldren and
63.6% of paarents). Both groups show even more ppositive attitud des about
their ML annd its preservaation for futurre generationss (92% of chilldren and
81.8% of paarents). It is immportant to mention
m that cchildren generrally have
more positivve attitudes toowards their ML
M than their parents: moree of them
like speakinng it, more of them
t think it should
s be usedd more intenssely in the
media and thhat it should be
b passed on to o future generrations.
Attitudess of the Dardda population (model C). M Most respondeents from
Darda like ttheir ML (38, i.e. 71.7 %), 14 respondennts say they do o not like
it, and one aanswers “I Som metimes like it.”
i Answers rrelating to Cro oatian are
more affirm mative: 50 resppondents (94.334%) say theyy like speaking g it, 2 say
they do not. One respondeent does not answer
a (Figuree 2-2).
Ljubica Kordić
K 127
Minority Langua
age Croat ian
50
38
1
14
2 1 0 0 0
I likee it I do
o not like it I sometimes li ke wer
No answ
it
Figure 2-2. A
Attitudes of childdren towards Minority
M Languaage and Croatiaan
As for the attitudes wiithin specific national grooups, children n with a

positive attittude towards their
t mother tongue
t mostlyy belong to thee Romani
nationality ((17 out of 20,, i.e. 85% of Romani childdren). Here, we w should
mention thaat two childrren and their parents whoo declared th hemselves
Romanians are, accordinng to the head dmaster of thhe school, meembers of
two Romanii families from m Romania. They
T say theyy do not like speaking
their ML, wwhich changess the previous proportion too 17 out of 22 2, making
77% affirmaative answers in the Roman ni population.. The percentaage is 3%
lower in tw wo other ethnnic groups: 14 4 out of 21 (i.e. 66.67%)) Serbian
children, resspectively 4 out
o of 6 (i.e. 66.67%)
6 Hunngarian childreen like to
speak their ML. Childrenn belonging to o the Bosniakk (1) and the Albanian
(1) nationaliities also like their mother tongue.
t On thee other hand, 6 Serbian
children (288.57% of all children speaaking Serbiann as their ML L) and 2
Hungarian cchildren (33.333% of the Hun ngarian childrren sample) do not like
speaking thheir mother tongue.
t Two Romanian children and 1 child
belonging tto the Germaan minority do d not like sspeaking theiir mother
tongue eitheer. When askeed if their ML should be moore present in n Croatian
media, 15 reespondents (28.3%) answerr affirmativelyy, 8 of them negatively
n
(15.09%), aand 28 responndents (52.83% %) are indecissive. Two resspondents
do not answ wer the questiion. Similarly y, the responddents are indeecisive on
whether theiir mother tonggue should be passed on to future generations (27,
i.e. 50.94%)), 23 of them m (43.39%) haave a positivee attitude tow wards that
idea, and 3 rrespondents do d not think thheir mother toongue should beb passed
128 Modelss of Education in
i Croatian Schhools
on to futuree generations. We can con nclude that thhe respondentts mostly

heir language and Croatian, but they
have a posittive attitude toowards both th
are indecisivve whether it should
s be morre present in tthe media or whether
w it
should be paassed on to fuuture generatioons. It shouldd be noted thatt children
attending the education prrogramme acccording to Moodel A in the village
v of
Tenja (wherre the ML is the language of instructioon) have moree positive
attitudes towwards the preeservation of their mother tongue in th he future:
75% of children would liike to be expo osed more to their mother tongue
t in
the media, aand 92% thinkk that it shouldd be passed onn to future geenerations
(Figure 2-3)).
Yes N
No I do no
ot know Noo answer
28 27
23
15
2 3
0
Should yyour ML be ussed more in Should yourr ML be passe

ed to
the media?? future ggenerations?
Figure 2-3. A
Attitudes of childdren towards th
he future of Minnority Languagees in
Croatia
As for the parents of thhe Darda children, their aattitudes towaards their
respective MML seem to be b more positive than thos e of their chiildren: 36
out of 41 paarents (i.e. 877.8%) say theey like speakiing their ML (4 adults
0 (i.e. 97.8%) say they like speaking
report they ddo not like sppeaking it), 40
Croatian, annd only 1 respoondent (an Orrthodox priest by profession n) says he
w compare these answers tto those given
does not likke it. When we n by their
children (711.7% of childrren like speak king their ML,, 94.34% like speaking
Croatian), w
we can see thatt the attitudes of the parentss towards theiir ML are
more positivve than those of their child dren by 16%. When we an nalyse the
attitudes cooncerning thee future of their ML iin Croatia, 21 adult
respondents (i.e. 51.2%) think
t it shouldd be more preesent in Croatiian media
Ljubica Kordić 129
in the future, and 32 (i.e. 78%) think it should be passed on to future

generations. In the sample of children, the dominating answer to both
questions is “I don’t know” (52.83%, and 50.94%, respectively).
Conclusions
The comparison of the results indicates that children in Darda are
linguistically more assimilated by the Croatian speaking community than
those living in Tenja. The most probable reason is that the language of
instruction in school is Croatian, the ML being only an elective course,
and that Darda is a less homogeneous community ethnically and
linguistically than that of Tenja. One would think that the answers by the
Romani children, who do not attend any classes in their ML, could be a
significant factor of influence. But, if we separate the answers by children
attending Serbian ML classes and compare them to the answers given by
the Tenja children (Serbian language only), the results do not change
substantially. The children from Tenja have a more positive attitude
towards their mother tongue (100%) than children from Darda belonging
to the Serbian nationality (71.4%). On the other hand, 28.6% of children
who indicated Serbian as their ML in Darda say they do not like speaking
their mother tongue. Also, most of them are indecisive whether their
mother tongue should be more present in the media (59.1% say “I don’t
know,” 18.2% answer “No” and 22.7% say “Yes”). The children from
Tenja (Model A) show a more positive attitude in their answers: 58.3%
want more broadcasts in their mother tongue in the media, 42.7% are not
sure. As for the necessity of passing their mother tongue on to future
generations, the children from Tenja are very positive (91.7%), whereas
only 45.5% of Darda children answer affirmatively. This difference in
attitudes between children attending different education programmes
indicates that the status of the ML as a language of instruction more
positively influences attitudes of children towards their mother tongue
than when it is taught as an elective subject. Other factors of positive
influence, as shown by the example of Tenja, are ethnolinguistic
homogeneity of the community and motivation of its members to preserve
their mother tongue and their national identity – most probably caused by
socio-political reasons. This is confirmed by the answers of adult
respondents from both communities: answers of the Tenja children are
slightly more affirmative than those of their parents, but the answers to all
four questions by parents from Darda are obviously more affirmative than
those by their children. If we compare the answers by the two groups of
adult respondents, the relationship is as follows: all the parents from Tenja
like speaking Croatian, 90.9% like speaking their ML. In Darda, ML

97.8% parents say they like speaking Croatian, 87.8% parents say they like
speaking their ML; 63.6% adult respondents in Tenja and 51.2% in Darda
answer their mother tongue should be used more in public media; 81.8%
of Tenja parents think their language should be passed to future
generations, and in Darda 78% of adult respondents are of the same
opinion. We can conclude that the model of education offering all
instructions in ML positively influences the attitudes of the young
generation towards their ML and the need for its preservation in Croatia.
Older generations of ML speakers generally have positive attitudes
towards their ML and express the need to preserve it for the future
generations, but the answers indicate that these attitudes are slightly more
affirmative in ethnolinguistically more homogeneous communities than in
communities inhabited by people belonging to different ethnicities and
cultures. These results confirm the initial hypothesis that better results are
achieved by the Model A of ML education. They point that it is necessary
to introduce in the institutional education of all multicultural communities
the model according to which all instructions are held in the respective
ML(s). Substantial financial means and adequately educated teaching staff
are necessary preconditions that should be provided for by the Croatian
government in the future even in complex multilingual communities like
that of Darda if we want the idea of preserving multilingualism and
cultural diversity as one of the highest values of the European community
of peoples and nations come through.
Notes
1. Law on Ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority
Languages. [1997]. International Bills 18.
2. Izviješće Republike Hrvatske o provođenju Okvirne konvencije za zaštitu
nacionalnih manjina [Report of the Republic of Croatia on Implementation of
the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities]. (2004).
Zagreb: Vlada Republike Hrvatske.
3. Law on Ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority
Languages. [1997]. International Bills 18.
4. The definition is interpreted by the author of this paper.
5. Darda. Online : http://www.hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darda.
6. http://www.vlada.hr/nacionalniprogram/romi/content/view/14/27/lang.hrvatski.
7. Stanovništvo Prema Prisutnosti/Odsutnosti U Naselju Popisa, Po
Naseljima, Popis 2001. Online:
http://www.dzs.hr/Hrv/censuses/Census2001/Popis/H01_01_03/h01_01_03_zu
p14-3123.html.
Ljubica Kordić 131
8. Government of the Republic of Croatia. (2004). Report on the Implementation

of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
Online: http://www.dijete.hr/en/reportsdoc/other/doc_download.
9. Zakon o odgoju i obrazovanju na jeziku i pismu nacionalnih manjina [Law on
Education in Languages and Letters of National Minorities]. NN 51/00, 56/00.
10. Zakon o odgoju i obrazovanju na jeziku i pismu nacionalnih manjina. Online:
http://www.zakon.hr/z/318/Zakon-o-odgoju-i-obrazovanju-na-jeziku-i-pismu-
nacionalnih-manjina.
11. Government of the Republic of Croatia. (2010). Report on implementation of
the Constitutional Law on National Minorities and spending of the funds from
the State Budget for the needs of national minorities for year 2010. Online:
http://www.public.mzos.hr/Default.aspx?ar=113&sec=3154.
12. Kordić, Ljubica (2012). Minority Languages and the Language Policy in the
Rural Area of Baranya (Croatia): A Case Study. Jezikoslovlje 13/2 (in print).
13. Kordić, Lj. Srpski kao manjinski jezik u Hrvatskoj - slučaj Slavonije [Serbian
as a Minority Language in Croatia - A Slavonian Case Study]. In Lelija
Sočanac (Ed.), Pravni i lingvistički aspekti višejezičnosti. Zagreb: Nakladni
zavod Globus (in print).
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ENGAGING MULTICULTURAL STUDENTS
IN A COSMOPOLITAN CURRICULUM:
LIVING VICARIOUSLY
THROUGH RESEARCH PROJECTS
NAGHMANA ALI
Introduction
Globalization entails “the compression of the world” and “the
intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole” (Robertson 1992:
9). In Globalization of Education, Spring (2009: 3) states that the “growth
of worldwide educational discourses” aims at “developing human capital,
lifelong learning for improving job skills and economic development.”
Spring further explains how networks of multinational corporate
companies which aim to maximize their profit churn out tailor-made
potential employees through standardized testing and teacher training
programmes which are “knowledge-rich, assessment driven, and
community connected” (ibidem: 49). The World Bank, in particular,
encourages a type of learning in which “students learn from each other and
their learning is connected to the world outside of school” (ibidem: 48).
The globalized educational scenario with its pluralist educational aims
appears singularly noble at the outset but, if looked at closely, it produces
batches of employable individuals who are culturally diverse, yet
peripherally connected for economic reasons. Globalization is, thus, often
accused of homogenizing humanity under the guise of equality for
economic purposes, when it tends to ride roughshod across cultural
diversity and individuality.
An offshoot of mass migration and worldwide globalization is the
emergence of multicultural societies that are increasingly diverse.
Multiculturalism manages diversity by putting people in their respective
ethnic enclaves, policing the cultural boundaries of those enclaves, and
interpreting the lived experiences of diversity in the light of people’s
respective ethnic orientations. Seeking to empower minority communities,
134 Multicultural Students in a Cosmopolitan Curriculum
multiculturalism as a polity tends to disenfranchise individuals by

diminishing their unique contributions to the mainstream culture, while
delegating authority to community leaders who fuel conflicts and strife in
the name of securing their cultural and ethnic boundaries. Thus,
multiculturalism inadvertently reveals itself to be a divisive force on the
global terrain because it relies on preserving differences among world
communities, and individuals derive their social status merely through
group membership. Such collectivism seldom reaps tolerance and
understanding towards other cultures. The need of the time is to take
multiculturalism a step further and encourage a cosmopolitan sensibility in
our global citizens so that they are able to tackle the challenges posed by a
conflict-ridden multicultural world. According to Hansen (2008),
“Cosmopolitanism differs from multiculturalism and pluralism because,
unlike the latter, the cosmopolitan does not privilege already formed
communities. It seeks to defend emerging spaces for new cultural and
social configurations reflective of the intensifying intermingling of people,
ideas, and activities the world over.” (ibidem: 294) Hollinger (2002: 231-
232) succinctly states, “Cosmopolitans are specialists in the creating of the
new, while cautious about destroying the old; pluralists are specialists in
the conservation of the old while cautious about creating the new.”
Theoretical Framework: Cosmopolitanism

as a Curriculum
Originating from the Stoic Philosophers in Hellenic times, the term
“cosmopolitanism” in its ideal form expresses the notion that all human
beings – regardless of their national, religious, cultural or political
allegiances – should be seen as members of the world community. The
Stoics established an educational system, which nurtured a moral and
political consciousness that transcended national, ethnic, religious or
political affiliations. According to Craven Nussbaum (1996: 11), the Stoic
philosophers considered giving one’s own traditions “special salience in
moral and political deliberations” as “both morally dangerous and,
ultimately subversive of some of the worthy goals patriotism sets out to
serve.” An inclination towards ethnocentrism for Stoics was deemed
morally dangerous because it reinscribed the critically unexamined belief
that one’s own culture and ideology were perfectly natural and rational,
and subversive because it neglected the fact that, when it came to broader
human concerns, the local interests would win out. The imminent need to
respond to potential strife, rupture, and fragmentation around the globe
necessitates the adoption of a cosmopolitan orientation in our educational
Naghmana Ali 135
endeavours. In other words, teachers as one of the 4 stakeholders in

Schwab’s (1969) curricular commonplaces (the other three being learners,
subject-matter, and milieu), can negotiate a classroom curriculum where
students could cultivate a cosmopolitan sensibility that assures them that,
while their rich cultural traditions root their identities, these very traditions
could also be a source of conflict if perceived uncritically. This is not to
say that, by adopting a cosmopolitan sensibility, one ignores one’s local
issues but that he/she would then interpret those issues in light of the ever-
changing universal imperatives which not only transform international
interests but also individuals’ subjectivities. Hansen (2008: 299),
advocating for a cosmopolitan curriculum to be evolved in a classroom
context, argues “Curriculum as cosmopolitan inheritance is an educational
idea. It denotes a dynamic, purposive, if also unpredictable transaction
between student and what has given life in the first place to the subject
matter at hand.”
Encouraging critical reflexivity in students could help develop
“epistemic virtues” (Rizvi 2009) to help us be cognizant of the cultural and
economic connectivity that binds us with the globalized world. Rizvi
(ibidem: 261) defines epistemic virtues as those “habitual practices of
learning that regard knowing as always tentative involving critical
exploration and imagination, an open-ended exercise in cross-cultural
deliberation designed to understand relationalities and imagine
alternatives, but always from a position that is reflexive of its epistemic
assumptions.” Rizvi further elucidates that these “epistemic virtues are
best developed collectively, in transcultural collaborations, in which local
problems can be examined comparatively, linked to global processes.”
(idem)
William Pinar (2009) offers a refreshing notion of what
cosmopolitanism means for education. Since a cosmopolitan sensibility
does not constitute a set of defined characteristics, Pinar rejects the idea of
a definite institutional coursework to attain it. For him, “a curriculum for
cosmopolitanism cultivates comprehension of [...] self-knowledge that
enables understanding of others” (Pinar 2009: vii). Pinar’s
cosmopolitanism has an element of humanity that rests on a “worldliness”
(ibidem: ix), which is cultivated through a thoughtful self-reflection of
one’s own subjectivity and a commitment to the world at large. As Pinar
(idem) argues, “[s]tudying the alterity of actuality cultivates
cosmopolitanism [...]. Its cultivation constitutes a self-reflexive discipline
of self-overcoming; it may even involve working against oneself” (ibidem:
viii). Cosmopolitanism is about the ethics of negotiating the interstices
between the universal and particular, the local and the global (idem).
Pinar’s notion of cosmopolitanism resonates with Appiah’s (2005) “rooted

cosmopolitanism,” which advocates a simultaneous affinity for the local
and the global by embracing a desire to understand and learn from each
other’s differences. Appiah (ibidem) argues that cross-cultural encounters,
despite their inherent imperfections, could engender aesthetic appreciation
of each other’s cultures. Moreover, he believes that cosmopolitanism has
two components: “one is the idea that we have obligations to others [...],
the other is that we take seriously the value not just of human life but
particular human lives” (ibidem: xv). This emphasis on the particular is
echoed in Pinar’s (idem) work on cosmopolitanism and education, which
emphasizes the recognition and understanding of one’s subjective
experiences in the world. Hansen’s (2008) idea of “cosmopolitanism as
inheritance” is a trajectory of Pinar’s notion of understanding one’s
subjective experiences since those experiences are the result of one’s fluid
identity coming in contact with various cultures and identities, and
undergoing change. A cosmopolitan curriculum would, therefore, be
decidedly different from a multicultural or an international one since,
according to Hansen, it is not designed by amalgamating different
“inheritances” from different communities in order to accord them
recognition in a classroom. It would be a “deliberative” rather than a
“dogmatic” curriculum about what students study. In fact, for Hansen
(ibidem), it is not about the content so much as it is about adopting a
cosmopolitan “perspective or orientation as it influences people’s
reception and response to content.” (ibidem: 297)
In resonance with Rizvi’s (2009) idea of epistemic virtues coming
alive in transcultural collaborations is Hansen’s (2008) notion of
educational inheritances shared by students in a classroom environment
where they actively participate in discussing a text, for example, or even
sharing an experience. Hansen (ibidem) defines educational inheritance as
“a dynamic amalgam of convictions, values, ideas, practices, doubts, and
even hopes and yearnings” (ibidem: 298). He further points out that “[t]o
assimilate an inheritance educationally constitutes a process whose shape
and substance are always in motion. That process encompasses thinking,
imagining, questioning, inquiring, contemplating, studying, and deciding.”
(ibidem: 298-299). In other words, when students undergo these heuristics
in a classroom interaction, they not only add to the cumulative world
heritage however little their contribution might be, but they also actually
become part of the cultural heritage of the human race.
Naghmana Ali 137
Context of the Study

My university is an American accredited university near Dubai in the
United Arab Emirates (UAE). I will discuss a snapshot of a component of
an intensive academic writing course that was established to enhance the
writing abilities of students to be at par with the Freshman Composition
level in the American Liberal Arts curriculum. The students for this
Honours pilot programme were picked based on their outstanding
performance in their 100 level writing courses, the evidence for which was
provided by students in the form of a portfolio. After a rigorous selection
process, 14 students were selected from about 50 who had applied for this
programme. Even though it is an ESL environment in the Middle East,
these students had received their secondary school education from private
schools following American curriculum; hence their proficiency in English
was almost the same as that of a native speaker’s. These students ranged
from 17 to 22 years, and they were from different countries such as Egypt,
Bahrain, the UAE, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, India, and Pakistan.
A word about the hybrid identity of my students would be pertinent
here. Hybrid identities are conceivably a by-product of mass-migration,
multiculturalism, and globalization. Students at this American university
are usually of mixed origins and, while their hybrid identities and their
global citizenship makes them concerned about issues such as the violation
of human rights, global sustainability, and equitable distribution of wealth
among nations, through their ethnic allegiances they are critically mindful
of the Westernization that is fast infiltrating their communities. Vandrick
(2011) discusses the general characteristics that one is likely to encounter
nowadays in multicultural students in most American universities:
- “These students are part of new global economic and cultural elite.
They have lived, studied, and vacationed in various places throughout
the world; they may carry passports or permanent visas from more than
one country; their parents may have homes and businesses in more
than one country; they may speak several languages; they have often
been educated in Western high schools – frequently boarding schools –
and colleges. They have always been affluent, well-travelled
international students studying in the United States and other Western,
English dominant countries. [They] are distinguished and defined by
first, having lived and studied in at least three countries, second, being
affluent and privileged; and third, exhibiting a sense of global
membership [...]. I call these young people students of the new global
elite (SONGEs, for convenience).” (Vandrick 2011: 160)
- While the students at my university do not subscribe to the linguistic

and socio-cultural background of Vandrick’s (ibidem: 162) students of
the new global elite (SONGEs), most of the affluent youths in the UAE
share all three characteristics that make them an exclusive class of
students with unique traits: hybridity, recombinant identities, and
cosmopolitanism. In Post-colonial literature, hybridity has become
synonymous with a third space free of the politics of polarity and
binarisms that characterized colonial discourse. It also entails a notion
of a multilayered identity resulting from an inclusion of various
cultures and languages in the global lives of people who exhibit
hybridity. My students’ hybrid identities may not help them easily
“ignore or deflect negative experiences such as racist comments”
(ibidem) yet their affluence entitles them to a comfortable status that
roots their recombinant identities. Jacquemet (2005, in Vandrick 2011)
posits, “recombinant identities produce communicative practices based
on multi-presence, multilingualism, and decentred political/social
engagements spread over transnational territories” (ibidem). Owing to
their affluence, it is common for my students and their families to
frequent Europe and America for vacations. Vandrick further explains,
“[...] each experience in a different country or culture, and each border
crossing between and among these countries and cultures adds a layer
to an identity that is constantly shifting and re-forming” (ibidem: 163).
This tendency results in cosmopolitanism which is defined as “feeling
at home in the world” and “interest in and engagement with cultural
diversity by straddling the global and the local spheres in terms of
personal identity.” (Gunesch 2004, in Vandrick 2011)
The students in this case study were highly motivated because the Honours
programme offered them the opportunity to complete 2 semesters’ worth
of work in one semester with double the number of contact hours and
double the amount of work. Owing to the rigorous nature of the course, the
teachers (it was a team taught course, so another teacher and I taught it
three times a week) decided that the course content should be made more
learner-centred and more attractive than its pre-existing one-semester
counterpart. The first 15 minutes of the 2-hour long session was therefore
devoted to critiquing a student’s visual, which was uploaded on eLearn (a
blackboard application) by the student ahead of time. First the student
would make a short presentation about the visual, and then comments were
solicited from others. Some of the visuals would be discussed in detail in
the section called “the study.”
Naghmana Ali 139
Research Method
Schwab (1969) proposes four variables, which he calls commonplaces that
factor in to make a viable curriculum: learners, teachers, subject matter,
and milieu. The fifth commonplace was later implied to be the self-study
research method that teachers as reflective practitioners continuously
engage in to improve upon their pedagogical practices (Clarke & Erickson
2004). Self-study as a research method is a critical study that coalesces
around two themes: power relationships and meaning making (Pinnegar &
Hamilton 2009). Thus, it really depends upon the teacher to relinquish a
certain amount of control in class and generate a democratic classroom
environment in the interest of initiating genuine discourse from students.
La Boskey (2004, in Pinnegar & Hamilton 2009: 71) outlines “five
elements of self-study: it is self-initiated and focused; it is improvement-
aimed; it is interactive; it includes multiple, mainly qualitative methods;
and it defines validity as a process based on trustworthiness.” Dialogue is
a hallmark of self-study, whether it is a dialogue with learners in the form
of class discussions or a dialogue with one’s colleagues in collaboration,
for improvement of one’s pedagogical practices. This case study utilized
the technique of keeping an open dialogue both among the students, as
well as us colleagues. The use of an open dialogue took the form of such
strategies as peer reviews, journals, blogs and, of course, reflective class
discussions. This paper looks at one of the strategies – that of reflective
discussions – used for critiquing visuals. Visual presentation projects, as
discussed in the previous section were merely a part of the writing course
under review. The data for this study is mainly derived from the
reflections that students had about visual presentations and, of course, my
class observations. One student, when asked to reflect about critiquing
visual presentations in hindsight says: “A lot of fun! Really helped the
class gel together and should definitely be a permanent fixture for writing
courses. I must say I was quite pessimistic about life at this university
before WRI209 and the presentations played a huge part in changing that
perception.” Another student from the school of Architecture and Design
in this University is of the opinion “These (visual presentations) were my
favourite parts of class. I have learned more about expression and the
world around me through those than I did from anything else we did all
semester. It gave us a chance to exercise presentation skills and a range of
other important skills. The ensuing discussions were very stimulating and
a good transition into the day’s lesson.” A third student believes “These
[visual presentations] were great. I feel visual critiques really helped me in
becoming a better critical thinker. It helped me identify hidden elements in
art and videos. I would recommend this for future classes.” Yet another
student, an engineering major, speaking about these visual presentations
thought: “This was a great bonding experience, and pretty fun too
considering we have quite a long class. It helped us get to know every
person as individuals and their interests, and the fact that wasn’t narrowed
down to a certain subject was very interesting.” And yet another one says:
‘Greatest idea ever! I actually looked forward to these every class. They
really changed the class’s atmosphere, which was helpful in a 2-hour class.
They were fun and educational at the same time, which is the perfect
combination.’ These comments are a glimpse of just how popular the
visual presentations were in forming a bond not only among students but
also between the teachers and the students, because teachers asked
relevant questions to further enhance the quality of discussions and
encourage critical thinking. Such rich classroom interaction echoes
Hansen’s (2008: 298) belief that “education depends upon socialization on
having entered a way of life and become a part of it. However, from a
cosmopolitan perspective education has to do with new forms of
understanding, undergoing, and moving in the world.”
Results: Some Visual Presentations

I will discuss a few of the presentations to give a glimpse of the type of
pictures students shared with their classmates and teachers.
- A picture of an Afghani woman clad in a shuttlecock-shaped burqa

(hijab) sitting on the floor and surrounded by many pigeons. Since the
woman was covered from head to toe, we could not see anything of her
person, but the student’s purpose behind sharing this with the class was
to contrast the freedom that the pigeons had and the apparent lack of it
in that woman’s life. The student’s critique generated a discussion
prompted by teachers about the degrees of freedom that women in our
respective cultures had. As we were all from different cultural
backgrounds and ethnic origins such as Arabs, South Asians, and
American, our concept of freedom also varied. Questions such as the
following were generated:
• What constitutes freedom?
• To what degree can we allow our parents/spouses to direct our
lives?
• Does the woman in burqa consider the covering to be her prison,
or does she feel emancipated of the judgment she would otherwise
be subjected to if not covered?
Naghmana Ali 141
• Isn’t giving in to the society’s norms about beauty curtail our

freedom?
• Was she forced by her family members to take up the burqa?
• Does she feel trapped in that covering?
A free discussion prevailed among us about the possibilities of having
our freedom curtailed by others in our respective cultures and societies.
Various stereotypes around Muslim women and veils were discussed,
and even the French law forbidding Muslim girls from wearing a scarf
was brought up. As the majority of the class was Muslim, the students
expressed indignation at such an infringement of human rights in a
developed country such as France. Being a Pakistani-Canadian, I cited
instances where human rights were prioritized in Canada. Some
students talked about how, if a government is very strict in
implementing Islamic laws and imposes hijab (covering) as a
mandatory measure, women just wear it while they are in that country
and take it off on the plane when travelling abroad. So, the discussion
which was the result not only of the visual presentation done by the
student but also of questions that were generated by the students and
teachers, connected cultural backgrounds, histories, legislations, and
the abstract notion of freedom into a web of the good and the bad, the
immediate and the distant, all in a span of 15-20 minutes. In other
words, the exchange of ideas about the visual presentation changed our
subjectivities to a certain extent, and made us feel somehow connected
when students differed with each other about different points under
discussion; it was diversity and homogeneity all rolled into one. We
were diverse because we all spoke from our experiences and different
cultural backgrounds, and homogeneous because we were connected at
the human level with our differences of opinion.
- Retrieved from www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-17449958 was a 100-
year-old collared photograph, which was a self-portrait of by a Russian
aristocrat called Sergei Mikhalovich Prakudin-Gorski was a piece
among 5 others that he had done using a unique photographic
technique he had developed himself. It was an amazing feat at the time
in photochemistry. Students marvelled at the bright colours and the
natural scenery, which portrayed the Russian culture of the time. Even
the facial expressions of people in the other 4 pictures were life-like.
Students were fascinated by the life style of the people living at the
time Russia was an empire. The discussion veered off in the direction
of what life must be like for the peasants who were shown in the
pictures. A student from the school of architecture and design observed
that the vibrant colours made the pictures look modern not a century
old. A comparison was made between the Russian empire and

communist Russia later on. Advancement in technology and
photography were discussed as a student revealed how she loved to
take pictures of people when travelling to different countries. Another
one talked about the novel War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy that she was
currently reading and this picture reminded her of that Russian culture.
- The caption on the third picture that a student had put up said “Pulitzer
Prize winning photograph taken in 1994 in Sudan by Kevin Carter.
The picture depicts a famine-stricken child crawling towards a United
Nations food camp located 1 km away. The vulture is waiting for the
child to die so that it can eat it. The picture shocked the whole world.
No one knows what happened to the child. Three months later, the
photographer committed suicide because of depression.” Students
discussed the tyranny of Nature and the helplessness of the child
depicted. The picture had a sobering effect on all, as each one of us
thought what the child must have been feeling at the time, or that we
should count our blessings that we have enough to eat. Discussion also
centred on the fact that the rich countries were getting richer and the
poor countries poorer. The picture was educative to say the least about
the world we had inherited.
- A picture of a Filipino girl wearing a fuchsia bikini on the cover page
of FHM magazine was shown surrounded by black girls in bikinis.
Everyone wondered if the magazine was trying to make a racist
statement by contrasting the black with the pale-white Filipina, or it
was merely incidental. Another layer to the class discussion was added
when a student pointed out that the picture also signified the
commodification of scantily clad women in advertising. A trajectory of
the discussion was also the contrast between the Middle Eastern
culture that stood in stark contrast to this picture and the influence such
advertising was having on the Arab culture in which the youth was
starting to look at girls merely as sex objects. The disadvantages of
living in a multicultural globalized world were discussed where
indigenous cultures were affected by Westerns values and aspirations.
Racism, however, was not considered to be a characteristic trait of the
Western countries only; people held all kinds of stereotypes for the
different ethnic groups in the UAE. The discussions and questions that
vacillated back and forth from local to global issues highlighted the
inextricable bind that indigenous communities were in with the global
ones, and this discussion was also resonant of what Rizvi (2009: 260)
had stated earlier “I believe that our approach to teaching about global
connectivity should begin with the local, but must move quickly to
Naghmana Ali 143
address issues of how our local communities are becoming socially

transformed through their links with communities around the world
and with what consequences. In this way, I want to stress the
relationalities that lie at the heart of any thinking about the dynamics of
change.”
Conclusion
Through these presentations, students discovered that, while they came
from different cultural, ethnic, and educational backgrounds they all
shared traditions and cultures as heritage in the form of knowledge passed
on through the generations. Yet they also learned that culture is dynamic
and creative, always in the state of flux as a result of intercultural
encounters not only in person but also through the advancement in
technology, and internet; culture is not a set of values that are entirely
inherited or should be maintained within clearly definable boundaries.
The questions they raised, the doubts they voiced were part of the
cosmopolitan sensibility that was a journey in discovery and novelty. As
Hansen (2008: 304) states, “they have incorporated into their sensibilities
a response to a human inheritance that has percolated through the world.
However modest this transformation may be in the totality of their
evolving humanity, it is noteworthy [...] in the accompanying
philosophical, existential, indeed moral and ethical senses of their
experience. The students still live in their local world, but they are no
longer merely of it.”
References
Appiah, K. A. (2005). The Ethics of Identity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
Clarke, A. & Erickson, G. (2004). Self-study: The Fifth Commonplace.
Australian Journal of Education 48 (2): 199-211.
Craven Nussbaum, Martha. (1996). Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism. In
Martha Craven Nussbaum, For the Love of Country? Debating the
Limits of Patriotism. Cambridge, MA: Beacon Press. 1-14.
Hansen, D. (2008). Curriculum and the Idea of a Cosmopolitan
Inheritance. Journal of Curriculum Studies 40(3): 289-312.
Hollinger, D. A. (2002). Not Universalists, not Pluralists: The New
Cosmopolitans Find Their Own Way. In S. Vertovec & R. Cohen
(Eds.), Conceiving Cosmopolitanism: Theory, Context, and Practice.
Oxford: Oxford University Press: 227-239.
Pinar, W. (2009). The Worldliness of a Cosmopolitan Education:

Passionate Lives in Public Service. New York: Routledge.
Pinnegar, Stefinee & Hamilton, Mary Lynn. (2009). Self-Study of Practice
as a Genre of Qualitative Research: Theory, Methodology and
Practice. New York, NY: Springer
Rizvi, F. (2009). Towards Cosmopolitan Learning. Discourse: Studies in
the Cultural Politics of Education 30 (3): 253-268.
Robertson, R. (1992). Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Schwab, J. J. (1969). The Practical: A Language for Curriculum. The
School Review 78 (1): 1-23.
Spring, J. (2009). Globalization of Education: An Introduction. London:
Routledge.
Vandrick, Stephanie. (2011). Students of the New Global Elite. TESOL
Quarterly 45 (1): 160-169.
EDUCATIONAL POLICY
TOWARDS THE ETHIOPIAN IMMIGRANT
COMMUNITY IN ISRAEL:
MULTICULTURALISM OR FAKE
MULTICULTURALISM?
LEA BARATZ, RONI REINGOLD

AND CHANA ABUCHATZIRA
Introduction
The community of immigrants coming from Ethiopia to Israel in the
middle of the 1980s numbering is currently about 120,000 people (Israeli
Central Bureau of Statistics 2011). The social and educational policy of
the state of Israel, in the 1980s and the 1990s, towards them, could be
characterized as leading to explicit assimilation (“integration of
Diasporas” or “melting pot”). Moreover, the members of the community
suffer from a racist attitude from a considerable part of the Israeli
population. It seems that, during the last decade, there has been a change,
at least concerning the educational policy. Some declarations and actions
of the Ministry of Education reveal the adoption of the principles of
cultural pluralism, which recognize cultural differences between segments
of the Israeli society and enable the immigrants to preserve their heritage.
However, it is not clear if this new policy can be regarded as multicultural,
or as an expression of implicit assimilation, meaning a fake
multiculturalism. In other words, if the goal is to strengthen Ethiopian
invisibility with the help of education means (as explained later on), then
the content, in fact, emphasizes their visibility. The current paper analyzes
two case studies in order to be able to define educational policy towards
the immigrants. The first case study is a bi-lingual newspaper called
Nugget News published under the sponsorship of the Israeli Ministry of
Education since 1999. The newspaper is distributed bimonthly free of
charge in secondary schools in 22,000 copies. Two thirds of the articles in
the newspaper are in Hebrew (the official language of Israel), and one
146 (Fake)Multiculturalism
third in Amharic (the original language of the immigrants). The

publication of the newspaper in two languages apparently testifies for an
adoption of a multicultural policy (Garcia & Baker 1995). The second case
is a unique teacher accreditation programme for immigrants from Ethiopia.
The programme was established in our college of education in 2001; in the
last two years, it has also been taught in three other colleges of education.
The rationale of the programme uses the principles of the particularistic
multicultural approach; however, we would like to examine if the rationale
and its unique syllabi are designed to prepare teachers to practice authentic
multicultural education, and if it reflects conservative or critical
multicultural education (Gorski 2009). Those different dimensions of
educational policy can reveal the ideology of the Ministry of Education
towards the community of immigrants coming from Ethiopia.
Theoretical Background
“When we came to Israel, we were sent to boarding schools in order to
forget the culture we came from. The goal was a ‘melting-pot’ – to take
people and integrate them into one culture […].” (Nugget, September
2008: 6). This sentence emphasizes the processes of absorption of the
social group by governmental bodies that was not characterized by an
egalitarian and open attitude. The text analyzed in the current paper relies
on the “subject matter” published by the entity subordinate to the Ministry
of Education and called The steering committee of Ethiopian immigrants, a
branch of the Society for Advancement of Education of the Immigrant
Absorption Department within the Ministry of Education. Against the
backdrop of specific reactions of the Israeli society towards Ethiopian
immigrants and the ongoing processes, the immigrants have started the
process of attempting to integrate into the society, but the community of
Ethiopian Jews still searches for a “correct” place for itself in the Israeli
social contexture in the dimension of visibility or invisibility (Ben-Ezer
2010). Those different dimensions of educational policy can reveal the
ideology of the Ministry of Education towards the community of
immigrants coming from Ethiopia. The group strives to become visible
and, at the same time, to become invisible. On the one hand, it is interested
in becoming an integral part of the society into which they have arrived, in
eliminating the different treatment of its members that distinguishes them
from other members of the group (in an attempt to make them invisible)
but, on the other hand, the members of the absorbed group strive to
preserve their uniqueness, expect considerate attitude towards their
specific characterization in unique aspects of their immigration. That is,
Lea Baratz, Roni Reingold and Chana Abuchatzira 147
the group strives to continue to preserve salient aspects of its previous

existence, from its socio-cultural past (ibidem). The absorption of
Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel community) is characterized by numerous
difficulties in various social systems in Israel (Ben-Porat 2007). As part of
the attempt to treat properly the absorption of students of Ethiopian origin,
the Ministry of Education has started to perform actions in order to find
solutions for the advancement of Ethiopian immigrants in the educational
systems. The governmental policy of absorption aimed at the inclusion of
Ethiopian immigrants in Israeli society by means of dispersal of
immigrants in socially strong communities defined as having average
socio-economic stability (the dispersion principle). The quota principle of
the Ministry of Education aimed at absorbing the young generation of
Ethiopian descendents by way of directing small groups of pupils to long-
existing Israeli schools. In reality, however, large groups of Ethiopian
families were concentrated in a small number of cities and neighbourhoods
characterized by a low socio-economic distribution. According to this, the
schools in these neighbourhoods were also characterized as having a low
level of educational achievement. The issue of integration of Ethiopian
pupils has been a prominent issue in the eyes of the community, as well as
the education system, since the beginning of the 1990s. In 1994, the Senior
Steering Committee for the Absorption of Ethiopian Immigrants into the
Education System was founded. One of the main principles was that no
more than 25% of Ethiopian descendents of the total population of pupils
would be placed in schools. This recommendation was made following
findings that, in certain schools, Ethiopian descendents represented the
large majority of pupils. This recommendation remained on the level of
rhetoric alone until Ethiopian parents appealed to the Supreme Court in
2002 in light of the refusal of some schools in the city of Hadera to accept
pupils of Ethiopian descent. The refusal relied on the premise that a 25%
quota of Ethiopian pupils already existed in the schools. As a result, the
Ministry of Education cancelled the quota policy as binding and left it as a
recommendation alone as a right of parents who sought integration. In
recent years, the number of schools with over 25% of Ethiopian pupils has
dramatically increased even to the point of a 98% presence (Document to
The Minister of Education, Gidon Sa’ar, 2011). The Ministry of Education
has not formulated an all-encompassing policy of integration to this day,
but, from the activities carried out by the Ministry, there appears to be an
“apparent policy.” The education system continues to base its activities in
the area of absorption on the perspective of a passing phenomenon and a
limited definition of the target population. Therefore, it is necessary to
make suggestions concerning both the perspective and the definition of the
problem that makes it necessary to create a distinctive policy for this

population (Sever 2007). Hence, it is necessary to analyze this
phenomenon in the context of the unique centralistic control system
operated in the state of Israel by the Ministry of Education. The Ministry is
actually responsible for determining the educational policy and inspection
of implementation of pedagogical action. This control is noticeable at
various educational levels: the Ministry is responsible for the pre-
academic studies, starting from the work of studies programme
development, which professional teams are subordinate to a department in
the Ministry of Education. It approves the textbooks used in the routine
school work. In addition, the Ministry controls the final exams testing the
knowledge that the students have acquired during the course of their
studies (Baratz & Reingold 2010).
Between Ethnocentric Pluralism and Multicultural

Pluralism
In the first decades after the State of Israel was founded, the dominant
social and educational policy was that of “integration of Diasporas” or
“melting pot” (named after such policy in the United States). On the basis
of such view of explicit assimilation, there was the wish to move the
Jewish immigrants from Islamic countries away from the cultures of their
communities and integrate them in the framework of what was defined the
Israeli culture, that is, the hegemonic and dominant one, the one that was a
variation of the culture of the absorbing Ashkenazi elite (Sever 2007). The
goal of the “melting pot” policy was to hide the visibility of the
immigrants; it caused the formation of negative visibility that was a result
of disregard of their culture and continuing discrimination (Resnik 2010).
Changes in the policy were made in the last third of the 20th century, when
Israel adopted the principles of cultural pluralism that recognizes cultural
differences between immigrants and enables them to preserve it (Horowitz
1999). Since then, the Israeli society shows quite a large amount of
openness towards ethnical symbols and expressions, including the culture
and the tradition brought by immigrants. The transition to cultural
pluralism is reflected also in the change of status of the Hebrew language
in the process of immigrant absorption. For forty years, the State of Israel
applied a mono-linguistic policy in order to build a nation, since the
Hebrew language and culture associated with it were considered a core of
the Zionist revolution. The revolution started in the 1990s when the
explanation bulletins were distributed also in Russian (Alales 2010).
However, “pluralistic splitting of societies does not constitute the ideal of
proper world in the ideology of pluralism [...] but there still might be,
within it, a place to strive [...] for cultural integration of different groups
that may become realized precisely because of the recognition of their
right to exist” (ibidem: 212). That is, a pluralistic ethnocentric version is
actually a conception advocating implicit assimilation. Its goal is identical
to that of explicit assimilation. The recognition of the right of ethnic
groups and communities to preserve their separate cultures is a kind of
inevitability, or even more than that – hypocrisy or even false recognition.
Ethnocentric pluralism has two main variations: the “temporary
pluralism,” an approach aiming at seeing the dominant culture adopted by
the whole society, a process meant to be gradual. On the other hand, the
“residual multiculturalism” is an approach accepting permanent
preservation of marginal cultural dimensions inside minority groups
(Sever 2007). Still, pluralism may also serve as a basis for multicultural
perceptions. The pluralist multicultural ideology does not require
communities to renounce their own unique cultures but strives to sustain a
dialogue, at cultural boundary domains, between members of different
cultural groups that preserve their particular cultures (out of recognition of
these cultures and pride by them) without building cultural hierarchy or
attempts of cultural colonialism (Reingold 2005, 2009). An educational
expression of this ideology may be the construction of common
educational public spaces common to members of different cultural
communities or, at an earlier stage, of different educational public spaces
for members of cultural minority groups in order to empower the
community members and to prepare them for an intercultural dialogue
from a position of strength, that is, to include an early stage of particular
multiculturalism (Reingold 2007).
Particularistic Multicultural Education:

A Bridge toward a True Pluralistic Dialogue
Some of the multicultural education practice is based upon the “contact
hypothesis.” Specifically, encounters between groups are predicted to
reduce hostility and stereotypes and encourage a more positive
relationship between members of different groups (ibidem). However, the
empirical support for the effectiveness of these encounters is at best mixed
with some studies reporting that the discourse developed in these meetings
produced a change in the stereotypes and preconceptions which were held
by the participants, while other studies failed to document such an effect
or even demonstrated that the encounters resulted in an increase in
hostility, frustration and alienation (Reingold 2007). It seems, as argued by
Bekerman (2004), real multicultural dialogue can hardly be achieved when

there is an asymmetric power relationship between groups; thus, in order
to improve the outcome of inter-group exchange and dialogue, the
members of the minority group must first be empowered via a
particularistic stage prior to their extensive encounter with members of the
majority group (Reingold 2007). This clime is the core of the debate
between the particularistic and pluralistic multicultural schools of thought.
Common to both approaches is the assumption that social reform is a
prerequisite for building mutual respect between groups and that the
success of such social transformation may result in a shift from a mono-
cultural approach based on assimilation or a “melting pot” policy toward a
multicultural policy (Bodi 1996). However, the particularistic method
(Asante 1998) requires providing a unique space for each disadvantaged
group in which its members will be able to become acquainted with their
own legacy and become empowered before they enter the competitive
encounter with other more self-confident groups. In marked contrast, the
pluralistic approach (Ravitch 1992) believes that multicultural encounters
should start in a mixed group and that the enhancement of the dialogue
will result from cultivating tolerance and appreciation for the uniqueness
of other groups.
Affinity between Language and Identity:

The Bilingualism Criterion
Language is a tool for ideology evaluation, but it is also influenced by
ideological processes. Language is not only a solution to the problems
such as what is ideology and what it does, but also a very important
problem in ideology (Cameron 2006). In Israel, the attitude towards the
original language of the immigrants is assimilation (Sever 2007). Sever
enumerates aspects of this assimilation process that include also the
situation of trampling the mother tongue. In addition, she also sets forth
arguments that, in her opinion, require preservation of immigrants’ mother
tongue. Following Grant (1997), Sever surveys the types of response of
various societies with respect to lingual situation prevailing in these
societies, while language is one of the markers of identity for a threatened
culture that tends to preserve its identity by means of the language. Grant
indicates that, from the point of view of language, one may distinguish
between homogeneous society, small lingual minority concentrated
geographically, dispread lingual minority, large lingual minority, and
society with lingual division (Grant 1997, in Sever 2007). According to
Grant’s typological classification, the Ethiopian community in Israel can
be viewed as a dispread minority, a lingual minority that does not

constitute a local majority in any geographical region in a given society,
that is, the hegemonic Israeli one. Such minority tends to be especially
vulnerable with respect to preservation of its language, since the spoken or
written environment where it lives is that of the dominant language. Thus,
their minority language lacks social support received in a language
enclave. In addition, Sever indicates the types of lingual policies, of which
it is important for our case to mention the pluralistic policies, which
recognize the minority languages for various purposes, including their use
as a teaching tool. Preservation of the mother tongue of the immigrant
student is part of the commitment of the absorbing party adhering to the
multicultural approach in the absorption processes. Teaching of reading
and writing in the mother tongue has improved the image and the
achievements of foreign-language talking people (Garcia & Baker 1995).
The bi-lingual literature has an important value in the construction of the
“other”’s identity (Zamir & Baratz 2010). Bi-lingual literature is a means
for creating dialogue. Dialogue is one of the means for getting familiar
with the other person with all his/her differences. Dialogue helps my “self”
detect in himself/herself the human or unconscious part of himself/herself
and, thus, to approach himself/herself (Ehrlich 2001). Bi-lingual writing
eliminates the concept of “being different” since the typography derives
from a location of equality. In the discussed situation, each reader turns at
the same time into “me” and “other.” It depends upon his identity. That is,
here is an ideology intended to propose the discourse of co-existence on
the basis of egalitarianism and mutuality. Cultivation of ethnical identity
enhances the feeling of belonging and commitment of a person towards a
group, and contributes to the feeling of belonging to an organized social
framework where the very fact of belonging to the group provides the
feeling of connection contributing to positive self-concept. So, how does a
bi-lingual text reflect the essence of identity?
Methodology
Research Aim
The current paper examines two cases of educational practice. Its main
goal is to find if one of the cases or the two of them are consistent with the
principles of the multicultural education ideology. More specifically, in
the first case, we discuss the question whether bi-lingual writing creates a
kind of multicultural dialogue, that is, whether writing meant to be an
organically built unit leads to pluralism or, maybe, to “fake
multiculturalism.” The second case aims to examine the extent to which

the accreditation programme for immigrants from Ethiopia in our college
is consistent with the principles of the particularistic multicultural
approach.
Research Corpus
Data, in two cases, was mainly by in-depth content analysis of documents.

Documents analyzed in the second case included programme curriculum,
mission statement, annual academic handbooks, and course syllabi. This
analysis included an explicit comparison between the declared pedagogical
and ideological goals and actual implementation and practices. This paper
is based upon the analysis of the content of the Nugget News newspaper,
published bi-monthly by the Ministry of Education. At the footer of the
newspaper page it is written that it is “The newspaper of the steering
committee of Ethiopian immigrants – Society for Advancement of
Education.” The head of staff of the newspaper is a former Beta Israel
community member, while the editor is a native Israeli who does not
belong to the Beta Israel community. (One has to mention the
collaboration between the two writers.)
Research Tools
The research method is qualitative-interpretive; text analysis is to be

performed according to the principle of critical discourse focusing upon
the society problems and the various forms of misusing the language
towards minority groups’ underprivileged on the grounds of ethnical
background or social status (Gee 1992, 2004). Through this process, the
stages of the study give rise to the development of grounded theory that
creates, according to the field data, a system of private meanings of the
figures that inhabit the field. Klein’s (2010) method is aimed to analyze
socio-cultural connections and implicit meanings resulting from them,
following Van Dijk (1991). The analysis of the journalistic text should
help to detect force and suppression foci that influence or form the identity
of Ethiopian community members inside the hegemonic field of Hebrew-
speaking Israeli community. The start of the research process included
reading all the newspapers and preparation of a list of issues presented
therein, according to the principle of the essence of the central concept of
the article. Determination of the issues led to definition of categories
which represent the connection between the articles (Baratz, Reingold &
Abuchatzira 2010). Further, we focused on the categories selected as
establishing the research assumption, this according to Shakedi’s view

(2005) whereby the categories take into account the cultural context and
the relationships of place and time of the researched phenomena. Within
the framework of the analysis mapped content design was performed, that
is the finding of a shared conceptual perspective which arranges the first
categories on two axes: a horizontal axis which identifies the super-
categories and the vertical axis which describes the sub-categories. The
two axes enable identification of the full potential of the data collected.
Sampling Method
Tracking the appearance of words was performed systematically from all

the newspapers. On presenting the findings, samples were presented that
clearly indicated the phenomenon that we were searching for.
Findings
Case Study no. 1: The Separate Track
The programme designed for Ethiopian descendents as a separate track

contains a number of elements from which we can learn about the
particular multicultural nature that characterizes the programme. The
documents connected to the programme serve to build an eclectic structure
from which definitions of specific categories emerge emphasizing this
multicultural nature. They include an interview with the head of the
national programme, a statement paper, the college website that describes
the Ethiopian programme, syllabi and reports from trips. The results will
display two kinds of approaches from which the general framework of the
track can be described: content analysis of the entirety of documents
comprising the characteristic structure of the track and a focused analysis
of two courses taught in the framework of this track.
First Approach: General Content Analysis. The subject of

empowerment was found to be a central element on five major levels that
find expression in different ways in the documents:
- Subject matter;
- Discovery and in-depth knowledge of the cultural heritage;
- Tools for teacher training;
- Independent discussion;
- Enrichment activities promoting empowerment.
The general structure of the programme contains a variety of elements that

serve to nurture the empowerment of the students:
- Preparatory courses for special needs. In the first year of the

programme, the students of Ethiopian descent study the following
courses: learning strategies, language courses, mathematics and
computers, English exemption courses, general compulsory studies, a
course in “Ethiopian Jewish Heritage,” and preparation for the
psychometric exam (for those who do not have a score).
- Advanced courses for general needs. In the second year, all of the
disciplinary subjects are studied together with the students of the
regular track.
- Courses of a multicultural nature. Simultaneously, second-year
students continue to study one day a week in special groups. The
subjects are pedagogy, a course or seminar in the subject of
multiculturalism in education and a course in educational leadership.
- Enrichment activities. For general enrichment, there are trips, study
tours and workshops in a large variety of subjects, such as study days
at the college organized by the special track called “Educational
Leadership” and “Identity and Culture,” workshops on how to find a
job, how to make holiday decorations, how to improve pronunciation
and meetings with key figures in the Ethiopian community.
Examples of the element of empowerment as defined by us as categories:
- Verbal expression of the element of empowerment. The following

emerged from the totality of the documents connected to this field:
• “There are a number of courses in which the participants of the
track study separately for the purpose of empowerment according
to the particularistic approach to multiculturalism so that they will
develop a positive attitude and self-confidence.”
• “An important venture intended to nurture cultural knowledge and
self-image is the study days that are unique to this track.”
• “The centre will support and advance students of Ethiopian descent
to academic excellence” and will hold “workshops for leadership
empowerment, leadership in nature” in order to “aid and strengthen
educational leadership among Ethiopian descendents.”
- Tools for teacher training. Among the content that emerged from the
documents, was a definition of pedagogical goals to advance the
teaching ability of the students in the framework of personal and
professional empowerment:
• “Training of the students to learn on their own and transfer the

knowledge about the traditions and customs of the community to
their pupils in the future.”
• “The fulfilment of the potential of the Ethiopian community as
teachers will add honour to the diversity that characterizes the
educational system in Israel. To this end, the students will
participate in courses and activities in the field of educational
leadership.” Recommended courses include “The Teacher as a
Leader,” “Multiculturalism in Education,” “Feminine leadership,”
as well as “to train teachers from the Ethiopian community to teach
in the public secular schools who are in possession of high
academic and personal abilities” or “to train teachers of the
Ethiopian community who will have expert knowledge in the
subjects connected to children of Ethiopian descent in the schools.”
- In-depth learning about the cultural heritage. In the framework of the
documents, much emphasis is placed upon the importance of learning
about the subjects connected to the cultural heritage of the community.
This field points to an additional category in the framework of the
promotion of empowerment. The rationale clarifies that the process of
absorption into society, including the preceding process of
acknowledging and knowing owns own heritage, in order to achieve
absorption in the general culture, from a place of personal
empowerment:
• “The acquaintance of students and pupils with the Ethiopian Jewish
culture will enrich the learners with the contents of this ancient and
unique culture and will serve to aid the absorption if Ethiopian
descendents into the fabric of Israeli society.”
• “The founding of a pedagogical learning centre in which students
will be trained in preparing lesson plans about the life and customs
of Ethiopian Jewry will serve the aspiration that the knowledge of
the heritage will facilitate absorption into Israeli society.”
• “The strengthening of the connection to the Ethiopian heritage, the
empowerment of cultural identity, is seen as a way to
empowerment of the professional identity.”
- Independent discussion. All of the documents pointed to the
importance of discussion of major issues relevant to the community in
the framework of smaller, separated courses for Ethiopian descendents
for the purpose of advancing the empowerment of the Ethiopian
descendents:
• “The importance of studying in smaller, separated classes was
found in the freeing of the students from the feeling of threat. This
meant that the course allowed them to discuss freely and to reflect
upon their personal feelings concerning their experiences of
absorption into Israeli society (the general and the educational)
often in confrontation with ethnocentric, and even racist, attitude.”
• “In the course, Ethiopian Culture, the lecturer presents all kinds of
issues, such as the origin of Ethiopian Jewry, and this leads to
different assumptions and arguments and that is just fine.”
- Enrichment activities for the purpose of empowerment. In addition to
the courses, the curriculum of the special track relates to enrichment
activities that promote empowerment. These activities include “a
journey of roots” for the graduates of the track.
• “As part of the multicultural perspective of the programme, the
idea evolved to participate in a trip to Ethiopia at the end of the
course of study. In reality, with the passing of years, the journey to
Ethiopia turned into a tradition for all graduates of the programme.
The trip combines a professional tour with the learning about
roots.”
• “The personal narrative that is uncovered during the journey
enables learning, not only about the past, but also about the future.”
• The journey “uncovered the veil” of their past and provided the
graduates with an opportunity for dialogue with the multitude of
inner voices reflective of different identities and, in some cases, to
reach an understanding and conciliation with them. The personal
“closing of the circle” enables the opening and the development of
the “professional circle.” Recognition of the various elements of
identity and their sources provide the teacher with abilities of
refection and flexibility. Furthermore, as teachers, they can act as a
bridge to Israeli society and participate in it as equals.
It is possible to determine that all of the categories illustrate an inner

process that the programme promotes in order to bring the student to a
place of empowerment: the unveiling and deep recognition of culture,
including open discussion free of threat, creates empowerment that is also
reflected in the field of teaching.
Second Approach: Focused Content Analysis. Analysis of two

documents that investigate the particularistic multicultural nature of the
separate track:
- The course “The Heritage of Ethiopian Jewry;”

- The course “Multicultural Education.”
An internal analysis of the subjects that appear in the course “The Heritage
of Ethiopian Jewry” presents some of the characteristic elements of the
track that take a particularistic multicultural stance by way of promoting
two of the elements previously cited connected to the empowerment of the
community:
- In-depth knowledge of heritage and culture;

- Freeing discussion.
The list of subjects covered in the course “The Heritage of Ethiopian

Jewry,” as described in the course syllabus, promotes in-depth knowledge
of the heritage and culture in a way that creates personal empowerment:
- A Historical Introduction to Ethiopia and Ethiopian Jewry;

- Jewish Heritage as it Existed in Ethiopia;
- Religion from the Perspective of Social and Belief Systems;
- The Journey from Ethiopia to Israel through the Sudan Desert;
- The Amharic and Tijeras Languages and their importance to the
Community Today;
- Levels and Shades in the Ethiopian Jewish Community Until Their
Immigration;
- The Structure of the Ethiopian Community in Israel;
- Changes that Occurred in the Community after Immigration and The
Attempts at Absorption.
The course “Multicultural Education,” taught in the framework of the

separate track as a semester course or as a seminar, offers a particularistic
multicultural model that promotes the empowerment of students of the
Ethiopian community. This model is reflected in:
- The framework of the course that is small and separate;

- The main method of instruction of the course that is based on open
discussion focused on reflective analysis of personal experiences of the
members of the community in confrontation with ethnocentric, and
even racial, attitudes. The discussion is freeing and non-threatening;
- The content that is based on different approaches to multiculturalism
and their analysis; the nature of multiculturalism and multicultural
education; the single-cultural educational policy in Israel and the
different issues that arise out of various approaches to
multiculturalism.
Case Study no. 2
A survey of the documents led to the revelation of contrasting views in

relation to the desire of those being absorbed towards the policy of
absorption: a particularistic multiculturalism approach vs. a pluralistic
inter-cultural dialogue. Expression of desire for a particularistic
multicultural absorption in the framework of which persons are allowed to
retain awareness of cultural elements in three areas. Communal awareness
of the importance of the cultural heritage:
- “We must preserve our cultural heritage. A person who has no past has
no future.”
- “We have to put our culture on the stage so that the Jewish people will
get to know us.”
- “We came here in order to be absorbed into Israeli society, but it is not
right to do this by denying a culture and history of thousands of years.”
- “A person who knows from where he came is more stable and
stronger, sure of himself. We, as members of the community, came
here with a strong religious tradition and worldview. We left
everything in order to achieve one dream: the return to Zion.”
- “We all tried to find solutions to the problems of absorption and the
cultural issue was forgotten. This is how the immigration crisis was
created, awareness of the heritage defined by the curriculum.”
- “There is a need to include subjects dealing with the heritage and
history of Ethiopian Jewry in the curriculum so that we won’t be
ashamed of our identity and origin.”
- “The decision of the Ministry of Education to include the heritage of
Ethiopian Jews in the education system is an important step in raising
awareness of our culture and history and their inculcation in the Israeli
mentality [...]. That is an achievement that should be lauded and the
Minister of Education should be thanked for promoting the inclusion
of our history in the curriculum.”
- “Israeli society should take stock and come to terms with the glorious
heritage of Ethiopian Jews. We have to guarantee that this brave and
amazing Zionist story will enter into the curriculum of the public
secular education system to be heard, learned and remembered for
generations.”
- “The holiday turned into a special day in which expression is given to
the cultural and religious artefacts of the community. I call on school
principals to take advantage of this day to expose pupils and their
parents to the culture and heritage of the community.”
Awareness of heritage through linguistic processes. “We have a rich and

beautiful language and we shouldn’t be ashamed of it.” “I feel that the
Ethiopian community is quickly losing the Amharic language and its
culture. We should encourage children to learn their native language.”
Other comments include, “Parents who don’t speak the native language
with their children are forfeiting the ability to inculcate in their children
the linguistic richness of the language and culture on which they were
raised.” “It is important to tell stories and to have talks [...] about their
lives in Ethiopia.” “An Ethiopian mother will speak Amharic with her
child because it is important to her that he comes to know the culture from
which he came.” “The channel is called the Ethiopian Israeli Channel [...]
we want to present information, culture and tradition to encourage the
members of the community to take pride in their origins.” Examples of
pluralistic multicultural dialogue:
- Objection to the existing absorption policy that encourages weakening

centralization:
• “According to the decision of the Minister of Education, three
schools will be closed this year in which there are a high
percentage of pupils of Ethiopian descent.”
• “There was talk about the need for the Ministry of Education to
check itself concerning the situation in which there are large
numbers of Ethiopian pupils in schools whose achievements are
low.”
• “A society that wishes to educate for equality, multiculturalism,
pluralism and merging of ethnicities cannot allow a situation in
which large groups of pupils in schools come mainly from one
ethnic group.”
• “Everyone has to come with what he has and try to cope. I don’t
believe in shortcuts. That can open doors, but there is a feeling that
you are being done a favour.”
• “A society that desires to educate for pluralism, multiculturalism
and equality cannot allow separate educational frameworks based
on members of one community.”
• “Beyond achievements in learning, the social integration of pupils
in schools concerns educators.”
• “The head of the Central Steering Committee of the community
spoke about the importance of integration and said to the
participants of the professional development course,” “We must do
this with wisdom.”
• “The Ministry of Education declared that it would work toward the

gradual and controlled closing of schools I which the percentage of
Ethiopian pupils is large in an attempt to encourage their absorption
into other schools.”
• “The Ministry of Education, the body that is in charge of the
education of Israeli children, must make a clear and unambiguous
declaration and determine rules by which discrimination of
immigrant pupils by way of creating separate classrooms is
outlawed.”
- Policy of dispersion as opposed to the existing policy:
• “The Central Steering Committee of the community views the
policy of dispersion as an important step that will enable children
of the community to fulfil their potential to study alongside
children of Israeli society at large.”
• “Integrative schools aid in the improvement of learning
achievements among pupils form low socio-economic
backgrounds.”
• “These findings stem mainly from the concentration of Ethiopian
pupils in certain neighbourhoods [...]. The lawyer, Yitzchak Desa,
demanded that the authorities disperse the pupils and place Israeli
pupils of veteran families in the existing schools. Integration that is
only face-deep, that does not allow for the true social integration
with a high standard of achievements is not desirable.”
Discussion
The analysis of two case studies in the framework of the present research
raised multicultural educational insights on the national and college levels.
The investigation of the programme of the separate track intended for
students of Ethiopian descent shows the desire of the designers of this
programme to segregate those of Ethiopian descent from those who do not
belong to this community. This desire sprung from good intentions. The
motivation behind this endeavour came from the need to strengthen the
knowledge base and learning skills of newly-accepted students in subjects
such as Hebrew, English, computers, etc. Once the separation was formed,
it became apparent that there was a need not only to provide the students
of Ethiopian descent with a kind of preparatory programme, but also to
promote their empowerment by way of recognition of their cultural
heritage. Regarding the newsletter that was intended for the readers of the
community written in bi- and tri-lingual languages, it can be said that it
was intended to be a multicultural product. The use of the local language
of the community together with the use of Hebrew testifies to the intention
to have the newsletter reach an audience beyond the Ethiopian community
only. In reality, members of the Ethiopian community used the
particularistic platform as a stage to voice their dissent towards the cultural
stamp mainly by way of their stand against educational policy, thereby,
displaying their desire to retain their cultural heritage while pursuing
social integration into Israeli society. The focus of the current discussion is
one of the main reasons that the absorption of the Ethiopian Jews in Israel
is not a success story, to say the least: the absorption policy (in general and
those relating to education in particular) was based, at its outset, on the
principle of open assimilation and absorption processes of the adolescents
in the educational systems, in particular boarding schools. An analysis of
the qualitative interpretive texts which we performed on articles from the
“Yediot Negat” newspaper, which is a partisan newspaper, discovered
repetitive use of two attitudes: Examination of the occurrence of these
attitudes testifies that they have become a key motif in building the
perception which deletes the visibility of the Ethiopian community within
Israeli society as they then become equals in their own eyes and equal in
the eyes of the absorbing society. Through writing about the education
policy according to the Ethiopian community, an ideology has been
formed which seeks to encourage aspiration to excellence amongst the
community. This trend of the apparent, policy serves a trend which is
designed to empower the community in its own eyes, however
simultaneously it also becomes an obstacle for the community, this as the
veteran Israeli society does not see the policy that aims for successes of
the community as a cancellation of visibility, but rather as an element that
emphasizes the visibility of the community. If the newspaper’s objective is
to strengthen the multicultural policy according to the Ethiopian
community, invisibility of the community then the disclosed content
testifies specifically to visibility. It presents a weak group as the contents,
which appear to be empowering, expose the face of the community.
Specifically the need to highlight visibility testifies to the weakness of the
community in the eyes of the Israeli absorbing society. The very writing
about the issue and the way in which the issues are presented illustrates a
strong desire to present the community as a community which has
succeeded in integrating into Israeli society and not having withdrawn
from them, however in practice the use of the newspaper, which dedicates
a broad verbal volume to the question of integration and success, indicates
that these issues are executed artificially and by means of the mediation of
those requesting it. That is to say, when the way in which the Beta Israel
community perceive themselves is examined, the newspaper constitutes a
tool emphasizing the visibility and also the reality perceived in the place in
which the emphasis of visibility processes exists. Namely, in these two
cases, when separation is created and there is a desire to help a weak
minority group by particularistic means, whether it is a local effort of a
college or a government effort based on policy, in practice the result is an
ideology that strives for the creation of multiculturalism. It appears that
these two cases join together to create one essence of multiculturalism, one
that is external and one that is of internal insight. The external trend is
connected to the external body that motivates the implementation of the
programme (the newsletter and the separate track) intended for the
members of the Ethiopian community. The external body dictates things
from a viewpoint that is grounded in the educational field in order to
create innovation in the community. The external trend is carried out with
foresight. The internal trend, or insight, is learned in retrospect in specific
ways that emerge from the needs of an immigrant population undergoing
the process of absorption. The internal insight clarifies the nature of the
emphasis that needs to be placed on every object, in order to serve the
cultural interests of the community in a way that will facilitate the best
process of absorption for its members, a process that preserves the cultural
heritage while advancing social absorption.
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EDUCATION TOWARDS COLLECTIVE
CHARACTERISTICS IN A PLURAL SOCIETY:
CAN TWO WALK TOGETHER,
EXCEPT THEY BE AGREED?1
SARA ZAMIR
Introduction
The aim of this article has been to examine the issue of socialization
towards collective characteristics within a plural society based upon
immigrants.
In May 14, 1948, the Government of Israel proclaimed, in its
Declaration of Independence, “The State of Israel will be open for Jewish
immigration and the ‘Ingathering of the Exiles’.” Since the establishment
of the State, about three million people immigrated to Israel; their
expertise and talents have contributed vastly to the country’s various
realms of life, yet the debate about the unified character of the state of
Israel only expanded.
In its early days, the state of Israel implemented a policy known as the
“melting pot.” The aim of this policy was to create a new society and a
new Jew. In order to do so, they required Jews who immigrated from
many foreign countries, and cultures to give up many features of their
culture of origin and adopt the dominant western culture of their new
country. After decades of criticism against the “melting pot” policy and
the growing voices in favour of multiculturalism, the Israeli education
system struggles to maintain collective characteristics through establishing
a common narrative to the mixed multitude that joined the state of Israel.
The article describes the educational methods of socializing towards
collective characteristics both during the era of the “melting pot” as well
as in the new era of multiculturalism.
166 Education towards Collective Characteristics in a Plural Society
Immigration to Israel
“Aliyah” means ‘ascent, going up.’ When Jews from the Diaspora
immigrate to Israel, they called it in Hebrew “An aliyah.” On the other
hand, when Israelis chose to emigrate from Israel, they call it “A descent.”
On May 14, 1948, the Government of Israel proclaimed, in its
Declaration of Independence, “The State of Israel will be open for Jewish
immigration and the ‘Ingathering of the Exiles’.” Following the spirit of
the Declaration of Independence, The Law of Return (1950) grants every
Jew the right to come to Israel as an immigrant and automatically become
a citizen. Section 1 of the Law reads as follows: “Every Jew has the right
to immigrate to the country.”
Since the establishment of the State, about three million immigrants
have immigrated to Israel; their expertise and talents have contributed
vastly to the country’s economic, scientific, academic and cultural life yet
the debate about the unified character of the state of Israel only expanded.
In addition to the multiethnic character of the Israeli population and its
heterogeneity in terms of social features due to Jewish new comers, a new
phenomenon of labour immigrants intensified the differences of the social
texture of Israel. Since the beginning of the 1990s, hundreds of thousands
of labour immigrants have arrived to Israel: legally as well as illegally. In
addition, tens of thousands African refugees crossed the southern border.
Under the treaty of the United Nations General Resolution on the Rights of
the Child (1989), all children have all rights including health, social
security, as well as education. The Israeli Ministry of Education
acknowledges this right under the law of compulsory education of 1949.
How Can a Young State, Based upon Immigration,

Socialize towards Collective Characteristics?
From its sheer inception, the state implemented a policy known as the
“melting pot.” The aim of this policy was to create a new society and a
new Jew in Israel – the “Sabra.” In order to do so, they asked Jews who
immigrated from many foreign countries and cultures to give up many
features of their culture of origin and adopt the dominant western culture
of their new country. Thus, the culture and the identity of immigrants from
the Islamic countries and Eastern Europe got blurred since the “melting
pot” policy fostered mainly the national, secular, socialist Ashkenazi
identity of the veteran settlers, while they asked members of the other
cultures to integrate in the dominant culture (Kimmerling 1998, 2002).
Sara Zamir 167
The metaphor of the “melting pot” served to describe the development

of new heterogeneous societies in which people of different cultural and
religious backgrounds integrate in one single monocultural society by
obscuring or minimizing the distinguishing features of their original
cultures. They overwhelmingly associate the idea of the “melting pot”
with the United States of America, a nation of immigrants. It is
erroneously but widely claimed that the success of immigrants in America
stems from their having freed themselves of their past and from having
renounced their culture and previous identity, adopting the ways of their
new country.
The Israeli establishment perceived its function as changing the
immigrants into Israelis for all intents and purposes as an integral part of
Israeli society. This would be a collectivistic society whose values would
be based on sacrificing individual interests for the sake of the Zionist state,
socialism and settling the land.
A new Israeli myth arose: the myth of the young Zionist pioneer,
strong and secular, of European origin, setting out to settle the land,
building the nation and defending it against its enemies (Zamir 2007).
There was no room for giving legitimacy to cultural pluralism. If a social
group preferred values different from these national values, they
considered it isolationist and damaging to the Zionist enterprise. As
perceived by those who absorbed the immigrants into the society, the
“melting pot” was not a casting out of the immigrants’ way of life and
culture they brought from foreign lands, but it was a way to socialize them
into the dominant culture, a patronizing and rustic culture that forced upon
them. Concerning the policy of the “melting pot,” a quote from Ben-
Gurion gives an insight into his attitude and the attitude of many others in
the leadership of the country at that time. Ben-Gurion says,
“With the cessation of hostilities, we must take upon ourselves the

responsibility of transferring to our country great masses of people, to
house them, to integrate them in our economy, in our agriculture, in our
factories and workshops. We are bringing over into this land a unique
population: they are scattered throughout the world, speaking many
languages, brought up and educated in foreign cultures, and divided into
many Jewish communities and tribes. We need to recast this multitude into
the mould of a nation reborn. We must uproot the geographical, cultural
and linguistic barriers that separate them, giving them one language, one
culture, a common citizenship, and new laws.” (Ben-Gurion 1976)
The intermingling of cultures – traditions, languages, customs and norms

of behaviour – required the leaders of the country to forge the “cultural
fusion” that would change this chief ingathering of exiles into one people.
The decision to establish a free, compulsory state education system aimed
at creating a suitable tool to achieve this purpose. The 1953 State
Education Law was passed, in the Israeli parliament, to give formal
sanction to the decision. The aim of state education was to establish
elementary education in the country on the values of the culture of Israel.
They stated education based on the culture of Israel in the law, as one can
observe, as the chief aim of compulsory education. This formulation
expressed the dream of the leaders at that time to build the unifying
machinery for creating an Israeli culture that was, at that time, in its
formative era.
In 1953, they passed the State Education Law. This law replaced the
previous method of track-oriented education The goals that should be
achieved via the state educational system clearly give primacy to national
aims and to the ethos of the pioneers, mentioning also wish to impart to
the younger generation the desire to establish a cohesive society based on
the foundations of liberty, equality, tolerance, mutual help and love of
people. The State Education Law was a significant junction in the history
of education in Israeli multicultural society. The declared purpose of the
law was to transfer educational institutions from the control of sectorial
organizations to the central control of the government.
It was an attempt to cope with multiple groups and cultures through
both organizational and ideological unity. They centralised the educational
system, and they dissociated it from the various political parties. They
accompanied depoliticization of the school system by strict instructions
that politics and ideological controversies should not enter the schools.
Instead, schools should emphasize consensus and avoid partisanship, and
they barred even youth movements from schools (Ichilov, Salomon &
Inbar 2005, Davidovitch 2012).
Illustrative examples to this formative era are both the 7th grade
anthology printed in 1958 and the 8th grade anthology printed in 1966 that
reflect the dominant ideology of that period: Collectivism.
Symbolically, the names of the anthologies are indicative of their
nature: Sheaves – like sheaves of harvest wheat, very uniform in their
external appearance.
They founded the precursor of the Israeli Labour Party in 1930,
characterized by a social-democratic Zionism. When the State was
established2, MAPAI was the largest party in the country and, thus, formed
its first government headed by David Ben-Gurion. It retained power in its
original format until the elections for the fifth Knesset3, the time of the
editing of the 8th grade anthology. Because it was the strongest party and
Sara Zamir 169
wanted to retain its power and authority, MAPAI members also held key
posts in many governmental institutions, including state education.
The trend of preserving the political ideology of the ruling party,
MAPAI4, and beliefs is evident in the Sheaves anthologies: its national
narratives are all seen as committed to the national struggle in light of
Israel’s campaigns in the past, the present and, mainly, in the future.
In terms of content, the Sheaves anthologies are full of topics that are
more suggestive of a history book than literature, and this is not by chance:
at that point in time, in an emerging national society, such as the Jewish
society in Israel, history is a mechanism that plays an integral part in
creating a national identity and collective memory (Shachar 2003). The
wording of the titles, including the table of contents, contains almost all
the chapters of the history of the Jewish people: “From ancient times,”
“Yearning for Redemption,” “Building and protecting,” “The war of
independence and the State of Israel,” “In our land,” and so forth. The
names of the other sections are quite misleading; supposedly, section
headings such as “Youth” (7th grade) and “For freedom and equality” (8th
grade) should testify to the daily life of the individual and, thereby,
establish the field of humanist-universal values, but these sections also
deal with chapters of history that match the hegemonic ideology. For
example, the heading “Types and characters” (8th grade) includes a
description of Herzl Theodor, the founded the Zionist political movement
and also known as the “Visionary of the State of Israel,” as well as
excerpts from the diaries of Josef Trumpeldor, an early Zionist activist
who became a Zionist national hero.
The text uses myths – kinds of models according to which the
individual should think, act, live and die. For the most part, the texts
represent ideological narratives, some of which are explicit, while others
are implicit in the subtext.
Analysis of the content reveals four main ideological narratives:
- The Israeli fight for existence: the few against the many;
- The narrative of the (Jewish) victim;
- The rights of the collective over the individual;
- The land of Israel: the return and settlement.
The purpose of these ideological narratives was to shape the world view of
both the individual and society as a whole, to legitimize the social order
set by the leadership, to guide people to think and act according to the
ideology of the dominant group.
Most of the writers in the anthologies were active in the Zionist

movement in general or specifically in MAPAI. For example, Achad
Ha’am (the spiritual father of Zionism), David Ben-Gurion (prime minister
at the time the anthologies were published), A. D. Gordon (an ideologist
and leader of practical Zionism and founder of the Religion of Work
movement), B. Dinur (a Minister of Education on MAPAI governments),
Moshe Hess (a Zionist visionary, a father of social thinking in Europe),
Theodore Herzl (the father of political Zionism, founder and leader of the
Zionist movement, visionary of the Jewish State) and many more.
How Can a State, Based upon Immigrants, Socialize

towards Collective Characteristics in the Face of
Multicultural Demands?
As the years passed, criticism of this policy favouring cultural uniformity
began to surface, with oriental writers at its forefront (Zamir 2006). They
directed most of the criticism at the domination of the European Zionist
narrative concerning the absorption process of the new immigrants and the
sidelining of Orientals from cultural, political and governmental positions.
The critics held that the “melting pot” policy worked in favour of the
Ashkenazi population in all areas concerning the distribution of resources,
in education, land ownership and location of settlements. The critics
claimed that Jewish nationalism is an integral part of the Zionist narrative.
This new oriental narrative also claims that the Zionist narrative has
excluded the oriental narrative because Zionism has been repressing
Orientals for a long time (in the political and not qualitative sense of the
word) and, therefore, only in a situation of multicultural thinking can the
oriental narrative co-exist with the Zionist narrative (Shmueloff, Shem-
Tov & Bar-Am 2007).
The Pedagogical Secretariat of the Ministry of Education has
responded to these claims by placing topics such as “The Unity of Israel,”
“Year of the Hebrew Language,” “The Four-Hundred-Year Anniversary of
the Expulsion of Jews from Spain,” and “Cultures of the Communities” as
the yearly central topics to be discussed in the education system; it also
responded by selecting other subjects for discussion chosen from new
fields of interest at specific times that highlighted Israel as a multicultural,
multilingual and multinational society.
This multicultural existence means first and foremost that society
respects its cultures and the people who practice them. This respect does
not necessarily imply that we accept all cultures equally, but rather that we
respect each culture equally – even if it is unacceptable to us – that we
Sara Zamir 171
recognize each culture’s contribution to the society and the country and
that we recognize the right of each group or individual to have their own
unique identity (Iram 1999, Iram & Maslovty 2002).
At the turn of the 20th century, the term “multiculturalism” became a
cardinal term both in the academic and the public discourse of western
democracies (Reingold 2005). There are those who discuss multicultural
societies emphasizing the demographic sense of the word, that is to say
that, in a specific political entity, there live different ethnic and cultural
groups side by side (Tamir 1998, Penninx 1996), while others prefer to
call this demographic aspect “pluralism” (Katz 1998). However, the more
common and foremost meaning of the concept of multiculturalism is
ideological (Reingold 2005). The premise for this interpretation of the
term is that a multicultural society can be classified as such only if it
relates respectfully and positively to its homogeneity (Yona 1999).
In order to achieve mutual respect among the different cultures, the
authorities must change their monocultural policy guided, for example, by
such things as ethnocentric education and assimilation into a policy
favouring multiculturalism (Reingold 2005).
The issue of multiculturalism has received much attention in the Israeli
education system, yet the desire to socialize towards collective
characteristics, at least in the variegated Jewish sector, remained.
The education system in Israel socializes towards collective
characteristics in the face of multicultural demands through three key
means: core curriculum, educational excursions and memorial days.
Common Core Curriculum
The Government of Israel appointed the National Task Force for the
Advancement of Education in Israel at the initiative of Livnat, Minister of
Education, with the support of Prime Minister Sharon, and began its work
in October 2003.
One of their adopted recommendation dealt with a compulsory core
curriculum derived from the complete national curriculum. The core
curriculum constitutes a common denominator for all students on the
conceptual level and the level of content, values and cognitive and study
skills. In a society that suffers from numerous rifts and divisions, the
committee declared that the comprehensive system should encompass as
many segments as possible of the Israeli education system. It should build
and reinforce what they have in common, bring the different segments of
society together, and lower the walls of ignorance and mutual suspicion
between the different communities. At the same time, the right of
communities to a separate education should be recognized in the case of a

different nationality and language, or in the case of a distinctive, separate
way of life. Thus, the common core curriculum is a vital tool for creating
genuine equality in education and education for equality, but also for
strengthening the social fabric.
Education Excursions
The special circular of education of 2005 stated that the Ministry of

Education attributes dominant pedagogical significance to pupils’
excursions, as part of the whole curricula, for shaping the awareness of
youth, in order to enhance common heritage and, therefore, unity and
cohesiveness.
Since 2005, the Israeli Ministry of Education advised schools to
encourage sightseeing in Jerusalem at least three times during the pupil’s
schooling years. In February 2007, the committee for Promoting knowing
and love of one’s country recommended a list of tours for the classes (from
A till graduation). In February 2011, the Education Minister announced
that the “heritage tours” including sights in the west bank would be
available to students across the country. Nevertheless, all educators in
Israel do not agree to the idea of establishing uniformity through visiting
Jewish traditional sights connected to the Palestinian authority. Soon after
this announcement of the Israeli Ministry of Education and for the first
time in Israel’s history, more than 200 teachers signed a letter declaring
that they would refuse to participate in an Education Ministry programme
taking pupils on “heritage tours” in Hebron (Talila Nesher, Haaretz,
February 6, 2012).
Memorial Days
Both Functionalists and Marxist theoreticians consider state ceremonies a

powerful tool of socialization and a unifying factor. School ceremonies
strive at playing a unifying integrative role in diverse society social
cleavages and at drawing nearer marginalized subgroups.
Bellah (1992) defined civil religion as “the religious dimension that
exists in the life of every nation through which it interprets its historic
experiences in the light of its transcendental reality.” Civil religion
contains a sacred system of beliefs, myths, symbols, and ceremonies that
give meaning to the concepts of “nation” and “state.” Imposed from above
or emerging from society, civil religion presents an understanding of a
Sara Zamir 173
society’s role in history and each person’s role as a citizen (Harrison

2001).
The educational system marks three memorial days, all connected to
the heritage and nature of Israel: Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of
Terrorism Remembrance Day, The Holocaust Remembrance Day and
Rabin’s (the fifth prime minister of Israel assassinated in 1995) Memorial
Day. Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day
is Israel’s official Memorial Day. The national observance for the fallen
was enacted into law in 1963. While, traditionally, the Remembrance Day
is the day of fallen soldiers, commemoration has now been extended to
civilian victims of the ongoing armed dispute. They observe Holocaust
Day as Israel’s day of commemoration for the approximately six million
Jews who perished in the Holocaust as a result of the actions carried out by
Nazi Germany and its accessories, and for the Jewish resistance in that
period. In Israel, it is a national memorial day inaugurated in 1953 and
anchored by a law soon after. The Israeli parliament has set the murder
date according to the Hebrew calendar as the official memorial day of
Rabin, as well as the 4th of November, the date according to the Gregorian
calendar. The education circulars carry out extensive commemorative and
educational activities emphasising the ways and means of democracy and
peace.
All memorial ceremonies at variegated schools involve staging
including national flag, white shirts with characteristic badges issued for
the occasion, memorial candles, memorable songs and poems and suitable
prayer. Hence, the memorial service acts as a timeless experience on the
pupils’ consciousness: it occurs, in the present, to reminisce the past in
order to educate the future citizen (Harrison 2001).
To sum up, there is no doubt that the changes that have occurred in the
education system since the 1950s are, actually, a reflection of the changes
and upheavals that have occurred in the Israeli society in its entirety:
while, in the 1950s and 1960s, the education system strived toward
creating a new and uniform collective national identity for all, the later
eras have reflected gradual educational changes shifting the emphasis
away from national collectivistic values to individualistic and pluralistic
values, enabling the expression of a variety of identities in Israeli society.
The underlying belief of the “melting pot” education policy was that
assimilation can be achieved only through to the creation of one single
national identity. Some theoreticians even claimed that giving preference
or specific treatment (affirmative action) to immigrant communities may
have the opposite effect: it would harm these communities since the
majority culture would become hostile.
Even today, after the assimilation of multicultural doctrines, some

argue that it is precisely the effort to integrate the immigrants in the
society that would encourage them to acquire the new customs of their
hosts, thus preserving national unity. One of the advocates of this
approach, Taub (2010), argues that, because of the hurtful memories it
evokes, the term “melting pot” should not be used nowadays, but the truth
of the matter is that we cannot disregard it entirely since a better term has
yet to be invented. The truth must be told, even if it is unpleasant: it is
exceedingly doubtful that existence here would have been ensured without
the “melting pot,” and it is doubtful that we can ensure future without it.
According to Taub (ibidem), a society such as ours that faces a real danger
of breaking up cannot afford the luxury of fostering the differences
between its communities while the little that unites us is running out.
America can afford it because it is fundamentally united.
It seems as if the debate would continue: arguments about common,
basic contents serving as a “melting pot” vs. counterarguments supporting
pure multiculturalism still nourish the fire of education.
Notes
1. Amos, Chapter 3.
2. In 1948.
3. The Israeli parliament.
4. Eretz Yisrael Workers Party.
References
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Harrison, Jo-Ann. (2001). School Ceremonies for Yitzhak Rabin: Social

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Constitutionalism and the protection of groups. In Wendy F. Katin, N.
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of Groups and Group Identities in America. Urbana & Chicago:
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Multiculturalism. Alpayim 16: 213-247.
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Military in Israel. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
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in Dutch Society Since 1960. In R. Bauböck, A. Heller & A. R.
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in Societies of Immigration. Vienna: Aldershot. 187-206.
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Education: Four Research Cases from U.S. Universities. Dapim 40:
108-131.
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History in Jewish Education in the Land of Israel, 1882-1918.
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MULTICULTURAL COUNSELLING
IN EDUCATION
ERCAN KOCAYÖRÜK AND MEHMET ALI IÇBAY
Introduction
The Euro-American centred counselling has used Western therapeutic
theories to deal with the different concern of clients in a counselling
setting. The mainstream in the counselling theories has focused on the
individualistic characteristics of the western cultures. Thus, they cannot be
fully adapted into the eastern collectivist countries. Putting it differently,
therapy and counselling theories can be said to be framed as the study of
soul and spirit in African-Egyptian societies, whereas, in the Western
cultures, it appears as the study of mind, knowledge, and behaviour
(Nobles 1986, Parham 1993, White 1984, White & Parham 1990). The
different approaches to the study of human behaviour from different
cultural perspectives have resulted in the different ways of practicing
counselling in different places. Finding its main interest in demonstrating
the importance of diversity in the counselling process, this chapter aims to
present how counselling has been shaped and practiced in various cultures.
Psychology is considered as linear, individualistic and non-harmonious in
the western studies while in the eastern communities, it is perceived as
non-linear, holistic and harmonious. For instance, White & Parham (1990)
claimed that, unlike European and American societies, in the eastern
collectivist cultures, individualistic manners are perceived as an obstacle
in enlightenment and spiritual journeys. As a result, they admire being a
part of the whole group and refrain from showing off as an individual.
This example and similar ones have demonstrated that different cultures
prioritize or emphasize different aspects of human behaviour to develop a
healthy life. That is why leading counselling theories have been seen
inappropriate for different cultures and many voices have been articulating
the notion of Multicultural Counselling and Therapy (MCT) for decades as
an alternative way to deal with the culturally diverse counselling process.
As Pedersen (1991) suggests, counselling theories of today cannot be
adapted into many cultures, and thus therapists need multicultural
178 Multicultural Counseling in Education
counselling theory. According to Kuhn (1970), if the existing theories

cannot explain some features thoroughly or a better idea pops up in
explaining the latest figures, fractions in the paradigms come into the
picture. This can be compared to a caterpillar turning into a butterfly: it
cracks the rigid shell and becomes more colourful. Similar to the
development of a fraction in the Kuhnian perspective, the multicultural
approach in therapy has developed as a fourth force in the field, has
included many aspects, local realities and experiences, and thus has
become more inclusive and adaptive to different societies. In a world
where many societies are collectivist, consists of various ethnicities and
cultures, the multicultural approach becomes crucial in providing
counselling service to the whole population (Sue & Sue 1999).
Multicultural Counselling as a Fourth Force

It is supposed that traditional counselling and psychotherapies are often
ineffective and may even produce undesirable outcomes. Also, they still
continue to dominate the basic counselling skills, strategies and
interventions in counselling settings. The three theoretical forces are
embedded in the traditional approaches, namely the (a) psychodynamic,
(b) behavioural/cognitive, and (c) humanistic/existential approaches. The
rise of multicultural movement in counselling and psychotherapy is said to
be in direct response to the traditional gender-biased and ethnocentric
approaches (e.g., Ivey et al. 2009). Therefore, the multicultural perspective
is assumed to be the fourth force in counselling and therapies. The aim of
multicultural counselling is not to dismiss the traditional approaches, but
rather to reveal and increase cultural and social awareness in counselling.
The three main forces of psychotherapy – the psychodynamic,
existential/humanistic, and behavioural/cognitive approaches – focus
mostly on environment and culture but talk hardly about diversities such
as minorities, different races, languages, religious and sexual orientations,
and so on. This narrow approach to counselling eventually bunged up,
around the 1970s psychologists started to look for new dimensions in
therapy, and as a result of their efforts in establishing a diversity sensitive
approach, multicultural therapy emerged. Since the existing theories
placed the white Euro-American man in the middle of their normality
assumption, the counselling process had become ethnocentric; in other
words, counselling is for the white middle-class people and operates with
their values (Ridley 1995, Lago & Thampson 1996, Sue, Ivey & Pedersen
1996, Sue & Sue 1999). Euro-American theories shape the counselling
process with their individualistic perspectives and thus separate the
Ercan Kocayörük and Mehmet Ali İçbay 179
existence of the self from the counselling process. Conversely, in many

cultures, collaborative issues are more salient and individualism is a
hindrance in attaining enlightenment. As a result, people have started to
regard counselling as handmaidens of status quo, transmitters of social
values, and forms of possible cultural oppression (Sue, Ivey & Pedersen
1996). That is the reason why minority groups do not benefit from
counselling services. MCT has a reasonable criticism on these traditional
counselling theories, some psychotherapists have also started to confess
“counselling has failed to serve the needs of minorities and, in some cases,
proven counterproductive to their well-being” (Atkinson, Morten & Sue
1979: 11). MCT is a “meta-theoretical” approach in psychotherapy that
emphasizes the awareness of self and the cultural properties of the client
throughout the counselling process (Ivey et al. 1997). It does not
generalize the individuals but cares about their uniqueness. This individual
uniqueness is presented in almost every theory and practice in the
counselling field. Following the same assumption, MCT, as Pedersen
(1994: 229) stated, includes “ethnographic variables such as ethnicity,
nationality, religion and language; demographic variables such as age,
gender and place of residence; status variables such as social, educational
and economic status; and affiliations including both formal affiliations to
family or organizations and informal affiliations to ideas and lifestyle.”
This point of view, giving importance to the client’s background in many
aspects, also contains the notion of being there for the counselee because,
if counsellors impose their cultural values or insist on dominant
counselling practices, there will surely be a gap between their clients and
them. In the early 1990s, Pedersen (1991) declared that multicultural
counselling had become the fourth force in psychotherapy because the
classic three forces in psychotherapy had closed their eyes on racial and
ethnographic characters in therapy. Supporting Pedersen’s offer, Sue, Ivey
& Pedersen (1996) defined MCT as a metatheory, a theory about theories
an attempt to understand different helping methods developed in diverse
cultures, suggesting MCT as a diversity sensitive method. It can be simply
said that MCT does not regard any approach in the counselling and
helping methods as right or wrong, but respects different approaches in
different cultures. Because culture is a powerful determinant in people’s
lives, and because learning and identity formation are built in cultural
context, there are many basic and significant differences between east and
west in defining what is normal and healthy. According to Ogbonnaya, the
concept “self,” which represents an individualistic western worldview, is
replaced with “self-in-context” in the east (in Ivey & Bradford Ivey,
2001). It is an attempt to approach people within their own and unique
situation. Thus, it can be suggested that MCT proposes to appreciate and

evaluate different people, simply situated within their cultural bounds. In
terms of its implications in practice, Sue, Ivey and Pedersen (1996) stated
that we need to make two main differences, one of which is broadening the
helping relationship and expanding the repertoire of culturally appropriate
helping responses available to the counsellor. The other one is to develop
alternative counselling roles that empower helping professionals to impact
the social or environmental forces in the clients’ lives. To increase self-
awareness, counsellors must identify themselves and the main culture they
are in. Following that, they should search for different cultural values. As
a result, counsellors must get to know themselves and their cultural bonds,
after which they can identify and understand people from other cultures in
their cultural and psychosocial context. Many proposed that it is time to
move from a client-centred understanding to a culture-centred framework
in counselling, and this will make us stop cultural encapsulation and
unintentional racism (Wrenn 1962).
Research and Training of MCT

MCT has been offering some reforms in research, practice, and training.
Researchers generally classified minorities as (a) delinquent, maladjusted,
pathological in a Eurocentric context, (b) fitting the social biases of
Eurocentric societies, and (c) ignoring the contributions of minority
psychologists to the profession (Sue, Ivey & Pedersen 1996). These
minority groups have been usually compared to the dominant white
society, and the differences in academic, vocational, legal issues, etc. are
explained with their ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Putting it in another
way, psychology overly focused on the negative side of human beings and
relied much on studying individuals in explaining their behaviours (Sue
1978). For better research and results, Sue, Ivey & Pedersen (1996)
suggest that we should keep in mind that culture always affects the way
we ask and answer; thus, no question or answers are culture-free. As a
result, researchers must “continue to rely on culturally-based measures, do
not apparently attempt to exercise cultural sensitivity in the interpretation
of results, and seldom adequately describe the subjects’ cultural
backgrounds” (Ponterotto & Casas 1991: 32). It is also said that
researchers must always keep in mind to consider self-in-relation and
people-in-context. Out of the society or group they belong to, we cannot
fully understand the changes in people and the reasons for these changes
correctly. Lastly, Sue, Ivey & Pedersen (1996) oppose the general
inclination of focusing pathological characteristics of minorities and
disregard their contributions in the field and their strong sides in dealing
with everyday stress. When it comes to training, it is a prerequisite for
counsellors to be aware of their own culture for an effective training.
Given this prerequisite for effective counselling, it can be concluded that
there are three goals in this context: (a) know yourself, (b) know the
others, and (c) develop an appropriate technique (Ivey et al. 2009). Basing
their framework on the prerequisite, Sue, Ivey and Pedersen (1996: 45)
stated the first goal for counsellor training as “[H]aving trainees become
more culturally aware of their own values, biases, stereotypes, and
assumptions about human behaviour.” Counsellor trainees need to broaden
their worldview and realize that there are other ways of helping than their
own. They must acquire a multiperspective method beside self-awareness.
The second goal for counsellor training is “having trainees acquire
knowledge and understanding of the worldview of minority or culturally
different clients.” (ibidem: 50) Including practical trainings would be
effective for this purpose – like role playing, as Pedersen (1986)
suggested. Trainees, making used of this method, can manage to
understand how their “different” clients perceive the problem and
solutions. The third goal should be “having trainees begin the process of
developing culturally appropriate interventions strategies in the
counselling process.” (ibidem: 51) As it is often stated, intervention
techniques are not particularly suitable for different cultures. This forces
counsellors to develop unique intervention strategies of their own,
meaning that, for different groups, they should make use of the indigenous
intervention methods, as well. Besides, they should be open to other
cultural methods in the field and nourish from them. In terms of
multicultural counselling, Sue, Ivey & Pedersen (1996) stated three key
dimensions of competence in the counselling setting. The first dimension
in cultural competence is the awareness – being culturally aware and
sensitive to one’s own cultural heritage and respecting differences while
being aware of your own values and how they might affect the
professional process with different clients. An effective counsellor with a
multicultural sensitivity should not hesitate to refer his/her clients to
counsellors from their socio-demographic group when s/he realizes that
the counselling process is interrupted by his/her values. In order to achieve
this, it is necessary to be aware of his/her racist, sexist, heterosexist or
other detrimental attitudes, beliefs or feelings. When it comes to the
knowledge dimension of cultural competence, a sensitive counsellor must
have knowledge on a number of culturally diverse groups. He must be
informed about the socio-political system in his country and should have
information and understanding of the generic characteristics of counselling
and therapy. Above all, he must be aware of the obstacles which prevent
people from receiving mental health services, especially those from
different cultural backgrounds. Lastly, in terms of counsellor skills
dimension, it can be concluded that a skilled counsellor must be able to
produce different verbal and non-verbal helping methods, and manage to
send and receive different messages correctly and precisely. In addition, as
a professional, a counsellor must be able to predict the effects of his/her
intervention type keeping his/her limitations with diverse clients in mind.
Following the discussion of MCT and culture-centred point of view, it is
more beneficial to discuss the role or effectiveness of school counsellor,
and what skills, intervention and implementation are so crucial for a
school counsellor in this context. Because the multicultural structure can
be observed in many schools, especially in the societies including different
cultures, school counsellors must have some knowledge on this issue and
should develop the required skills to provide a real helping atmosphere.
Throughout the history of school counselling, as Sink and MacDonald
(1998) stated, functioning and roles have changed over time. Counselling
in schools has become “crisis-oriented, reactive, focused on remediation
over prevention, and overburdened with non-guidance related cleric and
administrative tasks.” (ibidem: 88) It is truly essential for a school
counsellor to become aware of some critical incidents that influence the
effectiveness of school counselling services. Pedersen (2003) highlighted
five critical areas of influence: (a) The school counsellor’s providing a
counselling setting to encourage the client (students) (b) The school
counsellor’s theoretical-philosophical orientation, (c) The expectations and
demands of faculty and colleagues, (d) The expectations and needs of the
clients (students), and (e) The demand or expectations of parents and
school staff from the school. In order to be more effective in meeting
students’ needs and put these areas of influence into action, Ivey’s
Developmental Counselling and Therapy (DCT) offers broad theoretical
perspective for counsellors. DCT is a model which helps to understand the
client’s cognitive, developmental functioning, clarify the features of this
functioning, and offer suitable intervention strategies to meet different
needs of these clients (Ivey & Goncalves 1987, 1988). In this perspective,
there are three main outcomes listed by most multicultural educational
training programmes: (1) student mastery, (2) increase in knowledge, and
(3) student empowerment (Pedersen 2003). Student mastery is about
controlling events and environment and, as a result, having self-control.
Learning another language can be given as an example for student
mastery. Learning another language will help the counsellors
communicate with the ethnic group, and this will help him increase
knowledge about the other cultures as well. Lastly, student empowerment

is about students’ feelings of powerlessness It occurs when educational
system and student do not fit well into the system. Finally, it is argued that
contemporary theories of counselling and therapies inadequately explain,
predict and describe the culturally diverse groups in counselling and
therapy. In light of the MCT discussions, a counsellor, mental-health
professional or therapist provide a counselling setting for cultural identity
development. It is a crucial determinant of counsellor and client attitudes
toward the self, others, not only in the same group but also in the different
group and the dominant group.
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Educational Review 32: 444-449.
DEVELOPMENT OF INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE
IN THE CZECH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF RELEVANT
FRAMEWORKS
LUCIE CVIKLOVÁ
Introduction
The Czech national reforms initiated under the Bologna Accord and
Lisbon Treaty for schools of the European Union since 2000 have
emphasized strengthening core competencies in mathematics, science and
language. Less support has been given to the development of local and
shared European values by means of the Czech Republic Framework
Education Programme for schools. Under the EU policy for supporting
culture in a globalizing world, the European Commission urged, in 2007,
EU schools to emphasize the development of social competence. Social
competence is understood as the communicative, emotional, behavioural
and cognitive skills necessary to succeed in society. Within increasingly
interdependent economies and societies, social competence is highly
correlated with intercultural competence; intercultural competence is a
developmental process with traits and dimensions that demonstrate the
ability to deal effectively with cultural differences in order to develop
successful relationships with others. It involves a complex set of abilities
needed to perform appropriately when interacting with others who are
linguistically and culturally different from oneself (Fantini & Tirmizi
2006).
A recent national survey of the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD 2012) to which the EU
Commission and Czech Republic are members recommended that the
Czech Republic increase its labour market flexibility by strengthening its
education system (idem). Employers’ reports, statistics on secondary
school graduates’ employment rate and recent research studies support the
186 Development of Intercultural Communication Competence
OECD’s recommendation with the finding that domestic and international

companies operating in the Czech Republic are currently demanding
certain Intercultural Communication Competences (ICC) from their
employees (Fresh Minds Limited 2011). Fresh Minds Limited survey of
500 European business leaders identified the skills young people should
possess revealing a lack of “soft skills” such as confidence, teamwork,
self-motivation, networking and presentation. Two-thirds of the
respondents believe that their countries’ education systems do not
successfully instil these skills. A similar study by RPIC-ViP (2008)
surveyed over 2,000 companies in the Moravian-Silesian region and
identified 14 competencies of skills, attitudes, knowledge and behaviours
necessary for success at work, highlighting teamwork and communication.
The report concluded ICC have been implemented with limited success in
Czech schools and cited social capital as deficient in this area (RPIC-ViP
2008).
Social capital is theorized as a result of how people interact and benefit
from their mutual relationships within social networks (Dekker & Uslaner
2001). As social capital is becoming increasingly necessary to the current
and future workplace, this article will contribute to an understanding of the
relationship of ICC to the development of cognitive social capital, to
which the OECD is directing Czech Republic’s transition to a more
innovative, skill-based economy.
Cultural values are perceived as an outgrowth of implied values passed
on through the family, community and school. Little is known about how
Czech students develop intercultural awareness and understanding and
what skills Czech graduates have in intercultural competence. In addition,
cultural communication objectives at the Czech Republic Framework
Education Programme level are minimally specified.
More research is needed to determine context-specific behaviours that
lead to intercultural communication competence where choice and
accommodation of different communication behaviours is necessary
(Hajek & Giles 2003). Although there have been theories to explain ICC,
measurements of cultural values, and specifications for ICC impacts, to
date, there has been no study addressing intersections of ICC, cultural
values and languages.
Intercultural Competence (IC) involves multiple modes of
communication (i.e., verbal, non-verbal, representational, etc.) through
which individuals who inhabit certain cultures live their values. As
assessing intercultural competence is best conducted through a mixed
method approach to quantitative and quantitative measures (Deardorff
Lucie Cviklová 187
2006), they have selected interdisciplinary frameworks in order to measure

ICC’s strengths and weaknesses in Czech schools.
In the first part of the article, the influence of five theoretical
frameworks is documented by empirical information resulting from recent
research; in the second part, we present current issues concerning the
development of intercultural communication competence in the Czech
educational system.
Theoretical Frameworks and Relevant Findings Related

to Intercultural Communication Competence
Social science research shows that cultural values are developed
throughout one’s life and shaped by various factors, including informal
and formal socialization and schooling practices that, in turn, influence the
development of social capital. Cultural differences have become the object
of study within a growing interdisciplinary field, including cultural
psychologists and anthropologists (Machová & Kubátová 1995, Hofstede
2002). Cultural values research grew out of Hofstede’s (1983) study of
national culture through a framework of four cultural dimensions, a
framework which has been since enriched with the addition of other
variables such as lifestyle, leisure, and body language.
We assume that the school environment is a regulated and shared space
conducive to developing specific cultural values and that teaching
curriculum is a cultural activity occurring in a specific, institutionalized
environment and school culture. Curriculum influences discursive
constructions of values, the content and occurrence of communications,
student activities, and forms of feedback in the classroom.
1. Importance of Hofstede’s Dimensions of High & Low Power

Distance and High & Low Uncertainty Avoidance for the
Development of ICC
The first framework draws upon the work of Geert Hofstede, an

organizational psychologist whose research relied on a large questionnaire
survey of IBM employees and managers in forty different countries
(Hofstede 2001). Hofstede identifies cultural values along the dimensions
of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism and masculinity.
Given the purposes of this study, the first three are most relevant. Along
the power distance dimension, the Czech society exhibits high power
distance similar to French and Belgian societies (Světlík 2003). People
tend to accept and expect a hierarchical/unequal distribution of power.
According to the uncertainty avoidance dimension, the Czech society

(similar to the German one) tends to avoid risk. This dimension measures
the degree to which members of a given society deal with uncertainty and
risk in everyday life, and prefer working with long-term acquaintances and
friends rather than strangers. The individualism dimension measures the
degree to which individuals perceive themselves as separate from others or
free from group pressure to conform. Individualism in the Czech society
comes out in the middle (idem). Despite the fact that Hofstede ignores
intergenerational differences and distinctions among members of the same
nation or ethnic group, his dimensions are particularly useful for the
understanding of conflicts among various groups from different cultural
backgrounds; he can also be valued for the fact that his theoretical
framework enables the analysis of various contexts such as family
cultures, cultures of cities, regions or villages, peer cultures, etc.
Hofstede’s framework, although originally developed for the purposes of
the workplace, has been applied to educational cultural environments (cf.
Maslowski 2001, Hobson & Bohon 2011):
“Culture is embedded in schools and, therefore, in students; culture

influences all aspects of education, from instructional philosophy, to
classroom environments, to discursive interaction.” (Hobson & Bohon
2011: 44).
Carson (1991) was one of the first to show that culture influences students’
experience in the classroom, claiming that teacher’s questions can be
viewed as mutually generated by teachers and students and may reflect
and reinforce authority relationships in the classroom. Hobson & Bohon
(idem) used Hofstede’s dimensions to study the effects of culture on
student questioning in the secondary school science classroom and showed
that cultural values affect students’ comfort and willingness to pose
questions and, thus, influence the overall learning process and its
outcomes.
Teachers of ICC at public secondary schools in the Czech Republic
have used selected Hofstede’s dimensions for their pedagogical practices
aiming at developing intercultural awareness. Firstly, students in the last
year (a sample of 100 students) were explained conceptions of high & low
power distance and high & low uncertainty avoidance. Secondly, students
were given a short list of statements, and they were asked to decide
whether the statements referred to high or low power distance or to high or
low uncertainty avoidance and how they could substantiate their answers.
Thirdly, students were given suggested answers with short explanations,
and students’ wrong answers (32 students high & low power distance and
Lucie Cviklová 189
43 ones high & low uncertainty avoidance) were collectively analyzed in

the classroom in order to deepen knowledge of power distance conception
and uncertainty avoidance one.
Example: The Concept of Power – Statements and Suggested Answers

A) These behaviours are more commonly associated with high power
distance cultures. 1. People are less likely to question the boss. (There is
more fear of displeasing the boss in high power distance cultures). 2.
Elitism is the norm. (Emphasizing distinctions between boss and
subordinates is the norm). 3. Those of power have special privileges.
(Rank has its privileges in these cultures). 4. There are greater wage
differences between managers and subordinates. (Again, to emphasize the
distance). 5. Workers prefer precise instructions from superiors. (Close
supervision, the visible exercise of power are common to these cultures). 6.
Bosses are independent, subordinates are dependent. (The unequal
distribution of power). 7. Freedom of thought could get you into trouble.
(Independence is not valued in subordinates). 8. Less social mobility is the
norm. (To keep those with and without power separated). 9. The chain of
command is sacred. (Rank must be respected; you should not go around
people). 10. The pecking order is clearly established. (There is a need to
determine who has power over whom). 11. Management style is
authoritarian and paternalistic. (Bosses are supposed to wield their power).
12. Interaction between boss and subordinate is formal. (To emphasize the
power gap).
B) These behaviours are more commonly associated with low power
distance forces. 1. Students question teachers (Because superiors do not
have to be deferred to). 2. Freedom of thought is encouraged (No one is
threatened by independence of thinking for oneself). 3. The chain of
command is mainly for convenience. (Power differences are not
emphasized). 4. Interaction between boss and subordinate is more
informal. (Because the distance is minimized). 5. Subordinates and bosses
are independent. (We are all equal here, so we all depend on each other). 6.
It’s okay to question the boss. (Because he’s just another worker here). 7.
Management style is consultative and democratic. (Because we are all in
this together, power distance is de-emphasized).
2. Importance of Fons Trompenaars’ Dimensions of Particularism &

Universalism and Ascription & Achievement for the Development of
ICC
The second framework utilizes research by Fons Trompenaars & Charles

Hampden-Turner (1993) who identified several elementary dimensions
according to which different cultures can be measured (Trompenaars &
Humpden-Turner 2001). According to the first one (universalism vs.
particularism), the Czech society is more similar to Mediterranean
societies, which are more particularistic. Universalistic societies place

more emphasis on, and expect others to follow, given rules, while
particularistic ones stress personal and contextual aspects in interpreting
rules. According to the second dimension (display of emotions in
communication), the Czechs are also in the middle compared to
inhabitants of Mediterranean cultures, who speak quickly, raise their voice
and show their enthusiasm or sadness, while in Scandinavian countries
expression of emotions is considered a professional deficiency or
uneasiness (idem). According to the third dimension (specificity), Czech
culture is more diffuse than specific. This dimension measures whether
life is considered to be composed of many components, which are not
interchangeable and, therefore, deems it is necessary to divide the work
and private matters and activities or whether there is an assumption that all
elements are part of the whole and mutually related (idem). According to
the fourth dimension success, the Czechs can also be placed in the middle
of the scale. This dimension measures whether an individual has achieved
success on the basis of his or her efforts or work (North American culture)
or whether status is more ascribed by means of a combination of
personality of the individual as well as his or her social origins, education,
employment and membership of this or that group (idem).
have used selected components of Trompenaar & Hampden-Turner’s
model for their pedagogical practices that aim at the development of
intercultural awareness. Firstly, students were explained the conceptions of
particularism & universalism and ascription & achievement. Secondly,
students in the last year (sample 100 students) were given a short list of
statements, and they were asked to decide whether the statement referred
to particularism or universalism and ascription or achievement. Thirdly,
students were given answers with short explanations and students’ wrong
answers (41 students particularism & universalism and 25 ascription &
achievement) were collectively analyzed in the classroom in order to
deepen the knowledge of particularism & universalism and ascription &
achievement.
Example: Universalism & Particularism – Statements and Suggested

Answers
1.a. In society, we should help those who are the neediest (Universalism).
1.b. In society, we should help the neediest of those who depend on us
(Particularism).
2.a. There are no absolutes in life; you always have to look at the particular
situation (Particularism). 2.b. There are certain absolutes, which apply
across the board (Universalism).
Lucie Cviklová 191
3.a. The courts should mediate conflicts (Universalism). 3.b. People

should solve their own conflicts; it’s embarrassing if it has to go to court
(Particularism).
4.a. In general, people can be trusted (Universalism). 4.b. My closest
associates can be trusted absolutely; everyone else is automatically a
suspect (Particularism).
5.a. In hiring someone, I want to know about their technical skills and their
educational/professional background (Universalism). 5.b. In hiring, I want
to know who the person’s family and friends are, who will vouch for this
person (Particularism).
6.a. I would be very hurt if my neighbour, a policeman, gave me a ticket
for speeding (Particularism). 6.b. I would not expect my neighbour, the
policeman, to jeopardize his job and not give me a speeding ticket
(Universalism).
7.a. Performance reviews should not take personal relations into account
(Universalism). 7.b. Performance review inevitably take personal relations
into account (Particularism).
8.a. You often have to make exceptions for people because of
circumstances (Universalism). 8.b. Exceptions should be very rare;
otherwise, you open the floodgates (Particularism).
9.a. Contracts aren’t necessary between friends (Particularism). 9.b.
Contracts guarantee that friends stay friends (Universalism).
10.a. What is ethical in a given situation depends on who you are dealing
with (Particularism). 10.b. Ethics are ethics no matter who you are
dealing with (Universalism).
3. Importance of Milton Bennett’s Attitudes toward Cultural

Difference for the Development of ICC
The third framework draws upon Milton Bennett’s Developmental Model

of Intercultural Sensitivity (Bennett 1993), which explains the reaction to
cultural differences through one’s experience of cultural difference. As
one’s experience becomes more complex, one develops a greater potential
for competence in ICC interactions. This model is activated by cognitive
structures (i.e. worldviews) that range from ethno-centric to ethno-relative.
Those who approach ethno-relative worldviews are more likely to exhibit
cultural competence. The ethno-centric continuum ranges from
Defense/Denial, Reversal and Minimization to the ethno-relative stages of
Acceptance, Adaptation (including cognitive frame-shifting and
behavioural code-switching) and Encapsulated Marginality. According to
the principle Denial of Difference, individuals experience their own
culture as the only “real” one. Other cultures are either not noticed at all,
or they are understood in an undifferentiated, simplistic manner. People at
this position are not interested in cultural difference, but when confronted
with it, their rejection of acceptance may change to aggressive attempts to

avoid or eliminate it. According to the Principle Defence against
Difference, one’s culture is experienced as the most “evolved” or best way
to live. This position is characterized by dualistic thinking and frequently
accompanied by overtly negative stereotyping. Actors in this position are
more openly threatened by cultural difference and more likely to be acting
aggressively against it. According to the principle Minimization of
Difference, the experience of similarity outweighs the experience of
difference. Actors recognize superficial cultural differences in food,
customs, etc., but they emphasize human similarity in psychical structure,
psychological needs and/or assumed adherence to universal values.
Hammer (1998) has applied this theory to developing Intercultural
Development Inventory instrument to measure one’s orientation towards
cultural differences that can be used to enhance students’ ICC competence.
Bennett’s framework is highly suitable for development of ICC since it
has provided tools to reach the phase in which difference is seen as normal
and integrated into the identity of oneself; at the final phase, one can relate
to several cultural reference frameworks.
have used Milton Bennett’s model for their pedagogical practices that aim
at developing intercultural awareness. Firstly, students were taught
Bennett’s conceptualization of various attitudes toward cultural difference
(I. Denial, II. Defense, III. Minimization, IV. Acceptance, V. Adaptation,
VI. Integration/Encapsulated Marginality). Secondly, students in the last
year (sample 100 students) were asked to read letters and stories that
described the evolution of individual reactions to exposure to new cultural
environments and then, later on, to associate concrete paragraphs with the
above mentioned Bennett’s six developmental stages. Thirdly, students
were given explanations and the students’ wrong answers (45 students)
were collectively analyzed in the classroom in order to deepen their
knowledge of Bennett’s attitudes toward cultural difference.
Example: Identification of Various Attitudes Toward Cultural

Difference in a Letter
John was asked by the board of the Language School Tamara in Prague to
write a letter to American citizens who have received an invitation to
participate in professional training and become a lecturer of English
language in the Czech Republic. In his letter, John has chosen his
experience with lecturing by looking back at the various stages he has gone
through in adjusting to the country and culture and reflecting on what it all
means.
Relevant excerpts of the letter:
Lucie Cviklová 193
1. The Board of the Language School Tamara in Prague asked me to write

to you and tell you all about the country and my experience. I’ve filled
several journals with what I think of this place and what happened to me
here, so you’re not going to get very much in a two-page letter.
2. Training is a blur now, though I swore at the time that I would never
forget anything that happened during those early weeks. I remember it was
very intense – everything was very intense – and we were so incredibly
busy all the time, so we couldn’t wait for it to get over. On the other hand,
we were scared that some day it would be over, and we would have to say
goodbye and go out and become professional lecturers.
3. But we did and, we did graduate, and we became professional lecturers
– kicking and screaming in my case. I say that because my early days at
the language school were not my happiest moments. I thought I knew how
to do things better than the local people if they would just listen. They
would see the light and come around. Denial.
4. Once I realized I wasn’t getting through, they really did see things
differently. I’m sorry to say, I got a bit negative. If that’s the way they
wanted to interpret things, then to hell with them. This was not my finest
hour. Somehow, I had to climb out of this mood and get back on track. My
first attempts were a bit clumsy. I told myself: “Okay, so these people
aren’t like you. Get over it!” Defense.
5. So I went back into the fray – and got bloodied all over again. This was
starting to get annoying. I realize now that while I had accepted that the
local culture was somewhat different from my own, I thought that deep
down inside we were all alike. While I might have to adjust my style, I
didn’t need to worry about my assumptions and beliefs. Minimization.
6. I did not want to say that everything you know about life and people
goes out the window when you come here – that wouldn’t be true, either –
but culture does run deep, and so, therefore, do cultural differences.
Acceptance.
7. Anyway, I finally got wise, accepted that different people can see the
same things very differently, and tried to be more understanding. Now, I
can laugh at those same behaviours that used to bother me – I have even
adopted a few of them myself – and some of the things that bothered me, I
don’t even see anymore. Adaptation and Integration/Encapsulated
Marginality.
4. Importance of Edward Hall’s Concept of High Context & Low

Context Communication and Monochronic & Polychronic
Understanding of Time for the Development of ICC
The fourth powerful framework relevant for studies of cultural values and
multicultural environment has been developed by Edward Hall, who has
spent more than forty years developing and writing about a four-
dimensional classification system which, basically, focuses on the
communication patterns found within various cultural environments and

emphasizes four dimensions along which societies can be compared (Hall
1959). The first dimension (high and low context) measures
communication context or the amount of information that must be
explicitly stated if a message or communication is to be successful. The
Czech society has been placed around the average; for example, the
Japanese have been determined to use high context communication, on
one hand, and the Americans low context communication, on the other
hand (Gannon 1994). According to the second dimension (ways of
communicating through specific handling of personal space), the Czechs
are also placed in the middle along this scale, between the Scandinavians
on one extreme, who tend to keep more place between them than do
Mediterranean cultures, at the other extreme (idem). According to the third
dimension (concept of time), the Czechs also tend to be in the middle
between the German monochronic understanding of time (preference for
scheduling and completing one activity at a time) and the Mediterranean
polychromic conception (not distinguishing between activities and
completing them simultaneously (idem). According to the fourth
dimension (speed and structure of messages between individuals or
organizations), the Czech society has been placed between the North
American and the South American styles. In the North American one,
speed and structure of messages between individuals or organizations has
been noted as significantly higher than in the South American one or in
developing countries (idem).
have used Hall’s conception for their pedagogical practices that aim at the
development of intercultural awareness. Firstly, students were taught
Hall’s concepts of indirect/high context & direct/low context
communication as well as monochronic & polychronic understanding of
time.
Monochronic: “Time is the given and people and the invariable. The
needs of people are adjusted to suit the demands of time – schedules,
deadlines, etc. Time is a quantifiable, and a limited amount of it is
available. People do one thing at a time and finish it before starting
something else, regardless of circumstances.” Polychronic: “Time is the
servant and tool of people. Time is adjusted to suit the needs of people.
More time is always available, and you are never too busy. People often
have to do several things simultaneously as required by circumstances. It’s
not necessary to finish one thing before starting another, nor to finish your
business with one person before starting in with another.” (Aronhime
1997).
Lucie Cviklová 195
Secondly, students in the last year (sample 100 students) were given a
short list of statements, and they were asked to decide whether the
statement referred to monochronic or polychronic and indirect/high
context & direct/low context communication and how they could
substantiate their answer. Thirdly, students were given suggested answers
with short explanations and students’ wrong answers (22 students) were
collectively analyzed in the classroom in order to deepen knowledge of
indirect/high context & direct/low context communication as well as
monochronic & polychromic understanding of time.
Example: Monochronic & Polychronic – Statements and Suggested

Answers
1.a. People should stand in line so they can be waited on one at a time
(Monochronic). 1.b. There’s no need to stand in line as people are waited
on as they are ready for service (Polychronic).
2.a. Interruptions usually cannot be avoided and are often quite beneficial
(Polychronic). 2.b. Interruptions should be avoided wherever possible
(Monochronic).
3.a. It’s more efficient if you do one thing at a time (Monochronic). 3.b. I
can get as much done if I work on two or three things at the same time
(Polychronic).
4.a. It’s more important to complete the transaction (Polychronic). 4.b. It’s
more important to stick to the schedule (Monochronic).
5.a. Unanticipated events are hard to accommodate and should be avoided
where possible (Monochronic).5.b. Unexpected things happen all the
time; that’s life (Polychronic).
6.a. You shouldn’t take a telephone call or acknowledge a visitor when you
are meeting with another person (Monochronic). 6.b. I would be rude not
to take a phone call if I’m in, or to ignore a visitor who drops by
(Polychronic).
7.a. You shouldn’t take deadlines too seriously; anything can happen.
What’s a deadline between friends? (Polychronic). 7.b. Deadlines are like
a promise; many other things depend on them, so they should not be
treated lightly (Monochronic).
8.a. It’s important, in a meeting or a conversation, not to become distracted
or digress. You should stick to the agenda (Monochronic). 8.b.
Digressions, distractions are inevitable. An agenda is just a piece of paper
(Polychronic).
9.a. I tend to be people-oriented (Polychronic). 9.b. I tend to be task-
oriented (Monochronic).
10.a. Personal talk is part of the job (Polychronic). 10.b. Personal talk
should be saved for after hours or during lunch (Monochronic).
Current Issues Related to the Advancement of ICC

in the Czech Educational System
1. Intercultural Competence in the Czech Republic Has Been Recently
Evaluated as Inadequate
In the Czech Republic, ICC has been recently evaluated as inadequate not
only because of the deficiencies related to labour market structures but
also because of the discrimination and social exclusion of minority
segments of the population. In spite of the 2009 Anti-discriminate Act, a
recent EU study cited the Czech Republic for unsatisfactory integration of
foreigners because of local prejudices and xenophobic attitudes and ranked
it 19th among EU nations (European Commission 2011). As formal
socialization through schooling has always had a significant impact on the
development of value systems (Matějů & Straková 2006), how the
educational system contributes to the cited problem is of serious concern.
The concern was recently highlighted in a survey by the Czech NGO
People in Need (Muzik 2012) and the Millward Brown Agency with
Czech secondary students on local and global problems (Albert 2012).
They reported that students perceive problems with the Roma minority as
the number one problem in society (Veloinger 2012). In reaction, the
Czech sociologist Ivan Gabal stated, “the model of students’ views about
Romani people may be even more ethnically-based, rejecting and rigid
than that of the adult population” and questioned the role schools play in
the cultivation of democratically-minded citizens. Cultural values, coupled
with cultural awareness, are known to have a primary role in the
development of tolerance and acceptance of cultural differences, reduction
of cultural bias and minimization of related social conflicts (LeBaron
2001). While national cultures have been identified across Europe
according to their value dimensions and differences (Hofstede 1983,
Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner 1993), the development of intercultural
competence in relationship to local cultural values as transmitted through
schools has not been studied. The essentialist position situates culture as
immutable (Peterson 2004). However, difficulties in transmitting EU
cultural values appear to stem from the lack of a common culture upon
which to build an EU identity. Research reveals the nation-state identities
being rooted more firmly than a European Union identity (Eurobarometer
63, 2005). Reports based on this research overlook the impact national
cultural values have upon cultural identities, where perceptions of “self”
and “others” may interfere with interpersonal communications.
Considering culture as learned, reciprocal, and collective, the article
Lucie Cviklová 197
acknowledges that multiple factors affect the formation of students’

cultural values, including family, speech communities, social media,
subcultures, gaming, and Internet use. International research has
demonstrated that students’ exposure to other cultures can increase
intercultural sensitivity and adaptability, and may increase their ICC
(Bennett 2001). Theories in the ICC field have been criticized for being
biased towards the individualistic, the western way of managing
communication and its conflicts (Oetzel & Ting-Toomey 2006); thus, the
Czech educational system and society need to be studied within their local
cultural values and their variables.
2. Czech Teachers Need Support in Diversifying Pedagogical Practices
Communication competence and intercultural competence have been

established fields of study for at least fifty years and draw upon diverse
perspectives from interdisciplinary fields. Whereas the term ICC is
increasingly used in the cross-cultural communication field, it represents
only one term among many that are used to address what transpires during
intercultural encounters (Fantini & Tirmizi 2006). Although articulated
theoretically, ICC research lacks specific data across cultural and
situational contexts (Witteborn 2007). ICC may be measured through
domains, dimensions, proficiencies, and developmental levels affecting
relationships, communication, and collaboration. Lacking consensus of
ICC’s unifying features and with a diversity of instruments to measure it,
ICC is continually evolving. Areas that need more study include the study
of language and prejudice, the role of intergroup perceptions to
communication between ethnic and cultural groups, the impact of new
migratory and immigrant groups in schools, how cultural perspectives and
misunderstanding contribute to intercultural conflicts in the local context,
and the impact of ICC training and skills development with teachers. EU
integration policies are built around multilingualism as an important
concept. Czech schools have grown increasingly heterogeneous because of
an increased number of foreigners, mixed-marriages, mobility, migrant,
and immigrant populations. Existing and growing ethnic groups in the
Czech Republic include Roma, Vietnamese, Russian, Ukrainian, Albanian,
and Chinese, but not all are recognized as minorities by the Czech
Government. Reports of prejudice and lack of tolerance point to the need
to develop ICC: 74% of the Czechs report they have a negative attitude
towards Roma people (Veloinger 2011). Successful ICC, however,
requires respect and a positive attitude towards difference (Bennett 2001).
According to Ingrid Piller, language is primarily the channel of
socialization that binds speakers into communities but its meaning and
nuances transpire through a process of negotiation connected to cultural
backgrounds. Speakers are naturally and unconsciously positioned to
assume attitudes towards someone’s language, character and cultural
values based on dialect or ability to speak a language (Piller 2011). Piller
emphasizes the importance of language proficiency for ICC and highlights
its hindrances such as people’s unwillingness to negotiate and get along,
prejudice about accents, ignorance of local values and of options in
performing speech acts and rituals Piller stresses the importance of so
called banal nationalism that has been realized through practices and
institutions and that has become one of components that socialize children
into a national identity; particularly “hidden curriculum” refers to values,
dispositions as well as to social and behavioural expectations that have
become “non-explicit” part of schooling (joint singing of national anthem,
etc.) Oetzel & Ting-Toomey’s research (2006) supports the need for
knowing how to act appropriately with members of another language-
culture on their terms. Speakers of multiple languages have options of
language rituals, conversation strategies, visual means of communication,
body language, space, and other means at their disposal when
communicating with members of other cultures. Although Czech
classrooms are increasingly multilingual, it is not known to what extent
they incorporate students’ cultural backgrounds and foreign languages into
their teaching practice in order to develop Content and Language
Integrated Learning (CLIL). European CLIL is based on the premise that it
is possible and beneficial to teach any content subject matter through a
second language (Pavesi et al. 2001). Most Czech teachers continue to
focus on the national standard language and content of local history as a
way to homogenize the classroom community; a consequence can be that
teachers underestimate the local vernacular and exclude minority and
immigrant languages, thus undermining their value. Related to this
objective is the place of foreign languages in the curriculum, teachers’
awareness of shared local language as a value, and language per se as the
way of expressing one’s identity and belonging to a community,
acceptance of diverse behaviours, attitudes and accents. Whereas
perceptions of others can interfere with cultural understanding and
communications (Jensens 2005), one should also take into consideration
that investigating communication involves examining not only the
occurrence of communication but their representations, images, beliefs,
and attitudes.
Lucie Cviklová 199
Conclusion: Specific Issues to Advance the Knowledge

Given the above mentioned frameworks and findings, further research
concerning multicultural issues and promotion of multiculturalism in the
Czech Republics’ educational system should focus on the following issues
that could be investigated not only in primary and secondary schools’
environments but also at academic level (regardless of characteristics such
as professional orientation of educational institutions, or their private or
public statute):
1) Cultural values of the students who attend Czech and international
schools differ in their acceptance of power or superior-subordinate
relationships. In what specific ways do schools prepare their students to
accept various types of communication structures?
2) Power relationships are played out in language. Are those
relationships sensitive to patterns, rituals, speech acts and language
ideologies present in the classroom?
3) Rituals of politeness (such as in greeting, complementing,
requesting, inquiring, etc.) are negotiated within the cultural values of the
classroom. Does the majority language alone establish the protocols? What
role does the teacher assume in the negotiation?
4) Language ideology (having a status of a national, official,
vernacular, standard or local language) affects one’s willingness to engage
in ICC. In what specific ways are speakers’ attitudes reflected in ICC?
5) Language proficiency affects ICC and one’s self-identity. What is
the participants’ proficiency in the schools’ majority and minority
language(s)?
6) Risk avoidance is related to unequal representation in the classroom.
Do differences between cultural identities of students who attend Czech
schools and international schools influence overall risk avoidance level
displayed in the classroom?
7) What are the discrepancies between stated belief and practice
(despite teachers and students claiming to be open-minded and tolerant)?
Are the factors of language prestige, ideology and proficiency
underestimated in their effect on one’s status and self-perception? To what
degree are teachers aware of the issues of risk avoidance and how do they
guarantee students’ right of democratic representation?
8) In what specific ways does the school environment encourage the
development of ICC competence and interaction with diverse groups, and
promote tolerant understanding of cultural differences? Do schools reflect
the diversity in the use of space, choice between individualist or collective
learning styles, and verbal or non-verbal communication strategies?
9) What is the level of intercultural sensitivity and awareness of the

participants in the school environment? How does the level of cultural
sensitivity and awareness impact interpersonal interactions, learning
environments, school policies and schooling practices?
10) In what ways do school environments differ in enforcing rules and
handling individual preferences? What differences exist between students
who attend Czech schools and students who attend international schools?
11) What differences exist in students’ orientation towards the
individual and the group? Are students from individualist cultures positive
about learning new topics, speaking up in class and large groups? Do those
from collectivist cultures tend to speak up only when called on and avoid
challenging the teacher?
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CHAPTER THREE
CLASSROOM PRACTICES
OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION
TEACHER EDUCATION IN PREPARING
STUDENT TEACHERS
FOR DIVERSE CLASSROOMS
SARI HOSOYA AND MIRJA-TYTTI TALIB
Introduction
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Education Ministers announced that sustainable development and social
cohesion depend critically on the competencies of our population – with
competencies understood to cover knowledge, skills, attitudes and values
(OECD 2003). In the same summary (OECD 2003), globalization and
modernization are considered to be creating an increasingly diverse and
interconnected world. Schools are not an exception. Increasing cultural
diversity at schools presents urgent needs for teacher education to prepare
culturally responsive teachers who can facilitate the academic success of
all students. Teachers play a central role in the acculturation of immigrant
and foreign students especially in new multicultural societies.
A summary of The definition and selection of key competencies
(OECD 2003) addresses 3 competencies (competences) which will be
essential to prepare young people and adults to face the complex
challenges of today’s world: (a) using tools interactively, (b) interacting in
heterogeneous groups, and (c) acting autonomously. The second
competence is particularly related to the preparation for societies with
diversity. It includes the ability to relate well to others, the ability to
cooperate, and the ability to manage and resolve conflict. Student teachers
certainly need to acquire these abilities to assist younger generations.
Teachers who work in diverse classrooms need to understand the
various issues that are associated with those students different from the
mainstream culture. Not only that, teachers need to support such students
to form positive and healthy identities. Such processes require teachers to
have knowledge of related theories, skills to practice desirable methods,
and intercultural competence that includes some aspects of education.
Teachers’ personal and professional identities and worldview, teachers’
206 Teacher Education for Diverse Classrooms
intercultural sensitivity and their attitude towards minority students are

essential elements of intercultural competence.
Preparing teachers for diverse classrooms is not only for the immigrant
students, but also for the students within the mainstream culture since as a
member of the globalized world everyone needs to develop competencies
and attitudes for sustainable development and social cohesion.
Teacher Education for Diversities

There is no doubt that issues of diversity may be one of the biggest
challenges to education and teacher education today (Delpit 1995, Nieto
2008). OECD’s report Educating Teachers for Diversity – Meeting the
Challenge 2010 addresses a fundamental issue about how globalised
societies could learn to benefit from their increasingly diverse populations.
The report sees that teachers can play a key role in this by integrating
students with different backgrounds and encouraging their academic and
social achievements.
Even if there is remarkably little research done on best practices in
multicultural schools, there tend to be similar arguments and sentiments by
teachers who are teaching diversity. For example, Pollock et al. (2010)
identify three specific tensions experienced by teachers related to diversity
issues during their teacher education programmes. There is tension
between theoretical and practice-based knowledge. When discussing
difficult concepts such as racism and diversity, teachers often tend to
struggle with how to put theory into practice. Instead of simply engaging
multicultural issues in abstract and broad terms, Pollock et al. (ibidem)
argue that teacher educator programmes should also focus on providing
concrete suggestions and activities for classroom use. The second
challenge is the tension between individual efficacy and the overwhelming
scope of the issue. Teacher education should challenge teachers and
teacher educators to question their own beliefs and attitudes about
students, society and schools. Even more importantly, programmes should
provide skills to be used in the classroom and to help teachers feel
individually efficacious in serving diverse populations. Still another
conflicting issue is between personal development and professional
development. Many teachers argue that they must undergo personal
development work to rid themselves of “worldviews” that were developed
before they can develop professional tactics for classroom use. Because
personal development is an ongoing process of indefinite duration, teacher
education programmes should begin with the focus on progress with
gradual professional development skills training. In addition, all teacher
Sari Hosoya and Mirja-Tytti Talib 207
reflection and action must be related to current theories of diversity. This

suggests that we cannot ignore theories of education although, recently,
there is a tendency to focus more on practical skills than before. Reflection
and action are required in reference to the theories.
In this paper, we are addressing how teachers’ education can facilitate
some of the above mentioned challenges and tensions. The first step is to
know the reality associated with diversities.
Meeting Diversities: Multicultural and Intercultural

Education
Diversities
Multicultural education is usually linked to a school’s goals and practices

to meet the educational needs of its various student groups and consider
the original culture and traditions of those groups. Our frame of reference
is critical multicultural education theory where class, gender, race,
language and religion, in addition to ethnicity, are essential components.
The theory of critical pedagogy focuses on knowledge, reflection and
action as the basis for social change and social justice, as well as
responsibility for the world community (Cochran-Smith 1995, Gay 2000,
Nieto & Bode 2004). We believe that the goals of educational diversities
are to renew schools according to the results of multicultural research, so
that cultural diversity and social equality may exist. This writing, however,
focuses more on education of ethnic diversity, which includes cultural,
racial, religious and language diversities.
Multicultural education and intercultural education are often used as
synonyms (Nieto 2008) though some argue that there is a difference
between the two. Often the difference in use varies mostly by geographical
location (e.g., Europe vs. US). However, according to Holm & Zilliacus
(2009), it is impossible to draw conclusions about intercultural and
multicultural education as if there was only one kind of each since there
are several different kinds of both multicultural and intercultural
education. The more traditional and conservative approaches focus on
learning to get along and learning about different cultures. The more
critical approaches focus on social justice as a core value, on furthering
democracy and working against prejudice and discrimination. James
Banks’ (2009) approaches to multicultural education are concerned about
reducing prejudice by targeting students’ attitudes through teaching and by
enhancing a school culture that fosters equality and empowerment. By
using equity pedagogy teachers recognize diverse ways of learning and
knowing and how different cultural frames of reference influence the

construction of knowledge.
Nieto & Bode (2004) point out that multicultural education is inclusive
and is for everyone regardless of one’s background. Each student needs
intercultural competences in order to function and work globally.
Multicultural education simply does not only affirm language and culture,
even if they are indispensable, but it should confront the issues of identity
formation, power and privilege in a given society.
Sleeter & Grant (2006) have 5 multicultural education approaches at
different levels. Starting with the basic approach, which aims, for
culturally different students, to fit into the existing school system, they aim
at making teachers agents of social change. The most desirable approach is
the approach called education that is multicultural and social
reconstructionist. This builds on the multicultural education approach
which promotes equity and cultural pluralism, but goes one step further by
advocating for students to learn social action skills by actively working for
social change. This approach is similar to Banks’ social action approach.
Immigrant and Minority Students’ Identities and Schooling
One of the greatest challenges for immigrant or minority children is

crafting bicultural/multicultural identities. They must creatively fuse
aspects of their traditional parental culture and the new culture (also
culture in schools). Even if bicultural identities are most adaptive in the
era of globalism, it is not easy for ethnic minority or immigrant students to
avoid negative social mirroring. Students’ sense of self is profoundly
shaped by the reflections mirrored back to them by significant others (e.g.,
parents, teachers, and peers). The individuality of students is deeply
entwined with their ethnicity and cultural socialization. Ignorance of
people different from them often breeds negative attitudes, anxiety, and
fear, which affect their thoughts and actions.
The proficiency of the language of the host country is essential for
such children since it certainly helps them to be integrated into the society.
Without it, it is hard to maintain students’ dignity by themselves, teachers
and other students. Regardless of their intentions by some individuals in
the majority, assimilatory and discriminatory intentions exist and are often
widespread, and it affects the later lives of minority individuals. Making
both students and adults aware of existing culturally based prejudices may,
at least, lessen or minimize them. In working and doing things together,
students can develop a sense of respect for, and tolerance towards,
different cultural and ethnic groups in our societies.
The contemporary world is highly competitive, and people are divided

into winners or losers in the educational marketplace unusually early in
their lives. Even though many immigrant students are doing well, some of
them or students with a minority background not only experience
cumulative failure in school but must also face negative social mirroring
from their peers and teachers.
Statistics demonstrate that migrant families and communities are
growing rapidly. In terms of school performance, first-generation students
often have difficulties in their new host country. Although second-
generation students are born and raised in the host country and they speak
the language of the host country, according to the data from PISA 2003
and 2006, native students perform better than both first and second-
generation immigrants in math. This is the overall pattern in all
participating countries except in Australia, Canada and New Zealand
(OECD 2010).
The question is why there is such a gap between immigrant students
and native students’ academic achievement. There is no simple answer,
but students’ proficiency of the language of instruction is one of the
elements. Better language support for second language learners and
methods of teaching students of multilingual backgrounds are the keys
(OECD 2006). The low achievement of immigrant students is often
explained by various theories such as deficit theories, reproduction theory,
cultural mismatch theory, and resistance theory, but no single theory can
explain the low achievement of minority students properly. The causes of
low achievement are complicated. Experience of racial and ethnic
inequalities and negative stereotyping from the dominant culture groups
will strongly affect minority students’ educational attainment (Suárez-
Orozco & Suárez-Orozco 2002). Social psychologist Claude Steele (1997)
has demonstrated that, under “identity threats” of being stereotyped,
students’ performance goes down and so called self-handicapping
increases. He also argues that the stereotype threat shapes both intellectual
performance and intellectual ability. We must also consider that the
educational background of the parents, the socio-economic status of the
family, as well as the parental occupation have bearing on the academic
success of immigrant and other minority students. Kenneth Howe (1997)
mentions:
“From the perspective of social justice, teaching practice involves an

amalgam of knowledge, interpretive frameworks; teaching strategies,
methods, and skills, as well as advocacy with and for students, parents,
colleagues, and communities. This includes the pedagogical strategies and
methods teachers use as well as how they think about their work and
interpret what is going on in schools and classrooms. It also involves how

teachers pose questions, make decisions, and form relationships with
students and how they work with colleagues, families, communities, and
social groups [...]. From this perspective, part of teacher education is
preparing new teachers to challenge the cultural biases of curriculum,
educational policies and practices, and school norms.” (Howe 1997)
In order to promote a human-rights culture and individual life-choices, we

must create opportunities for young people to partake in quality education.
Research results proved that the school an immigrant or ethnic minority
child attends makes far more difference to his or her educational
achievement than does his or her ethnic background (Tomlinson 1991).
Schools are places where immigrant children come into systematic contact
with the new culture. Adaptation to school and staying in school are
indispensable predictors of a student’s future well-being and his/her
contribution to society (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco 2001). These
results indicate that the education systems in host countries have to
become more effective and equitable. A well-functioning school system
does not only provide students with the needed literacy skills, motivation
and positive self-concept to tackle the challenges, but also confidence to
continue learning throughout life (OECD 2010: 27).
Teacher’s Intercultural Competences

The term intercultural competence is associated with global, international
or multicultural education and culturally relevant or responsive education
(Banks & McGee Banks 2004, Gay 2000). Giroux (2009: 445) stresses the
importance of the democratic and ethically based educational practices.
Cushner & Mahon (2009: 307) view teachers’ intercultural competence as
classroom behaviour that facilitates the learning of students from multiple
cultural backgrounds while providing students with skills to succeed in an
increasingly culturally diverse world. Educators need a more complex
understanding of intercultural interaction and skills to negotiate between
cultures. In addition to that, educators must engage in debates on identity,
identity politics, transitional societies, and nation contraction and
globalization (Coulby 2006: 256). In that respect, teachers’ intercultural
competence can be understood as an enlarged understanding of oneself, as
a critical approach to one’s work, as flexible and divergent thinking, and
as a comprehension of different realities and lifestyles (Talib 2005)
In our study (Hosoya & Talib 2010), student teachers so-called
“enclosed” attitudes (defensive, conservative and discipline-oriented
attitude) were already embedded from their early socialization into their
culture. Their social relationships and interactions were also influenced by

the socio-cultural orientation adapted as children. In order to change their
taken-for-granted beliefs about their surrounding world, student teachers
need to be made aware and be guided to reflect upon their thinking –
especially on diversity.
Teachers’ Personal and Professional Identity

and Worldview
One’s worldview is a broad term on how a person perceives and interprets
the world. Early socialization at home and school will strongly affect the
way we comprehend the world around us. The past events and experiences
in the personal lives of teachers are intimately linked to their professional
roles. When discussing multicultural encounters at school, teachers should
become more conscious of their own positions and how their life
experiences may influence any given situation. Nias (1996) emphasises the
importance of critical reflection for teachers’ personal understanding and
professional development. In that respect, intercultural professionalism
would require teachers to be willing to reflect upon any conflicts they
encounter and consider how their ideas, likes, dislikes, and fears affect
their interpretations of their students (Talib 2005, 2006).
However, teacher education has often, according to Cochran-Smith
(1995, 2003), failed to motivate students to examine their own histories,
self-concepts, and attitudes or socially preconceived ideas about cultural
diversity. She stresses that teacher education should increase the
awareness of one’s personal knowledge and its origin, the schools’ socio-
cultural connections, the challenges in estimating students’ skills, and
reconstructive pedagogy.
Usually, teachers or student teachers who are members of the
mainstream culture never have to question or critique their positionality. In
an American study of 80 teachers, Merryfield (2000) discovered that most
teachers of colour or minority background have a double consciousness
due to having experienced discrimination and the status of being an
outsider. On the other hand, mainstream “white” teachers who were
effective at teaching for diversity had their most profound experiences of
otherness especially from living outside their country.
Otherness is a result of a way of thinking or reaction to something that
is different or unfamiliar to us. It is a highly emotionally charged situation,
and, in that respect, rationally exceedingly difficult to control or change,
particularly when we feel that we are out of sync with the cultural order.
The “others” must, at least in some way, be different from us. When
finding and naming the difference(s), we have the evidence of otherness

(Bauman 2001). Unfortunately, destructive differentiation leaves
remarkably little room for exploration, which might also expand one’s
worldview. Teachers must recognize that there are multiple ways of
perceiving reality.
The point, according to French philosopher Kristeva (1994), is that, if
we want to understand the other, we must start from ourselves. We must
discover our own otherness, because the fears we suffer result from the
projection of all that is imperfect, improper and unacceptable from our
“solid” self. Not until we understand the ultimate condition of our being as
other and accept our weaknesses, can we begin to understand others.
Intercultural Sensitivity and Attitude

towards Minority Students
In multicultural contexts, everyone’s cultural identities may blend, mix or
change over a lifetime, slowly or rapidly in accordance with the demands
of any given situation (Verkuyten 2005). Bennett & Bennett (2004) have
developed a theory that explains the cognitive development people go
through when living and working in a culturally different or multicultural
environment. There are two stages, ethnocentric and ethnorelative, and
each of them are further divided into 3 levels. In the ethnocentric stage of
the intercultural process, people experience their own culture as central to
their reality. In the ethnorelative stage, people experience their own culture
in the context of other cultures. Starting with the denial level, where
people are ignorant, indifferent to, or neglectful of cultural differences,
people are expected to reach the integration level where they internalize
more than one cultural worldview into their own. After reaching this stage,
individuals have the most flexibility in solving intercultural conflict and
are open to complex realities (Endicott, Bock & Narvaez 2003).
The demands that diversities bring to teachers’ work can be both
challenging and stressful. When teachers are not confident in their work,
they tend to become extremely defensive. Such a situation lessens the
ability to construe cultural differences in more complex ways (Talib &
Hosoya 2009).
There is a well-known study by Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968) on self-
fulfilling prophecy: a teacher has an expectation about what a student (or
students) is like (e.g., capable or incapable of learning), which influences
how the teacher acts towards the student(s), and this causes that student to
behave in the way the teacher originally expected. Lack of knowledge,
experience in dealing with diversity issues, insufficient resources, and lack
of time usually create a situation where teachers resort to easy

categorisation. Very generally speaking, an attitudinal approach to a
student’s immigrant background can be divided into two types of
individuals: (a) categorizing and (b) non-categorizing (Lahdenperä 2006).
Among the categorizing types, there are the teachers who regard students’
immigrant backgrounds as a deficiency, which thus should be
compensated for. It is one example of the deficit theories. A student’s
immigrant background may be a reason for a teacher to classify the student
negatively, or it can be seen as a useful resource for the entire school. The
non-categorizing attitude can be characterised as neutral or indifferent,
reciprocal or intercultural. The difference lies in whether the relationship
to the student – the problem is described in terms of you, he/she/it, or I.
The neutral or indifferent attitude could indicate dissociation from the
student, resulting in treating him/her as a third person. A reciprocal
attitude indicates a capacity for affective and cognitive insight into the
student’s situation. The student is treated as an individual. An intercultural
attitude indicates consciousness of one’s own cultural background, as well
as the student’s (ibidem).
This is one of the major challenges in multicultural education; when
immigrant or minority students do not succeed in the given tasks, many
educators attribute school failure to the “deficit syndrome,” or to what the
minority students lack or cannot do. According to Geneva Gay (2000), to
teach from the deficit mindset sounds more like correcting and curing than
educating. She also notes that educational success does not emerge from
failure and that weakness does not generate strength. Because high-level
learning is an extremely high-risk venture for a student to pursue with
conviction, it requires him/her to have some degree of academic mastery,
as well as personal confidence and courage (ibidem: 24).
According to Nieto & Bode (2004), caring relationships among
students and their teachers have enormous significance. Teachers and the
school climate can make the lives and futures of young people. Teachers
and schools that affirm students’ identities believe in their intelligence and
accept nothing less than the best have proven to be inspirational for young
people even if they live in difficult circumstances.
Our research results (Hosoya & Talib 2010) on student teachers’
intercultural competence strongly suggests that the ability to speak foreign
languages enhances student teachers’ intercultural competence. Results
also suggest having personal contact with people from culturally or
ethnically diverse backgrounds has a much stronger positive impact on
student teachers’ attitudes than just living in such a society. Unfortunately,
the prejudices cannot be reduced by mere contact only, but they are rather
reduced when the interaction takes place between people of equal status or
in pursuit of common goals (Allport 1979: 281). School and universities
are ideal places for students to familiarize themselves with different
worldviews. Travelling to other countries increases student teachers’
intercultural competence, as well. The result confirms Merryfield’s (2000)
study results that living outside their country give people profound
experiences that widen their understanding of different ways to perceive
the world and other cultures.
Suggestions for Teacher Education

Some research suggests that teachers prepared in a multicultural teacher
education programme are more capable of teaching diverse students than
teachers who do not receive such preparation (Grant 1981, Gonzalez &
Picciano 1993, Cwick, Wooldridge & Petch-Hogan 2001). The principles
of the Multicultural Pre-service Teacher Education Project are organized
into three main categories, and one of them is focusing on issues of
curriculum and instruction in teacher education programmes. The items
are considered for the curriculum of a multicultural teacher education
programme (Zeichner et al. 1998). Gay (2000), Sleeter (2001), Irvine
(2003), and Banks (2007) stand on similar conclusions.
Content Integration
Multicultural perspectives should permeate the entire teacher education

curriculum, including general education courses and those in academic
subject matter areas (Zeichner et al. 1998). It is necessary to deal with
academic disciplines from a variety of cultural perspectives with attention
to issues of culture and language. Student teachers should be encouraged
to study educational psychology courses in order to understand that
students’ learning approaches can vary by gender, race, and social class.
This matches what Banks calls “content integration,” one of the five
dimensions of multicultural education according to Banks & McGee
Banks (2007: 20).
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
A teacher education programme for diversity should be based on the

assumption that all students in elementary and secondary schools bring
knowledge, skills, and experiences that should be used as resources in
teaching and learning, and that high expectations for learning are held for
all students (Zeichner et al. 1998). There is agreement that teaching

practices should be responsive to the cultural identities of their students
(Savage et al. 2011). In a class with diverse students (immigrants and
minorities), it is necessary to enhance the feeling of acceptance and
belonging. Culturally Responsive teaching is defined as using the cultural
knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles
of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to
and effective for them. It teaches to and through the strengths of these
students (Gay 2000: 29). Here are the characteristics of Culturally
Responsive Pedagogy to be included (ibidem):
- Cultural heritages of different ethnic groups (to understand students’

dispositions, attitudes, and approaches to learning);
- Bridges of meaningfulness between home and school experiences,
between academic abstractions and lived socio-cultural realities;
- Wide variety of instructional strategies for different learning styles;
- Knowledge of and praise for their own and each other’s cultural
heritages;
- Multicultural information, resources, and materials in all subjects and
skills.
Positive identity formation is the basis of a culturally responsive

pedagogy. Cultural affiliation and understanding, knowledge and skills
needed to challenge existing social orders and power structures are
desirable goals. The basic concept is that culturally responsive teaching is
comprehensive, multidimensional, empowering, and transformative. This
concept is shared by critical pedagogy.
The programme should teach prospective teachers how to learn about
students, families, and communities, and how to use the knowledge of
culturally diverse students’ backgrounds in planning, delivering, and
evaluating instruction (Zeichner et al. 1998). The basic idea is that student
teachers must develop aspiration for understanding pedagogical
importance of knowing the future students well. This means that teachers
need to use culturally responsive teaching by using a variety of
instructional approaches (such as inquiry method and cooperative
learning), materials, and evaluation strategies. The content should be
connected to daily life, and teachers need to be ready to accept students’
different interaction styles. It is most effective when ecological factors
such as prior experiences, community settings, cultural backgrounds and
ethnic identities of teachers and students are included in its
implementation (Gay 2000: 21).
McNeal (2005) observed classrooms and found typical practices of

culturally responsive pedagogy in two teachers: (a) use of multicultural
literatures, (b) active learning, (c) student choice, (d) critical pedagogy
(critical literacy), (e) real-life application, (f) cultural physical adaptations,
(g) cooperative grouping, and (h) individual attention. Some of the items
are interconnected with other characteristics required for a multicultural
pre-service teacher education project. Student teachers need to learn
authentic integration of multicultural principles and practices (Banks 1997,
Bennett 1999). By authentic instruction, students can construct meaning
and produce knowledge that has value and meaning beyond success in
school (Irvine 2003) (Table 3-1).
Table 3-1. Examples of practices and activities in Culturally Responsive

Pedagogies
Practices Actual activities (examples)

Multicultural Adoption of materials which deal with a variety of cultures
literature and values, and issues regarding these.
Active learning Adaptation of a short story from students’ anthology:
students present a short story with dramatic flair such as
musical, dramatic, visual, physical, etc.
Student choice Students have the opportunity to choose.
They are allowed to choose how to present the story.
Critical Ask students to deconstruct the text and examine the assumed
pedagogy cultural and political power structures found within them.
(critical
literacy)
Real-life Make direct connections between the situations found within
application the literature and the students’ experiences.
Cultural Direct eye contact with students to communicate mutual
physical respect.
adaptations
Cooperative Outline the group formation requirements and students create
grouping heterogeneous groups from which all students could benefit.
Individual Show concern that students feel comfortable in being able to
attention approach a teacher both inside and outside the classroom.
Adapted from McNeal (2005)
Critical Pedagogy: Teachers as Systematic Reformers, Antiracist

Educators, and Change Agents
The programme should foster the understanding that teaching and learning
occur in socio-political contexts that are not neutral but rely on relations of
power and privilege (Zeichner et al. 1998). Student teachers need to learn
how to be teachers who believe that all students are cable of learning and
hold high expectations for each of them regardless of their background.
The programme should help prospective teachers develop the
commitment to be change agents who work to promote greater equity and
social justice in schooling and society (ibidem). This starts with learning
how to change power and privilege in multicultural classrooms. There
should be democratic atmosphere in classrooms. Teachers are encouraged
to be actively engaged in the governance and operation of teacher
education programmes. Their experiences, learning, and practices will
help to develop reciprocally.
Cooperative Learning
Cooperative Learning is often used in culturally responsive teaching. It is

necessary to enhance a feeling of acceptance, a feeling of belonging and
leaning together. Learning is social (Vygotsky 1978). Even if individual
learning is crucial, it is also necessary to learn to work collaboratively.
Many problems and challenges facing us today are so complicated that
solving them would require co-operation, negotiations, flexibility,
creativity, as well as tolerance. A study with 307 secondary school
teachers suggests that typical secondary school lessons are dominated by
teacher talk and time for student-initiated talk is about 1% of the total
lesson time. This study also confirmed that classrooms provide a poor
psychological and social environment to stimulate student initiation,
participation or risk-taking. Therefore, unless the pattern of verbal
interactions in classrooms is changed, cooperative learning will have
difficulty taking root as part of the school culture (Sahlberg 2010). In
cooperative learning settings, students have to learn to listen, share and
help each other. Cooperative learning includes five essential elements:
positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual and group
accountability, interpersonal and small group skills, and group processing.
This enables us to recognize that learners are diverse. Students bring
multiple perspectives to the classroom, as well as learning styles, and
experiences. When students work together, they will also learn other ways
of thinking and other worldviews. In collaborative learning situations,
students not only get new ideas but rather together they get something new
in their dialogues (Gay 2000, Sahlberg 2010).
Cultural Immersion Field Experiences, Coursework, and Reflection
The programme should help prospective teachers re-examine their own

and others’ multiple and interrelated identities (Zeichner et al. 1998).
Understanding their students begins with understanding themselves, their
identity as complex, multidimensional people in a multicultural society
(Banks 1991). Student teachers are encouraged to go out to communities
and observe their students outside school. Cultural immersion experience
enables student teachers to grow an awareness of cultural differences, gain
knowledge of a context different from their own, and acquire an awareness
of their own stereotype. It is even better if student teachers can share their
personal cross-cultural experiences with their students. It is also necessary
to encourage their culturally diverse students to share their own personal
experiences.
The programme should provide carefully planned and varied field
experiences that explore socio-cultural diversity in schools and
communities (Zeichner et al. 1998). While cultural immersion can be
meaningful experiences for student teachers, such experience can reinforce
their stereotype and prejudice. In order to make a positive impact on their
multicultural teaching competence, according to Zeichner et al. (ibidem),
the following points need to be considered: (a) careful planning and
monitoring of the experience, (b) careful preparation of students for the
experience, (c) placement of student teachers in the schools that are in the
process of working toward multicultural teaching, (d) regular opportunities
to reflect about the experiences under the guidance of teacher educators
who have been successful multicultural teachers. According to Allport’s
(1979) contact hypothesis prejudice reduces when both parties are at an
equal status, are in cooperation rather than competition, and when there is
a sanction by authorities such as teachers and administrators, and when
they experience interpersonal interactions in which students become
acquainted as individuals. This also suggested that student teachers need a
lot of preparation before they are actually in the field. Not only preparation
but also reflection after the immersion experience is essential. Teachers
need to be reflective and play the role of researcher (Irvine 2003: 75).
Reflective teachers are inquirers who examine their actions, instructional
goals, methods, and materials in reference to their students’ cultural
experiences, and preferred learning environment (ibidem). When such
teachers probe their experiences, they can find insights into their students’
abilities, inclinations, and motivations.
Sleeter (2001) explains that, of the various strategies that are used in
teacher education programmes, extensive community-based immersion
experiences together with coursework seem to be the most effective. One

approach of the community-based immersion is to teach student teachers
ethnographic research skills, and then have them complete a research
project in an urban community or school. Preparation for the community
research and help in processing the experience is extremely beneficial.
Another approach is to have student teachers tutor children in cultural
contexts that are not primarily mainstream (white and middle-class). In
multicultural education courses, action research case studies or reflective
analyses and narrative research are often used to increase student teachers’
awareness about issues related to race and culture. Action research case
studies encourage participants to collect data and write reflective journals
on the related issues. On the other hand, narrative research emphasizes
more refection of the experiences. According to Melnick & Zeichner
(1996: 185), there is much evidence that student teachers make efforts to
connect their classrooms to community people, practice, and value after
their community-based cross-cultural immersion experiences. Another
research by Noordhoff & Kleinfeld (1993) found that students shifted
dramatically from teaching as telling to teaching as engaging students with
subject matter, using culturally relevant knowledge after their cultural
immersion experiences.
Cooperation with Communities
The programme should draw upon and validate multiple types and sources
of knowledge. A broad approach to the utilization of knowledge and
expertise about schools and communities that is held by many different
stakeholders is employed in the programme (Zeichner et al. 1998).
Schools cannot stand alone. They are constantly influenced by the
environment which is surrounding them. It is meaningful to increase the
level of parental and community involvement in their school (Irvine 2003:
81). It is recommended to promote people from the community members
for teacher education so that student teachers can share their values and
knowledge.
Conclusion
Teacher education for diversity does not aim at supporting only minority
and immigrant student. It stands on the concept that everybody should
have equal access to education and equal chance to succeed. When
diversity and inequality already exist in the society, education should help
to reform the society, and multicultural teacher education can be of help.
Not only minority students but students from the mainstream background
can benefit from reformed schools and teachers.
Some research has proved that there are some key activities that will
help teachers to be intercultural: well-prepared cultural immersion field
experiences with the collaboration of coursework including reflection and
cooperative learning. Our results (Hosoya & Talib 2010) also showed that
working as a community volunteer tended to increase pre-service teachers’
self-confidence. Experiencing volunteer work abroad was also felt to have
much impact on one’s value of inter-relationships among people, with an
increase in emphatic attitude with mission awareness, and socially
responsible attitude. The results suggest that teacher education should take
the culture of the society into consideration. It also suggests that some
learning activities such as studying foreign languages and participating in
a study abroad programme increase intercultural competence, and,
therefore, they should be encouraged for prospective teachers.
A multicultural teacher education programme is helpful when teachers
have positive experiences with multiculturalism, and when they have
strong, positive beliefs about students from diverse backgrounds, to
interpret their extensive background knowledge into effective
multicultural practice and theory (McNeal 2005: 417). On the other hand,
teachers fail to infuse multicultural education when they have a vague
outlook on multicultural education without appropriate pedagogy to be
effective in diverse settings (Barry & Lechner 1995). School structure,
time constrains, racism and tracking at school are the impeding factors for
teachers to utilize multicultural teaching strategies. There should be a
common understanding that teacher education that takes diversity into
consideration is not something optional but a must. Such teachers with
intercultural competence will certainly become a skilled agent for
multicultural and diverse society.
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RAISING CROSS-CULTURAL AWARENESS
OF ESP ECONOMICS STUDENTS
NADEŽDA SILAŠKI AND TATJANA ĐUROVIĆ
Introduction
It has now been convincingly demonstrated (Đurović & Silaški 2010,
Silaški & Đurović 2011) that the teaching of ESP to economics students
can be improved with a genre-based approach (Swales 1990, Bhatia 1993).
Since the main aspects of economics as a scientific discipline are clearly
reflected in the language features of economics texts, a genre-based
approach to ESP teaching enables the student and the teacher alike to
concentrate only on the most salient linguistic features of economics texts
ignoring less prominent aspects more frequent in General English. In this
way, students get to get aware that most aspects of grammar and
vocabulary in their subject-specific texts arise from predominant rhetorical
structures of the discipline. This is the approach used in the teaching of
ESP at the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade (Serbia), for
almost two decades now. However, since economics students have no
knowledge as to what job they will be doing when they graduate, it is one
of the main tasks of their English teachers, in addition to equipping them
with the necessary economics vocabulary and the essentials of economics
discourse organisation based on genre analysis postulates, enabling their
students to function effectively in a variety of business situations. In other
words, an ESP economics course at tertiary level must include various
social and cultural skills: if not timely learnt, these skills may lead to
serious faux pas hard to rectify later; moreover, these faux pas might result
in enormous corporate losses. In this paper, we aim to demonstrate the
importance attached to the fifth language skill – culture – in an ESP
economics course taught to the third and fourth year students of economics
at the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade. An attempt is made
to show, by analysing the contents of two economics textbooks (Silaški
2011, Đurović 2011), that the cultural component of an ESP course needs
to be an indispensable part of the curriculum, to such an extent that
students’ “cultural awareness should be viewed as enabling language
226 Raising Cross-Cultural Awareness of ESP Economics Students
proficiency” (Kramsch 1993: 8). In other words, using evidence from the
two textbooks, we show that, since international success in business
heavily depends on the understanding of both target language and target
culture as well, students need to be familiar with numerous cross-cultural
differences as doing business in another country or with business people
from different cultural backgrounds may pose a serious challenge if their
cultural values, expectations, and perceptions are not similar to theirs.
Culture and ESP Teaching

Two questions arise when it comes to matters of teaching culture, raising
cultural awareness and enhancing intercultural competence in an ESP
classroom. Firstly, what culture is and what aspects of culture should be
taught. Secondly, much more importantly, whose culture should be taught,
bearing in mind that English has now become the lingua franca of
international business, commerce and finance and that it is used in a
multicultural environment where a wide variety of cultures interact and
sometimes clash, as well. These two questions are dealt with in more detail
in the lines below. There are various definitions of culture as this concept
is multifaceted and may be understood in a number of different ways.
Thus, for example, Damen (1987: 367) defines culture as “day-to-day
living patterns,” whereas Kramsch (1995) argues for a dual definition of
the concept, one coming from the humanities, the other from the social
sciences. According to the latter understanding of the concept, culture
refers to “widely shared ideals, values, formation and uses of categories,
assumptions about life, and goal-directed activities that become
unconsciously or subconsciously accepted as ‘right’ and ‘correct’ by
people who identify themselves as members of a society” (Brislin 1990:
11). No matter what definition of culture we accept as correct, when it
comes to ESP teaching, the word culture essentially refers to the elements
which, albeit closely intertwined with language (therefore, also including
various language skills materialized in different lexical solutions across
variants of English), belong to the skills needed to be adopted in order for
the non-native speakers of English to be able to function smoothly in a
multinational business environment. All these cultural elements, essential
for doing business in an increasingly global economy, need to be
integrated in an ESP course so as to facilitate mutual comprehension and
optimal communication among business people. The second issue arising
in regard to raising cultural awareness of ESP students is whose culture
should be taught. English has already become a common means of
communication for people who speak different first languages, but it has,
Nadežda Silaški and Tatjana Đurović 227
at the same time, become “a ‘contact language’ between persons who

share neither a common native tongue nor a common (national) culture,
and for whom English is the chosen foreign language of communication.”
(Firth 1996: 240) That is why, in a business context, teaching the cultural
components of only English-speaking countries such as the UK, the US or
New Zealand, for example, is not only insufficient but may be counter-
productive as well, since a multiplicity of people from diverse ethnic
backgrounds and different cultural contexts regularly participate in
business dealings and communication. Therefore, the job of ESP
economics teachers has become even more challenging: they now need to
make their students be more globally sensitive and acknowledge the fact
that potential barriers to success in international business are not purely
linguistic in nature but may arise from not being able to deal with the
cultural differences and the inability to mitigate potential
misunderstanding. In other words, ESP teachers should be able to engage
in “language teaching with an intercultural dimension” (Byram, Gribkova
& Starkey 2002: 9) to help learners “to acquire the linguistic competence
needed to communicate in speaking or writing, to formulate what they
want to say/write in correct and appropriate ways.” In addition, they also
need to “develop[s] their intercultural competence, i.e. their ability to
ensure a shared understanding by people of different social identities, and
their ability to interact with people as complex human beings with
multiple identities and their own individuality.” (ibidem) It is obvious that
it is not an easy task to accomplish for various reasons, the most notable
one being that it is impossible “to acquire or to anticipate all knowledge
one might need in interacting with people of other cultures.” (idem: 11)
Raising Cross-Cultural Awareness of ESP Students

As Dudley-Evans & St John claim (1998: 66), “[a] sensitivity to cultural
issues and an understanding of our own and others’ values and behaviours
is important in ESP.” However, since it is not possible to cover every
situation in which poor cross-cultural awareness of ESP economics
students may be responsible for unsuccessful business dealings and
communication, it is of the utmost importance to focus on some core
components of intercultural education so as to help students acquire not
only linguistic but cultural competence, as well. These issues are dealt
with in detail in the two textbooks which we use to teach ESP economics
students. What are the core most salient aspects of cross-cultural
differences covered in our textbooks? What follows is only a selected list
of topics intended to raise students’ cross-cultural awareness in an ESP
economics classroom. The topic may be broadly divided into five main
areas: (a) verbal language; (b) business correspondence; (c) body
language; (d) business skills; and (e) social skills.
Verbal Language
In addition to body language as the main manifestation of non-verbal

communication, verbal language is, perhaps, the most visible
manifestation of one’s culture. As an ESP economics course is, primarily,
meant to enable students to communicate in English, an emphasis is put on
lexical and syntactic forms which may, on occasion, impede
communication due to differences in terminology, or different
understanding of the same words, in one’s mother tongue, as opposed to
those in English. Thus, the textbooks we use contain various exercises by
means of which the matter of alternative (British vs. American)
terminology is dealt with, where, for instance, finance-related pairs of
terms (e.g., current account/checking account, gearing/leverage, ordinary
shares/common stock, stock/inventory, etc.) are used in matching exercises
so that the students are made aware of the possibility that British terms
may not be understood or may be understood incorrectly in an
environment which favours American English. Likewise, job titles (e.g.,
managing director/CEO, manager/director, etc.) or business titles for
companies (ltd., plc./inc.) in British and American English may also lead
to misunderstandings, which is why their semantic content should be
carefully explained to students. Furthermore, there are words in some
European languages which are similar in appearance and/or pronunciation
to those in English, which is why they are usually “false friends” and
differ significantly in meaning, covering different semantic content.
Consequently, they are easily confused or used in an incorrect manner,
leading to misunderstandings or hindered communication. Thus, for
example, students are instructed that some English words, like
catastrophe, critique, efficiency, partnership, workshop, when used in
intercultural business communication (between French and German
people, for example) undergo a semantic transformation reflective of the
influence of certain traits of the recipient culture which, in turn, may
seriously jeopardise communication in an international setting. The
significance, therefore, lies not just, or not only, in linguistic differences,
but rather in cultural values that give rise to these differences to which
students, via appropriate exercises, need to be sensitised.
Business Correspondence
Business letter writing is an essential part of business communication.

However, various cultures differ in regard to their business
correspondence, as the style of writing heavily depends on a number of
social and cultural factors, such as individualism vs. collectivism,
openness vs. tendency towards face-saving, directness vs. indirectness,
personal vs. less personal style, brevity vs. longer sentences, subtlety vs.
writing to the point, positive vs. negative politeness, equality vs. hierarchy,
clarity vs. vagueness, etc. In order to make sure that students become
aware of these and similar differences, the subject of business
correspondence is dealt with very carefully, so that any possible errors or
faux pas may be avoided. In addition to the differences in writing style,
several exercises are designed to test students’ knowledge of other,
perhaps more formal, conventions which vary across cultures, such as
opening/closing salutations, ways of addressing, using first/family names.
Body Language
One of the most influential factors in cross-cultural business success is

non-verbal or body language, since, according to some research, body
movements account for more than 90% of what one says. The importance
attached to body language in cross-cultural business is reflected in our
textbooks through a variety of exercises (true/false, matching, gap filling,
etc.) intended to deepen students’ understanding of the fact that the same
gesture may mean different things in different cultures. Also, the meaning
of smiles and other facial expressions, the avoidance of or maintaining the
eye-contact, the degree of physical distance between people, spatial
arrangements, greeting behaviours, the exchange of business cards – all
these topics help our students identify and appreciate body language
differences. In addition, many examples of cultural blunders are given in
the textbooks to illustrate the significance of non-verbal expression across
countries. To add a more entertaining touch to the topic, a crossword
puzzle is designed with the clues which check students’ familiarity with
the meaning of body language across cultures. It is also worth mentioning
that authentic texts are used to teach cross-cultural differences when it
comes to non-verbal communication, together with various types of
visuals (photographs, cartoons, PowerPoint presentations, etc.).
Business Skills
Presentations, meetings and negotiations are specific business skills where

cultural differences are most manifest, and being able to function in these
areas of business communications can be extremely challenging for
students. Hence, cross-cultural teaching of specific business skills should
develop a heightened awareness and sensitivity. It should be noted,
however, that it is not the job of the English teacher to decide “what a
suitable strategy in a given situation is, for example how to break a
deadlock in a negotiation.” (Dudley-Evans & St John 1998: 70) Still, it is
the teacher’s job to know and convey this information to his/her students,
why a certain strategy has to be chosen and “how it will affect the
language used.” (ibidem) Negotiations are much more than just how
businessmen close deals. In addition to the already mentioned body
language, the importance of personal space and touch, gift giving, being
“clock conscious” and other questions of business etiquette, cross-cultural
differences play a significant role in defining negotiation styles that
business people worldwide use. Negotiation styles depend both on verbal
and non-verbal communication, which means that students need to learn
both what to say (i.e. correctly understand what others say) and how to
behave (i.e. how to interpret others’ behaviour). In various activities in the
textbooks, such as discussions, brainstorming, simulations, role plays, or
authentic case studies, our students become aware of how different
nationalities tackle the issue of point-making or bargaining mainly via the
linguistic signals, which mark the difference between formal and informal,
co-operative and competitive negotiation styles. Fostering cultural insights
is provided in teaching presentations and meetings as well, where students
learn about the role of humour in presentations and how different cultures
respond to it, what different mannerisms and gestures people may use,
which can cause misunderstandings in a multicultural meeting, or how
participants from different cultural settings may miss the English language
subtlety in expressing hesitation or disagreement in business meetings.
Social Skills
Cross-cultural social interaction skills are vital for maintaining good

communication. They may be defined as the skills which allow people to
communicate and to relate and socialise with others. These skills are
especially prominent in a business setting since they enable business
people to interpret various situations in a correct way. However, these
skills are also dependent upon culture, which means that their acquisition
is of the utmost importance so as not to cause any social embarrassment.

Therefore, in their ESP economics course, our students learn about gift
giving practices across cultures, appropriate use of humour, customs
concerning socialising with business partners, taking turns in
conversations and interrupting, the role of silence in conversation, asking
questions, attitudes towards punctuality, etc. In addition to the material
contained in the textbooks, we also strive to teach our students how to
expand their knowledge of cross-cultural differences in business, where to
look for relevant information about the topic, as well as how to cope with
possible obstacles in doing business in a multicultural setting. At the end
of this somewhat shortened list of topics covered in our ESP economics
textbooks, we may say that our overall goal in this regard is to help our
students bridge the cultural gap – to make them ready for a multicultural
environment in which they will surely work.
Conclusion
Many international business failures have been ascribed to a lack of cross-
cultural competence, which is why raising cross-cultural awareness has
long been an integral part of a Business English course, English having
become the lingua franca of international business. In this paper, we have
presented the ways in which the matter of cross-cultural awareness in a
business context is dealt with in two ESP economics textbooks used for
teaching ESP economics and business English to third- and fourth-year
students of Economics at the Faculty of Economics, University of
Belgrade. We have focused on the most salient aspects of raising cross-
cultural awareness in a business context, exemplifying our points with
illustrations from the above textbooks, aiming to show how students’
understanding of cross-cultural differences and multicultural diversity may
be enhanced and improved by exposing them to the right type of input in
the form of texts and exercises intended to downplay ethnocentrism and
better appreciate the values on which their own culture, as well as other
cultures, are based.
Acknowledgement
This paper is the result of research conducted within project no. 178002,
Languages and cultures across space and time, funded by the Ministry of
Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of
Serbia.
References
Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analysing Genre: Language Use in Professional
Settings. London – New York: Longman.
Brislin, R. W. (Ed.) (1990). Applied Cross-Cultural Psychology. London:
Sage Publications.
Byram, M., Gribkova, B. & Starkey, H. (2002). Developing the
Intercultural Dimension in Language Teaching. A Practical
Introduction for Teacher. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.
Damen, Louise. (1987). Culture Learning: The Fifth Dimension of the
Language Classroom. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Dudley-Evans, T. & St John, Maggie Jo. (1998). Developments in English
for Specific Purposes: A Multi-disciplinary Approach. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Đurović, T. & N. Silaški (2010). Teaching Genre-Specific Grammar and
Lexis at Tertiary Level: The Case of Economics Students. Journal of
Linguistic Studies 3 (1): 61-72.
Đurović, T. (2011). Engleski jezik za ekonomiste 3 [English for
Economists 3]. Beograd: CID Ekonomskog fakulteta.
Firth, A. (1996). The Discursive Accomplishment of Normality. On
“Lingua Franca” English and Conversation Analysis. Journal of
Pragmatics 26 (2): 237-59.
Kramsch, Claire. (1993). Context and Culture in Language Teaching.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
—. (1995). The Cultural Component of Language Teaching. Language,
Culture and Curriculum 8 (2): 83-92.
Silaški, N. & T. Đurović (2011). Applied Genre Analysis: A
Multidimensional Approach to Teaching ESP. In A. Ignjačević, D.
Đorović, N. Janković & M. Belanov (Eds.), Language for Specific
Purposes: Challenges and Prospects. Book of Proceedings. Društvo za
strane jezike i književnosti Srbije: 82-91.
Silaški, N. (2011). Engleski jezik za ekonomiste 2 [English for Economists
2]. Beograd: CID Ekonomskog fakulteta.
Swales, J. (1990). Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research
Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
CLASSROOM STRATEGIES AND ACTIONS
IN A MULTICULTURAL CLASSROOM:
A PERSPECTIVE FROM THE FYROM
LULZIME KAMBERI
Introduction
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYRoM) is a country
where diverse cultures and religions have lived together for decades. One
might say that it is not something unusual considering the various
literature reviews on multicultural societies (Von Meien 2006, Cloake &
Tudor 2001, Jordan 2005, Modood 2007). However, when we analyze the
historical background of my country, we realize it is a unique case. Even
though consisting of a population of various cultures, languages, and
religions, the Macedonian language has been the only official language in
the country for centuries which, unfortunately, lead to the conflict of 2001
when Albanians and Macedonians fought against each other because the
Albanians of The FYROM wanted their basic human rights for education
and to use their language in all instances. The conflict ended with an
agreement, known as the Ohrid Agreement which put an end to the
conflict. This agreement gave way to the right for education of the
Albanian population in The FYRoM and, with this, the establishment of
the South-East European University (SEEU). This university was opened
with the initiative of the USA and the EU and their donations and financial
support. The most prominent and trendy about this university was the fact
that all ethnic groups, Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, Serbians, and other
post Yugoslavian countries were invited to study at this university. It was
those who had been fighting against each other for a decade that were
coming to the same spot and study together, in the same room. Unusual for
this country, the teachers that were teaching were from all the ethnic
groups as well and some internationals, French, American, German, etc.
teachers. Another noteworthy fact is that all other ethnic groups that came
to study at SEEU, for the first time in history had to take an Albanian
obligatory course and vice versa, but of course Albanians had to take
234 Teachers in a Multicultural Classroom
Macedonian from their third grade of primary school. As it can be inferred

the idea behind the establishment was twofold; offering tertiary education
to Albanians, and bringing all the ethnic groups in one spot where they are
treated equally and have the same rights in all aspects, unlike before when
Albanians were treated as ‘second hand’ people.
Apart from the above mentioned characteristics, the SEEU was the
first university in the region to apply the ECTS and all it seemed that
young people who wanted some change in their lives and education,
influenced by the western world, were highly motivated in coming and
studying at the university, in spite of the fact that there had been a recent
conflict. Also, as mentioned previously, a high number of Macedonian
teachers were interested in teaching at this university, as well. This was a
rather surprising issue considering the fact that it was opened to offer
education to Albanian citizens who had been discriminated for more than
half a century and those who discriminated them were interested in
working and studying at this university, along with their neighbours they
had humiliated for decades. This ‘diversity’ was described in the Longman
Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics: “The move to
recognize and promote cultural diversity is known as
MULTICULTURALISM.” (2002: 168) The outcome of all these issues
and initiatives is discussed in the following sections of this paper.
Literature Review
Before we continue, let us define the term multiculturalism. According to
the Free Online Dictionary, it is “Of or relating to a social or educational
theory that encourages interest in many cultures within a society rather
than in only a mainstream culture.” This definition can be used as an
appropriate one to the context of the study since it describes ‘encouraging
interest of multi cultures’ instead of the culture of the majority by ignoring
the other cultures existing in a certain place.
Undoubtedly, it is a very susceptible issue towards the feelings of
others and the term multilingualism, as stated by Von Meien (2006), is
very difficult to define considering that it is intensely personal and
sensitive. Depending on their study approach, various other definitions
have been given. Von Meien (ibidem: 3) defined it as “the doctrine that
several different cultures (rather than one national culture) can co-exist
peacefully and equitably in a single country.” Von Meien focused on
Multiculturalism vs. Integration and Assimilation Debate in Great Britain,
where various cultures live together and try to accept each other’s
traditions and cultures. Even though, in a decidedly different context, since
Lulzime Kamberi 235
the persons involved in his study were immigrant that had come from
various parts of the world, whereas in our case, the Albanians are
autochthon and have been here forever. Von Meien tried to approach the
issue in a western country in which multiculturalism is an issue, as well
though from a different perspective. On the other hand, Phillips (2007)
focused on the issue of culture and multiculturalism arguing that
multiculturalism can function without culture, but rather on the social
aspect of groups or social groups. Modood (2007), on the other hand,
focusing on the religious aspect, defined it as “the political
accommodation of minorities formed by immigration to western countries
from outside the prosperous west.” It is apparent that he tried to offer a
political and democratic view of multiculturalism in that he argued
“multiculturalism presupposes the matrix of principles, institutions and
political norms that are central to contemporary liberal democracies.”
(ibidem: 8) He argued that multiculturalism presents the cultural and social
diversity of a country and society and it should be supported by its
constitution as is the case of Canada. In contrast, various studies have been
conducted related to multiculturalism in the classroom. Oxford, Holloway
& Horton-Murillo (1992) provided an overview of the various styles
teachers need to consider in a multicultural environment such as the USA.
They focused mainly on the various learner needs and the strategies
teachers need to use in order to have a successful teaching environment
with a stress on the cultural aspect of styles. Jordan (2005), on the other
hand, urged to make teachers aware of the various academic backgrounds
learners bring to the classroom. In his culture-shock study emerge a series
of particularly compelling issues: the most difficult issues international
students studying in England were facing, according to Jordan, were food,
language, and making friends. Feng (2007), on the other hand, discussed
the issue of bilingual education in China, referring to English as a second
language parallel to the native mandarin, among majority groups. Among
others, he mentions the aspect of globalization and the need for an
additional international language – which is English, in this case.
Further, Brown (1986: 33) referring to learning a second language is
also learning a second culture, claims that “one needs to understand the
nature of acculturation, culture-shock, and social distance.” This social
distance is described by some other scholars, Acton & Walker de Felix
(1986) as the ‘difference’ between two cultures. This social distance or
difference might be the one that hinders language communication and
even language learning in a particular context.
Foundation of the Paper

In an effort to help students and teachers at the SEEU be more successful
in their language teaching in a multicultural environment, solve various
problems and challenges they may face, this study analyzes the various
issues raised in this particular multicultural environment and the strategies
teachers have used to solve those. This paper confirms the significance of
various teaching strategies in EFL multicultural classrooms, more
specifically in the context of the FYROM. Moreover, the study offers
empirical evidence for the importance of teacher action in such contexts.
From the multicultural perspective of the FYROM undergraduate
education, it provides practical evidence for the value of teacher action and
decision-making in foreign language learning and critical thinking
development for learners, teachers, researchers, policymakers and
curriculum developers. Equally important, it suggests that students bring
different preconceptions to the EFL classroom. These preconceptions
appear to be strongly associated, as has been previously identified in the
literature review with their understanding of how they should behave in
such an environment and their attitudes towards the ‘other’ culture.
Methodology
Research Questions. Based on my professional teaching interest and
informed by the emerging findings in the brief literature review above, the
research questions addressed in this paper include:
- What are the problems that teachers face teaching in a multicultural

context?
- Which approach do teachers take in order to solve the problems they
may encounter?
The Study. The study was conducted across one semester in the year
2012, at the South-East European University. Participants of the study
were teachers from the English Department of the Faculty of Languages,
Cultures and Communications and teachers from the Language Centre.
Following the written online questionnaire to identify the experiences,
challenges, and the strategies applied, the teachers were invited to discuss
their experiences in a second, confirmatory stage of the study. Qualitative
data were analyzed using content analysis.
The Subjects. Acknowledging convenience sampling (Fraenkel,
Wallen & Huyn 2003), the online questionnaire (see Appendix) was sent
Lulzime Kamberi 237
to (n=25) subjects. However, unfortunately, only nine (n=9) teachers

responded the call. Following this sample, semi-structured interviews were
conducted with 6 teachers who volunteered out of the 9. Participants
ranged in age from 30 to 40 years old. Females represented 80% of the
sample group (n=7) with the remaining 20% being male (n=2).
The Study Instruments. Seeking to analyze teacher challenges in the
EFL multicultural classroom, an online questionnaire was sent to the
respondents (see Appendix). Respondents who filled out the questionnaire
were invited to an interview. The semi-structured interview, seeking to
determine the strategies, was conducted based on the online questionnaire,
asking teachers to elaborate their responses.
Data Analysis. Data from the two study instruments, online
questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were analyzed using content
analysis (Leedy & Ormord 2005, Silverman 2006) to identify themes and
biases, as well as the challenges and strategies that teachers have used to
solve them. Following the questionnaire, volunteers were invited to offer
their experiences in the multicultural classroom. Six out of the 9
participants agreed to take part in stage 2 of the study.
Results
The questionnaire results forming the basis for the quantitative section of
this study suggest that there are various challenges and problems they have
faced teaching in a multicultural context such the one in the SEEU context
of the FYROM. They identified four topics in which the issues were
divided: ethnic, religious, cultural, and political. These results confirm
what Meien (2007), Oxford, Holloway & Horton-Murillo (1992), and
Phillips (2007) urged for. Based on the quantitative questionnaire
responses, they claimed that teaching in a multicultural classroom was an
advantage since one can share experiences and cultures. However, all of
the respondents also experienced cases in which there was occurrence of
ethnic, cultural, religious or political battle. Surprisingly, among the most
frequently mentioned was the political aspect, which, in this case, I am not
sure it can be accounted as a multicultural issue since it is related to the
various political parties of both ethnic and religious groups together –
position or opposition. Furthermore, one issue that was supported by all
respondents was the fact that teachers used the strategy of avoidance to
avoid any topic related to ethnic backgrounds. This refers to the religious
aspect, approached by most of the respondents but one. Only one teacher
tried to make students discuss the issue of religion and culture in the
classroom.
Related to the message to other teachers teaching in a multicultural

classroom, there were various responses. One, for example, believed that
teachers should undergo special training in order to teach in such an
environment. Another message was to remain neutral and focus on the
good sides of each culture. However, the problem would be what the good
sides are, or better to say what is perceived as a good side of the respective
parties.
The qualitative stage of the study and the teacher interviews has
confirmed these results. As one teacher pointed out, “I always avoid topics
in which one can come to arguments within the classroom. You cannot
stop them once they have started.” However, she continued “we should
remain neutral in whatever case.” One teacher, for example, stated that the
debate related to religion comes when gender is the subject of study. What
was really meant was the attitude of various religious groups towards the
discrimination against the female gender in one religion or another. In this
case, some felt for example that females are discriminated against, but
those were opposing their peers by stating that it was their desire or choice
to cover their head and body or not.
On the other hand, one strategy used by one of the respondents was to
discover the things that all religions have in common. “In this case, you
can educate all, and they will understand that the basics of every religion
are the same,” stated the teacher. She also continued, “You should always
put into groups students of various cultural and religious backgrounds and
make them write something together, as I said before. It also gives learners
of various learning styles and types an opportunity to engage and improve
their language proficiency at the same time.”
Conclusions and Recommendations

The results of the study have shown that all teachers participating in the
study were in favour of teaching in a multicultural context since they
believed it was more interesting and challenging. This shows their
readiness to accept other cultures and value them. From the various
responses, we can argue that most of the teachers used the same strategies
to solve problems and face the challenges of teaching in a multicultural
environment. Nevertheless, there were mixed perceptions on which
strategy was the most effective since they seemed to use the same ones,
except for one teacher who argued that you can try and put them in groups
based on their various ethnic and religious backgrounds, and finally make
them share their cultures. This recent strategy used by the teacher, mixing
groups of various religious and cultural backgrounds, seems to be a bit
Lulzime Kamberi 239
risky, but, as stated by Acton & Walker de Felix (1986: 20), that could be
considered as the ‘acculturation stage’. They describe the stage as the
“gradual adaptation to the target culture without necessarily forsaking your
own.”
This study has shown that most teachers participating in the study
prefer equality since their message to other teachers was to treat all groups
equal and not take sides. This shows that multicultural training is valued
since many of the teachers participating in the study have undergone some
sort of training related to multicultural teaching. In this respect, SEEU has
organized various seminars, sessions, and debates on multicultural
environments. Nevertheless, it appears that teachers need and want more
training in this respect.
However, several major explanations for these results deserve further
consideration. For example, the measure in which students agree with their
teachers’ experiences and suggestions is still unknown. Even though
teachers claim that they have treated all ethnic, religious, and cultural
groups equally, it is still unclear what students’ feelings are; therefore, a
study involving students is suggested for future consideration. A study of
the degree of mutual understanding between students of the various
backgrounds in those years of more than a decade is also recommended. It
is also unclear if the university has been able to ‘minimize’ the social
distance mentioned by Acton & Walker de Felix (idem).
References
Acton, W. R. & Walker de Felix, Judith. (1986). Acculturation and Mind.
In Joyce Merrill Valdes (Ed.), Culture Bound: Bridging the Cultural
Gap in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
20-32.
Brown, H. D. (1986). Learning a Second Culture. In Joyce Merrill Valdes
(Ed.), Culture Bound: Bridging the Cultural Gap in Language
Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 33-48.
Cloake, J. A. & Tudor, M. R. (2001). Multicultural Britain. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Feng, A. (2007). Bilingual Education in China: Practices, Policies, and
Concepts. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E. & Huyn, Helen. (2011). How to Design and
Evaluate Research in Education. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
Jordan, R. R. (2005). English for Academic Purposes: A Guide and
Resource Book for Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leedy, P. D. & Ormord, Jeanne E. (2005). Practical Research: Planning

and Design. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson – Merrill – Prentice
Hall.
Meien, J. von. (2006). The Multiculturalism vs. Integration Debate in
Great Britain. München – Ravensburg: GRIN Verlag oHG.
Modood, T. (2007). Multiculturalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Oxford, Rebecca L., Holloway, Mary Evelyn & Horton-Murillo, Diana.
(1992). Language Learning Styles: Research and Practical
Considerations for Teaching in the Multicultural Tertiary EFL/ESL
Classroom. System 20 (4): 439-456.
Phillips, Anne. (2007). Multiculturalism without Culture. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
Richards, J. C. & Schmidt, R. W. (2002). Longman Dictionary of
Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Education ESL.
Silverman, D. (2006). Interpreting Qualitative Data: Methods for
Analyzing Talk, Text and Interaction. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Appendix. Online Multicultural Questionnaire
1. Do you believe teaching in a multicultural classroom (environment) is

an advantage for teachers?
2. In your teaching experience, what are the drawbacks of teaching in a
multicultural classroom?
3. What are the disadvantages of teaching in a multicultural classroom?
4. Have you had any concrete experience during your teaching
experience as a teacher at SEEU where you have faced any difficulty?
5. What was the aspect of your difficulty (religious, cultural, linguistic,
etc.)?
6. How did you approach it? Was it successful?
7. What would your message to other teachers teaching in a multicultural
context be? What is the most important thing
JOINT EFFORT FOR EARLY
CHILDHOOD EDUCATION:
A CONTINUOUS COOPERATION
BETWEEN FAMILY AND KINDERGARTEN
MONA VINTILĂ
Background: The present study is part of a larger European project,

Towards Opportunities for Disadvantaged and Diverse Learners on the
Early-childhood Road (TODDLER), which analyses early childhood
education in several European countries focusing on the cooperation
between educators and parents in a multicultural environment.
Methodology: The practical part of the study is a longitudinal observation
of children from a private kindergarten of Timişoara, which belong to the
above mentioned groups, as well as a comparison of some results of
observations realised in several European countries following these
criteria. Results: Children’s Wellbeing is centred on family wellbeing
because the family is the dominant part of the child’s environment. The
family is the major instrument for providing child wellbeing. The family is
the one that meets the needs of social care, education and child health.
The family should negotiate with the whole environment to ensure that the
child’s needs are met. The whole society is involved when families prove
to be unable to provide child wellbeing. Conclusions: Improving the
partnership with the families’ requests: networking, direct involvement of
parents in certain activities, support for them, and parents’ membership in
advisory councils or other bodies associated with early childhood settings.
Introduction
Pre-primary Education (0-3 years) is part of the first level of school
education, named early education, aside to preschool education (3-6
years). Early education providers can be private or public, but it is
necessary to be accredited by the Education, Research and Youth Ministry
in collaboration with the Health Ministry. In Romania, the responsible
242 Early Childhood Education
bodies and Levels of Responsibility for Designing ECEC Policies are the
Ministry of Labour, Family and Equal Opportunities – responsible for
social protection aspects – and the Ministry of Education, Research and
Youth – responsible for the educational aspects. Are responsible Bodies
and Levels of Responsibility for Implementing ECEC Policies the Labour
and Social Protection Departments, responsible for social protection
aspects, and County School Inspectorates, responsible for educational
aspects. According to the new law, early childhood education is organised
in kindergartens, crèches or day centres. The main organisation aspects at
this level are detailed below.
Parental leave as regaled by law. In Romania, starting with January
1, 2011, there is a change in the law for parental leave. While, up to the
beginning of 2011, mothers could stay home for 24 months and get 85%
of the salary, now they have the possibility to choose: either stay with the
child one year and go back to work and get for the next year a monthly
material stimulus, or stay at home for 24 months but with a lower
allowance. Simultaneously, a measure has been taken to create new
crèches.
Status of educational facilities for this age group. After 1989, a lot
of crèches disappeared altogether, because their existence was associated
with the communist regime, where mothers were not allowed to stay at
home with their children and both parents had to go to work for 8 hours,
with no possibilities for flexible working schedules. After 1990, in
response to the severe decrease of birth rate and, in order to stimulate the
population to have children, maternal leave was increased up to two years
and even up to three years for parents having a handicapped child. So, at
the present moment, the number of crèche-type facilities is extremely low
and totally insufficient and unprepared at the moment. And now, there is a
new movement to change small hospitals that are not well equipped or cost
efficient into crèches. The government is speaking of 150-200 such
institutions.
Vouchers for pre-primary education. The Romanian Government
supports early education as part of the lifelong learning process through
the launch crèches vouchers. They have an educational purpose and are
funded from the state budget through the Ministry of Labour, Family and
Social Protection. The employer has the legal obligation to provide crèche
vouchers for employees who request them and who give up, in part or in
full, their maternity leave. The crèche voucher is granted upon the
employee’s request (using a legal form), both for the state and private
systems. It is granted upon the request of a parent, or of the guardian to
whom the child’s care and education have been entrusted. This voucher
Mona Vintilă 243
has a value equal to the standard cost per toddler. Its value is determined
annually by the Education, Research and Youth Ministry. The parent has
the right to choose the nursery that their child will attend, in the state or
private system. The coupon is received in full by the day care nursery
chosen by the parent. When parents choose a crèche whose fees exceed the
monthly voucher, they pay the difference.
Specific curriculum and teacher training to teach at this level. Pre-
primary education can contribute importantly to combating educational
disadvantages if certain conditions are met. The most effective
intervention programmes involve intensive, early starting, child focused,
centre-based education together with strong parent involvement, parent
education, programmed educational home activities and measures of
family support. Most researchers also agree that the training of staff
responsible for educational activities in ECEC should be at the bachelor
level of higher education and should be specialized. The teaching positions
in early education are teacher and child carer: the latter job is standardized
for each group of children in institutions with prolonged or weekly
programme, teachers are standardized by shifts. The curriculum for early
education focuses on children’s physical, cognitive, emotional and social
development and remediation of early development deficiencies.
Multidisciplinary early intervention teams are designed by the County
Resource and Educational Assistance Centre to evaluate all children, to
monitor them, to early detect those with special educational needs or at
risk and give them appropriate assistance.
Institutional organisation. Regarding the institutional organization of
crèches, it differs depending on the financing type: private or public.
Public crèches receive about 20 children in a class that are taken in charge
by 2 persons: a teacher and a nurse, while the same number of persons
handle 10-12 children by class in private units. In terms of staff, only some
nurseries have a hired psychologist, pedo-psychiatrist physician, social
worker, teacher of recovery. Most of the staff is noteworthy trained.
Spaces available in nurseries vary from one educational unit to another. In
general, there are separate rooms for playing/educational activities, dining
and sleeping. The rooms’ separation is made through construction or
through additional walls. A significant problem that needs to be mentioned
is the lack of open air play spaces that characterize most of the Romanian
schools. Another important aspect is related to the opening hours of these
institutions which should be adapted to the working hours of the parents,
allowing the reconciling of the needs of family and work.
Children with special needs. There are nurseries with special
programmes, such as those targeting children with disabilities, where
classes consist of about five children. Socially disadvantaged children are

not explicitly identified and, therefore, there are no specifically designed
programmes to be addressed. There are no programmes designed that aim
at identifying the socially disadvantaged children. Most often, this issue
is justified by children non-discrimination target. Yet, there are
educational units addressing only disadvantaged children, namely those
with various psychosomatic disorders. Those units propose programmes
that aim at the recovery and support of these children.
Costs involved. Costs charged by educational units are also
differentiated; they consist in about 2 Euros per day in a public unit and
about 200 Euros per month in private units. The Romanian Government
also supports financially early education by providing social coupons
depending on the family income, which can provide the child’s insertion in
an education unit with a low or no additional cost. The services for infants
are considered as an initiative with three dimensions: economic,
educational and social. This means: offering parents the opportunity to
leave their children in a secure environment while they are working, so the
economic well-being of both society and specific families is considered.
The children are left in a place with specialized personnel to take care of
them, to feed them properly, to educate them and to allow them
interactions with peers under qualified supervision. The well-being of the
child must be considered on all levels: physical, psychological and social.
Child – child interaction should be supported and stimulated to activate the
social skills of integration and peer relationships at this age. This can be
achieved through the child-centred approach in which interactions are
encouraged and were educators are meant to guide and support. In order to
meet all these complex needs, an interdisciplinary team is required in these
settings formed by educators, social workers, psychologists, doctors,
occasionally speech therapists, etc. As mentioned before, parental
involvement is crucial, because close teacher-parent cooperation is the
bases of a continuum home-child care facility. This implies networking,
direct involvement of the parents in certain activities. Parent membership
on advisory councils or other bodies associated with early childhood
settings is also a good opportunity to involve parents in the decisions for
the time spent by the child in these settings. There are two possible
models:
- Model A: centred on the notion of the development of the whole

person – the child;
- Model B: education based on the transmission of knowledge and skills
by the teacher.
Mona Vintilă 245
Results
Both models are used in the child care settings, but we consider that
combining care and education of the young child is the best way for the
most efficient result in the development of the children at this age. Early
education is supported and sustained by the State as part of the lifelong
learning programme. Although there is a significant number of schools
and institutions organizing pre-primary education, both in urban and rural
areas, it was very difficult for us to obtain the necessary information about
them as we had to struggle their high resistance.
A description of some settings involved in early education is supplied
below.
Casa Faenza – Day care Centre for children with autism is a non-
profit organization of special protection for children with autistic
syndrome. Its goal is the empowerment and social integration of children
with autistic syndrome, focusing on the importance of early intervention.
Services offered by the Centre are free and include assessment and
diagnosis made by a team of specialists from various fields, individually
structured programme focused on the immediate needs of the child and his
family, psycho-sensory-motor stimulation, physical therapy, music therapy
and art therapy, family and group counselling therapy, drug therapy,
transport offered by the Centre. Currently, 50 children are benefiting from
the Centre’s programme of which a total of 16 are less than 36 months old.
This centre is a good practice model for other similar organizations in the
country and Centre’s specialists offer their services here annually for
diagnosing children with disabilities across the country. Unfortunately, the
managers could not make available photos of children below 36 months
because parents have not agreed with photographing their children. In the
above mentioned example, we have a setting for children with special
needs. At the moment of observation, a number of 16 children in the age
group of our interest were attending the centre. Model A is used, namely
adequate, individualized intervention meant to meet the needs of each
child. The specialists taking care of the children belong to an
interdisciplinary team constructed as to attend all needs of the child and its
parents. Here, we come to another important point of observation: the
connection between educator and the other team members and parents, the
family of the involved, assisted children. The high level of educator-parent
communication allows a continuous development of the child all day long.
Helen Doron Early English for Children is a method of teaching
English that targets the age group of 3 months – 18 years. This method
stimulates the child’s ability to learn through repeated listening at home
(children receive DVDs with English lessons that can be listened anytime)
and activities of teaching English where are used group methods (focusing
on play activities). It aims to create a fun environment in which children
learn English as they would learn their mother tongue. For children aged
up to 36 months, the available learning package is called Baby’s Best
Start, in which children experience and learn:
- Over 500 words;

- Fun activities important for child development;
- Quality time and bonding activities for a lifelong love and self-esteem;
- Activities that contribute to the child’s emotional, cognitive, sensory
and physical development;
- 24 new English songs, rhymes and activities;
- Specific rhythms and music of many regions in the world;
- Sign language for babies;
- They have fun, laugh and learn together with other babies and their
parents.
Baby’s Best Start is designed to stimulate language skills, self-esteem,

emotions (hugs, attachment, attention, parenting, positive feedback),
sensorial stimulation (hearing, sight, smell, taste, touch, muscular system,
vestibular system), coordination of motor activities, etc. Baby’s Best Start
also teaches parents new methods of interacting with children while they
are exposed to the English language. The course enriches the parent –
child communication and attachment training through playing games and
other physical activities. At the moment, 30 children aged between nine
and 36 months are benefiting from this Centre educational method. They
are organized in groups of up to 5 children who come to classes once a
week, for one hour. They also have audio registrations you can listen to
anytime and recommend listening to them as often as possible. In the
above example, we have the situation of learning a foreign language, one
of the assessed situations in the frame of our European Project. 30 children
in the age group under 36 months are involved. The parents are actively
involved in these activities, so we have the educator – parent cooperation
for the development and well-being of the child. The type of education is
rather model B, based on knowledge transmission in various forms.
Repeated listening and support are the mean ingredients on which in this
setting foreign language education is offered.
Pygmalion – Private Kindergarten. Pygmalion is a private
kindergarten, which means that the majority of users come from families
with medium income. Also, the kindergarten supports the low/medium
Mona Vintilă 247
income families and, presently, there are 6 families that freely benefit from
the kindergarten’s services or have lower fares; 60 children aged 1-6
attend the kindergarten. This case study analyses the group of children
aged 1-3, following the way in which early education is realized at this
age. The name and philosophy of the kindergarten comes from the
Pygmalion effect, which refers to parents’, teachers’ or psychologists’
expectations and influence upon children. Thus, high expectations from
the people around the children are promoted, encouraging children and
provoking, as a result, the children’s behaviour according to expectations.
The kindergarten sets into practice the combination of traditional
education with the ideas of alternative education, promoting the concept of
global development of the child, meaning that the child’s preparation for
school and for life needs to be taken into account to the same extent as the
academic competencies, achieving a combination of the type A with type
B, actually the winning formula. Along these, there are also capacities and
skills related to socio-emotional, cognitive and psycho-motor
development, that the kindergarten sets emphasis on. For the age groups of
1-2 and 2-3, there is a multi-disciplinary approach (care, nutrition and
education at the same time). In order to increase the networking with the
families and to stimulate the interactions, as well as to offer continuity
between the activities in kindergarten and at home at least once per month,
there are sessions for families to attend which include:
- Play activities for parents with children;

- Workshops for parents (Parenting Courses, Adult Education);
- Psychological counselling for parents.
The staff of the kindergarten, the teachers and the babysitters (Tables 3-2
and 3-3) participate monthly at workshops with specific themes regarding
the child’s psychology, held by the 2 psychologists and trainers of the
kindergarten, showing the interest for a global development of the child
through the cooperation of an interdisciplinary team; 28 children aged 1-3
attend the setting. The ethnical background of the children is shown in
Table 3-4.
Table 3-2. Adults: children ratio
Age Group Children: Adults Ratio

1-2 years 14:3
2-3 years 14:3
Table 3-3. Staff qualification
Staff Qualifications
2 University studies; Babysitting classes
2 University studies / bachelor in Education Science
1 University studies / bachelor in Clinique psychology and
psychological consultancy ; Training of Trainers
1 University studies / bachelor in Psychology, Formation in
systemic family therapy; Training of Trainers
Table 3-4. Ethnical background of the children
Ethnic Group Number

Romanian 25
Arab 1
Serbian 1
Ukrainian 1
The languages spoken by the children are Romanian, Arabic, Ukrainian

and Serbian, while the entire staffs, at the moment of observation, were of
Romanian ethnicity. Languages spoken by the staff are Romanian,
Spanish, English, Serbian; 50% of the children who attend have English as
an Additional Language. All the 28 children aged 1-3 are divided into 3
groups. In the 1-2 year-old group, there are 14 children. The group is
separated into 2 during some educational activities of psycho-education
with the babysitter and the psychologist. Also, there are 2 age groups for
children aged 2-3, made up of 7 children each, who participate in
educational activities together with their educators and psycho-education
activities, together with the psychologist. For the age group 1-2, there is a
psychologist as a key person, while for the other 2 groups of children aged
2-3, the second psychologist has the role of the key-person. Emphasis is
put on the topic of wellbeing identified, observed in several situations,
through:
- Application of Portage Test;

- Observing dispositions and attitude of the children;
- Observing self-confidence and self-esteem;
- Observing the behaviour of the children;
- Observing families;
- Personal attachment;
- Developmental goals to achieve by children.
Mona Vintilă 249
In order to attend the specific needs of some children, the following

intervention design is used: after an initial evaluation, these specific needs
are identified and specialized services are involved. We mention, here,
psychotherapy, speech therapy, infant neuro-psychiatric services, etc.
Continuous monitoring is offered, as well as psycho-education. Specific
education is adapted in terms of educational services, play activities and
social activities offered. Special attention is given to the improving of
partnerships with the families. This is possible through adequate
networking, involving parents in certain activities, clear support to help
parents continue the activities with the children at home, giving parents
membership in the advisory councils or other bodies, being so directly
involved in the decisions taken in the child care facility.
Conclusions
In order to achieve the wellbeing of the pre-primary child, constant parent
– educator cooperation is essential. The facilities offering childcare
services should be child-focused and offer an interdisciplinary team meant
to offer support and all-around services for child and parents. This is the
only way the wellbeing of the children aged 0-3 can be cared for, as it is a
most complex entity, consisting of:
- Health – physical, psychological – age appropriate care;

- Vitality – interest for different inputs, energy;
- Comfortable environment – free from violence and aggressiveness,
healthy and clean environment, tenderness and safety;
- Healthy food – bio food, to avoid fat, preservatives and sugar;
- Good family environment – healthy parents (physically and
psychologically) – without aggressiveness, with education, balanced
parental style, informed and involved parents;
- Mothers should always be present near their children, mainly during
the first year of age;
- Education – early education activities with physical and cognitive
stimulation; gradual accommodation with the crèche;
- Socialization – more adults should be involved in children care,
education and communication; children should be formed not to be
fearful and withdrawn, to communicate and play with same aged
children.
Although there is a good theoretical conceptualization of the term

wellbeing, in practice, in some crèches, child wellbeing is limited to
provide care and nutrition while the parents are working, the lack of
specialized personnel is evident, not to speak about a multidisciplinary
team. In Romania, the persons employed in some crèches to care for the
children are still just medical nurses and caregivers (women with medium
education who take care of children). There are no special trained
educators. We gave above some best practice examples which could and
should be followed by other entities too. Another aspect that needs to be
encouraged is the parent – child co-operation to ensure a continuum in the
stimulation and the support offered to the child at home and in the child
care facility. The bases for the development of this system are put through
the fact that Romanian people and most of the parents recognize the need
of an early age educational system, and there are educational institutions to
train educators for this level of education (early age education). The frame
of the National Education Law is created. Now there is a good opportunity
to put theory into practice by transforming hospitals into crèches in large
numbers, where specially trained personnel will be able to work. The
threats might lay in the lack of some parent’s interest and involvement and
the slow speed of implementation the changes required by law.
References
Bruner, J. (1996). The Culture of Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
European Commission. (2009). Early Childhood Education and Care in
Europe. Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency
(EACEA P9, Eurydice). Online: http://www.eurydice.org.
Legea nr. 272/2004 privind protecţia şi promovarea drepturilor copilului
[Law no. 272/2004 regarding the protection and promotion of child’s
rights]. Monitorul Oficial, Partea I nr. 557 din 23 iunie 2004.
Stănescu, A. (2007) Bunăstarea copilului – Suport de curs [Child
Wellbeing – A Course Support]. Bucureşti: Universitatea din
Bucureşti. Online: http://www.scribd.com/doc/55879300/Bunastarea-
Copilului.
TODDLER. Online: http://www.toddlerineurope.eu/.
INTRODUCING HEBREW LANGUAGE
AND CULTURE IN AN ITALIAN HIGH SCHOOL
AS A KEY FOR MULTICULTURAL
INTERCOMPREHENSION
DAVIDE ASTORI
Previous Experiences and General Framework

The high school “M. Gioia” in Piacenza1 held several experiments in
teaching “unusual” languages during the last decade (since 2006) – from
Arabic to Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Modern Greek. In addition, the
ancient language Sanskrit was taught, together with a vast array of
minority languages and cultures: from the pilot project about the Dogons
to Kurdish. Also Italian as a second language played a great role.2
Dogon
The Dogons are an ethnic group living in Mali. Anthropologists have been
studying them for decades, fascinated by a culture in which ancient beliefs
of probable Egyptian and Chaldean descent join philosophies not unrelated
to ancient Greek thought. The high school “M. Gioia” had been committed
to multiculturalism since 1982, through the teaching of EU languages.
However, the Dogon culture provided it with the chance of broadening its
teaching scope in the academic year 2002-2003. A specific collaboration
with a humanitarian association based in Mali (Vignola 2002) enabled the
students of the first two years to get to know that ethnic group in a way
that had points in common with their customary grammar school approach
to different cultures of the past.3 For the first time, in a high school was
included also the study of “other” cultures, usually perceived as marginal
and foreign to the core curriculum. A real intercultural education was
starting, well beyond mere information on multiculturalism. The students’
research was uploaded onto the web in HTML format (ibidem) and it
became the source for the exhibition “I Dogon, un’etnia nel cuore del
252 Introducing Hebrew in Italian High Schools
Mali” (‘The Dogons, an ethnic group in the heart of Mali’). Not only did
the students plan and realize the exhibition, but they served also as
multilingual guides for the visitors.4
Arabic
“Last year we applied an anthropological approach to inter-cultural

education. This year’s project envisions the study of a language as a
powerful medium for the understanding of otherness” was Vignola’s
proposal for the complementary activity “Progetto intercultura:
Avviamento alla lingua araba” (‘Project inter-culture: Introduction to the
Arabic language’) (2003-2004). During the year 2004-2005, the “M.
Gioia” offered a curricular course of Arabic language. It had previously
been held in the afternoon as a complementary activity, for the first time in
an Italian high school. The project coordinator, Donatella Vignola, clearly
stated its aims. They included enriching and widening the students’
cultural background (Arabic as a vehicular language has been a key
element in the development of sciences and has influenced the Italian
lexicon as well as Western thought) and making them understand how the
lexicon and the basic structures of a language convey a worldview. This
aim is attained through the study of the most important Kulturwörter that
play a significant role also from an ethno-linguistic perspective. The
course’s objectives were learning the alphabet, developing reading and
writing skills, and studying the vocabulary and the essential grammar of
the language5. These research interests have always been focused on
multicultural issues. Vignola clarifies the reasons why this project has
been developed and explains its aims in a future perspective in Cronaca
(May 12):
“The course is part of a still ongoing research, started three years ago, that
traces the historical roots of the problem of ‘integration.’ It examines the
solutions that the ancient Mediterranean civilizations (particularly the
Greeks and the Latins) elaborated, through archaeological, historical,
juridical, and linguistic documents, as well as through studies of
comparative anthropology (last year, for instance, we studied the African
civilization of the Dogon). Our research did not stress multiculturality as a
confused melting-pot. It rather focused on interculturality, i.e. the
enriching contribution that stems from the difference of peoples involved
in an uninterrupted process of encounters, clashes, and mutual exchanges.
[…] This description captures the exact sense of the Gioia’s proposal, and
highlights the coherence of a project that articulated the specific interests
of students of the classical, linguistic, and scientific specializations into a
communal cultural concern.”
Davide Astori 253
Not only Arabic
My consultancy “Enriching the curriculum with other languages”6 has

provided some informed advice that the school will follow. The new
courses will not be only in the afternoon, but also in the regular
curriculum, and they will span from Neo-Hellenic to Chinese, from
Japanese to Russian. Starting the teaching of Arabic had been both a
challenge and a winning gamble: after it, any other language would have
free access. And so it was. A poll on students’ preferences and the local
availability of qualified teachers (even native speakers) allowed, in 2006-
2007, the teaching of Russian, Japanese, and Chinese. In the spring of
2010, the wonder arisen by the knowledge of “other” writings, words and
imageries led to the successful exhibition “Scritture” (‘Writings’), hosted
on the occasion of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the “Gioia”
and mounted with panels provided by the University IULM of Milan. An
opening speech by Prof. Mario Negri (full professor of Glottology, Vice
Provost, and tenured of the course “Anthropology of writing” at the
IULM, as well as the leading scholar in Aegean writings) brought further
prestige to it. In 2006-2007, it was the time of Neo-Hellenic. Such a
course, introduced at an experimental level in a high school class
curriculum, was promoted by the Neo-Hellenic Cultural Centre at Milan; it
still is taught during the afternoon as a support to the curricular study of
Ancient Greek. In 2010, Japanese Consul and Greek Ambassador to Italy
visited the “Gioia,” an Institute always ready for new challenges.
Sanskrit/Kurdish
After the ‘Judaism’ project, the school continued with the teaching of both
Sanskrit (Astori 2012b) and Kurdish (“Competence and knowledge for a
European citizen: towards a common certification,” in the school years
2007-2009 – Vignola 2009a, b). In the latter case, the emphasis was on
cross-cultural comparison and on strengthening the logical-linguistic
aspect. In fact, the “other” language becomes the privileged tool that
allows developing meta-cognitive competences and correcting possible
gaps in the productive-expressive development of the native language.7
The methodological approach of the course of Kurdish enabled us to see
how the choice of a linguistic axis – also in terms of communicative
competence8 – is crucial in a learning process that focuses on mental
“operations” that consider the learner as a learning “subject” (in terms of
communication and transfer of information, but also of “learning how to
learn”). This choice fosters a true plurality of languages, also promoting a
neo-humanistic perspective in which competent relationships enable the

new “active citizen” to emerge as a full “person.” For this zoon politikon –
as a communicator – the linguistic aspect is a necessary focus.9
Italian as a Second Language
This research/internship in linguistic education is among the “School-

Work” initiatives defined and promoted by the Regional School Office of
the Emilia-Romagna region, protocol nr. 14651 of 17.09.08. The “Gioia”
planned and realized it in collaboration with the Association “Mondo
Aperto” (classes: 2nd classical B; 4th linguistic C-E; 4th classical A; 4th
scientific A – integrative area). This initiative was articulated in different
parts. One consisted in internships of linguistic education, with theoretical
lessons taught by an expert of linguistics and moments of class
observation of the teaching practices of Mondo Aperto’s cultural
mediators and teachers of Italian as a second language. It also consisted in
an internship in a vocational school of Piacenza with EU and non-EU
students who were not Italian-speakers, particularly Arabic-speakers. It
further included education in the field of Semitic language in the school-
years 2006-2008, which was integrated with professional education thanks
to the funding of the Emilia-Romagna region. Part of the students also
attended an optional afternoon class of introduction to Arabic organized by
the “Gioia.” The programme included also the development of multimedia
competences and a short internship in television and radio studios and in
the newsrooms of local newspapers (Vignola 2009c, Torresan 2009).
The “Judaism” Project

The “Judaism” project was developed during the school-years 2005-2007.
It focused on some general considerations that emerged in the previous
experiments. A particular stress was on the fact that discourses concerning
“Otherness” fascinate and attract students. They want to know how people
relate to other cultures, ways of living, and values. Therefore, the course
consisted in the teaching of the rudiments of Jewish language and culture
inserted in the curricular formative process of a high school programme.
This project was enriched by an exhibition, and it proved paradigmatic in
terms of how a school can provide “multilingual education.” The project
aimed to educate students to multiculturalism through the knowledge of
one of the oldest minorities in European history as an emblematic example
for any relationship with the other. It also intended to help us in opening
our own minds to the value of “socio-cultural diversity”: we all should
Davide Astori 255
understand that the right to diversity is an opportunity for enrichment and

exchange.
The project lasted two years: from September 2005 to May 2006,
students prepared for the possible opening of an exhibition, which
involved also the creation of a multimedia CD (a sort of virtual catalogue
of the Jewish Museum in Soragna, Parma). From October 2006 to
February 2007, we actively worked on the exhibition (with additional
activities, such as conferences and concerts).
These are some of the subjects that have been taught in the first year
(between 160 and 240 hours, i.e. 85% of the educational activities): the
alphabet, with reading and introduction to its mystical meanings (between
30 and 45 hours); introduction to culture (20 hours); rudiments of religion
(20 hours); historical framework (20 hours); relationships between East
and West (10 hours); using documents/data for cultural analysis (10
hours); using new technologies (10 hours); organizing and managing an
exhibition (between 20 and 25 hours); guiding visitors (between 40 and 60
hours). The class activity was supplemented with trips to significant
places. Two days were spent visiting Jewish spots in Ferrara and Bologna.
In Bologna we visited the Jewish Museum, in which the director explained
us how it is organized, giving us hints on how to build a museum with a
similar structure. We spent one day in the Jewish community in Milan and
one day in Modena. In Piacenza and Cremona, we took a walk through the
Jewish parts of the city, with a cultural-historical analysis. We also spent
three days in Venice, and we visited several times Soragna, where the
students worked for the realization of the CD.
The activity of the second year focused on the development of the
exhibition, which would have seen students acting as guides. But there
would have also been two-week meetings in different local cultural
venues, which would have addressed at least the following subjects:
culture (a rabbi speaking of “The value of Judaism”); religion (another
rabbi lecturing on “Judaism and Christianity”); literature (a translator
presenting an author who writes in Hebrew and an author in Yiddish);
music (a music teacher organizing an evening concerto); and films.
The whole project has been documented systematically in HTML
format (Vignola 2007). The film of our trip to Venice (http://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=oBbgYyc8jHs&feature=plcp) and the short “Jews in
Piacenza in the Middle Ages” that documents our search for Jewish traces
in that town were awarded the important, significant first prize in the first
edition of the Shevilim competition, specifically instituted by the Jewish
Museum “Fausto Levi” in Soragna for “percorsi di studio e di
apprendimento della cultura ebraica nelle scuole” (‘projects for learning

the Jewish culture in the schools’).
Concluding Remarks
It is important to stress the general context in which the “Judaism” project
was conceived and developed as an educational activity for schools in the
socio-linguistic field. Such a project was born from the tradition of
Classical Studies as a school that makes us aware of the problems of the
present. The debate in town was so heated that it almost developed
polemical tones, showing its strong impact on the citizens and the
topicality of the relationship with the “Other.” In fact, multicultural
intercomprehension is the most crucial aspect of our globalized world. As
a conclusion, we quote part of an editorial published on the first page of
Libertà (“Da oggi in Egitto gli studenti di arabo. Il liceo ‘Gioia’
passaporto per il mondo” (‘Starting from today, students of Arabic in
Egypt. The High School “Gioia” as a passport to the world’), January 29,
2007). Journalist Bruna Milani clarifies with masterly skill the core aims
of the “Arabic” project and highlights very interesting aspects of the
school’s commitment on such themes, offering a framework for the
“Judaism” project that was the focus of this essay.
At the question “Latin: yes or no?” at the High School “Gioia,” the answer
is: “Latin always, but not only Latin.” It is through facts deploying a vast
array of interesting initiatives that the illustrious institute of our town
asserts that developing a firm grasp onto the roots is a still valid method of
study that helps learning any other language. Not only Greek and Latin,
though, but also Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, Rumanian, Japanese, Chinese.
The Arabic class (read also project ‘Judaism’) has been the forerunner.
Now it is already in its third year, and its students are close to graduation.
Professor of Greek and Latin Donatella Vignola has ideated and proposed
the class. The intellectual courage of Principal Gianna Arvedi did not have
a moment of hesitation before grasping the novelty and the potentialities of
this experience that enables knowing the “other” from us through the most
powerful cultural tool that exists: language. At first, it almost caused a
stir: even the famous television programme “Costanzo show” discussed it.
Somebody warned against the crumbling of cultural tradition. However,
the high quality of the initiative and the success it attained convinced the
“Gioia” to continue with other courses of unusual languages. Among them
was the course of Hebrew, which testimonies to the school’s impartiality.
[…] We do not trust foreigners because we do not know the different.
Therefore, the study of unusual languages that are extremely useful in our
globalized world is crucial. The “Gioia” offers young people as many
Davide Astori 257
tools of knowledge as possible. They will certainly benefit from such

cultural opportunities. They enjoy the example of a school environment
that is thriving, various, and of great quality. The principal’s room proudly
shows its beautiful furniture and things that have been rescued from cellars
and oblivion. It embodies the respect for the past and the feeling for beauty
that are other distinctive elements of true culture. It is a practical example
of how spirit can rescue worthy things (or languages) and make them alive
for us today. If we go back to the past and study it, we can better read our
present. We discover that everything comes from the same matrix and that
diversity is not an obstacle, but an opportunity of enrichment. This is the
best help in becoming citizens of the world.
Notes
1. For information about the school, visit its website at www.liceogioia.it.
2. Vignola (2001) provides a general framework for the innovative glottodidactic
activities performed at this school. From Astori (2012a: n. 4) we quote “The
proposal comes from my own experience as a university professor of general
linguistics and – most importantly – as an external collaborator of the ‘Gioia’
grammar school. I helped developing curricular ‘integrative areas’ in the
experimental ‘autonomous’ sections (“Arabic language and culture” in 2004-
2007 – classes 3rd-4th-5th; units of general linguistics 2008-2009 – classes 3rd
and 4th, with linguistic, classical, and scientific emphasis). I also cooperated in
the ‘integrated plan of study for the first two years of grammar school’
according to the Regional Law ‘Bastico’ 30.06.03, to the Government Decree
2634/2004, and to additional resolutions by the Department of Culture in the
Provincial Administration of Piacenza (2005-2007: the ‘Hebraism’ project in
the 4th, then 5th B class; 2007-09: the project “Competent European Citizens in
a New High School” with an introduction to General Linguistics and Sanskrit
in the class 4th, then 5th). My cooperation extended also to activities of
linguistic research in ‘Work-Study’ internships (2007-09: the project ‘Italian as
a second language acquisition: an experiment in peer education with Arabic-
speaking students’ – class 3rd, then 4th B with an emphasis on Classics). I also
designed and implemented ‘complementary activities’ (particularly
introduction to Arabic). I conceived the units of general linguistics as a
practical tool in teaching ancient languages, reflecting on the Italian, as well as
mediating and assisting the learning of foreign languages (Arabic, Hebrew,
Romanian, and Sanskrit). These activities were all thought also in terms of
general linguistics. I always introduced linguistic elements – both synchronic
and diachronic – also in broader metalinguistic terms.”
3. Classics have proven a wonderful tool in intercultural education. They reach
the roots of our communal belonging, since mythology, art, language, and the
words of a people teach us not only to appreciate the civilization that created
them, but also the lasting archetypes of human culture as a whole. They justify
the choices of ancient men as a manifestation of a specific imaginary, thus
showing the cultural background of a specific community. Only through a
thorough understanding of this background, it becomes possible to grasp

analogies and differences between peoples and societies. And only in this way
we can understand how judging different cultures, in terms of
superiority/inferiority, is nothing but a presumptuous a priori.
4. The exhibition promoted also other initiatives that raised the citizens’
awareness about the problems of Dogon people and funding from sponsors for
their villages
(http://www.lafondazione.com/rassegna/rassegna_estesa.php?c=1410). Thanks
to the Web, Italian humanitarian organizations still use our students’ study
when they organize exhibitions about Mali. This is the best answer to whoever
puts in doubt the usefulness of the humanities, or fears that they might carry
only Eurocentric perspectives.
5. See Astori 2010. The guiding goals of the school are described more in depth
in Astori (2004: 58): “This educational project aims to further the tradition of
intercultural education at ‘Gioia’ high school. It stresses a deeper
understanding of the contribution of the Arabic language to Western culture, as
well as its lexical legacy in several fields of knowledge. The learning process
shows that linguistic structures and vocabulary are a key to the structures of
thinking and to the worldview of Arabic-speaking people, well beyond
superficial fashion and ideologies. Another aim of the course is to show how a
historical-cultural value can become a communal horizon of reference and
cooperation for students with different interests and specializations – ancient
languages, modern languages, and sciences. The acquisition of basic linguistic
competence enables grasping the worldview that the basic linguistic structures
and the vocabulary convey, and it becomes the occasion for cultural
enrichment. In the case of the Arabic language, for example, it is important to
realize that it is the language of exact sciences. As such, it has a permanent
place in the Italian lexicon and in the history of Western thought.” For further
information about the technical glottodidactic aspects see Astori (2004: 60).
6. “OTHER” LANGUAGES AT “GIOIA.” Some considerations and new
proposals. (14.04.2006). Arabic and Hebrew. In the school year 2006-2007, the
three-year course of Arabic as an integrative subject to the curriculum will
come to an end. The language could be taught again as a complementary
afternoon activity, open also to people outside the school (we receive some
informal requests in this sense by members of the local university). Hebrew
could take the place of Arabic as an integrative subject. As a Semitic language
itself, it provides a great source of understanding of our Judeo-Christian world
and of interpreting the reality of the Middle-East, which is increasingly
important for its social, political, and cultural position on the international
scale. The Hebrew class would be a novelty, but it would also closely continue
the aims of the Arabic course. Moreover, the students of the first year of the
section B will get to the final three years in 2007-2008. They have already
acquired some basic elements of Hebrew and Jewish culture in the “integrated
two-years” project, which would find an almost natural continuation if Hebrew
were to be taught at “Gioia” as an integrative subject. Other European
languages at “Gioia”: some proposals. These are some proposals for a
Davide Astori 259
broader plan for the adoption of “minority” languages at school. I start from
some methodological notes. Every year a different language should be taught,
in order to facilitate the choice, the valorisation, and the publicity inside and
outside the school. Following the example of Arabic/Hebrew, students should
choose since the beginning a three-year cycle (they should not have the
possibility to leave the class, as this would be a loss). The concept of minority
languages is a natural development from the “original” spirit that led us to
valorise interculturality. This project captures the will of the New Europe,
which increasingly stresses the mutual understanding between peoples and the
respect of the values of diversity and difference, particularly if minority. The
crucial couple “language and culture” helps building intercomprehension
between peoples, in line with several EU proposals that could further enhance
the educational and cultural challenge that the “Gioia” high school proposes.
(It might be possible, moreover, to open this challenge to the town). Several
choices are possible. The area of the Balkans is particularly interesting for its
novelty (it is seldom object of teaching), for its historical and political
implications (the new Europe is increasingly “shifting its balance” toward
East), and for its economical attractiveness (they are the markets of near future
inside the Old Continent). Romanian. It is an extremely conservative Romance
language. It is easy to learn, for its similarity with Italian, and it highly
improves the learning of Latin. Culturally, it was the Roman enclave in Eastern
Europe: it is therefore interesting also in terms of historical reflection. Just in
Timişoara (the “Romanian Milan”) there are around 10,000 Italians. This
presence means interest in exchanges (particularly in the economic sense, but
also in broader cultural terms). The knowledge of the language and of the
country could lead to a possible job. Romania is both culturally and
geographically close to us. Therefore, the opportunities now offered by the EU
could provide wonderful chances for a project of three-way interchange with
another European country (I am thinking specifically about Germany, as I
discussed a PhD dissertation about Romanian language in Munich and I have
good contacts there). Bulgarian. It is a great introduction to the Slavic world.
In terms of socio-political-economic factors, it is comparable with Romanian.
Bulgaria is a growing country, still undeservedly underrated. Among the
various possibility of approaching the Slavic world, Bulgarian has a very
practical convenience. In fact, I have a friend in Castelvetro (PC) who is a
native speaker of great culture, who knows her country extremely well, has
still contacts there, and has offered her availability to teach the class. Modern
Greek. It offers a great help in learning classical Greek and classical cultures in
general, which are the roots of our European culture. It is easy to manage,
because the Greek government often provides teachers for free, in order to
promote the country’s language and culture. It would be particularly
appropriate for students of the Classics sections, who are already facilitated in
learning the alphabet (both reading and writing skills) and some basic lexical
structures. Other possibilities (once the project has been tested in the first three
years with the languages indicated above): Serbian-Croatian, Turkish, Russian
(or better Ukrainian), Lithuanian, Hungarian.
7. Here is the abstract of Astori-Bernini (2010): “One of the biggest difficulties in

teaching and learning a foreign language is vocabulary acquisition.
Bloomfield’s theory of ‘overlearning’ states that it is necessary to use words in
order to lean them. However, another productive way is through etymology.
The author of this essay tested this method in an Italian high-school. Students
increase more easily and rapidly their vocabulary if words are presented as part
of a family and compared with the equivalent roots in other languages. This
method also stimulates metalinguistic skills, interest in multilingualism and
attention to different cultures. The experience of the author as a language
teacher in the school mentioned above proves that this result might be attained
both in an ancient (Sanskrit) and in a modern minority language (Kurdish
kırmanji). For the Sanskrit language, we analysed the 1st exercise of C. Della
Casa, Corso di Sanscrito, CUEM, Milan 1998; for Kurdish, the 1st and 2nd
lesson of P. Wurzel, Rojbaş. Einfürung in die kurdische Sprache,
Sprachenreihe Reichert, Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden 1997. We used
different etymological dictionaries and proved that the comparison with other
languages (according to the linguistic competences of the students, with a
particular emphasis on their mother tongue) helps to learn vocabulary.
Teaching results show that this approach helps increasing the attention and
participation of the students. In a lesson span of four hours, this method offers
not only the normal amount of education that can be expected from a didactic
unit, but also a sensibilisation to etymological questions that can be used in the
following lesson, as well as in every other linguistic field. Students normally
retain much easier the vocabulary. They say that they study the language with
less difficulty, because the fear of the distance of the new language(s) is
immediately overcome as soon as they perceive the direct bond to their own
tongue. This educational methodology stimulates the students’ motivations.
The idea of using some kind of ‘multilingual comprehension’ approach
(particularly increasing the understanding of other languages by taking
advantage of the learner’s pre-existing knowledge of languages in the same
family) can be very useful particularly in the case of ancient languages, where
the first skill is passive comprehension.”
8. See also the “Key competences of active citizenship” defined by the
recommendation of the European Parliament and Council in 18.12.06 (L
394/13 of 30.12.06) and implemented in Italy by the decree “Fioroni” on
Compulsory Education (22.08.07).
9. See Sacchi (2009) for the details. It is interesting to see how the “citizenship
competences” acquired during the year 2008-2009 were tested. The test had an
interdisciplinary character, including both linguistic-literary and socio-
historical disciplines, and focusing on the analysis and comparison of two
poetical texts – one in Kurdish (Hevi Dilara, Bèri (‘Nostalgia’) – Astori 2006:
126 f.) and the other in Latin (Ov. Trist. iii 12). They were both dealing with
the themes of uprooting exile and nostalgia of one’s own land. Here I note the
teachers’ programmatic lines (Sacchi 2009: 62-68). The test is administered in
second year, section B in order to check the “citizenship competences” that
have been acquired at the end of a curriculum “integrated” with experiences of
Davide Astori 261
intercultural education. These are the aims of the educational project:

heightening the linguistic, literary, socio-historical competences that are taught
in the curriculum of the first two years, opening them to the study of languages
and cultures that are “other” or minority in today’s Europe. Language is
understood as a powerful means of intercultural education. We follow the
hypothesis that the same competences acquired in the study of ancient
languages that close the gap between us and ancient cultures can also make us
feel closer to “other” cultures of our times, which are not far in time but in
space. It is important to recognize in the basic structures and in the words of
the “other” language (in this case, the Kurdish spoken by immigrant
communities in the Emilia Romagna region) the elements of
similarity/difference in relation with Indo-European, thus helping an
interlinguistic and intercultural exchange. It is also important to show how
even a minority language like Kurdish can have a literary tradition. It can
express universal feelings, but it might be doomed to extinction, whether
because it is forbidden in the countries of emigration or because it will undergo
unavoidable processes of integration in the guest-countries through time.
References
Astori, D. & Bernini, A. (2010). Teaching (and Learning) Vocabulary
through Etymology. Speech at the 4th International LKPA Conference
‘Multilingualism and Creativity: Theory and Practice of Language
Education’, 21-22 May 2010, Kaunas, Lithuania.
Astori, D. (2004). L’arabo al liceo [Arabic in High School]. Scuola e
Lingue Moderne 42 (9): 57-60.
—. (2006). Parlo curdo [I Speak Kurdish]. Milano: A. Vallardi.
—. (2010). Teaching Arabic in an Italian High School: Some Remarks
between Theory and Practice. In G. Raţă (Ed.), Teaching Foreign
Languages: Languages for Special Purposes. Newcastle upon Tyne:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 128-138.
—. (2012a). Per l’introduzione della linguistica generale nel curriculum
delle scuole superiori [For the Introduction of General Linguistics in
the Curriculum of High Schools]. Atti della 3. Assise europea del
plurilinguismo (Osservatorio Europeo del Plurilinguismo, Roma 10-
11-12 Ottobre 2012).
—. (2012b). Il sanscrito al liceo [Sanskrit in High School]. (in print)
Sacchi, G. C. (Ed.) (2009). Competenze e saperi per il cittadino europeo:
verso una certificazione commune [Competence and Knowledge for
the European Citizen: Toward a Common Certification]. Napoli:
Tecnodit editrice. Online:
http://www.cde-pc.it/documenti/sacchi_cittadinanza_licei.pdf.
Torresan, P. (2009). Dove sta andando la didattica dell’italiano?

Metodologie ed esperienze di frontiera. [Where Is Going the Didactics
of Italian? Methodology and Border Experience]. Mondo Italiano,
Comunità Italiana: 13-16.
Vignola, D. (Ed.) (2009b). Cittadinanza e nuova licealità, competenze e
saperi per il cittadino europeo [Citizenship and New High
Scholarship: Competencies and Knowledge for the European Citizen].
Online: http://www.cde-
pc.it/index.php?Itemid=92&id=194&option=com_content&task=view.
Vignola, Donatela. (2007). Oggetti di pregiudizio: tracce di vita ebraica
fra tolleranza e rifiuto [Object of Prejudice: Traces of Jewish Life
between Tolerance and Rejection]. Online:
http://www.donatellavignola.com/pregiudizio/.
—. (2002). Dogon [The Dogon]. Online:
http://www.donatellavignola.com/dogon/.
—. (2009a). Le competenze di cittadinanza europea al Liceo Gioia.
Online: http://www.cde-pc.it/index.php?Itemid=92&id=194&option
=com _content&task=view.
—. (2009c). Italiano L2? Sì grazie, anche per studenti italiani (dalla peer
education tra liceali di madre-lingua italiano e studenti immigrati non
italofoni, alla realizzazione del videocorso “Italiano L2 per lo studio”
[Italian L2? Yes, Please, even for Italian Students (from Peer Education
through Italian and non-Italian as a Mother-Tongue High School to the
Making of the Video-course “Italian L2 for the Study of the
Language”]. Online: http://www.cde-c.it/index.php?option=com_
content&task=view&id=187&Itemid=91.
—. (2011). Comunicazione multimediale e intercultura [Multi-media
Communication and Interculture]. Gli anni dell’Autonomia (1998-
2010): 31-38.
STRENGTHENING SELF-EFFICACY
IN THE FRAMEWORK
OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION:
THE CASE OF ISRAELI PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS
OF ETHIOPIAN DESCENT
EFRAT KASS AND RONI REINGOLD
Preface
For many years now, we have been teaching students of Ethiopian descent
in initial teacher education programmes in a college in Israel. Over the
years, we repeatedly felt frustrated by the gap we noticed between these
students’ high-level abilities and what we perceive as their reluctance to
make full use of these abilities. We learned to see the beauty and strengths
of the Ethiopian culture, and now wish to see the students take pride in
their heritage and feel confident as they present it to their fellow students.
Combining Roni Reingold’s expertise in the field of multicultural
education and Efrat Kass’s knowledge of self-efficacy in education, we
decided to propose guiding principles for establishing a pre-academic
education programme designed especially to strengthen the sense of self-
efficacy of pre-service teachers of Ethiopian descent. The issue of self-
efficacy has been vastly explored, but the uniqueness of the present
framework is in combining self-efficacy with theories of multiculturalism
in reference to teacher-trainees belonging to a minority group. We hope
that this framework will assist in building educational programmes for
minority groups around the globe.
Introduction
By virtue of their role, teachers have the obligation to look beyond cultural
differences and lead an intercultural dialogue among students in a manner
that develops their critical thinking (Freire 1998). Teachers have the
264 Strengthening Self-Efficacy in a Multicultural Setting
capacity to serve as agents of change and cultural workers (Giroux 1992).

More specifically, teachers who are also members of a cultural minority
could be highly effective agents of change since they have a better
perspective of both their own community and its needs and the majority
culture and its attitudes. In Israel’s multicultural society, there is a
struggling cultural minority of Israelis of Ethiopian descent. Teachers who
were raised within this cultural community have potential unique
opportunity to lead towards positive social change not only within their
own community, but also in the predominant Israeli mainstream. As
teacher educators with many years of experience working with students of
Ethiopian descent, we have seen the gap between their high-level abilities
and their hesitance to express these abilities. Therefore, we sought out
educational principles that could assist in closing this gap, so as to allow
students of Ethiopian descent to fulfil their academic potential and
promote change in Israeli society. To lead the way to change, however,
according to Taylor (1992) and Kymlicka (1995), any group of potential
leaders must develop multicultural attitudes and high self-esteem. Self-
esteem pertains to the realm of an individual’s judgment of self-worth,
based on the gap between the ideal self and the actual self (Rogers 1951).
Additionally, according to Bandura’s (1997) social cognitive theory,
people must also have a strong sense of self-efficacy in order to succeed.
Self-efficacy is defined as “beliefs in one’s capability to organize and
execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations”
(ibidem: 3). There are many differences between Bandura’s self-efficacy
theory and the multicultural concept of self-esteem, but both stem from a
commitment to strengthen the individual. This article discusses how these
two theories can be integrated in the context of multicultural education in
pre-academic, teacher education programmes. Given our confidence in the
significant value of pre-academic teacher education programmes (Aglazor
2010), we decided to use this framework to address the issues of self-
efficacy and multiculturalism to advance the population of Israeli pre-
service teachers of Ethiopian descent. This population was chosen as an
example of an immigrant minority whose integration into the life of the
country met with many obstacles and difficulties, which have often led
these frustrated immigrants to develop a unusually low sense of self-
efficacy and extremely low self-esteem. We begin by providing a
theoretical background, presenting pertinent characteristics of the
Ethiopian community in Israel and describing the situation of students of
Ethiopian descent in higher education. We, then, describe the theory of
self-efficacy, self-efficacy in education, and multicultural theories and
consider their relation to self-esteem. Finally, our model for strengthening
Efrat Kass and Roni Reingold 265
the self-efficacy of Israeli pre-service teachers of Ethiopian descent is

presented.
Theoretical Background
Ethiopian Jews and Their Community in Israel. Israel is a country of
immigrants to which Jews from across the globe have flocked over the
past century. Ethiopian Jews’ immigration took place in two massive
waves: the first in 1984 and the second in 1991. In 2010, their number
reached about 120,000 (Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics 2011). There
are several approaches toward immigrants; nowadays, the two most
common are implicit assimilation and multiculturalism. The approach
prevalent in Israel is implicit assimilation, which maintains that the
immigrants need to adjust to the majority culture. This approach also
reflects in several studies that examined the societal changes within the
Ethiopian community in Israel, as well as the hardships and successes in
the process of their integration into modern Israeli society (Antabi 1997,
Shabtai & Kassan 2005). The narrative of those studies indicates that,
coming from a collective-oriented, religious, traditionally patriarchal and
ethnic-communal society characterized by authoritarianism, children of
Ethiopian descent were expected to behave modestly, politely and
obediently towards adults (Shitreet & Maslovty 2002). The Ethiopian
Jews’ encounter with the Israeli experience exposed them to various
social, cultural and technological phenomena with which they had never
dealt before. The immigrants were compelled to give up the old familial,
religious, economic and social system they had lived by for many
generations and to adopt strange new values and ways of behaviour
accepted in Israeli society (Lichtentreet 1995, Corinaldi 1998, Weil 1998,
Shabtai & Kassan 2005). They sometimes suffered from discrimination
and explicit and implicit policies of assimilation (Baratz, Reingold &
Abuchatzira 2011). This situation brought on a crisis of serious
proportions in their integration into the life of the country in all realms.
One result of this crisis is the great number of alienated young Israelis of
Ethiopian descent who dropped out of school, and turned to drinking,
vagrancy and crime (Naftali 1994). This sad reality occurs despite efforts
on the part of the government, as well as public and voluntary
organizations to support and develop this community.
Israelis of Ethiopian Descent as Students of Higher Education. The
last decade has seen an increase in the number of Israelis of Ethiopian
descent entering institutions of higher education. This increase has been
made possible, among other things, by the pre-academic preparatory
courses and specific programmes designed for these students, and the
significant financial aid available to them (Svirsky & Svirsky 2002). As of
2010, about 2201 Israelis of Ethiopian descent are studying at institutions
of higher education, which is 0.8% of all students in Israel (Israelis of
Ethiopian descent are 2% of the general Israeli population). Of these
students, only a few are studying for advanced degrees (Israeli Central
Bureau of Statistics 2011). In Israel, there are two universities with
affirmative action programmes: the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and
Tel-Aviv University. The Hebrew University accepts Israelis of Ethiopian
descent as part of its “affirmative action programme for students suited for
advancement.” Identified candidates are accepted to university even if
their average grade is lower than the minimum requirement. The
candidates must be found capable of advancing, and match the criteria
established by the Association for the Advancement of Education, which
include the candidate’s place of residence, the school where the individual
studied, the parents’ level of education and the candidate’s particular
problems, or any unusual problems affecting the candidate’s family. In
2003, about 1,000 candidates applied to enrol in the affirmative action
programme at the Hebrew University; 250 met the entrance requirements
and were accepted. As the university does not specify the ethnic
background of the candidates accepted to the programme, there was no
way to determine how many of the students accepted were Israelis of
Ethiopian descent.
Cultural Aspects Concerning Israelis of Ethiopian Descent in
Higher Education. Research conducted by Eshel et al. (2007) examined
the extent to which Israeli students of Ethiopian descent and Arab-Israeli
nationality had adjusted to university life and its demands. Among other
things, the study checked the extent of these students’ psychological
adjustment (feelings of well-being, satisfaction, and positive self-esteem,
in the framework of the new culture). The authors of the study claimed
that these students’ psychological adjustment was contingent “upon the
extent of the agreement between their personal approach and the cultural
adaptation strategies of their macro community” (ibidem: 54). The
findings further demonstrated statistically significant positive correlations
between the indices of the students’ general sense of self-esteem and their
academic self-esteem. Additionally, a significantly negative correlation
was found between these two indices and a third index checking academic
stress. The cultural adjustment strategy of students of Ethiopian descent is
to integrate into the majority group; this strategy, however, is not entirely
welcome by the general Israeli society (Bourhis & Dayan 2004). As a
result, Israelis of Ethiopian descent who wish to integrate into Israeli
society are liable to experience feelings of rejection and frustration. Eshel

et al. (2007) concluded that there is no single reliable formula for helping
minority groups undergo a process of acculturation in order to integrate
psychologically into the majority culture. Developing the group identity of
the Israelis of Ethiopian descent may strengthen their identity and self-
satisfaction and diminish their sense of being discriminated; this
eventually may help them develop a “student” identity together with their
Ethiopian identity, improving their adjustment to the institutions of higher
education in which they are enrolled.
Bandura’s Theory of Self-efficacy. Self-efficacy focuses on
individuals’ beliefs about their performance capabilities in a particular
domain (Bandura 1997, 2006, Woolfolk 2001). The period of life in which
a person’s sense of self-efficacy is initially developed is during childhood.
The family is of high importance. If the sense of self-efficacy created
during childhood is high, it will not change dramatically in the course of
time, and will become more of a personality trait; but if the sense of self-
efficacy formed in childhood is low, it will become a circumstantial trait,
that is to say, it may change dramatically according to circumstances (Kass
& Friedman 2005). It is well known that a person with a strong sense of
self-efficacy is an individual who is certain of his or her ability to deal
successfully with new situations, and consequently is not concerned about
taking risks and setting challenging goals, does not fear change,
approaches tasks calmly, exercises self-control, is willing to invest a
terrific deal of effort, does not give up in the face of difficulty and, most
importantly, attains high achievements (Bandura 2006). Thus,
strengthening the sense of self-efficacy as part of the professional
development of pre-service teachers of Ethiopian descent is vital if they
are to become agents of social change. According to Bandura (1997), the
sense of self-efficacy is attained through four sources of information: (a)
functional experience, namely success and failure experienced when trying
to perform a task. This is the most respected source of information for
creating a sense of self-efficacy since the information derived from
experience is direct and immediate. Palmer (2006) also found that,
regarding teachers’ self-efficacy, experience was the main source of pre-
service science teachers’ professional self-efficacy; (b) observation of role
models, i.e. when observing a role model with similar traits to one’s own
who deals successfully with the task at hand, the individual may think, “if
she can do it, so can I.” If the role model also explains how the task is
carried out as it is being performed, the observer’s sense of self-efficacy is
strengthened to a much greater extent; (c) verbal persuasion (a person who
plays a significant role in the individual’s life and is familiar with both the
task and the individual’s qualifications can convince the individual that
he/she has the capacity to succeed in said task); (d) psychological and
physiological arousal (when dealing with a threatening task, a person may
well feel physical symptoms of pressure, such as shaking, palpitations, dry
mouth, and stomach aches). However, if one interprets these symptoms
cognitively as signs of fear or stress, the sense of self-efficacy will be
affected negatively. By contrast, if the person is taught to interpret these as
signs of alertness and preparedness, which help to perform the task
optimally, the sense of self-efficacy will rise. In Kass (2000), it was shown
that patterns of self-efficacy experienced in the nuclear family might be
unconsciously projected onto the professional field. It was found that
teachers who had developed a low sense of self-efficacy because of certain
characteristics in the nuclear family projected the same pattern in their
relationships with the school principal. For instance, teachers whose
parents expected them to be perfect did not dare take on new tasks in the
work place, for fear they might fail and, thus, disappoint the principal.
Awareness of the values instilled in one’s nuclear family can help teachers
take responsibility for and change their behavioural patterns, instead of –
as in the case described – accusing the principal. This finding further
extends Bandura’s theory of the four factors that affect the development of
a sense of self-efficacy.
Sense of Self-Efficacy of Students in Teacher Education
Programmes. The concept of self-efficacy sheds light on an extremely
valuable component in teachers’ ability to function, and distinguishes
between successful and unsuccessful teachers (Jablonski 1995,
Plourde 2002, Raudenbush, Rowan & Cheong 1992, Tschannen-Moran
& Woolfolk-Hoy 2007). Many studies see the initial teacher training
period in the pre-service teacher’s career as a time of significant
change in the student’s sense of self-efficacy (Buell et al. 1999,
Housego 1992, Paneque & Barbetta 2006, Soodak, Podell & Lehman
1998, Woolfolk-Hoy & Spero 2005). During the training period, pre-
service teachers are exposed to extensive theoretical and pedagogical
knowledge and have to work in the field for the first time. These are
significant components in the teacher’s training; however, they are
not enough to ensure the trainee’s ability to apply them in practice. To
facilitate the ability of pre-service teachers to apply theoretical
knowledge to practical work, we must address also the need to
strengthen their sense of self-efficacy (Bandura 1997, Gilat,
Kupferberg & Sagee 2007). Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk-Hoy (2007)
found that, among experienced teachers, professional experience
played a much greater role in self-efficacy beliefs than did contextual
factors such as availability of teaching resources or the quality of the

school facilities. However, for teacher trainees, who still lack sufficient
experience, contextual factors may be more beneficial. Indeed, studies
that focus on pre-service teachers agree that it is possible to raise
their professional sense of self-efficacy by means of various
intervention programmes, designed to guide the students with advice
and massive pedagogical training (Housego 1992, Palmer 2006,
Watters & Ginns 1995). Additionally, certain types of education
models seem to make a palpable difference. Education models in
which the pre-service teachers received feedback and guidance from a
certified teacher twice a week and had the opportunity to discuss
problems and solutions significantly strengthened the students’ sense
of self-efficacy, much more than did traditional models of pre-
academic teacher education programmes (Ross 1995). Working in
small groups was also found to reinforce pre-service teachers’ sense
of self-efficacy (Cannon & Scharmann 1996). Other studies have
stressed the importance of setting clear goals as a strategy for
promoting the learning process and contributing to the students’
sense of self-efficacy (Schunk & Pajares 2001). Most studies do not
deal with the relationship between culture and self-efficacy; in the
next section, we present a few studies that do so.
Sense of Self-Efficacy and the Cultural Variant. Many studies point
to the relationship between one’s culture and educational and
psychological factors, such as orientation towards learning, ways of
thinking, unconscious beliefs, values, and motivation (The American
Psychological Association 2001, Claxton 1999). Research has also
addressed the relationship between self-direction in learning and
psychological factors, including motivation and self-efficacy (Holzer
2002, McCall 2002, McCoy 2001). However, remarkably few studies have
focused on the relationship between culture and self-efficacy. The reason
for the scarcity of studies on this topic may be Bandura’s approach, which
distinguishes between self-efficacy and self-esteem, claiming that only
self-esteem is affected by cultural beliefs and attitudes, while self-efficacy
is not (Bandura 1997). Self-esteem pertains to the realm of an individual’s
judgment of self-worth, based on the gap between the ideal self and the
actual self (Rogers 1951). Self-esteem is developed when one compares
oneself to others in the social environment (Festinger 1954). It depends on
the culture in which the individual lives, the manner in which one
estimates his/her traits and qualifications, and the compatibility between
one’s behaviour and criteria of moral values. On the other hand, self-
efficacy pertains to the assessment of one’s own personal talents and
qualifications. It is possible to consider oneself incapable of performing a

certain task without suffering any diminishment of self-esteem, because
one’s self-esteem is not contingent on the successful performance of that
one task. The opposite is also true: one may feel an unusually strong sense
of self-efficacy concerning a certain activity, and yet not take any pride in
it for cultural reasons; as a result, the positive sense of self-efficacy will
not influence this individual’s level of self-esteem. Cultural influences on
the self also appear in the way individuals are regarded by others in their
environment. Bandura (1997) also claims that people frequently relate to
others according to cultural stereotypes and ethnicity, and not according to
the personality of the individual, which is, unfortunately, the manner in
which Israelis of Ethiopian descent are often regarded. Being the recipient
of such treatment, claims Bandura, causes a decrease in self-esteem, but
again, it does not affect the sense of self-efficacy in many fields. Other
researchers disagree with Bandura, claiming that self-efficacy is affected
by culture. Dembo & Eaton (1997), for example, noted that cultural factors
reflect and shape the mental functioning as well as the beliefs and
behaviours of individuals. Ottingen (1995) has also discussed the potential
impact of the cultural variant on the shaping of the sense of self-efficacy.
He asserts that, of the sources of self-efficacy identified by Bandura, two
are clearly linked to the cultural variant of social status among cultural
minority groups: (a) past success mitigates the effect of current failures on
an individual’s sense of self-efficacy; (b) the success or failure of similar
individuals, namely individuals of the same cultural group, influences a
person’s sense of self-efficacy. More recently, Bandura (2006) himself
modified his theory regarding immigrants and their sense of self-efficacy,
distinguishing between those trying to preserve their own culture and
immigrants trying to assimilate into their new environment. Furthermore,
he explicitly pointed out “culture plays a crucial role in shaping beliefs and
a personal sense of self-efficacy, not only because it has an impact on the
sources of information of the members of the cultural group, but it also
impacts the way the information is processed and analyzed.” (Bandura
ibidem: 151) Ottingen (1995) also agrees that culture, shapes an
individual’s acquired knowledge, the manner of choosing knowledge, and
cognitive considerations through family, school, workplace and
community. Thus, culture influences the processes through which a person
acquires self-esteem and sense of self-efficacy. In his empirical approach,
Ottingen (idem) discovered that cultural differences between societies are
measured by examining four characteristics: (a) the nature of the society
(individualistic or collectivistic), such that in collectivistic societies, the
sense of collective efficacy as part of the group effort plays a predominant
role also in individuals’ sense of self-efficacy; (b) the extent of structural

inequality (social stratification) in a society; (c) the extent of avoiding
uncertainty; and (d) gender-related issues (male dominance or female
dominance in the society). Clearly, there are differences of opinion
regarding the effect of culture on self-efficacy. Yet, Bandura himself
recognized the effect of culture on immigrants. Israelis of Ethiopian
descent are a group within the heterogeneous, multi-cultural Israeli
society. The next section discusses the multicultural ideology and the ways
it can be implemented in the design and development of education
programmes.
Ideology of Multicultural Education. Multicultural ideology aims to
promote relationships based on mutual respect among the various cultural
groups that make up a society. This can be done by first promoting the
public image of cultural minorities as a means of fostering the self-image
and the sense of self-esteem of minority group members. Moreover,
strengthening the cultural groups and, thus, improving intercultural
contacts within a society (conducting a multicultural dialogue) has been
shown to lead to the strengthening of individuals, as well (Reingold 2007).
Some of the scholars of Communitarian Multiculturalism emphasize the
connection between a society’s attitude towards a cultural group and the
identity and self-esteem of individuals within that group (MacIntyre 1981,
Sandel 1982, Taylor 1992). For example, Taylor (ibidem) claims that a
positive self-image is a necessary condition for an individual’s optimal
self-actualization as a democratic citizen. However, among members of
minority cultural groups, the development of a positive self-image and an
authentic identity may be inhibited if their culture has not gained
appropriate positive recognition. Thus, an approach that recognizes and
respects cultural differences serves democracy, as it helps eliminate
oppression and grants equality to the members of minority cultural groups.
As a result, an existing and distorted inferior self-image afflicting the
group’s members is transformed into a more realistic self-image, which in
turn creates satisfied and significant citizens in a democratic society.
Similarly, advocates of Liberal Multiculturalism agree with the
Communitarian attitude that public image of cultural groups is important
to the self-esteem of their members. Kymlicka (1995) claims that
belonging to a community with a distinct and respected cultural heritage is
a precondition for one’s ability to conduct a full and meaningful life and to
make individual and authentic choices. The cultural community provides
the cultural components that form the basis on which the individual can
design a way of life. Thus, both the Communitarian and the Liberal
streams of multiculturalism emphasize the cardinal significance of cultural
uniqueness and the resulting cultural empowerment of individuals within

the cultural group. A discussion of educational models most suitable for
the goal of empowering individuals of a cultural minority must consider
two main approaches: the particularistic multicultural model and the
pluralistic multicultural. Which approach is preferable? Particularistic
multicultural education is predicated on the view that, in order to
strengthen members of cultural minorities, separate education systems
should be established for them; in this separate system, they would learn
about their particular cultural heritage, a feature usually missing from the
school curriculum of the mainstream education system. Discovering the
cultural wealth of their own community would foster communal pride and
a positive sense of self-esteem on the individual level. Pluralistic
multicultural education, on the other hand, opposes the separation of
minority group students from the mainstream: a separate framework is
regarded as a recipe for separatism and the reinforcement of social
divisiveness. Instead, pluralistic multicultural education encourages joint
discussions by members of various cultural groups as a basis for raising
the level of intercommunal tolerance and creating dignified relationships
among the various cultural groups (Reingold 2007). Mainstream
classrooms are characterized by an asymmetrical power balance among
ethnic groups. In these classrooms, learners with remarkably little
knowledge about their own culture and extremely low self-esteem sit side-
by-side learners from the majority cultural group, whose cultural heritage
constitutes the foundation of the joint studies of all groups; it is this
cultural status that enables the majority group’s learners to develop a
highly positive self-image. In such classrooms, members of the hegemonic
culture may show only scorn and contempt for the minority’s culture and
its members, while the latter adopt the inferior self-image and the inferior
sense of self-esteem reflected by the environment. According to Asante
(1998), only after experiencing separate education and the cultural wealth
of their own ethnic group can members of a minority cultural group join
the intercultural dialogue from a position of power and demand that their
peers from the other groups treat them with the appropriate respect and
recognition. It was also found that exposing pre-service teachers to other
cultures reinforced their sense of self-efficacy, as well (Cushner & Mahon
2002). Therefore, it may be argued that learning about each other’s
cultures should be defined as a second stage following a particularistic
stage. Following acrimonious polemics between these two multicultural
schools of thought in the 1990s, the American Association of Colleges and
Universities adopted a pluralistic multicultural model based on a
preliminary particularistic stage of education. This educational model,
which aims to promote appropriate recognition of minority cultures and

their members, is a two-tiered model: in the first stage of the multicultural
educational process, each student, in the framework of an introductory
course, learns topics concerning his/her unique cultural traditions and the
identity of his or her community in all its complexities. Thus, all students
have the opportunity to enrich the knowledge of their own culture. At the
next stage of the process (and the second part of the course), the students
study the various American cultural heritages and the history of
interactions among the cultural groups and among individuals of different
cultures. Taking into consideration the theory of self-efficacy,
multicultural theories, and the above-mentioned educational model, we
decided to explore how these could help create a working model, namely,
an introductory pre-academic programme, for students of Ethiopian
descent in Israel enrolled in a teacher education programme.
Suggestion for an Intervention Programme:

Improving the Sense of Self-Efficacy and Self-Esteem
of Israeli Students of Ethiopian Descent in Teacher-
Training Institutions
As previously mentioned, teachers with a high sense of self-efficacy are
more successful and efficient teachers. Therefore, one of the important
aims of any teacher education programme is to promote pre-service
teachers’ sense of self-efficacy. Taking into consideration the theoretical
review presented herein, we defined some guidelines for developing
teacher education programmes that aim to strengthen the sense of self-
efficacy of students of Ethiopian descent. The principles described here
draw on both theories of self-efficacy and theories regarding
multiculturalism. Not unlike the American model previously mentioned,
we found that the most suitable way to apply these theories is in two
stages: the first is the particularistic stage, and the second is the pluralistic
stage. As is customary in many colleges in Israel, students who do not pass
the threshold requirements for acceptance into a programme are given the
opportunity to enrol in a one-year-pre-academic programme and complete
courses that will bring them to the required level. According to the
suggested model, the students of Ethiopian descent would enrol in a
separate preparation programme, to allow them to study their own culture
and its unique strengths. Students of Ethiopian descent who do pass the
threshold requirements but wish nonetheless to join this preparation year
will be allowed to do so. This would constitute the particularistic stage,
which is intended to enable them to study contents taken from their
Ethiopian heritage, thus acquainting them with the rich cultural resources
of their own ethnic group. At this point, after reinforcing their self-esteem
and their sense of self-efficacy in the particularistic stage of the
programme, students of Ethiopian descent should be ready to join the rest
of the students in the multicultural pluralistic education framework.
Guidelines for Developing the Particularistic Stage

of the Programme
Of the guidelines we developed for the particularistic, the first four rely on
Bandura’s (1997) four sources of information that shape one’s sense of
self-efficacy as well as on multicultural theories. The fifth guideline relies
on Kass (2000), as described in the literature review.
Functional Experience. Given that pre-service teachers’ initial
experiences in the teacher education programme may cause a setback to
their sense of self-efficacy, these students should be provided with as
many opportunities as possible to experience successful teaching, so as to
overcome the initial jolt and disappointment that often appear when
dealing with the reality of the classroom. Thus, the programme can help
pre-service teachers accumulate positive experiences by ensuring that, in
the early stages of the practicum, students focus on teaching content (the
“what” of the teaching experience) with which they are strongly familiar.
This content can pertain to the mainstream curriculum as well as to unique
elements of the Ethiopian cultural heritage. Pre-service teachers should be
encouraged to incorporate contents from their own cultural heritage into
their teaching and present the culture’s unique strengths, such as respect
for adults, which is a prominent feature of Ethiopian culture, stories about
life in Ethiopia, or tales of the heroic story of immigration to Israel. The
pre-academic programme can ensure that students’ teaching experiences at
the early stages of the programme are positive also by considering the
design of the hands-on module (the “how” of the teaching experience).
Practice should be planned in a way that creates a continuum of successful
teaching experiences. This can be done by dividing every task into short
term units; for instance, at the outset of the practicum, pre-service teachers
could be assigned to tutor one single child privately, and next progress to a
small group of children, and only at a later stage to teach a whole class. In
an additional example, initially pre-service teachers might be assigned
teaching tasks to be carried out only in the setting of their homeroom class,
and only after developing a strong sense of self-efficacy in the classroom
would they be required to perform tasks within the wider school
environment. The teaching tasks assigned to the trainee should be graded
for difficulty, beginning with easier tasks and gradually progressing

towards more complex or more difficult tasks, thus increasing the
likelihood of accumulating positive experiences in every task assigned.
For example, when pre-service teachers must master new materials to be
taught in the practicum, they should be guided to focus their first lessons
on only one particular aspect of the topic, and only later prepare lessons
that address its full and broader scope. In addition, in the hope that these
students become agents of change, we also need to provide them with
opportunities to lead. The assigned tasks should be planned to guarantee
that the assigned leader has a positive experience. Examples of such tasks
include organizing a field trip for the class, supervising a volunteering
project in the community, or leading a student debate group.
Observation of Role Models. It is well-known from Bandura’s theory
(1997) that observing a model with similar characteristics can raise the
observer’s level of self-efficacy to an extremely considerable extent. In
addition, it is necessary to note that according to the multicultural
approach, preserving a group’s heritage is a significant contributor to the
self-esteem of the individuals within the group. Therefore, it is noteworthy
that the pre-service teachers have role models of Ethiopian descent and
culture (e.g., a student of Ethiopian descent with high academic
achievements and a strong sense of self-efficacy, or a teacher of Ethiopian
descent with a proven record based on students’ improved scholastic
achievements). We propose several ways to achieve this goal:
- Integrating into the curriculum a review of the personal histories of

role models from Ethiopian history, including leaders of the perilous
journey on foot to Israel;
- Encouraging students to invite to class Ethiopians who are prominent
in their fields, such as physicians, academics, media personalities,
politicians, famous runners, winners of Olympic medals or world
championships, or people who, after facing enormous difficulties and
overcoming them, came to be regarded as role models;
- Including guest lecturers of Ethiopian descent as part of the education
programme; for example, highly committed teachers of Ethiopian
descent whose contribution has been recognized in the education
community should be invited to class to talk about their work.
Another type of role model comes from fellow students to whom the
students can compare themselves in terms of academic and professional
abilities. According to Tesser (1988), too large a gap in abilities may lower
the observer’s sense of self-efficacy because, for the person with less
developed skills, the gap emphasizes the unusually long road ahead before
becoming accomplished in the field. In contrast, seeing a small gap
strengthens the observer’s sense of self-efficacy. Therefore, when working
in pairs, the students working together should be matched in the ability, so
that the gap between them will not be large. To further strengthen the
students’ sense of self-efficacy, the invited role model teacher should be
asked to describe to students his or her rationale for the structure chosen
for the current lesson. Analyzing the goal and formulation of the
assignment gives students the tools to imitate the role model and thus
enhances their sense of self-efficacy (Schunk 1984).
Oral Persuasion. Hearing from as many different people as possible
that one has the potential to succeed (within realistic limits, of course)
enhances one’s sense of self-efficacy. The persuader must be perceived as
a significant, reliable person, aware of the student’s capabilities and the
demands of the teaching profession; such a person could be the student’s
pedagogical counsellor, a teacher trainer (mentor), or a tutoring student
from the college. Since most of these students come from families that are
unfamiliar with the Israeli educational system, requirements of the
academic world, or the demands of teaching, the faculty of the educational
institution should take more responsibility in strengthening the sense of
self-efficacy of these students, by means of oral persuasion. Verbal
persuasion should be carried out by tolerant and understanding
pedagogical counsellors and lecturers, who are committed to a
multicultural ideology. To that end, the academic staff should enter a
preparation programme that will teach them about Ethiopian culture,
multicultural ideology and ways to increase students’ self-efficacy.
Physiological Stimulation. The students must be taught how to
interpret physiological symptoms that might occur when trying to cope
with a new task (e.g., shaking, palpitations, and dryness of the mouth) as a
positive sign of mental and physical readiness to fulfil the task, rather than
as signs of weakness and helplessness.
Awareness of family origins and taking responsibility for change.
As stated in the literature review, the messages transferred to the child by
the family have an impact on the child’s self-efficacy and, as one matures,
repercussions of these received messages may be projected in to one’s
professional life (Kass 2000). The more the students know about these
messages, and how to interpret them, the more they will be able to take
responsibility and deal with weakening messages without blaming others,
which in turn will help strengthen their sense of self-efficacy. Similarly, if
students of Ethiopian descent are aware of the messages they were raised
with and how these messages affected their sense of self-efficacy, given
the proper tools, they can be expected to take responsibility for their
behaviour. Thus, as increased understanding allows for greater control,
students may become less vulnerable to potentially harmful external
messages from the environment and more self-reliant as they interpret
these messages in a different way.
Guidelines for Developing the Pluralistic Stage

of the Programme
We hope that, thanks to the preparation in the particularistic stage, the
students of Ethiopian descent will take pride in their heritage and feel
ready to share it with other students, including those from the majority
culture. As agents of change, they are now asked to teach about their
culture and encourage diversity.
Other students will also tell about their culture and traditions in order
to encourage diversity.
To ensure a dignified dialogue among the various cultural groups,
monitored intergroup meetings will be required; opportunities for such
interactions could be arranged through courses dedicated explicitly to
multicultural education (e.g., courses that focus on the heritage of minority
cultures or the study of their literatures). In this framework, Ethiopian
culture would be given respect and prominence; its leadership would be
valued, as would be those of the other various traditions represented in the
multicultural student body. The strength and the capabilities of the
Ethiopian community in Israel would be stressed, such as their decades of
struggle and determination to immigrate to Israel and their ability to bear
the rigors of the arduous journey to this land.
It is necessary to note that, parallel to strengthening the sense of self-
efficacy and self-esteem, the programme should also teach students of
Ethiopian descent to differentiate between these two feelings, namely,
self-efficacy and self-esteem. It is essential to instil in them the ability to
assess their sense of efficacy when performing a certain task, to examine
whether it is valued by the majority group as well as by their own minority
population. Thus, for example, students can be led to understand their
capacity to handle responsibility, and that this ability can be harnessed for
various tasks. As children back in Ethiopia, the students’ parents relied on
them to watch the family’s most valued possession – the family’s cow
herd. Now, in Israel, the task is quite different – “to be a teacher – a
shepherd of children.” Although responsibility is expressed differently in
each culture, the performance of each task provides a sense of self-
efficacy. It is crucial that the students understand that the source of the
difference is cultural, and yet, despite the differences, both tasks rely on a
single ability, which the students clearly possess, namely, the ability to
handle the responsibility. This conclusion would enable students to assess
their self-efficacy correctly and understand that they have the ability to
behave responsibly in performing various tasks. Past success as a child
performing a different task responsibly would also reinforce their sense of
self-efficacy.
We hope that following these guidelines will help strengthen the sense
of self-efficacy among students of Ethiopian descent and thus enable them
to become teachers who have a strong sense of self-efficacy and self-
esteem and can serve as cultural workers and conscious agents of change.
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IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP
IN MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION
PROGRAMMES
SALIH ZEKI GENÇ
Multicultural education and active citizenship are related concepts in terms

of, democracy, equality, diversity and lifelong learning. As institutions of
society, schools represent community. So they must reflect the diversity of
society. Pattnaik (2003: 207) states that “If children frequently observe
ethnic conflict among different minority groups in their neighbourhoods,
their behaviour in school may mirror that conflict.” It is obvious that
schools make a significant difference for respect for diversity. Most
valuable thing is to help children to construct an understanding of different
cultures, respect for differences. By doing so, both society and children
could overcome racial and ethnic barriers.
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is a term related to communities containing multiple
cultures. It is often defined and explained as a “cultural mosaic,” “melting
pot” and “salad bowl,” which are actual concepts of assimilation (Burgess
2005). The emergence of the concept multiculturalism is strongly
associated with the growing realization of the social and cultural
consequences of large-scale immigrations. Kymlicka (1995) stated that the
concept of multiculturalism is more generally an affirmation of the value
of cultural diversity. Heywood (2000) states that the term is used in two
broad ways: either descriptively or normatively. As a descriptive term, it
refers to cultural diversity and is applied to the demographic make-up of a
specific place, sometimes at the organizational level (nations, cities,
businesses, and schools). As a normative term, it refers to ideologies and
policies that promote both diversity and its institutionalization. In this
sense, multiculturalism is a society “[…] at ease with the rich tapestry of
human life and the desire amongst people to express their own identity in
the manner they see fit.” (Bloor 2010: 272) Two main different and
284 Implementation of Active Citizenship in Multicultural Education
seemingly inconsistent strategies have developed through different

government policies and strategies (Marsh 1997, Meyer 2010). The first
one, interculturalism, focuses on interactions and communications
between different cultures that provide opportunities for the cultural
differences to communicate and interact to create multiculturalism. The
second one, which is a common aspect of many policies, focuses on
diversity and cultural uniqueness. In this sense, cultural isolation can
protect the uniqueness of the local culture of a nation or area and also
contribute to global cultural diversity. By doing this, they avoid presenting
any specific values as central – e.g., ethnic, religious, or cultural (Mooney
Cotter 2011). According to Banks (1997), multicultural education is an
educational reform movement, an idea, and a process seeks to create equal
educational opportunities for all students, including those from different
racial, ethnic, and social-class groups. Based on democratic values and
affirming cultural pluralism within culturally various societies in an
interdependent world, multicultural education is a “teaching-learning”
approach. Banks & McGee Banks (1995: xi) define multicultural
education as:
“[…] a field of study and an emerging discipline whose major aim is to

create equal educational opportunities for students from diverse racial,
ethnic, social-class, and cultural groups. One of its important goals is to
help all students to acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to
function effectively in a pluralistic democratic society and to interact,
negotiate, and communicate with peoples from diverse groups in order to
create a civic and moral community that works for the common good.”
According to Bell & Griffin (1997: 55) curriculums concerned with

diversity focus on
“[…] helping students describe and understand their own experiences as

members of different social groups and listen to others talk about their
experiences and perspectives. The focus is on respecting, understanding,
and acknowledging difference.”
Sleeter & Grant (2003: 195) advocate that:
“Education that is Multicultural and Social Reconstructionist: Education

that is multicultural means that the entire educational programme is
redesigned to reflect the concerns of diverse cultural groups. Rather than
being one of several kinds of education, it is a different orientation and
expectation of the whole educational process.”
Salih Zeki Genç 285
The global perspective of multicultural education recognizes cultural

pluralism as an ideal and healthy state in any productive society and
promotes equity and respect among the existing cultural groups. As we
face global issues related to the ecosystem, nuclear weapons, terrorism,
human rights, and scarce national resources, higher education institutions
need to promote the global perspective of multicultural education in order
to be a model of a democratic society in such a pluralistic world. One of
the most valuable things for such an education is teacher training that
should be based on the principles of non-discrimination, pluralism and
equity. The most salient issue and ultimate goal of intercultural education
is to teach how to live together. As both citizens and educators, teachers
can create active and participative educators within the scope of
intercultural citizenship education. Several long-term benefits of the global
perspective of multicultural education are identified by the educators
(Banks 1987, Banks & McGee Banks 1993, Boise 1993, Duhon et al.
2002, Duhon-Boudreaux 1998, Gollnick & Chinn 2002, Johnson &
Johnson 2002, Quiseberry, McIntyre & Duhon 2002, Shulman & Mesa-
Bains 1993, Silverman, Welty & Lyon 1994) who are promoting
multicultural education in schools and higher education institutions. Some
of these long-term benefits are as follows:
- Multicultural education increases productivity because a variety of

mental resources are available for completing the same tasks and it
promotes cognitive and moral growth among all people.
- Multicultural education increases creative problem-solving skills
through the different perspectives applied to same problems to reach
solutions.
- Multicultural education increases positive relationships through
achievement of common goals, respect, appreciation, and commitment
to equality among the intellectuals at institutions of higher education.
- Multicultural education decreases stereotyping and prejudice through
direct contact and interactions among diverse individuals.
- Multicultural education renews vitality of society through the richness
of the different cultures of its members and fosters development of a
broader and more sophisticated view of the world.
Rather than providing equity education, multicultural education also

provides and develops some values such as responsibility to the world,
reverence to the earth, acceptance and appreciation of cultural diversity,
respect for human dignity. It also helps to:
- Increase awareness of the state of the planet and the global dynamics
- Develop multiple historical perspectives
- Strengthen cultural consciousness and intercultural competence
- Combat racism, sexism, other forms of prejudice and discrimination
- Build social action skills
As an educational alternative, multicultural education also serves as

education for justice. By allowing students to learn how to “think in a
more inclusive and expansive manner,” “critically analyze the
information,” and further “turn that knowledge into action” multicultural
education develops students into future democratic citizens (Nieto & Bode
1992). Multicultural education serves as an alternative solution to the
existing curricula because it seeks to address social inequalities and
furthermore critically analyze those inequalities to promote social justice.
Multicultural education as a tool for justice and social change works
within three broad categories:
- Transformation of individuals;
- Transformation of schools and schooling;
- Transformation of society.
As a result, we may define multicultural education as a field of study

designed to create and improve educational equity for all students from
different racial, ethnic, and social-class groups in a pluralistic democratic
society.
Citizenship
Modern conception of citizenship as active membership of a political
community is thought to have originated in Greece between 700 and 600
BC (Pattie, Seyd & Whiteley 2004). This early conception was referring to
notions of equality and freedom. These notions still constitute central
concerns and focus within citizenship debates today. At that time, citizens
were classified with regard to their wealth and status, which determined
their influence on government affairs. During the subsequent Roman
Empire, citizenship was expanded to confer legal status instead of just
political status. This conceptualization enabled the term citizenship to
extend to integration within the empire (ibidem). The following feudal
system failed to accommodate for such a conception and only fragments of
the Roman and Greek conceptions of citizenship survived within particular
social groups (ibidem). Establishment of parliamentary sovereignty let the
evolution of citizenship began to move in increasingly expansive and

inclusive directions while expanding membership to a broader spectrum of
groups with Marshall’s theory of citizenship. Changed and changing
nature of societies and the consequent effects on the nature force evolution
of the concept of citizenship. The process of globalization is a highly
considered issue together with its consequent side effects such as the
nation-state decline, the emergence of transnational institutions, the
disembedding of time and space and the rise of culturally plurality. This
changing nature of citizenship is reflected in the interpretations of
citizenship.
“The common good can never be actualized. There will always be a debate
over the exact nature of citizenship. No final agreement can ever be
reached.” (Mouffe, in Heater 2004: 287)
“Citizenship as a useful political concept is in danger of being torn asunder

[…]. By a bitter twist of historical fate, the concept that evolved to provide
a sense of identity and community, is on the verge of becoming a source of
communal dissension. As more and more diverse interests identify
particular elements for their doctrinal and practical needs, so the
component parts of citizenship are being made to do service for the whole.
And under the strain of these centrifugal forces, citizenship as a total ideal
may be threatened with disintegration.” (ibidem)
The recognition of the decline in nation-state sovereignty, coupled with

fears for the stability of the modern democratic society, has placed
citizenship high on national and international agendas. This has instigated
an upsurge in citizenship debates and related anxieties. In most countries,
citizenship education is now compulsory in schools.
Active Citizenship
Although there is no generally accepted definition of active citizenship and
no standard model explaining what an active citizen is, there is a general
agreement that it refers to the participation of individuals in public life and
affairs at local, national and international levels. At the local level, active
citizenship refers to citizens who become actively involved in the social
life of their communities, tackling problems, bringing about change or
resisting unwanted change. In this sense, “active citizens are those who
develop the skills, knowledge and understandings to be able to make
informed decisions about their communities and workplaces with the aim
of improving the quality of life in these” (Council of Europe 2004: 1). At
the national level, the term can “differ from voting to being involved in
campaigning pressure groups to being a member of a political party.”
(ibidem: 1) In this sense, active citizens may be involved in movements to
promote sustainability or fair trade, to reduce poverty or eliminate slavery.
As in conventional citizenship conception active citizenship does not refer
to “good citizen” in the sense that they follow the rules or behave in a
certain way. In contrast, generally staying within the bounds of democratic
processes and not involving in violent acts, an active citizen may challenge
the rules and existing structures. Respecting for justice, democracy and the
rule of law, openness, tolerance, courage to defend a point of view and
willingness to listening to, working with and standing up for others are
generally accepted set of values and dispositions that can be associated
with active and also democratic citizenship (ibidem).
The Council of Europe (ibidem: 1) defines active citizenship
“[…] as a form of literacy: coming to grips with what happens in public

life, developing knowledge, understanding, critical thinking and
independent judgement of local, national, European, global levels. It
implies action and empowerment, i.e. acquiring knowledge, skills and
attitudes, being able and willing to use them, make decisions, take action
individually and collectively.”
According to the Council of Europe (ibidem: 1) some key characteristics

of active citizenships are:
- Participation in the community such as involvement in a voluntary

activity or engaging with local government agencies;
- Empowerment on playing a part in the decisions and processes that
affect them, particularly public policy and services;
- Knowledge and understanding of the political, social, economic
context of their participation in order to be able make informed
decisions;
- Being able to challenge policies or actions and existing structures
based on principles such as equality, inclusiveness, diversity and social
justice.
Active citizenship acknowledges that, in a democratic society, all

individuals and groups have the right to engage in the creation and re-
creation of that democratic society; have the right to participate in all of
the democratic practices and institutions within that society; have the
responsibility to ensure that no groups or individuals are excluded from
these practices and institutions; have the responsibility to ensure a broad
definition of the political includes all relationships and structures

throughout the social arrangement. Hoskins & Mascherini (2009) explain
the dimensions of active citizenship as:
- Protest and Social Change consists of four elements. The first element,
protest activities, consists of four indicators: signing a petition, taking
part in a lawful demonstration, boycotting products and contacting a
politician. The next three components are three types of organizations:
human rights organizations, trade unions and environmental
organizations. Each of these components consists of four indicators:
membership, participation activities, donating money and voluntary
work.
- Community Life: Active citizens also become active members in
social, religious, business, educational and cultural organizations.
Voluntary participation in these activities promotes interpersonal
relationships with others of various religious and cultural value
systems, which lead to cooperation in other aspects of community life.
Active participation in any community assists in understanding how
other people function, work, believe and relate. Active citizens also
donate money to further the efforts of organizations that promote
harmony and synergy between all types of people.
- Representative Democracy: Getting involved or becoming a member
of political parties serves as another vital aspect of active citizenship.
Get out and get to work helping with local elections in getting voters to
turn out for local and national elections. Encourage other people to get
involved by volunteering to help provide a ride to polling places for
those who are not able to get there. Study the tenets of the individual
local and national political parties and become an informed citizen.
Donate money and time to organizations that promote representative
democracy.
- Democratic Values: Intercultural understanding remains the key to a
true active global citizenry. Technology has literally brought the world
together into one big community. People from all nations need to come
together, make a concerted effort to understand their neighbours next
door and on the other side of the globe. There are places around the
globe this day that do not respect the most basic of human rights when
dealing with children, women or men. Active citizens get involved in
activities that boycott products, protest conditions and insist on access
to democratic principles for all people of the world.
A democratic society is the only guarantee that people with differing

religious, cultural and political backgrounds can live together in a peaceful
way. People are not born democratic citizens, so citizenship has to be
thought and learned. This is a goal of education and also teachers, schools
and curriculums. On the other hand, democracies can become uncertain by
changing voting and participation behaviour and declining involvement in
society and decision-making processes of citizens. The changes in the
nature of population (e.g., becoming multicultural society, secularization
of the autochthon population and individualization) make it necessary to
include citizenship education as an indispensable part of the curriculum in
order to prepare for the multicultural society. Governments and
parliaments have to make decisions on prioritizing citizenship education
both in curriculums and adult education. Although most countries
underline the importance of education for citizenship, education falls short
in terms of education for active democratic citizenship. Putnam (1995),
states that preparation of citizens in most countries is not adequate.
Schugurensky (2004: 1) perceives a “democratic deficit,” which he
understands as the expectation that a general increase of the educational
level of a population will increase the participation of its citizenry:
“Poll after poll, all over the world, tells us that citizens have low
confidence in politicians and in political institutions, and they believe that
many politicians have lost touch with those they claim to represent. One of
the reasons for the democratic deficit is that most educational systems
(from elementary schools to universities) pay little attention to the
development of an active, critical and engaged citizenship.”
Putnam (1995: 76) suggests as a solution for the lack of social and
political participation: improved civics education in school, because it is
well known “that knowledge about public affairs and practice in everyday
civic skills are prerequisites for effective participation.” He stresses the
practical aspects of civics lessons, not only lessons about how a law passes
Parliament, but also how one can participate effectively in the public life
of my community. According to Putnam (ibidem) another strategy that
could work is service/adult learning. He states “well designed service
learning programs improve civic knowledge, enhance citizen efficacy,
increase social responsibility and self esteem, teach skills of cooperation
and leadership, and may even reduce (one study suggests) reduce racism.”
(ibidem: 76) Niemi & Junn (1998) conclude that school and curriculum
have an impact on the development of civic knowledge in high school
students. Similarly, Torney et al. (2001: 176) state “within countries there
is a substantial positive relationship between students’ knowledge of
democratic processes and institutions and their reported likelihood of

voting when they become adults.” However, schools are not the only factor
in developing political knowledge, home environment and the mass media
also proved to have significant effects. So that, learning active citizenship
should start as early as possible. Since we know from research that young
children already have notions about power and government citizenship
should be part of the curriculum from primary education onwards.
Speaking about democracy education, De Winter (2005), states that most
education systems are lack of teaching knowledge, attitude and skills for
participation in society as a democratic citizen. For the future of the
democratic way of life and maintenance of the rule of law, it is necessary
to transfer democratic competences to all children.
Curricula, Multicultural Education and Active

Citizenship
Multicultural education is a whole school process that prepares students
for real life in terms of their roles and responsibilities in an interdependent
world. Students are at the centre of school practices that promote multi-
perspectives and an appreciation of cultural and linguistic diversity within
a democratic society. Today, educators argue embedding multicultural
content into the entire curriculum and school programmes since children
begin to notice differences and develop racial and ethnic biases at a
remarkably young age (Derman-Sparks 1989); multicultural education
needs to be provided from an early age so that children can develop
positive attitudes toward people from other cultures. Embedding anti-bias,
multicultural educational goals into the curriculums is reflecting the needs
and interest of the children and builds upon what children already know.
Derman-Sparks (ibidem) provided four objectives of multicultural
education to be fostered in children:
- Construction of a knowledgeable, confident self-identity;

- Comfortable, empathetic interaction with diversity among people;
- Critical thinking about bias;
- Ability to assert one’s own rights and the rights of others in the face of
bias.
The main reason for promoting multicultural education is that it promotes

peaceful co-existence and respect both in the school, and in the society as
students are the future citizens. Our society is becoming more and more
multicultural, so education should both help and teach students prepare for
a better life. Multicultural education offers many more benefits such as

acquisition of citizenship skills, respect diversity, and becoming
autonomous critical thinkers. Multicultural education can also help in
exterminating racism, bigotry, fanaticism, and extreme nationalism.
Without any respect to diversity, it is impossible to build peace and love in
our society and the whole world. Bennett (2003) also argues that
educational excellence in schools cannot be achieved without providing
equal opportunities for all students to develop their fullest potential. Banks
& McGee Banks (1994: 81) stated “multicultural education promotes the
freedom, abilities, and skills to cross ethnic and cultural boundaries to
participants in other cultures and groups.” He proposed that the goal of
multicultural education should be education for freedom that helps
students to develop the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to participate in a
democratic, multicultural and free society. Basically, multiculturalism is a
way of thinking and it appreciates and respects other perspectives
(ibidem). Traditionally European countries used a model of citizenship
based on unitary citizenship, with citizens sharing the same or highly
similar sets of common citizenship rights (European Commission 2007).
Universality, equality and neutrality were the main aspects of this model.
They enjoyed equal legal, socio-economic and political rights without any
particular rights or obligations. However, women and immigrants face
problems since this model was asking assimilation instead of integration
and was, therefore, discriminating. Emerging from these needs, recent
conceptualization of citizenship reflects the need for multi-cultural
societies to recognize the specific experiences and socio-cultural
differences of its members. However, at the same time, they also need to
ensure that these specific experiences and socio-cultural differences do not
conflict with basic equal and fundamental values and rights. Decrease in
political engagement and the growing levels of individualism also
negatively affect solidarity and interest in community development in
Europe. Many different activities and actions are organized to motivate
people to become active citizens. Therefore, as the ETGACE project
rightly mentions in its final report: “active citizenship is a lifelong learning
process. Learning citizenship is interactive, and deeply embedded in
specific contexts,” stressing the fact that becoming an active citizen is a
continuous process (European Commission 2007: 60). This report also
suggests that the sense of citizenship is a highly personal experience,
formed by life history and relations with others. Childhood experience has
a pivotal function as the predisposition to become an active citizen often
seems to be formed early in life. Active citizenship education is defined as
a combination of three key learning processes – cognitive, affective and
behavioural learning – and four main stages through which an individual

passes when learning to become an active citizen; the fundamental values
underlying active citizenship, the awareness of these values and of what
they imply, the attitude towards and respect of these values and the
engagement and activation to promote these values (European
Commission 2007). Figure 3-1 schematizes how, active citizenship
education can be understood as a process of acquiring knowledge,
attitudes and skills.
Figure 3-1. Acquisition of Active Citizenship (European Commission 2007: 68)
The cognitive component enhances understanding and has an impact on

people’s viewpoints. It is covering stages 1 and 2 helps to improve the
knowledge, awareness and implications of the fundamental values and
rules in a society and the basic relations between these values such as;
multiculturalism touches upon issues of human rights and democracy and
etc. The affective component of active citizenship education influences
attitudes, opinions and feelings that enable a peaceful coexistence of
citizens in a society. Mutual respect, tolerance and non-violence are
indispensable attitudinal elements. The third stage is about empathy and
relations with others. It is, however, a rather passive stage in terms of
individuals may change their thinking patterns to take account of what

they have learned, but do not necessarily act upon it. Fourth, stage is the
behavioural component and explains engagement and participation in the
society where individuals become (pro)active in making themselves heard,
are committed to making a difference and to supporting their community.
Goals of the multicultural education and active citizenship education are
remarkably parallel and reciprocally related. They seem to be a solution
alternative to the existing problems of both local communities and wider
societies in terms of seeking to address inequalities in the society, political
disengagement, individualism and critically analyzing those inequalities to
promote social justice in the long run. Active citizenship education is
promoting multicultural education in fostering the creation of culturally
responsive classrooms in public schools, further allows for the
development and reform of individuals, schools, and hopefully
communities and societies in the end. To conclude, today’s citizenship-
active citizenship competencies not only require knowledge, awareness
and skills, but also attitudes of respect and consequent engagement with
these knowledge and attitudes. Research shows that children at a
remarkably young age notice differences and develop racial and ethnic
biases and also have notions about power and government. So that, active
citizenship education through multicultural education should be part of the
curriculums from the primary education including early childhood
education and onwards.
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INTERCULTURAL TRAINING OF PRE-SERVICE
TEACHERS IN MULTICULTURAL VOJVODINA
(SERBIA)
BILJANA RADIĆ-BOJANIĆ
AND DANIJELA POP-JOVANOV
Introduction
Intercultural communicative competence is a learnt state, based on the
motivation, knowledge and skills needed for the understanding and
acceptance of diverse cultural norms, values and underlying cultural
assumptions, as well as communicating effectively across cultures.
Therefore, intercultural communicative competence generally focuses on
language proficiency, cognitive components including cultural knowledge
and ethnocentrism. It is also one of the basic skills that 21st century
teachers should possess, given the globalizing processes, mobility,
international contacts, etc. An entirely different issue is whether these
teachers are trained in intercultural communicative competence (as they
are trained in grammar, teaching methods, classroom management, etc.)
and, if they are, therefore, prepared for a modern teaching process where
they are expected not just to teach language to their students, but also
develop intercultural understanding, conflict resolution, and empathy.
All of these principles seem especially necessary when future teachers
are educated and prepared for work in multicultural settings. One such
example is the province of Vojvodina, Serbia, with its 26 ethnic groups
and 6 official languages, where the need for mutual understanding,
cooperation and empathy is at a very high level. Here, the most numerous
ethnic groups are Serbs, Hungarians and Slovaks, but there are also Croats,
Montenegrins, Romanians, Ruthenians, Germans, Macedonians, etc. In
accordance with the most numerous ethnic groups, the government
proclaimed 6 official languages (Serbian, Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian,
Croatian, and Ruthenian). Serbian is the official language in all Vojvodina,
while other languages are official in selected municipalities. There are
298 Developing Intercultural Competence of Pre-Service Teachers
newspapers, radio and TV shows in official and minority languages and

various ethnic groups have the right of education in their mother tongue.
When these ethnic and linguistic facts are cross-referenced with
foreign language teaching, it is obvious that there is an expressed need for
multicultural and intercultural education of future foreign language
teachers in order to train them, not just in terms of teaching skills, but also
in terms of conflict resolution, mutual cultural understanding and
intercultural communication. That is why we propose a set of strategies
that can be implemented in the educational process so as to train pre-
service teachers to become competent intercultural communicators and
successful future teachers of the 21st century.
Intercultural Competence
In essence, intercultural competence can be summarised as the ability to
interact successfully across cultures, where “successfully” refers to social
effectiveness (the ability to achieve social goals) and appropriateness
(acceptable communication in a context). Intercultural competence
involves a change of perspective on self and other and entails affective and
cognitive changes.
There are different theories on what intercultural competence consists
of. These theories change depending on one’s point of view, or the
context. According to the Council of Europe (2001: 104-105), intercultural
skills and knowledge include the ability to bring the culture of origin and
the foreign culture in relation with each other, cultural sensitivity and the
ability to identify and use a variety of strategies for contact with those
from other cultures, the capacity to fulfil the role of cultural intermediary
between one’s own culture and the foreign culture and to deal effectively
with intercultural misunderstanding and conflict situations, and the ability
to overcome stereotyped relationships. When this definition is applied to
the case of multicultural Vojvodina, its components gain even more
importance as the number of intercultural ties multiplies and the network
of intercultural encounters constantly increases.
According to Byram, Gribkova & Starkey (2002), the components of
intercultural competence are knowledge, skills, and attitudes,
supplemented by values that are part of one’s multiple social identities.
This model of intercultural competence consists of attitudes and values,
which form the foundation of intercultural competence. They represent an
affective capacity to suspend ethnocentric attitudes towards and
perceptions of others and their cultures, and a cognitive ability to decentre,
develop and maintain intercultural relations. This component represents
Biljana Radić-Bojanić and Danijela Pop-Jovanov 299
the ability to relativize one’s own values, beliefs, and behaviours,

recognition of cultural differences, their acceptance as possible and
correct, and maintenance of a positive attitude towards them. Another
crucial component is knowledge, not primarily the knowledge of a
particular objective culture, but rather subjective culture, which gives
direct insight into the worldview, functioning, processes, and practices of
different cultural groups in intercultural interaction. The third essential
component represents the skills: (a) skills of interpreting and relating, or
the ability to interpret events from another culture, to explain and relate
them to events from one’s own culture; (b) skills of discovery and
interaction, or the ability to gain new knowledge of a culture and cultural
practices, to combine and use knowledge, attitudes, and skills in
communication and interaction, (c) critical, cultural awareness, which
deals with the awareness of one’s own and other’s values and their mutual
influence as well as the ability to critically evaluate practices and products
in one’s own and others’ culture. Therefore, an interculturally competent
communicator possesses the knowledge, motivation, and skills to interact
effectively and appropriately in diverse cultural contexts.
Whereas some researchers such as Bennett (1998, 2004, 2009)
maintain that intercultural communicative competence is just a part of
intercultural competence, and believe that it is a component of
communicative competence, other researchers, like Byram & Flemming
(1998) and Spitzberg (1997), tend to define it as a distinctive competence.
Byram & Fleming (1998: 12) think
“[...] intercultural communicative competence is concerned with

understanding differences in interactional norms between social groups, so
as ‘to reconcile or mediate between different modes present in any specific
interaction’.”
Meyer (1991: 137) defines it as
“[...] the ability of a person to behave adequately and in a flexible manner

when confronted with actions, attitudes, and expectations of
representatives of foreign cultures. Adequacy and adaptability imply an
awareness of the cultural differences between one’s own and the foreign
culture and the ability to handle cross-cultural problems.”
Raising awareness of the nature of intercultural interaction, as well as

skills and competences that can help investigate different beliefs, values,
cultural differences and practices seem to be an efficient way to avoid
cultural misunderstandings and breakdowns. Raising awareness of
intercultural communication competence is an efficient way to avoid

misunderstandings that occur because of the lack of intercultural
awareness. Intercultural communication helps interlocutors reach higher
levels of language proficiency since culture affects spoken and written
language as dimensions of social interaction. Also, interlocutors can
predict where problems might occur during intercultural interaction, and
thus, avoid such difficulties.
Ethnocentrism
In intercultural communication, the issue of ethnocentrism is related to the
development of intercultural sensitivity, i.e. the ability to experience
cultural difference. People can be more or less sensitive to cultural
difference. Those who are more interculturally sensitive can make finer
discriminations among cultures. One’s ability to see a culturally different
person as equally complex to one’s self and to take a culturally different
perspective makes intercultural communication more successful. Thus,
greater intercultural sensitivity creates the potential for increased
intercultural communicative competence.
Bennett (2004: 62) has designed a “developmental model of
intercultural sensitivity” in order to provide an understanding of how
people develop their ability to interpret and experience cultural difference.
Bennett’s model is constructed as a continuum, which is divided into two
sets of stages: ethnocentric (the stages of reaction to difference) and
ethnorelative (the stages of openness to difference), both of which refer to
worldview conditions, or orientations.
Ethnocentrism is defined as an assumption that “the worldview of
one’s own culture is central to all reality,” while ethnorelativism is “the
experience of one’s own beliefs and behaviours as just one organization of
reality among many viable possibilities” (ibidem). Therefore, cultural
difference is seen as a way of enriching one’s own experience of reality
and as a means to understand others. Difference is at the centre of the
development of intercultural sensitivity. Denial is the stage with the least
intercultural sensitivity, while integration is the one where the highest
level is reached.
The underlying assumption of the model is that
“[...] as one’s experience of cultural difference becomes more complex and

sophisticated, one’s potential competence in intercultural relations
increases.” (Prechtl & Davidson Lund 2007: 469)
Therefore, Bennett’s model can serve as a tool for understanding the shift
from ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism, and the resulting changes that it
assumes in knowledge, skills, and attitudes, i.e. the underlying worldview.
The first ethnocentric stage, denial of cultural difference, is the stage
that represents ultimate ethnocentrism. A person’s culture is experienced
as the real one and unquestionably true, and his/her vision of the world is
at the centre of reality and is never challenged. People at this stage are
either unaware of cultural differences or deny their existence. They tend to
use stereotypes to describe others as well as to dehumanise them. Denial
can be based on isolation from people who are culturally different, or
separation, where difference is separated on purpose.
Defence against cultural difference is the second stage that is
characterised by the recognition of the existence of cultural differences.
However, the differences are perceived and evaluated as threatening to
one’s reality and sense of self. To meet the threat, people at this stage
perceive the world divided into “us” and “them,” denigrate the culturally
diverse groups as being inferior by using negative stereotypes, or claim
superiority of their own cultural group, where the emphasis is on the
positive features of one’s own culture.
The last stage of ethnocentrism is minimisation of cultural difference.
This stage is characterised by the recognition and acceptance of superficial
and insignificant cultural differences by assuming a basic similarity among
all human beings. People at this stage trivialise cultural differences
believing that common principles guide values and behaviours and that
communication relies on a common and universal set of rules and
principles.
Between the stages of minimisation and acceptance, there is a change
in the attitude towards cultural difference. In ethnorelative stages,
differences are not seen as threats but rather as challenges.
Acceptance of cultural difference is the first stage of ethnorelativism. It
is characterised by the recognition of cultural differences in behavioural
norms and value systems without evaluating those differences as positive
or negative. Acceptance does not mean agreement. It means that people at
this stage are likely to be curious about cultural differences and values of
other groups, and are fairly tolerant of ambiguity. They are also skilful at
identifying how cultural differences operate in a wide range of interactions
without adopting many of the behaviours exhibited by the members of
culturally different groups.
Adaptation to cultural difference is the stage in which one’s worldview
is expanded by the addition of a range of values, abilities, and behavioural
norms to interact in different cultures, as well. People at this stage have the
ability to modify the way they perceive and process reality, shift their
cultural frames of reference and change their behaviour to conform to
different norms in order to interact more effectively across cultures.
Shifting the cultural frame of reference, or looking at the world “through
different eyes,” is referred to as empathy, which involves disregarding
one’s own worldview assumptions and taking another person’s perspective
in order to understand and be understood across cultural boundaries.
Integration is the last stage of openness to cultural difference. People at
this stage extend their ability to perceive events by integrating various
cultural frames of their own original cultural perspectives with those of
other cultures. The process of shifting cultural perspectives becomes a
normal part of self. They are able to interpret and evaluate different
patterns of behaviour and switch styles, i.e. effortlessly adjust their
behaviour in order to adjust to the culture of the people with which they
interact. In some cases, individuals at this stage deal with issues related to
their own “constructive marginality,” which implies a state of total self-
reflectiveness, of not belonging to any culture but being an outsider.
Reaching this stage allows the ability to operate within different
worldviews.
Strategies for Intercultural Learning

Intercultural encounters offer plenty of opportunities for intercultural
learning to take place, with emphasis on gaining knowledge, acceptance,
recognition, and respect for difference, as well as the decrease in the level
of ethnocentrism. However, the mere interaction between culturally
different people and attempts to make them aware of cultural diversity do
not instantly lead to tolerance, acceptance, and mutual understanding.
Quite the opposite, many people feel incapable of dealing with, unable to
interact with, or even threatened by people from different cultural
backgrounds. In addition, intercultural encounters always carry the risk of
reinforcing existing stereotypes and prejudices. Therefore, cultural self-
awareness is a necessary precondition for intercultural learning, which
relies on one’s willingness to make an intercultural encounter productive,
attempts to question one’s values and interpretations of one’s worldview,
and aims at deep processes and changes of attitudes and behaviour.
In the context of multicultural Vojvodina, many of the claims above
ring true: despite its large multicultural wealth of nations, customs and
languages, there are cases of intercultural conflicts, which rely on
stereotypes and prejudices. Many attempts are made to increase
intercultural awareness and to educate people in terms of mutual
understanding and conflict resolution, primarily in the education system.

In order to enable teachers to acquire skills bound with this kind of
instruction, they have to be trained themselves in intercultural
communication, whether while in-service or still pre-service teachers
(students in their final year of studies). For that reason, a set of educational
strategies is proposed in this section with special reference to the
Vojvodinian multiculturality.
According to Bennett (2009: 3), intercultural learning is
“[...] acquiring increased awareness of subjective cultural context

(worldview), including one’s own, and developing greater ability to
interact sensitively and competently across cultural contexts as both an
immediate and long-term effect of change.”
Therefore, it focuses on a mutual understanding of differences through

intercultural sensitivity and refers to a process of acquiring knowledge,
attitudes, and behaviour that is in connection with the interaction of people
from different cultures. Strategies proposed below rely on concepts often
related with intercultural learning – confidence and respect, experiencing
identity, reality as a construction, in dialogue with the “other,” constant
change and questioning, and the potential for conflict:
- Increasing confidence is significant in order to attain openness that is

needed for a mutual learning process. One should feel at ease to share
different points of view, feelings and perceptions, to accept them and
gain understanding. Therefore, one must be able to discuss one’s needs
and expectations openly, listen to others’ opinions, experiences and
feelings as equal in value and promote mutual trust. In the educational
context of multicultural Vojvodina, this means that pre-service
teachers with different ethnic and religious backgrounds should openly
communicate regarding their own cultures, ways of life, microcustoms,
etc. Increased understanding of others will lead to respect and implicit
development of procedures that pre-service teachers will, then, transfer
to other intercultural encounters.
- In intercultural learning, the starting point is one’s own culture, one’s
own personal background and experience. In experiencing one’s
identity, one will encounter both the opportunities and obstacles of the
learning process. Everyone has a personal reality which has shaped
them, and which is continually being supplemented by new
experiences and knowledge. Trying to understand oneself and one’s
own identity is a prerequisite to encounter others and learn about them.
Self-understanding can be achieved through exploration of one’s
cultural background and history that can be shaped in self-narratives

embedded in the curriculum.
- There are many ways to grasp reality. In a process of intercultural
learning, one has an opportunity to become fully aware of the way
everyone constructs their own world which affects all aspects of one’s
life. Even basic dimensions differ from culture to culture and only by
recognising those differences can one challenge himself/herself to
operate within different worldviews. These differences can be found
even in daily routines and perceptions of time and space, so the best
way for awareness raising may be role-playing when participants
imagine themselves as belonging to a different culture or not belonging
to any culture at all in order to see how their own reality differs from
others.
- Intercultural learning is a process towards understanding and learning
about the “other.” It challenges one to see oneself and the “other” as
different but complementary. This is achieved by “walking in the
other’s shoes,” which may require some ethnographic research and
experiential learning on the part of pre-service teachers.
- Intercultural learning is a process of constant change that refers to
dealing with cultural difference. One needs to accept that one needs to
be open and ready to question one’s own assumptions, beliefs, ideas,
and stereotypes, as well as to welcome change and different
discoveries, perceptions, and transformations. In other words, pre-
service teachers are invited to discover and form different individual
strategies to deal and cope with cultural difference. In this process,
they have to accept that there will not always be an answer, or the right
answer, and they need to be open to all possibilities and options.
- If one takes into account all different perceptions of people belonging
to diverse cultural backgrounds, it is evident that misunderstandings
and conflicts are likely to occur. Conflict is not necessarily bad and can
sometimes be experienced as enriching since new relations can be
formed and conflicts resolved in constructive ways. This is actually
one of the best ways for pre-service teachers to learn how to, first of
all, efficiently and maturely resolve conflicts that they may be involved
in, which will, in turn, teach them how to teach their students the same.
Thus, it can be said that intercultural learning is not only a body of

knowledge and skills but also a change in the state of one’s mind. There
are essential socio-cultural skills and competences that can be learnt and
developed. They are the key to a process of learning how to deal with
difference and unexpected and unfamiliar situations, as well as how to

adapt to, evaluate, and communicate effectively in intercultural situations.
Conclusion
Intercultural communicative competence, one of the basic skills that 21st
century teachers should possess, prepares them for a modern teaching
process where they are expected not just to teach language to their
students, but also to develop intercultural understanding, conflict
resolution and empathy. This paper suggests some strategies that could be
easily embedded into the curriculum with the aim of systematically
improving pre-service teachers’ intercultural competence and, thus, make
them more successful intercultural communicators and better teachers,
especially having in mind that they will most likely work in schools in
Vojvodina, a multicultural setting where such intercultural skills are
always more than welcome.
Acknowledgement
The paper is the result of research conducted within project no. 178002
Languages and Cultures across Space and Time funded by the Ministry of
Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of
Serbia.
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Matters. 136-158.
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Assessment: Perspectives from the INCA Project. In Helga Kotthoff &
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INFORMAL INTERCULTURAL
AND INTERLINGUISTIC EDUCATIONAL
MATERIALS:
A CASE STUDY (ROMANIAN BANAT)
ELIANA-ALINA POPEŢI
Introduction
In a time when society continues to evolve and allows essential changes
that also impose the development of education and its growing to the
standards established by society, mentality, globalization, technology, etc.,
Interlinguistic Education proves to be a significantly important subject
when integrated into an area influenced by a historic tradition. The
objectives of the present article focus on some informal teaching materials
within the frame of a potential interlinguistic course that should review,
continue and intensify a diminishing identity due to present changes. We
propose, for this educational process, resources with didactic potential
taken from the everyday environment of Banat. As we have mentioned
above, the hypothesis of this article is “bilingual materials like brochures,
flyers, and ads (in Romanian and the language of a local minority)
together with intercultural events in which the minorities are involved
could support the role of didactic materials within an intercultural and
interlinguistic education course for teenagers in Banat.” The target
participants of this course are representatives of the most significant
minorities in the Banat area and of the Romanian majority for the purpose
of creating an intercultural interaction in which the minorities have the
opportunity to be informants and ambassadors of their own culture. In
order to summarise what we have presented so far, there are three defining
elements at the basis of this article:
- the memory of Banat as multi- and inter-cultural environment;

- multicultural education with its positive effects;
308 Informal Intercultural and Interlinguistic Educational Materials
- a series of materials taken from everyday life of the Banat

environment, especially from the city of Timişoara.
As for the terms “intercultural” and “multicultural,” we briefly present

some theoretical resources in order to establish the exact meaning of these
words. Thus, the term “intercultural” was said to have been selected both
due to the rich meaning of the prefix “inter” and to the (anthropologic)
meaning of the word “culture.” Therefore, intercultural supposes
interaction, exchange, reciprocity, interdependency, solidarity, recognition
of values, of lifestyle, of symbolic representations that the human beings,
the individual or the groups retrospect to in their relations with their kind
and in understanding the world (Dasen, Perregaux & Rey 1999: 152). As
for the term “multicultural,” it is part of the static description of some
situations:
“Societies are, in fact, pluri- or multi-cultural. They reunite individuals or

groups from several or very many different cultures. In a ‘multicultural’
approach, interactions are not excluded, but they are not highlighted
explicitly either, so they are not implicit to the concept (multiculturalism
can consider sufficient the juxtaposition of cultures and reach apartheid)
unlike what happens with “interculturality” and the perspective the term
defines.” (idem: 153)
The two terms are apparently at almost opposed poles, interculturality

being the one that tends to gather more positive attributes.
Informal Materials of Intercultural and Interlinguistic

Education
The title of the article brings forth concepts that impose the clarification of
some directions. Therefore, we briefly present the Banat region as a
multicultural area, where plurilingualism used to be a guarantee of the
Banat intellectual role. This characterization would allow this area to host
an interlinguistic education course for teenagers, through which the
recovery of an interethnic identity and its continuity within the minorities’
specific to the place could take place. In order not to present exclusively
historical details, we make a description situated at the border between
history and culture for the area under discussion. In an incursion in
Timişoara’s environment as a place of inter- and multi-culturalism,
Adriana Babeți (2008: 20) enumerates the ethnic groups that, along times,
have built an essential diversity for the Banat environment:
Eliana-Alina Popeţi 309
- Romanians,
- Serbians,
- Germans,
- Hungarians,
- Jews,
- Gipsies,
- Slovaks,
- Croatians,
- Bulgarians,
- Italians,
- Polish,
- Turks,
- Tartars,
- Czechs,
- Armenians,
- French,
- Russians,
- Arabs.
Following the intensive interethnic interaction, Valeriu Leu captures the

essential of the Banat image:
“Banat, if we were to find a mythical symbol for it, would be ‘the Country
among rivers’, a European Mesopotamia, due to long periods of history,
but especially the modern one from the 18th century when a re-
dimensioning of the continent took place, a shift towards the East. All we
do is to add one more name to the collection that ‘idealizes’ confirming a
noteworthy history. The “place” is bordered by shores on three sides: north
– the Mureș, west – the Tisa, south – the Danube, and east – the mountains
that divide Transylvania and Oltenia. It stretches over 28.526 km, an area
that could be compared to Belgium. [...] Two thirds belong to Romania,
the western third to Serbia and a small area around Szeged to Hungary.”
(Leu 2010: 69)
At the level of historical effects, we could enumerate economical and

cultural prosperity. The focus of the present article is, though, the cultural
side of this area, especially plurilingualism, an element that stands at the
basis of this article. Following a century-old interethnic interaction, the
Banat region has enjoyed, among others, the interlinguistic communication
phenomenon:
“By-, tri-, or even cvadri-lingualism of intellectual élites, but also of the

majority of Timisoara’s inhabitants until years after World War II (when
the ethnic configuration of the region changed significantly with the

departure of Germans and Jews and the new colonisations with Romanians
and Hungarians from other regions of the country) functioned as a decisive
factor of communication and closeness. The possibility of ethnic
communities from Timisoara to establish contact with the written
memorial heritages of each of them, a direct and translated contact, was an
exceptional opportunity. It was maintained by the intensive activity of
those writers and journalists who manifested themselves in two-three
languages or translated from one literature to another.” (Babeți 2008: 26)
The quotation above shows several aspects of Banat specificity regarding

plurilingualism, but what proves to be defining is the information
according to which this phenomenon has not been limited to the level of
the intelligentsia, but has extended to the majority of the population in
Banat. The question we ask now is How can this phenomenon be
preserved, extended and promoted through education? This question helps
us pass from the history of Banat as an area of multiculturalism and
understand what inter- and multi-cultural education means. For Dasen,
Perregaux & Rey (1999: 152), the term “intercultural” means
“[...] the recognition of the diversity of representations, references and

values, dialogue, exchange and interactions among these different
representations and references; especially of the dialogue and exchange
among persons and groups whose references are diverse, multiple, and
often divergent.”
The issue of languages and their learning represents a phenomenon

approached by the same authors from the following perspective:
“From the point of view of language learning, studies have shown that a
plurilinguistic approach is beneficial for global development as well as for
communication.” (Dasen, Perregaux & Rey 1999: 173)
These models of plurilinguistic approaches focus on globalization and

communication, and researchers have observed that, through the
knowledge of several languages, the Banat connects to a “good European”
behaviour:
“Another aspect invoked by the Banat inhabitant in order to differentiate

himself from the others is the ability to speak several languages. It is about
the language of the surrounding ethnic that is German, Serbian, and
Hungarian. This type of positive valorisation regards both the opening
towards communication with the other, and the politeness towards the
other. It is obviously a form of interculturality which gains a significant
symbolic dimension, another one through which the image of the good
Banat inhabitant connects with the one of the ‘good European’.” (Vultur
2006)
We need to mention that, in Banat, Romanian is spoken by all ethnic

groups, and the existence of bilingualism is exclusively the sign of former
multi- and inter-culturality. Here are some of the objectives of an
intercultural and plurilinguistic education course for teenagers:
- Recognition of the area identity by the young people;

- Interaction between the minorities in Banat;
- Discussion of materials taken from real contexts of the Banat area;
- Acknowledgement of notions from other languages at beginner level;
- Participation to cultural events of minorities in Banat;
- Familiarisation with the language, traditions and culture of the
minorities.
The existence of bilingual materials in the Banat everyday life is due to the
wide range of ethnicities specific to this area. The fact that certain flyers,
posters or adds developed by the minorities are bilingual shows, on the
one hand, their respect for the official language and, on the other hand, the
desire of an ethnic group to preserve its mother tongue. In order to support
our approach, we have selected three of the most prominent ethnic groups
of the Banat region: Germans, Hungarians and Serbs. The foundation of
our option was a series of studies that confirm the fact that speaking these
languages was once the guarantee of a high level of culture, especially
regarding the role of the Banat intelligentsia. We appeal to a fragment
from an interview regarding the situation of the Banat plurilingualism:
“At home, we speak Romanian, German and Hungarian. I speak Romanian

as any other inhabitant of Banat. I don’t make spelling mistakes, not even
if I have to speak in the Banat dialect.” (Boleraz 2000: 116)
As the quotation above shows that interethnic tolerance was not the means
to turn the Banat region into a plurilingual area, the interlinguistic
education course we are talking about should not focus on foreign
language learning, but on attention drawing. Such a course should not
focus on one language of one ethnic group, but operate from the
perspective of the parallel assimilation of knowledge from two or three
languages. The first image illustrating our approach presents a bilingual
add in Romanian and German (Figure 3-2).
Figure 3-2. Bilingual add in Romanian and German
Figure 3-3 represents a poster from the State Hungarian Theatre of

Timişoara: a person not familiar with Hungarian can easily remark that
“vígjáték” means ‘comedy’ and “rendezö” means ‘direction,’ and so on.
As one can notice, we have not paid attention to the title of the play, but to
easier terms. We, therefore, focus not on objectives like learning
minorities’ languages at a high level, but, through the existing materials,
on elementary vocabulary (especially culture and civilization notions).
From now on, things can branch out towards alphabet, reading, after which
grammar notions can be gradually introduced. In this context, minority
course participants can be of help: for them, the promotion of their culture
and mother tongue is also a form of recognition of their culture, and they
are motivated to assert their cultural identity. The participants belonging to
the minority groups are offered the chance to collaborate with the
coordinating teacher and to enter factor roles meant to complete the
informality dosage this learning process is endowed with.
Figure 3-3. Bilingual add in Romanian and Hungarian
As for Figures 3-4, 3-5 and 3-6, the posters they present provide few
words in Serbian. Nevertheless, the Serbian minority provides a wide
series of events (from parties to cultural events) in which the participants
can be involved since the learning we are talking about is informal. The
poster presented in Figure 3-5 comes with little information, but if we add
up the three Serbian-Romanian materials, we see a consistent vocabulary
to be taught around and grammar, culture and civilization notions as well:
“As a gift to friends” and “Serbian New Year’s Celebration,” the verbs
“make friends,” “give,” “celebrate” in Serbian and their conjugation, the
noun and phrase “poet” and “New Year’s Celebration,” greetings,
traditions and customs specific to winter celebrations of the Serbian
minority in Banat. We should also add the fact that they celebrate
Christmas’ Eve and New Year’s Eve two weeks later than common
Orthodox and Catholic people. As Figure 3-6 shows, the cultural event
brings forth the Cyrillic alphabet, which gives Serbian a distinctive status.
Based on the add presented, the interlinguistic course can be extended to
teaching the Cyrillic alphabet as well as to comparing it with the Latin one
within learning methods and procedures. Moreover, Timişoara’s cultural
environment provides cultural events in which Romanian majority and one
or several minorities’ cultures are involved.
Figure 3-4. Bilingual add in Romanian and Serbian

In Figure 3-7, there is no bilingualism, but we have two literary

personalities representative for Romanian and Hungarian cultures:
Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu and Hungarian poet Petöfi Sándor – a
good opportunity to draw the students’ attention on the differences in
name structure (in Romanian, we state first name and last name, in
Hungarian they state last name and first name). Commemorating them
together establishes an intercultural interaction between the Hungarian and
the Romanian ethnics; involving the course participants in such events
allows an information exchange about the two poets through which an
informal learning process happens as long as it is well managed.
Figure 3-7. Poster presenting the most representative Romanian and Hungarian
poets
Certainly, we can propose and analyse more materials from this category,
but we consider that an elementary line was drawn for the existence of an
intercultural and interlinguistic education course. The observation that
would complete those proposed for an informal education category refers
to the fact that assimilating notions from the “other’s” language does not
necessarily focus on knowing the standard variant of the language but of
the variant spoken by the minority population in Banat. Regarding the
materials we have proposed as informal didactic support, they are limited
to the three languages that researches have revealed to be most popular
among the population of Banat. What is relevant in the case of the
materials that highlight the Serbian minority’s events is the fact that
Romanian is primary, and bilingualism does not occur completely.
Bilingualism does not limit itself to the desire of a minority to preserve its
identity, but, crossing this barrier, it highlights the attachment regarding
the state language and points to the main characteristic of the region that is
the interaction between ethnic groups. As for the potential informal
learning materials, we have proposed the limitation to a series of
informative sources to be found in the Banat reality, but this category
could include more consistent sources from literature, press, etc. Because
we have referred to a course whose target students are teenagers, the issue
to take into consideration is learning international languages and the fact
that languages are generally assimilated in school. The existence of an
intercultural and interlinguistic education course comes to complete the
curriculum, its status being optional.
Conclusions
Bilingualism and even plurilingualism prove to be elements existent
outside the everyday environment of the Banat area, and if they are not
preserved and promoted, despite the European spirit, they will disappear
together with the last speakers of Hungarian and Serbian especially on the
Romanian Banat territory. German, due to its status of international
language, is probably the one that will be permanently searched for. If
materials like the ones in the images presented in this article continue to
exist, they represent a credible source of learning within an intercultural
and interlinguistic education course for teenagers. The existence of this
course would not have as a motivation only the learning of foreign
languages, but it would also stimulate a multi- and inter-cultural continuity
specific to Banat. At the same time, through these informal didactic
materials, we draw the attention upon some events organized within a
local minority. They represent an information source as well as a learning
source that is not noticed by all teenagers if it is present exclusively in the
everyday environment. Using these materials for didactic purposes saves
certain events from being ignored by uneducated teenagers and their
collection along a longer period may result in school manuals, or in an
intercultural and interlinguistic education website. At the same time, using
this type of less formal materials sets in motion the cooperation between
Romanian and local minorities course participants. We consider that
informal learning taken from the local reality brings more credibility and
motivation to the course participants, and Banat as an area of multi- and
inter-culturalism would ensure the preservation of this identity tradition
that it has been building along history.
Acknowledgement
This work was partially supported by the strategic grant
POSDRU/CPP107/DMI1.5/S/78421, Project ID 78421 (2010), co-
financed by the European Social Fund – Investing in People, within the
Sectoral Operational Programmeme Human Resources Development 2007

– 2013.
References
Babeți, Adriana (2008). Literatura – o interfață a culturii urbane a
memoriei. Studiu de caz: Timișoara [Literature – An Interface of
Urban Culture of Memory. A Case Study: Timișoara]. In Smaranda
Vultur (Ed.), Banatul din memorie. Timișoara: Marineasa. 15-53.
Boleraz, Şt. (2000). ...Totul se poate reda...dar nu au putut să-mi redea
tinerețea. Se poate ierta, dar nu se poate uita. Interviu realizat de
Roxana Pătrașcu [Everything can be returned…but they couldn’t return
my youth. It can be forgiven, but not forgotten. Interview by Roxana
Pătrașcu]. In Smaranda Vultur (Ed.), Germanii din Banat. Bucureşti:
Paideia. 113-129.
Dasen, P., Perregaux, Christiane & Rey, Micheline. (1999). Educație
interculturală, experiențe, politici și strategii [Intercultural education,
experiences, policies and strategies]. Iași: Polirom.
Leu, V. (2010). Istoria ca suport al regionalizării – “Banatul imperial”
[History as a Support of Regionalization: “The Imperial Banat”]. In
Studii și cercetări. Actele Simpozionului “Banatul – trecut istoric și
cultural.” Zrenianin – Novi Sad: ICRV – Fundației Publishing House.
68-79.
Vultur, Smaranda. (2006). The Image of a Good European. In F. Ruegg,
R. Poledna & C. Rus (Eds.), Interculturality and Discrimination in
Romania Policies, Practices, Identities and Representations. Berlin:
Lit Verlag. 309-313.
Vultur, Smaranda. (Ed.). (2000). Germanii din Banat [Germans from
Banat]. Bucureşti: Paideia.
BEING A MINORITY OR A MAJORITY
IN TRANSYLVANIA (ROMANIA)
IOANA ROMAN
A Bit of History
Transylvania is one of the three historical provinces of Romania, along
with Wallachia and Moldavia; it is known for its picturesque landscapes,
eventful history, and hospitable people witnessing composure and
judgment when time for decision-making comes. This area is associated,
in western culture, with vampires – a myth deeply rooted historically in
the area, as well.
In time, it was part of the Roman Empire, of the Hungarian Kingdom,
and of the Austrian Empire, respectively. Between 1526 and 1699, it was
an independent state known as the Principality of Transylvania.
Transylvania indeed got under Habsburg imperial administration, but
managed to retain its statehood until 1867, ruled by governors appointed
by Vienna. Between 1868 and 1918, Transylvania was incorporated in the
Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Makkai & Mócsy 2002).
After the Union with Romania, on December 1, 1918, Transylvania
remained autonomous within the Romanian State for one year and a half,
governed by a Directing Council.
The first formal census in Transylvania – carried out by the Austro-
Hungarian authorities in 1869 – discriminated among nationalities based
on their mother tongue. For the previous period, there are only estimations
regarding the share of various ethnic groups inhabiting Transylvania at
that time. Thus, Elek Fényes, 19th century Hungarian statistician,
estimated, in 1842 that Transylvania’s population in the 1830s-1840s was
62% Romanian and 23.3% Hungarian, respectively (Varga 1998).
The Romani are not mentioned as they were slaves, speakers of
Romanian or Hungarian and – probably – stating their affiliation to one of
these nationalities. The 1850-census in Transylvania pointed out a share of
2.2% Romani people of the total population. The 19th century brought
about an alteration of the attitude towards slavery within the entire Europe;
320 Minority and Majority in Transylvania
thus, owing to the impact of the liberal ideas brought about by the 1848
Revolution, all people were declared free and equal. The Romani’ bondage
was, forever, abolished in 1856.
The status of minorities under the Communist rule (before December
1898) had many flaws – on the one hand, because of the overall
standardization of the society and – on the other hand, because of their
marginalization. Minorities were considered a burden for Romania’s
foreign policy. On January 5, 1990, the first measures were taken to find
solutions to the problems of national minorities and the restrictions
imposed by the Ceauşescu rule. The status of Romania’s minorities has
significantly improved after December 1989; still, there are many
problems of a social nature to be solved both through socio-political
policies of the state, as well as via legislative initiatives of the
nongovernmental organizations, let alone the legislative and executive
effort of political representatives (Francine 2009).
Analysis of censuses performed between 1966 and 2011 shows that
Transylvanian population knew many fluctuations in so far as the
percentage of Romani is concerned; this percentage knew a ceaseless
growth and, at present, it represents 3.2% compared to 0.3% in 1966. Of a
total of 535,140 Romani, 60% live in the countryside (325,000). Some
people think that this figure does not represent the reality, but many of the
Romani people deny their ethnicity; others still do not have birth
certificates or identity cards and, therefore, cannot be censused. As for the
Hungarians, their percentage is shrinking from 24.2% in 1968 to 18.9% in
2012 (http://www.gandul.info/cauta.html?q=recensamant preliminary).
In 2000, they established, in Cluj-Napoca, the Romanian Institute for
Research on National Minorities. It was legally constituted as a public
entity under the authority of the Romanian Government and coordinated
by the Department for Interethnic Relations. The Institute has the
following objectives: to conduct inter- and multi-disciplinary studies and
research with regard to the preservation, development and expression of
ethnic identity, as well as about social, historical, cultural, linguistic,
religious or other aspects of national minorities and other ethnic
communities living in Romania (http://www.ispmn.gov.ro).
Status of Hungarian and Romani Minorities

in Transylvania
The differences between the minority and the majority populations come
out in terms of descent, mother tongue, culture, traditions and habits; thus,
within the same society, there are several categories of population. For
Ioana Roman 321
instance, in the United States of America, minorities are established

depending on race, and in Finland, on mother tongue. In Romania, the
term “ethnicity” or “nationality” formally represents cultural and linguistic
differences.
Regardless of race, mother tongue, culture, tradition, or any other
criterion of differentiation on a social level, all citizens should have equal
rights and free and unconditioned access to education. Education in the
contemporary society represents an investment in the human capital, and
this is why it should not be neglected; instead, the stress should be on the
right and equal chance to education of every child, no matter his/her
ethnicity. In the population of Hungarian ethnicity, one can notice a
shrinking in the numbers of children and, implicitly, in that of class
teaching in Hungarian. The Romani are confronted with the barriers of
language (Romani) and culture; however, in spite of these difficulties,
education remains one of the means of modernization and development of
this ethnicity. Education, together with mass-media and family, is the main
source that forms and develops the value system of individuals.
According to Article 6 regarding the Right to Identity in the
Constitution of Romania (http://www.cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?id=371),
“The State acknowledges and guarantees the persons pertaining to national

minorities the right to keep, to develop and to express their ethnic, cultural,
linguistic and religious identity.”
Thus, one can assert that the main problem is the lack of education in the
mother tongue for the Hungarians who are either deprived of the
possibility of studying in their mother tongue (there are not enough
kindergartens, grammar/and high school classes and universities teaching
in Hungarian), or think that later they will be marginalized by the society
as they do not master properly the Romanian language (the State’s formal
language). As for the Roma ethnicity, they are unable to trespass their
traditions, myths, or cultural barrier as all these feed a tribal-nomadic
culture, another barrier on the way of their finding jobs because of the lack
of education.
Besides all this, one can mention some kind of hostility from the part
of the Romanian population, the majority in Transylvania. This is one of
the reasons why many Hungarians leave Romania for Hungary – or other
countries – and the Romani migrate towards the more developed countries
of Europe (Spain, Italy, France, England and Ireland). If the Hungarians
have adjusted to other countries, one cannot say the same thing about the
Romani, raising hell with their improper behaviour (begging, thefts and
the like, let alone the improvised suburb camps on the edge of large
European cities).
At the same time, Article 6 of the Constitution of Romania (2012) also
refers to the fact that
“The means of protection taken by the State to keep, develop and express
the identity of persons pertaining to the national minorities should be in
conformity with the principles of equality and non-discrimination as to
other Romanian citizens.”
The aspects highlighted by the Constitution (the keeping of identity and of

ancestral traditions) contradict what the Romanian society demands from
the Romani people, namely education, civilized manners, culture, etc.
Society is trying hard to integrate them (to inoculate them our own
values), sometimes against their will, in other words. However, we find
that we are banging a thick wall as they do not give up their tribal
traditions. We are raising the issue whether it is convenient, or a colossal
mistake to force the Romanis’ integration that, for centuries, have been
following but their own rules. Is it not possible that the whole thing is
doomed to fail? Do they want integration or do they feel better in their
community, living by their conventions? For us, Transylvanians, living in
our contemporary society, it is essential to have access to information, to
communicate with the virtual space, to be professionally acknowledged, to
have our own house to live in. Well, to the Romani, fire is one vital thing;
however, it is paradoxical that some of them live in blocks of flats (allotted
from the fund of the City Council’s residence fund). However, after one
week of residing, the flooring is removed as they think more natural to
light a fire right in the middle of the compound, in spite of the fact that
there is central heating. At the same time, they are not interested in a
professional career as the work place serves only to satisfy the primary
food necessity and, when such a thing is not possible, stealing is the most
adequate means to care for the simple bare necessities. They prefer that
two families – each made up of three generations – live under the same
roof. Luxury, or space, means not a thing to them. In spite of all, however,
those who manage to earn larger sums of money via various means,
display the tendency to swank, i.e. to demonstrate (not only to their
fellows alike, but to others too) that they can also have genuine palaces.
As a matter of fact, Romani houses in the area of Huedin (Cluj County)
are ubiquitously known. Romani search to impress by gold jewels, gold-
coin necklaces exhibited by women with utter nonchalance. However, all
this, to the rest of fellow dwellers, means nothing else but poor taste and
subculture. It seems that the rest of folks judge them rather harshly and do
Ioana Roman 323
not prove too much desire to follow – one way or other – the Romani
ethnic minority.
The Hungarian minority of Transylvania is known as a significant
cultural and civilization factor. One can admit that, were it not for the
tense situations created by various governments and political treaties in
history, none of us would speak about the necessity of the Hungarians to
ask for their rights. With the humble average person, there is cooperation
and understanding; there are numerous mixed families with whom the
problem of mother tongue does not exist, and the religious problem does
not matter; all that matters is cultural and intellectual compatibility. As a
matter of fact, politicians are those who, out of craving for votes and
electoral sympathies, build up situations of conflict – both among
Hungarians and Romanians.
Aims and Hypotheses of Study: Sampling

The goal of the present research is to present as objectively as possible
educational issues minorities of Transylvania are confronted with. We
monitored the effects of the lack of education in the mother tongue upon
Hungarian and Romani children. Such studies are necessary as previous
researches focused upon the problems of Romani ethnicities in general and
not on interethnic cohabitation, no matter the nature of the ethnicity. From
a social point of view, the problem of the Roma ethnicity is widely
analysed, intensely debated politically, and much exposed in the mass-
media. At the other end of the line, however, are the problems of the
Hungarians that, seemingly, have been forgotten. Many of them, at
present, although receiving the necessary support for social evolution at
European-society standards, refuse to study in their mother tongue because
of the impossibility of a professional insertion. The debate focuses on the
problem of multiculturalism and stresses the idea that each of us has,
legally, the same rights regardless of ethnicity, religion or social category.
The present study was carried out between 2011 and 2012, in four
locations in the countryside, in the counties of Cluj and Mureş. We
selected these locations due to the differences in the share of ethnicities
analysed. Thus, in the Cluj County, the Romanians represent the majority
population, i.e. 79.4% (557,891 individuals) while the Hungarians and the
Romani represent only 17.4% (122,301 individuals) and 2.8% (19,834
individuals), respectively. In the Mureş County, the Romanian population
accounts for 53.26% (309,375 individuals), almost equalling the
Hungarian ethnicity, i.e. 40.30% (228,275 individuals) while the Romani
represent 6.96% (40,425 individuals) (http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/
statistici/Statistica%20teritoriala%202008/rom/8.htm). The share of the

Romani population is larger in the rural area than in the urban one.
We wanted to make a comparative study of what it means to be a
minority close in number to the majority, and whether such an aspect can
contribute to a better demographic, cultural or educational evolution. We
questioned 306 high school students aged 10-15; 132 of them belonged to
the Hungarian ethnicity and 174 to the Romani one. Similarly, 64 teaching
staff members teaching Hungarian classes or classes including Romani
children co-operated in the present research. We have summoned a larger
number of Romani children as with them school withdrawal raises serious
problems, let alone law infringement. Similarly, we also talked to 31
Hungarian parents and 43 Romani ones, as well as with councillors in
charge with the problems of the Roma ethnicity in each school.
Instruments: Limits to the Study

To make an as serious analysis as possible, besides the discussions in the
classroom with the students included in the present study, a questionnaire
including multiple-choice items (four possible answers each) and a
number of 20 items were drawn up. The most relevant answers are dealt
with below.
With the members of the teaching staff, the type of questionnaire
preferred was a measurement scale of 20 items receiving gradual points
from 1 to 5, together with a short interview bearing the generic title of
“Rights of Minorities and Their Social Integration” with a participating
number of only 38 teaching-staff members of the 64 implied in the present
study.
We wanted to make it clear that there was not any significant
difference between the answers received in the two years and that is why
the analysis was carried out in tandem. We did not tackle the problem of
revealing the psychological impact brought about by interethnic
discrimination, and did not make any opinion regarding the outlining of
the profile of marginalized children either.
Data obtained from questionnaires and interviews were processed by
identifying several fundamental aspects regarding the issues of the two
minority ethnicities in Transylvania: the Hungarians and the Romani.
Ioana Roman 325
Analysis of Questionnaire Answers and Comprehensive

Interview
The problem of education in the children of the Hungarian and Romani
ethnicities is, in Transylvania, one of the challenges confronted with by
the political, socio-economic, cultural-civic and educational media. As
long as 22 years ago, alongside the democratization of the Romanian
society, the minorities have gained several rights allowing for their
manifestation at cultural, educational and political levels. Numerous
efforts are being made (projects, programmes) in an attempt to integrate
and promote the interests of the Romani people at all levels, but the results
are rather poor. Thus, the Ministry of Education and Research (MER)
includes the General Directorate for Education in Minority Languages,
author of many programmes destined to exclude illiteracy, or school
recovery, among Romani people. At the same time, the study of the Roma
language and history was included in the curriculum. One such project
initiated by the MER is the one entitled “Everybody to kindergarten, all to
1st class,” part, along with other projects, of other projects and integrated
programmes meant to enhance access to education and raise the
educational level of the children in deprived communities, mostly of
Romani descent. Such programmes generally aim at directly contributing
to the prevention of early school abandonment, mainly within the deprived
categories such as Romani communities, the needy ones and the villagers.
Based on the answers to the questionnaires and on discussions with
both adults and children pertaining to the Hungarian and Romani
ethnicities, we carried out an analysis of their situation, which allowed us
draw some conclusions meant to lead to improvement. The main stress
was laid upon the Roma children discrimination. Discrimination against
the Romani in Transylvania is ranking them lower on the social ladder,
conducive to marginalization and isolation. Thus, there is a severe
limitation of the Romani people’s access of to education and to the
economic and political resources of the society.
By virtue of sociological theories, discrimination against ethnic groups
bears the stigma that will compromise them socially. The coming out of
the stigma will drag after it mental classification of a person or group by
the rest; hence, unwanted stereotypes and more blame.
At the same time, in Transylvania, one can notice a sort of tension
between the majority Romanian population and the Hungarian minority.
Such a state of latent hostility is artificially fed, mostly by the politicians
and their ideas regarding territorial autonomy.
Students’ Answers
One of the main problems underlined by the Romani children was that of
the nickname “crow” or “tzigane”; they, however, would prefer to be
called Romani. Locally, this new name is not accepted by the majority
population, possibly because of the confusions that are likely to appear
(even on an international level) between Roma and Romanian. In spite of
the fact that, for centuries, they were named tzigany (‘Gypsies’), at
present, to the new generation it seems derogatory. Similarly, Hungarian
students feel hurt at the appellative “Hungarian bozgor” (without
equivalent in English; however, by comparison, it would correspond to
kike, for Jews) used by mischievous Romanian children, when quarrelling
during the breaks in the schoolyard. Such appellatives should be avoided,
and teachers should take steps against them whenever encountered.
Answers to the question “What do you prefer to do in mornings?”
Hungarian students answered that they wanted to go to school and study.
Most of the Romani students (50.5%) chose to answer they wished to go
to school, but many said they would rather prefer to stay home and give a
hand to their parents (36.2%) or to spend time playing (13.2%). (Figure 3-
8) There are, here, remarkable differences in the Hungarian minority; their
children have been seeded – right in the family – the desire towards
perfection, i.e. towards an education. Notwithstanding, they are aware that
only following such a way will they be capable of social integration; in
this ethnicity, there is a propensity for culture. However, one cannot say
the same thing about the Romani children, who think school is something
totally useless; one the other hand, they think it would be nice, however, to
go to school only for the sake of increasing the chances of having a better
job.
The answers of both ethnicities regarding the wish to study in their
mother tongue (88%) and not in Romanian (12%) were identical. Unlike
the Hungarians, who have the opportunity to study in Hungarian, as there
are teachers and schools for instruction in their mother tongue, the Romani
students do not have such an opportunity. Doubtlessly, children find it
easier to use the spoken language in the family than that of the Romanian
language, regarded as a foreign language. Such yearning of the children is
not backed by their parents – with Hungarians, that is – who discern future
limitations of their children’s possibilities, when they do not study in the
formal language (Romanian). Society is the one that actually imposes – so
to speak – mutually, these unwritten rules, the unwanted limitations. With
foreseeable time, mentalities can be altered, and people can get aware of
Ioana Ro
oman 327
the right too study in their

t mother tongue and, implicitly, to social
integration, no matter the ethnicity.
Romani students Hungarian sstudents
132
88
63
23
Goingg to school Playing Staying at ho
ome
Figure 3-8. N
Need for educatiion in Romani and
a Hungarian students (numb
bers)
As Romani students havee a school abandonment raate 60% higheer than in

the other stuudents, we waanted to find out the reasonss why they skiip classes
or abandon school so offten. The answer was thatt they abando on school
because of the lack of moneym (lack of financial rresources); th his means
parents cannnot purchasee school sup pplies, clothess, footwear, or food.
Another reaason is poor health, but so ome also skipp classes witthout any
reason (Figuure 3-9). Thiis also meanss that the chiildren are no ot enough
motivated annd are not awaare of the rolee of educationn in their evoluution.
As for thhe time allotteed by the schoool children foor the daily prreparation
for school ((doing homew work, additional reading, solving probllems and
exercises), HHungarian stuudents spend a lot of time ddoing it – an average of
three hours daily. Romanni students speend much less than that – an n average
of one hour daily. They claim
c they haave other housse chores to dod and do
not have tim me for homew work. Unfortu unately, somee Romani chiildren are
sent by theiir parents to practice begg gary or to loook after theirr younger
brothers. Geenerally, they do their homeework during support classses, under
the surveillaance of teachhers who hellp the childreen overcome learning
difficulties. Such activities are carried d out at schoool, in accordaance with
the school pprogramme.
328 Minorrity and Majoritty in Transylvan
ania
Romani students Hungarian sstudents
130
97
48 2
29
Heaalth state Poverty No answer
Figure 3-9. C
Causes of schoool absenteeism in Romani andd Hungarian sttudents (in
numbers)
As for thee friendship relationshipss among chiildren, it waas rather

interesting tto notice thatt students ageed 10-12 connfessed they had h more
than four friiends in their class, whereaas most studennts aged 13+ had only
2-3 friends in their class. Romani stud dents declaredd that their frriends are
mostly of tthe same ethnnicity, which h is not the ccase with Hu ungarians
students.
In their aanswers to thee question abo
out the professsion they wou uld like to
practice in the future, most of the Hungariann children po ointed to
professions implying higgher education n (doctor, civvil engineer, professor,
p
etc.). Some stated that theey would conttinue their stuudies abroad in n order to
be more com mpetent and competitive
c on
n the labour mmarket, in onee word, to
become acccomplished professionally. These are obvioussly high
aspirations, both educattionally and socially. Thhe Romani children’s c
aspirations are utterly reduced
r as girls
g opted ffor becoming g singers,
hairdressers, shop assistannts or even hoomemakers whhereas boys would
w like
to become ccar drivers andd mechanics, night
n watchmeen, linesmen. The wish
for progress of the young generation off Romani is obbvious in theirr answers
as they alreaady know the consequencess of the lack o f education an nd jobs.
Ioana Roman 329
Opinions of the Councillor in Charge of the Romani People’ Problems

and the Romani Parents
In Transylvanian schools attended by Romani children, the State has

created a position of Councillor for Romani with education issues. After
discussing with such councillors, we could see that, although the Romani
would like to get involved in the social-economic and cultural life of the
country, there are countless obstacles in the way of fulfilling this
desideratum. These obstacles are pointed out by the Party of Pro-Europe
Romani people, one of the representative political establishments of the
Romani in the area:
- Less than half of the interviewee declared their ethnic affiliation during
the most recent national census, preferring to declare they were
Romanians;
- 54% of the Romani interviewed speak their native language in the
family;
- Only one of three Romani people have graduated from grammar
school; barely 6% (1 of 18) have graduated from high school, and 1%
have gone to college;
- One of five Romani people will not send their children to school
because they do not have decent clothes;
- Parents send their children to school, and special institutions (it is often
the case with mentally-challenged children), as they consider that the
“curriculum is easier, and the child might pass;”
- For 78% of the interviewed Romani, observing the “human rights”
means “finding a job;” for others, this means “no more hunger;”
- More than half of the interviewed Romani consider that the traditional
occupations such as healing, fortune telling, trading and playing and
singing may bring them incomes;
- The Romani consider that a person needs to be in excellent health, be
lucky, be diligent and assistance from the part of the State in order to
succeed in life (http://www.partidaromilor.ro/despre-noi/rapoarte/109-
romii-in-europa-centrala-si-de-est.html).
One can see from the data presented above that the Romani are ashamed
of admitting their ethnicity; they do not lay stress on education, and they
prefer to lean on handcraft that does not ask for studies, and that is not
needed by society. Thus, the chances of integration are scarce.
The Romani’s Councillor for Education is aware of the family life of
each student. Thus, after the dialogue, we could see that the rate of
330 Minorrity and Majoritty in Transylvan
ania
unemployment is rather high,

h well abo
ove 79% (outt of 43 parentts, 34 are
unemployedd). The discusssions with th he parents diid not show the same
thing – probably becausse they are em mbarrassed too admit it – that they
worked “by the day” (as unskilled
u worrkers), when ssummoned by y the local
community. At the same time, of the 34 3 parents thaat did not havee a stable
job, only thrree enjoyed unnemployment benefits. Of tthe nine paren
nts having
a job, seveen have graduuated from highh school aand two from m college
(Figure 3-10). In our oppinion, this is alarming, aas with adultts of this
ethnicity thee rate of uneemployment isi rather highh and, impliciitly, their
children havve precariouss life conditio
ons, low channces to educaation and
later professsional accomp
mplishment. Un nfortunately, these childreen do not
mirror an im
mage to be folllowed.
Roman
ni parents Hungarian pparents
344 16
11
3 7
1 1
Unemplooyed (no Employed Employed (higgh Employyed
educaation) (ap
pprentice school) (higheer
sschool) education)
Figure 3-10. E
Employment annd education off Roma and Hunngarian studentts’ parents
(in numbers)
Another prooblem analyseed with the school counccillors was th hat of the
dismembereed families (688, i.e. 39%, off the 174 Rom mani children taken
t into
study came from such fam milies). As thiis ethnic grouup has kept maany of its
nomadic orr even slavee traditions, the Romani marry their children
unusually early. The weedding party represents
r ann extremely siignificant
event in theiir life and, in most cases, alliance
a througgh marriage iss fulfilled
between Roomani familiess as early as the t first year after the birth h of their
children. Trradition is an essential partt of the life off the Romani. What is
truly shockking to the European cu ulture is exacctly this trad dition of
Ioana Roman 331
“marriage between minors,” mainly in the gabor ‘Hungarian gypsy’

Romani. The average age of a girl to be married is 16, and that of a boy is
17. These are extremely young ages indeed as compared to other
populations in Europe. In spite of all this, they observe their traditions and
customs and incline to trespass the laws of the country they live in, laws
forbidding marriage between minors. It is exactly this observance of
tradition that is the reason of many conflicts between the Romani and the
authorities or institutions protecting the child. Although marriage between
minors is illegal and most people cannot accept it, we should also take into
account some purely biological aspects of Romani traditions. These
biological aspects concern both the average lifespan that is 10-15 years
shorter than that of other European populations, and the higher infant
mortality rate. Although we are not fans of marriage between minors, we
grant extenuating circumstances to this tradition as, probably, were the law
respected, this ethnicity would disappear within a couple of tens of years.
The presence of conservation instinct, sustained by traditions, helps the
Romani to survive, and even increase their birth rate. Try, please, to use
your imagination and draw conclusions for yourselves.
Let us think of the following: What would happen if the Romani
people graduated from higher education institutions and married around
28-30 years of age and had their first child at the age of 32-34, taking into
account the fact that their average life expectation is 54 for men and 58 for
women? We took into account the variable “studies” because the rate of
unemployment would diminish, but the rate of marriage and the number of
children would go up for sure, as well.
Maybe we can accept the way the Romani lead their lives only the
moment we discuss with them; we might also understand them or, at least,
accept them as they are. We think that it is our low degree of tolerance that
makes us marginalize them. We discriminate them because they do not
submit to our dogmas and because we do not take into account their
dogmas, traditions, and myths – in a word, their culture. We judge them
too harshly, we speak about integration without sincerely wanting it, we
cannot admit that one can live differently and follow other rules.
Discussing with Romani women, we have come to realize that most of
them are not happy with the family they have, having been married at such
an early age and have children when still extremely young. What they hate
is their life full of material needs and the impossibility of having a job. It is
rather difficult for them to understand and accept that, in order to have a
job, education is necessary. We consider that the funds obtained from
projects regarding the integration of this ethnicity would better be
allocated for the education of the minors: this is the only way we could
improve their life. The adult population already has a well rooted
existential pattern, impossible to alter.
Opinions of the Hungarian Parents
Hungarian parents claim that, for 22 years, they have been demanding
Hungarian names for the schools where their children study, but out of
political motivation, or of lack of reciprocal respect, Hungarian
comprehensive schools have never received Hungarian names. They
consider that equal rights should exist for each community, namely right to
equal treatment, school Hungarian names, street Hungarian names, boards
bearing bilingual inscriptions of these. They know exactly the laws that
protect the linguistic rights of the national minorities, but claim that, in
reality, these are neither known by the local higher school bodies nor
respected. Similarly, they only ask for objectivity regarding the rights of
the Hungarian ethnicity to education, rights that should not be neglected or
breached. They also support the idea of a too small number of high schools
for students who wish to study in the Hungarian language.
It is laudable that the parents of Hungarian children not only know
their rights as a minority, but also fight nationalism and intolerance. Any
minority group needs cohesion and support from the local authorities in
order to be able to keep the identity. Part of the parents have signalled that
not only in the Romanians, but also in the Hungarians there are elements
of chauvinism that should be annihilated. It is possible that such an
attitude from populations belonging to the minorities springs from the
desire of keeping the identity. There are Hungarian printed media in
favour of stopping mixed marriages, of refusal of education in Romanian,
of preventing the merger with the national majority. Such an attitude is to
be understood, though undesirable. In so far as the evolution in number of
persons of Hungarian ethnicity between 2002 and 2011 is concerned, the
percentage of Hungarians in the Mureş County has dropped by 12% detain
representing, nowadays, about 40% of the total population of this county.
In the Cluj County, the fall is even more severe, 15.4%, compared to 2002
(http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/statistici/Statistica%20teritoriala%202008/r
om/8.htm). It is obvious that the Hungarians of those counties of
Transylvania have recorded a significant demographic drop; hence, the
necessity of analysing the causes. Unfortunately, this report does not allow
a larger-in-proportion analysis; however, in the future, there probably will
be some awareness from the part of the local authorities, as to causes, and
steps to be taken towards improving the situation in discussion.
Ioana Roman 333
Opinions of Teachers Engaged in Teaching Mixed Classes
The teachers are happy with the evolution of the Hungarian students free
of the problems regarding school progress or school absenteeism. Most of
the students are exemplary students proving their diligence, perseverance
and reciprocated help. Both the students and their parents are involved in
activities initiated by the school and local community. Parents are
systematically interested in the behaviour, attitude and school results of
the children. It only takes more trust in one’s own capability and fight
embarrassment when it comes to speaking in Romanian because of the
small mistakes in agreement (normal if we take into account that they do
not think Romanian, but translate from Hungarian into Romanian). Even
some members of the teaching staff have noticed the necessity that the
educational process be performed in the mother tongue with all students,
no matter their ethnicity, as only in such a way the students display full
efficiency. It is also necessary to involve the school’s psychiatrist in
counselling the students and in fulfilling the cohesion at group level. The
teaching staff has noticed that, with mixed classes, students displayed
tolerance, mutual respect, good understanding and friendship. Discussions
have stressed the importance of respecting the fundamental rights of
minorities to equal chances with the majority population. There has also
been an approach of the subject of finding efficient solutions to the
integration of the students belonging to minorities in mixed schools, and
later, in society. Other opinions are linked to the idea of rights and duties,
and deference to law and rules of the society. The hypothesis of testing
children on entering their first grade of grammar school in order to know
the level of their intellect for maximum effect was uttered in 2011 and
materialized in 2012 when all children, regardless of ethnicity, are tested
on passing from kindergarten to school. Teachers have stressed the impact
of such testing, mainly with Romani children who, by skipping
kindergarten, do not possess the essential elements to be able to face
school life later. That is exactly why the numbers of Romani students that
have failed are so much higher and the rate of chances of getting from one
grade to another is well below 50%.
Some students of Roma ethnicity, as well as their parents, reject the
implication in extracurricular activities (outings, visits, tours, viewing
films and plays, school feasts, school clubs, etc.). In the higher grades,
problems are even more serious so that the Romani students encounter
problems regarding the law of theft, robbery, corporeal violence or foul
language. There come up conflicts and problems at class level as they do
not integrate easily, do not pay attention during classes, do not involve in
the teaching-learning activity, get poor schooling results and frequently

create problems.
Some members of the teaching staff claim that it would be desirable
that Romani parents have jobs in accordance with their abilities:
musicians, copper/smiths, spoon makers, guilders. Unfortunately, most of
these trades have almost vanished alongside in time so that these artisans
were left without a job or a monthly income to lead a decent life. We
believe we need to find the means to make them send their children
compulsorily to school, since only through education will they manage to
integrate socially.
We need to count on the local community support, on the support of
parties in power, and on the European Union that allocates funds for the
benefit of this disfavoured minority.
Conclusions
The analysis of the data provided by the present study has highlighted the
fact that, though it was about two minorities in the same area, their needs
differ a lot. The Hungarian ethnicity militates in favour of education, for
the best social insertion possible; it also contributes to the cultural and
economic development of Transylvania. We consider that the Romanians
in this area are “better off” due to the insertion of the Austro-Hungarian
culture. It is only normal that, after so many years of cohabitation, people
borrow from each other words, customs, food recipes, architectural
elements and many other things meant to round us off as one people. It is,
however, necessary to draw the attention upon something disquieting, i.e.
the demographic drop of this ethnicity and the necessity of finding
solutions to prevent and even stop this phenomenon. Mixed families
should be prompted to educate their children in the spirit of both cultures
and teach them the Hungarian language and the history of this ethnicity.
Where there still are sporadic situations in which children do not have the
possibility of studying in their mother tongue because of various reasons
(lack of properly-trained instructor or textbooks, etc.), such barriers should
be removed.
As far as the Roma ethnicity is concerned, it seems that integration will
be a long-term strenuous process, but it, notwithstanding, has to be
fulfilled in the interest of avoiding the feeling of marginalization.
Certainly, there are solutions meant to let minorities preserve the elements
belonging to their tradition, but also to make them observe the norms and
principles of the society. Blaming and stigmatizing the Romani ethnicity
should cease, for they are people with the same rights as us: the problem is
Ioana Roman 335
that they need more help to overcome their own limits. All the needs the
Romani ethnicity lives with – scarcity of food and clothing, difficulty of
finding a job (as they are mainly unskilled) – drive them towards law
infringement. Therefore, championing for their education and fulfilling
such a desideratum via European and regional projects and programmes,
with more effort from inside, will certainly contribute to a better insertion
of the Romani in the society.
References
Comunicat de presă 2 februarie 2012 privind rezultatele provizorii ale
Recensământului Populaţiei şi Locuinţelor – 2011 [Press Release
February 2, 2012, Concerning the Provisional Results of the
Population and Housing Census]. Online:
http://www.mures.insse.ro/phpfiles/comunicat_date_provizorii_rpl_20
11_judetul_mures.pdf.
Constitution of Romania. Online:
http://www.cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?id=371.
Francine, Jaomiasa Handy. (2009), Minorităţile în România
postdecembristă [Minorities in Post-Revolutionary Romania]. Sfera
Politicii 138.
Institutul Național de Statistică. (2011). Recensământul Populaţiei şi al
Locuinţelor 2011: Demers statistic de importanţă strategică pentru
România, 20-31 octombrie 2011 [Population and Housing Census
2011: Statistic Action of Strategic Importance for Romania, October
20-31, 2011]. (2011). Online: http://www.recensamantromania.ro/.
Makkai, L. & Mócsy, A. (2002). History of Transylvania. New York, NY:
Columbia University Press.
Populaţia după etnie, la Recensământul Populaţiei şi al Locuinţelor, 18
martie 2002 [Population by Ethnicity According to the Census of
Population and Housing, on March 18, 2012]. Online:
http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/statistici/Statistica%20teritoriala%20200
8/rom/8.htm.
Proclaims Union of all Rumanians. (1918). Online:
http://www.roconsulboston.com/Pages/InfoPages/History/Dec1NYTAr
ticle.html.
Recensământul populației, rezultate preliminare. Peste 99% dintre români
locuiesc în locuinţe proprii [Population Census, Preliminary Results.
Over 99% of the Romanians Live in Their Own Homes]. Online:
http://www.gandul.info/cauta.html?q=recensamant preliminary.
Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities. Online:
http://www.ispmn.gov.ro
Romii din România [Romani from Romania]. Online:
http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romii_din_Rom%C3%A2nia.
Romii în Europa Centrala şi de est [Rroma in Central and East Europe].
Online: http://www.partidaromilor.ro/despre-noi/rapoarte/109-romii-
in-europa-centrala-si-de-est.html.
Toți la grădiniță, toți în clasa I! [All to kindergarten all to school!].
Online: http://www.edu.ro/index.php/articles/c930/.
Varga, E. R. (1999). Erdély magyar népessége 1870–1995 között
[Hungarians in Transylvania between 1870 and 1995]. Magyar
Kisebbség IV (3-4): 331-407.
CHAPTER FOUR
LANGUAGE EDUCATION
IN A MULTICULTURAL CONTEXT
CONSIDERING MULTI-CONFESSIONALISM
WHILE TEACHING ENGLISH IN RUSSIAN
HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
SVETLANA POLSKAYA
Introduction
Though Russia is considered a multinational state, the fact that people of
various nationalities and religions live, work and study together is not
always taken into consideration, and we can often feel the results of
ignoring this phenomenon in different spheres of social life. According to
the data provided by the portal www.islam.com, about 23 million Muslims
are living now on the territory of the Russian Federation, of which 2
million residing in Moscow. There is a whole range of reasons why not
enough attention is paid to this important matter. The roots of this problem
date back to the former Soviet Union era – in spite of the fact that many
various nationalities used to live on the country’s vast territory, it was not
customary to emphasize the national factor. Nowadays, in most cases,
such questions are often carefully avoided as if they did not exist. Lack of
attention to this matter in schools is followed by the same attitude at the
university level. Every year, hundreds of university syllabi are being
composed without any regards to the needs of those whose religion is
different. It is to be mentioned that in Russia, in contrast to other European
countries, studying English as a foreign language is an integral part of any
university studies. Since the majority of Russian state high schools
unfortunately fail to provide an adequate level of English language
knowledge, the mission of almost all Russian universities is not only to
“equip” their graduates with the English language, but also to make sure
their students know English as a language of their future profession. Today
it is quite evident that not taking the other confessions (e.g., Muslim) into
account may lead to a number of negative consequences such as spreading
national stereotypes, unnecessary conflict situations, etc. In this paper, we
cover the problems occurring in this connection and possible ways of
solving them.
340 Multi-confessionalism and Language Education
The first problem, which everyone who teaches English at the

University comes across, is a lack of motivation of Muslim students to
study English. Moreover, a considerable growth of interest to study Arabic
has been observed recently. Many people assume that it is enough for a
Muslim to know the Arabic language and there is no need to study
English. As a result, many Muslim students believe that their English
language knowledge is of no use in their future life. In 2012, our Faculty
of Applied Economics and Commerce at the Moscow State Institute of
International Relations (MGIMO University) enrolled 72 first-year
students whom we are currently teaching English, with 24 Muslim among
them (these are mainly representatives of the Caucasian parts of Russia
like Chechnya, Dagestan, etc.). We polled these 24 students and 13 of
them mentioned they recognized the importance of studying English as a
language of international communication, the world’s “lingua franca,” as
well as knowing English as a language of their future profession.
However, the remaining 11 students (46%) believe that studying Arabic
may be of more importance for them. In addition, not all the polled
unanimously acknowledged that all language-learning programmes they
are offered at the University take into consideration any specifics of
Muslim mentality and culture. No doubt, such statements make us think
about developing new programmes adjusted for their needs.
If we return to the problem of motivation, in order to convince such
students to study English, one does not have to change programmes.
Increasingly more Muslim people living in Russia become confident that
“[...] for Muslim people, the knowledge of English language gives an

opportunity to bring the word of Islam to those people looking for truth
and reason to live and any ignorance constrains this kind of intention,
especially if this ignorance is not knowing an international language [...].
Studying English is an opportunity to open for yourself ‘another world’
and open your worlds for the others [...] to understand that everything in
this world is interrelated.” (Magometova 2012)
The Head of the Council of Muftis, Ravil Gainutdin also addresses the
Muslims saying that
“Modern Muslims should get both spiritual and secular knowledge. Every
kind of skills and virtues a Muslim receives will definitely contribute to
further development a person and is to make him or her more capable and
adjustable to a contemporary world.” (Gainutdin 2011)
Moreover, it is to be mentioned that most Muslim students who study at

Russian universities have a unique linguistic experience since they are
Svetlana Polskaya 341
bilingual (knowing equally well both Russian and their native languages).
In some cases, they are even trilingual (in addition to their native language
and Russian, a student may know one more language of a neighbouring
area of the place where they grew up). The majority of methodologists
express a the opinion that the more languages one knows, the more his
psychomotor and speech-thinking functions, the better his acquisition of
another language are (Ilyasov 1996, Bim 1997, Barsuk 2000).
In addition to the targeted activity towards strengthening Muslim
students’ motivation to study English, we have to find solutions to a
number of other problems. Any class of English language study,
irrespective of the students’ level, requires certain warm-ups or icebreaker,
especially if the teacher and students do not know each other well or even
see each other for the first time. Teachers are not likely to start the class by
going straight down to exercises, drills or explaining new grammar rules.
Five or ten minutes of small talk give both students and teachers a nice
opportunity to tune to the class, to concentrate in a certain way and to
change one’s thinking mode into a foreign speech (in our case, English).
Choosing subjects for such warm-ups, teachers often turn to current events
happening in this country here and now. More often, if some kind of
national holiday is approaching, they usually use this holiday as a warm-
up theme, asking their students how they are going to celebrate it and
whether they are planning to do something special on that day. However,
Muslim festive traditions differ considerably from the holiday traditions of
the Christian part of the population of Russia. For example, the 23rd of
February, which is widely celebrated in Russia as a Day of Motherland
Defender as an official state holiday, is not celebrated in Chechnya since,
for the Chechen people, the 23rd of February commemorates the day when,
back in 1943, under Stalin’s rule, forced deportation of Chechen and
Ingush people began. The Chechens also are not inclined to celebrate the
8th of March, International Women’s Day, though it is also an official state
holiday and a day-off. While, in all Russian cities, one can see men
carrying flowers and congratulating every female on this holiday, the
Muslims do not follow this tradition. Thus, discussing these holidays may
cause unnecessary hurt feelings and misunderstandings between the
teacher and Muslim students. Meanwhile, the Muslims have a number of
holidays (e.g., Ramadan) about which Russian teachers often do not know
about and are not aware when these holidays are celebrated and what they
mean for the people of this confession. Our experience of teaching English
in mixed groups made us pay more attention to the choice of warm-up
topics and also became an incentive to learn at least some basic things
about major Muslim holidays so that, along with asking about the state
holidays and Russian orthodox holidays, teachers could also ask young
Muslim people how they celebrate or are going to celebrate this or that
holiday of their own. In our opinion, first, this gives all students in the
group a feeling of being involved, and second, it is of great value from the
cultural development point of view. We had a chance to observe how
eager the Muslim students were to tell the others in a group about their
traditions and their culture and those non-Muslim students were keen on
getting such information about patterns of life that are different from their
own.
The first and the second years at the University are supposed to form
the basics of students’ English language knowledge. This particular period
is exceptionally important for developing the skills and competence of
everyday communication and nearly all the course books, and reference
books are aimed at helping the learners to do this. Irrespective of teaching
techniques used by this or that University, this process involves direct
communication between a teacher and those who learn English. In the
course of such classes, the students learn how to express their opinions, to
defend their ideas, to start discussions, express their agreement or
disagreement with their friends. Unfortunately, most problems occur at
this particular stage because the matters to be discussed at such classes
proposed by course books, syllabi or chosen by teachers almost never take
into account the specifics of Muslim mentality and culture. Such subjects
as sex, drugs, women’s career, female top managers, women who choose
careers over family, male or female bosses cause certain difficulties for
Muslim students when expressing their views. There were seven girls
among the 24 Muslim students polled. These female students emphasized
in particular the fact that public discussion of matters of sex,
contraception, AIDS, etc. is unacceptable for them. Moreover, half of
these girls expressed their fear that their silent response can be perceived
by a teacher as lack of ideas or inability to say anything on the above-
mentioned subjects in English. In contrast to their Russian fellow-students,
they simply do not understand how to express themselves since discussing
such kind of questions contradict their national and cultural traditions.
Here is one example. In accordance with our plan, six academic hours of a
so called “discussion class” were to be devoted to exchanging opinions on
the subject “If a woman should make a career.” Any attempts to discuss
this subject in our language group resulted just in frustration within the
group and endless disputes. After that, we had to change the subject of the
discussion in order to stop those numerous arguments within the group.
We did that because we should always bear in mind that language
acquisition success depends to a great extend on the relationship between
Svetlana Polskaya 343
the students and a teacher as well as on the whole atmosphere in the group
and interpersonal contacts. If there is distrust and resentment, effective
communication is not likely to take place. Our simple step of skipping
such “awkward” topics at these classes led to a quite different peaceful
atmosphere in which we could discuss things that did not hurt anybody’s
feelings or religious beliefs. No doubt, the above subjects are of
importance and should be discussed, however, under different
circumstances. Excluding these “tricky” matters from university syllabi
seems to be a minor trade-off, which can bring apprehensible results.
The enlisted problems we described can make us think of the
following: maybe separate language groups should be created for Muslim
students and non-Muslim students. In our opinion, differentiating groups
in accordance with this criterion will be inappropriate. Instead of targeted
tolerance, more respectful approach to other people’s confessions, deeper
penetration into each other’s cultures we will get just a greater degree of
distance between various nations and more hostility.
Conclusion
Summing up the above given information, we would like to emphasize
that very little efforts such as learning certain things about other
confessions’ traditions, avoiding those themes which may cause offense or
frustration can actually result in quite different level of the educational
environment where every student is satisfied and confident.
References
Barsuk, R. Y. (2000). Osnovy obuchenia inostranomy yazyku v usloviykh
dvuyazychiya [The Basics of Teaching a Foreign Language in a
Bilingual Environment]. Moscow: Nauka.
Bim, I. L. (1997). Konzepzia obuchenia vtoromu inostrannomu yazyku.
[The Concept of Teaching a Second Foreign Language]. Moscow:
Prosveschenie.
Gainutdin, R. (2011). Rech na kongresse molodykh musulman [Speech at
the Congress of Young Muslim People of Kazan]. Newspaper
Vedomosti 91 (1213).
Ilyasov, I. O. (1996). Teoreticheskie osnovy obuchenua angliyskomu
yazyku uchaschikhsya mnogonatsionalnykh shkol. [Theoretical Basis
for Teaching English in Multinational Schools]. Saint-Petersburg:
Nauchnaya Literantura.
Islam.com Q & A Forum: Questions and Answers on Islam. Online:
www.islam.com/.
Magometova, A. (2012). Znanie kak instrument dostizhenia uspekha.
[Knowledge as an Instrument for Achieving Success]. Online:
http:islamdag.ru/analitika.
PERCEPTIONS OF TURKISH EFL TEACHER
CANDIDATES ON THEIR LEVEL
OF INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE
YEŞIM BEKTAŞ-ÇETINKAYA
AND SERVET ÇELIK
Intercultural Competence and its Role in Foreign

Language Education
With the current worldwide focus on multicultural issues, intercultural
competence, or the ability to function successfully in a range of cultural
contexts, has become a critical aspect of foreign language education
(Council of Europe 2011). Educational policymakers throughout Europe
and beyond have recognized the importance of developing cross-cultural
skills in preparing students to succeed in an increasingly globalized
society. Accordingly, in order to meet the needs of today’s foreign
language learners, guidelines such as the Common European Framework
of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching and Assessment (CEFR),
which emphasizes the need for intercultural competence (Council of
Europe 2001), have become the standard around which many nations
scaffold their language education programmes (Khalifa & French 2008).
Argument for Intercultural Competence
Although cross-cultural communicative competence has been emphasized

as a matter of educational policy, the issue of culture in language
instruction has been the subject of controversy for decades. Critics of the
widespread integration of cultural elements in foreign language curricula
and teaching materials such as Pennycook (2001), Phillipson (1992),
Ridgeway & Pewewardy (2004) and Stenner (2011), draw attention to the
problems related to cultural and linguistic imperialism, arguing that
disseminating the values and norms of privileged societies (such as those
of the United States and Western Europe) among non-native speakers is
346 EFL Teacher Candidates’ Intercultural Competence
ultimately damaging, serving to marginalize less-powerful cultures.

Alptekin (1993) further argues that exposing students to foreign languages
in terms of unfamiliar cultural perspectives may increase language anxiety,
thereby inhibiting learner success. In his view,
“It is most natural for learners to rely on their already established

schematic [or socially-acquired] knowledge when developing new
systemic [formally-acquired] knowledge. For this reason, foreign language
teaching materials, which make use of target-language culture elements to
present the systemic data, are likely to interfere with this natural
tendency.” (ibidem: 136)
In spite of these concerns, the prevailing trend in linguistics and foreign

language education remains rooted in Chomsky’s (1965) criticism of the
teaching of language solely as an intellectual exercise that is devoid of any
social context. Scholars such as Byram (1997), Hymes (1972), Kramsch
(1993, 2006) and Scollon & Wong Scollon (2012) hold that language,
culture and society are deeply intertwined, and that language use does not
happen in isolation, but within dynamic sociocultural settings. Every
interaction in a language, foreign or native, takes place within a specific
cultural sphere, as the interlocutors formulate and interpret messages based
on their culturally and socially shaped views of the world and reality.
Scollon & Wong Scollon explain that,
“Language is ambiguous [...]. Communication works better the more the

participants share assumptions and knowledge about the world. Where two
people have very similar histories, backgrounds and experiences, their
communication works fairly easily, because the inferences each makes
about what the other means will be based on common experience and
knowledge. Two people from the same village and the same family are
likely to make fewer mistakes in drawing inferences about what the other
means than two people from different cities on different sides of the earth.”
(Scollon & Wong Scollon 2012: 16)
Therefore, according to this interpretation, intercultural communicative

competence requires that speakers of foreign languages have some degree
of understanding of the sociocultural perspectives of the target culture and
of how these affect the construction of meaning.
Intercultural Dimension in Language Teaching
In light of this understanding, the focus of foreign language study has

shifted over the last several decades to an emphasis on communicative
Yeşim Bektaş-Çetinkaya and Servet Çelik 347
language teaching: from a focus on teaching a language, to teaching

learners how to use that language in real interactive situations (Nunan
1989). As Bennett (1997: 16) elaborates, communication entails not only
“substituting words and rules” from one language in order to transmit
ideas in another, but also a detailed understanding of “the social or
philosophical content” (ibidem) of the language used to express these
ideas. Byram, Gribkova & Starkey (2002) caution that, without cultural
understanding, interlocutors are more likely to view one another as other
and as representatives of that which is foreign, rather than as individuals
with unique identities and characteristics. Thus, foreign language
instruction entails the development not only of students who understand
the grammatical and lexical features of a language, but of “learners as
intercultural speakers or mediators who are able to engage with
complexity and multiple identities and to avoid the stereotyping that
accompanies perceiving someone through a single identity.” (ibidem: 9)
What is required to achieve intercultural competence? Byram (1997)
and Byram, Gribkova & Starkey (2002: 11-13) outline four elements that
are necessary to the development of intercultural competence: (a) an
attitude of curiosity and openness, as well as a willingness to suspend
judgment based on one’s own cultural beliefs and values; (b) general
knowledge of how societies function, in addition to a consciousness of
one’s own cultural values and (at a minimum) a general idea of the
societal norms and practices of the target culture; (c) the skills necessary to
relate to others, to compare and contrast cultural attitudes, and to perceive
how misunderstandings may arise and what might be done to mitigate
them; and (d) a critical awareness that one is a product of one’s own
cultural values and beliefs, combined with an understanding of the
significance of the attitudes, beliefs, products and practices of the target
culture.
The role of the teacher in fostering intercultural competence. Building
intercultural skills in foreign language learners entails more than
familiarity with the main features of the target culture on the part of the
instructor (Scollon & Wong Scollon 2012). Rather, as Byram (1997) and
Byram, Gribkova & Starkey (2002) explain, it is the task of the language
teacher to develop students’ understanding of members of the target
culture as unique individuals with their own set of values, attitudes, beliefs
and perspectives, and to view interaction with these individuals as a
rewarding and enriching experience. Thus, while language teachers may
help learners to become familiar with the particulars of the target culture in
terms of its products, practices, attitudes and beliefs (Arıkan 2011),
developing true intercultural competence requires setting the stage through
the use of appropriate activities and teaching resources, for learners “to
discuss and draw conclusions” (Byram, Gribkova & Starkey 2002: 14)
about the target culture based on critical reflection of their own
experiences and awareness of their home culture.
Intercultural Competence in Turkey’s English as a Foreign Language

(EFL) Instructors
In recognition of the importance of developing intercultural competence in

foreign language learners, the Turkish Ministry of National Education has
undertaken numerous measures to implement the standards of the CEFR in
its foreign language curriculum, underscoring the need to develop cross-
cultural skills in students of foreign languages, especially with regard to
English language learning (Mirici 2008, Ministry of National Education
2005).
On the other hand, the standardized English teaching curriculum in
Turkey is historically deficient in its inclusion of cultural aspects at the
primary and secondary levels of education (Ҫakır 2010, Türkan & Ҫelik
2007). Furthermore, in Turkey’s largely homogeneous context, the
majority of EFL teachers lack any significant exposure to members of
English-speaking and European cultures.
This circumstance raises questions concerning whether the English
language teachers working in Turkey’s state-run schools themselves
possess the understanding and practical skills that are needed to direct the
development of intercultural competence in their students; yet only a
limited number of studies have investigated the cultural awareness of pre-
service and in-service English teachers in Turkey (Arıkan 2011, Atay
2005, Bayyurt 2006, Bektaş-Çetinkaya & Borkan 2012, Hatipoğlu 2012).
Atay (2005), for instance, examined the methods by which prospective
English teachers gained cultural knowledge, as well as their beliefs
regarding the role of culture in language classrooms. According to her
findings, the participants lacked the knowledge and awareness needed to
deal with cultural issues in language classrooms. Similarly, in a later study
with prospective English teachers (Bektaş-Çetinkaya & Borkan 2012), it
was concluded that prospective teachers had not gained cultural
knowledge or skills during the course of their teacher training programme,
although they demonstrated a positive attitude and some degree of cultural
awareness. Arıkan (2011: 232) likewise indicated that prospective teachers
“see themselves knowledgeable in the target language but insufficient in
the target culture.” Furthermore, Hatipoğlu (2012) found that prospective
English teachers studying at four different universities believed that
foreign language teachers should have some knowledge of the target

culture but that they did not have much knowledge about British culture
and were reluctant to address these matters in the course of their teaching.
Research with practicing teachers indicated similar results, as illustrated
by Bayyurt’s (2006: 244) case study, in which the participants expressed
confusion as to whether “culture should be part of the English language
curriculum or not.”
Purpose of the Study

Because Turkey’s ultimate success in the international arena depends
largely on the ability of its citizens to communicate effectively with
members of other cultures, it is necessary to determine whether Turkish
teachers of English are sufficiently prepared to deal with cultural matters
and to guide the development of intercultural competence in their students.
Accordingly, drawing on the belief that the perceptions of pre-service ELT
professionals concerning their own intercultural competence may affect
the extent to which they are able to foster these in language learners, the
aim of the current study was to explore, in a systematic manner, the
participants’ self-efficacy in terms of their attitude, knowledge, skills and
awareness (Byram 1997, Byram, Gribkova & Starkey 2002) with respect
to foreign cultures. Therefore, the researchers designed this study in order
to answer the following research questions:
- What attitudes do pre-service EFL instructors express toward learning

about other cultures?
- How do they evaluate their own knowledge with respect to other
cultures?
- How do they feel about their skills in terms of relating to members of
other cultures; comparing and contrasting cultural attitudes, beliefs and
norms; and perceiving where misunderstandings might develop and
how to cope with them?
- Are they aware of the issues related to diversity and their relevance to
foreign language teaching? Do they have a critical understanding of
how their own culture has shaped their beliefs and attitudes?
Methodology
In order to develop a comprehensive understanding of pre-service ELT
instructors’ views of their self-efficacy in terms of cultural issues, the
researchers employed a hybrid study design that combined both qualitative
and quantitative approaches to data collection and analysis. The

quantitative data obtained through the application of a scalar survey, were
expected to provide a broad overview of the participants’ perceptions,
while the qualitative data, acquired through detailed interviews, were
expected to provide deeper insight into the reasoning behind their beliefs
and attitudes (Creswell 2007, Fraenkel, Wallen & Hyun 2008).
Setting and Participants
The study was conducted in the English Language Education department

of a large public university located in the western part of Turkey. At the
time of the study, there were 569 (427 female and 142 male) pre-service
English teachers and 17 academic staff members (1 full professor, 5
assistant professors, 7 lecturers, 3 research assistants, and 1 American
visiting scholar) in the department. The department offers a four-year pre-
service English teaching programme to high school graduates who have
passed a nationwide university entrance exam. During their first year, the
pre-service teachers who ultimately participated in the study were required
to take courses such as reading, writing, speaking and grammar in order to
improve their language proficiency. In the following years, they took
courses related to applied linguistics, pedagogy, linguistics and literature.
In terms of cultural experiences, the students in the department are given
the opportunity to visit cooperating universities in several European
countries (e.g., Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Denmark,
Portugal and Romania) through the ERASMUS exchange programme.
Furthermore, each year, the department hosts a number of ERASMUS
students from Poland and Belgium, as well as a group of visitors from the
Netherlands. The students who participated in the study were 129 (24 male
and 105 female) Turkish pre-service English teachers. Most participants
(81%) had never been abroad. Those who had visited foreign countries,
including Germany, Bulgaria, the United States, France, the Netherlands,
Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Luxemburg,
Romania, Poland, England, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Canada, Mexico,
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan, had mainly gone for
touristic purposes and had stayed for a short time. Of the participants, 15
(2 male and 13 female) volunteered to be interviewed. Among those
interviewed, 12 had never been abroad. However, they had all had
opportunities to interact with foreigners, primarily European ERASMUS
students or tourists. Only 3 of the students who agreed to be interviewed
had been abroad. While one had travelled to France and Belgium for ten
days to visit her relatives, another had spent one month in the United
States. The third had studied at a university in Portugal for one semester as
an ERASMUS exchange student.
Instruments and Procedure
In order to collect the data, the researchers adapted the items of the
Intercultural Abilities Questionnaire (IAQ) (Fantini 2006) for the Turkish
context, adding new items within the framework of Byram’s (1997) ICC
theory to develop the Intercultural Communicative Competence Inventory
(ICCI). According to the Turkish Ministry of Tourism Statistics, the most
frequent visitors to Turkey in 2010 were German (15.32%), while 9.34%
of foreign visitors are British, 3.24% are French, and 2.24% are American
citizens; 58.05% of visitors to Turkey in 2010 came from other European
countries (Turizm Bakanlığı, n.d.). Therefore, the survey questions
revolved around the participants’ familiarity with issues relating to the
American, British, German and French cultures. The inventory consisted
of a Likert-type questionnaire made up of four subscales, including
knowledge, attitude, skill and awareness. The respondents were asked to
indicate their degree of agreement with each of the items, from not at all
to a great extent. An example of an item that was formulated to assess the
participants’ perception of their intercultural skills is “I am able to resolve
cross-cultural conflicts.” Prior to application, the questionnaire was
reviewed by a content expert to ensure the validity of the questions. The
reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s alpha) of the inventory ranged from .85
to .91 as follows: (a) knowledge of Turkey, .86; (b) knowledge of
England, .90; (c) knowledge of the U.S., .91; (d) knowledge of Germany,
.89; (e) knowledge of France, .85; (f) attitude, .86; (g) skill, .87; (h)
awareness, .85. The classes in which the surveys were applied were chosen
at random, and the questionnaire was administered during the class hour.
The purpose of the survey was explained to the students; they were
informed that their participation was voluntary and that no penalty would
be assessed for any who chose not to respond. To ensure confidentiality,
the participants were asked not to write their names on the questionnaire.
The response rate was over 90%; 129 pre-service teachers took
approximately 30 minutes to complete the inventory.
Furthermore, following the administration of the survey, semi-
structured interviews (Creswell 2007) were conducted with some of the
participants in order to inquire in greater depth into their views of their
intercultural competence; namely their cultural awareness, attitudes,
knowledge and skills. Initially, 18 students volunteered to be interviewed.
However, 3 of them did not give consent to be recorded and dropped out
of the study. The qualitative data were collected from the remaining 15
volunteers via interviews that lasted for approximately one hour each. In
order to maintain the participants’ anonymity, their real names were not
used in reporting the results. During the initial interviews, the participants
were asked what they know about Turkish culture and European culture;
whether they would be willing to interact with Europeans, and why or why
not; whether they foresaw any difficulties in interacting with Europeans;
and finally, whether they believed they could overcome these difficulties.
Depending on their responses, further questions were asked for
clarification.
Data Analysis
The quantitative data from the ICCI were analyzed using the Statistical
Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 15.0). SPSS 15.0 was used to conduct
a reliability analysis of the inventory and to produce the descriptive
statistics (Fraenkel, Wallen & Hyun 2008). The qualitative data collected
during the interviews was analyzed via constant comparative analysis
(Kvale 1996, Miles & Huberman 1994). The interview data were first
transcribed and read multiple times. During the iterative readings, the
dominant themes were identified by the researchers, and the results were
interpreted according to these themes. In order to establish the
trustworthiness of the results, member checking and peer review
procedures (Creswell 2007, Fraenkel, Wallen & Hyun 2008) were
followed. First, the researchers showed the draft of the results to the
participants and asked them to verify that their ideas had been accurately
represented. Then, a colleague who was not involved in the study was
asked to review the documents and provide feedback on the researchers’
interpretations of the qualitative data.
Results and Discussion

The results of the study are presented here in terms of the participants’
attitudes, knowledge, skills and awareness with respect to intercultural
issues.
Attitude
The attitudes of the participants toward cultural issues, as well as their

openness toward learning about other cultures, are expressed below in
Table 4-1.
Table 4-1. Attitude: Percentages of the participants who agreed with

the given statements
I am willing to…
Not at All
Moderate
Limited
Extent
Extent
Extent
Great
suspend judgment 0.8 6.2 30.2 62
interact with foreigners 0 3.1 14 83
learn foreigners’ perspectives about 0.8 0.8 8 90
my culture
learn foreign languages 0 .8 11 88
adjust my dress according to foreign 17 31 33 18
cultures
communicate in English 0 .8 12 87
behave in appropriate ways while .8 9 33 57
communicating
learn new cultural aspects 0 5 18 77
understand differences 0 2 21 76
adapt my behaviour 3 9 36 50
learn foreign cultures 0 5 14 80
learn diversity in other cultures 0 5 14 80
learn from foreigners .8 5 13 81
Overall, Table 4-1 reveals that the participants evidenced positive attitudes
toward interacting with foreigners, learning foreign languages, and
learning about foreign cultures, in line with Byram’s (1997: 34) assertion
“attitudes of curiosity and openness” are prerequisite for successful
intercultural communication. They were most willing to learn about
foreigners’ perspectives about Turkish culture, closely followed by their
willingness to learn foreign languages and to communicate with
foreigners. They were least willing to adjust their dress in order to avoid
offending foreigners, as nearly one half (48%) of the participants did not
want to adjust their dress at all or only to a limited degree. Similarly, the
participants showed moderate willingness to adapt their behaviour to
communicate with foreigners appropriately.
The interview results with respect to the pre-service teachers’ attitudes
indicated that the participants were curious about European culture and
willing to communicate with Europeans, reflecting the findings of Bektaş-
Çetinkaya & Borkan (2012). As Seda (pseudonyms have been used to
protect the identities of the participants) explained, “I want to
communicate with people from different cultures, to learn European

languages, to see different viewpoints.” Furthermore, the participants
expressed interest in interacting with Europeans both to gain knowledge
about European culture and institutions and to give information about
Turkish culture. Sevgi, for instance, noted,
“I want to communicate with Europeans, to learn their views. I might have

some incorrect information. I want to learn their opinion. I am curious
whether they respect my views. Are they prejudiced against us? Do they
like Turks? Are they scared?”
However, some of the participants also indicated reservations about

initiating interactions because of their perception of Europeans being
prejudiced against Turks and Muslims. As Gizem explained,
“I want to have acquaintances from different cultures, to interact with them

at work, to invite them to Turkey, to be life-long friends […]. I may be
perceived differently, like a very conservative Muslim. Our religions are
different. They may not choose to talk to me. However, of course, if they
are understanding people, I will not have any problem. It is all up to
individuals.”
Knowledge
The first two questions included in the knowledge subscale were designed
to assess pre-service English teachers’ knowledge of culture in general and
its components. Almost all (94%) of the pre-service English teachers
indicated that they could define what culture is, and the majority (84%)
indicated they could describe components of culture and discuss its
complexities. The knowledge of the participants concerning particular
aspects of the home culture, as well as of English, American, German and
French culture, is expressed below in Table 4-2.
As can be seen in Table 4-2, the pre-service English teachers had only
limited knowledge of English, American, German and French cultures, in
accordance with Atay (2005) and Arıkan (2011). They knew the most
about the home culture and least about French culture. While nearly all of
the participants (over 96%) had a good understanding of Turkish culture,
only very small percentage (as little as 2-9%) of the participants expressed
having knowledge of various aspects of French culture. On the other hand,
they knew more about the cultures of English-speaking countries (namely,
England and the United States). They indicated more familiarity with
English culture than American culture, except with respect to the current
and historical relations between Turkey and the U.S., as well as the socio-
political factors that shape U.S. culture. When their knowledge of English
culture was examined, it was revealed that they expressed knowing the
least about the socio-political factors that shape English culture, followed
by the historical factors that shape English culture and the prominent
taboos of English culture. Overall, the participants indicated knowing the
least about the socio-political and historical factors that shape target
cultures, as well the essential taboos of these cultures; on the other hand,
they expressed familiarity with the historical and current relations between
Turkey and the target countries, as well as an understanding of their
educational systems and religious practices.
Table 4-2. Knowledge: Percentage of the participants who indicated

having a moderate largely of knowledge about the indicated cultural
elements
Cultural Elements
American
German
Turkish
English
French
Norms 100 53 47 17 4
Taboos 100 28 27 7 2
Historical Facts 97 27 24 13 9
Sociopolitical Facts 96 19 24 8 6
Interactional Behaviour 100 50 50 26 8
Education 98 47 45 33 6
Religion 98 56 51 34 26
Daily life 100 48 46 25 11
Historical relations with Turkey - 63 68 68 56
Current relations with Turkey - 61 83 53 53
In the course of the interviews, the teacher candidates elaborated that,

although they were curious and open to learn more, they had limited
knowledge of European culture. As Banu mentioned, “I heard that things
are different there [in Europe]. I am curious about their educational
system, health care, traffic…” However, their knowledge of the target
culture appeared to stem from outside sources, rather than from personal
experience. Their ideas had been formed by relatives and friends who had
lived and worked in these countries; as well as foreign students who had
studied in Turkish universities via ERASMUS programmes; other Turkish
students who had studied abroad via the ERASMUS programme; the
media; and their teachers. As Hilal put it, “my relatives [who live and
work in Belgium] told me once [the Belgians] are prejudiced against the
Turks.” Banu’s knowledge of Dutch culture was also based on what she
had heard from others, rather than on personal information; as she related,
“the Dutch girls [ERASMUS students] drink alcoholic beverages … I
asked the Dutch girls.” On the whole, despite the contentions of
researchers such as Bektaş-Çetinkaya & Borkan (2012), Byram (1997) and
Byram, Gribkova & Starkey (2002) that knowledge of culture in general
and cultures of other countries in particular is necessary to develop
cultural awareness, a balanced attitude and intercultural skills, the
participants showed only limited to moderate awareness of other cultures,
including those of English-speaking cultures. These findings are consistent
with those of Arıkan (2011) and Hatipoğlu (2012), who found that
prospective English teachers had not gained any substantial cultural
knowledge in the course of their teacher training.
Intercultural Skills
The self-efficacy of the participants concerning their intercultural skills is

expressed below in Table 4-3.
As Table 4-3 indicates, the majority of the pre-service English teachers
surveyed did not express a great deal of confidence in their intercultural
skills. They particularly appeared to doubt their skills in resolving cross-
cultural conflicts and misunderstandings, as well as their ability to use
appropriate strategies in adapting to foreign cultures. On the other hand,
more than one half (60%) of the participants believed that they could use
strategies for learning foreign languages, while 50% felt that they could
contrast foreign cultures with their home culture.
An analysis of the interviews also revealed that the participants were
anxious about how to deal with intercultural miscommunications and did
not know how to use strategies to resolve any potential misunderstandings.
As Hilal indicated, “There will be problems, we cannot avoid it. I don’t
know what to do. I need some information.” A major issue appeared to be
rooted in the concern of the participants that religious differences,
differences in political views, levels of language proficiency and
prejudices of foreign people might cause miscommunication. Similarly,
different political views of interlocutors on issues such as minorities in
modern Turkey, as well as the history of the Ottoman Empire, were
considered as obstacles that might cause communication breakdown. For
instance, Ebru expressed apprehension “we may talk about politics, they
may ask about issues related to Kurds, Armenians. I don’t know how they
will perceive me. I don’t want to be misunderstood, but I need to tell the
truth.”
Table 4-3. Intercultural Skills: Percentage of participants who agree

with the given statements
I am willing to…
Not at All
Moderate
Limited
Extent
Extent
Extent
Great
contrast cultures 0 14 36 50
demonstrate flexibility 2 7 42 49
use strategies to learn FL .8 10 29 60
resolve cross-cultural conflicts 2 20 47 31
interpret different social situations 2 16 43 38
use strategies for learning foreign 2 16 38 44
culture
use strategies for adapting to foreign .8 21 46 32
culture
use culture-specific information to 2 17 34 46
improve communication
Furthermore, concerns about their levels of oral proficiency caused the

participants to consider that they might not be able to express their views
and opinions clearly in English. According to Hilal, “I may have difficulty
interacting in English [...]. I am worried that I may say something wrong,
use an inappropriate [term].” Banu supported this idea, noting that “I think
I can express my ideas, but with difficulty. My proficiency may cause a
problem, finding the right words, speaking fluently.” Another student,
Selin, agreed with this point of view. As she put it, “even though your
language proficiency is high, since it is not your mother tongue, you may
not [be able to] express some things. We learn grammar, formal language
at school, not everyday usage.” Her views reflect those of Arıkan (2011),
who found that teacher candidates are more confident in their language
skills than in their understanding of foreign culture and communicative
practice.
Although the quantitative results indicated that the participants felt
somewhat assured about their intercultural skills, the interview data
revealed a number of insecurities about their cultural understanding, which
draws attention to the concern raised by Bektaş-Çetinkaya & Borkan
(2012) that not all English teachers possess the appropriate knowledge
about the target culture needed to develop cultural understanding in their
students.
Awareness
The degree of awareness of the participants concerning the importance of

understanding diversity and diverse perspectives, as well as how their own
culture has shaped their views is expressed below in Table 4-4.
Table 4-4. Awareness: Percentage of the participants who agreed with

each statement
I have realized the importance of…
Not at All
Moderate
Limited
Extent
Extent
Extent
Great
differences and similarities across my 0.8 6 28 64
own and the foreign culture
how varied situations in the target 2 8 31 57
culture required modifying my
interactions
diversity in the target culture 0.8 8 30 60
As demonstrated in the table above, a great majority of the participants

(88%) agreed to a moderate or great extent with statements referring to the
importance of how varied situations in the target culture might require
modifying their interactions with others. Furthermore, in the course of the
interviews, most of the participants demonstrated awareness of “their own
ideological perspectives and values” (Byram 1997) and how the collective
values of Turkish society shaped their lives. For instance, Gülay indicated
awareness of how one’s ideological perspectives and values may create
stereotypes, noting “We always say that they are cold people, but we
didn’t live there, we don’t really know. We need to know them, first.”
Seda also acknowledged the possibility that her views might be biased,
noting her perception that foreigners have “weak family ties; they don’t
care about other people. However, these may be my prejudices. They may
change [if] I go there.” This notion was reiterated by Tijen, who said
“[Europeans] don’t have close relations like we do. Turks are better.
Maybe I think this way because I am a Turk.” In addition, Sevgi agreed
that her attitudes might have been different if she had grown up in another
country, pointing out “they might have been born in Turkey, I might have
been born in Europe. I don’t know how I would be if I had been born
there.”
However, this recognition does not necessarily correspond to the
critical cultural awareness that Byram (1997: 63) defined as the “ability to
evaluate critically and on the basis of explicit criteria, [the] perspectives,
practices and products in one’s own and other cultures and countries.”
Overall, they seemed to be aware that their culture had shaped the way
they think, but they did not evidence any understanding of how their home
culture had formed them or what their prejudices were.
Conclusion
The results demonstrate that, although the participants mainly expressed a
positive attitude toward foreign cultures, as well as a desire to learn more
about them, their knowledge of these cultures seemed to be limited and to
depend mainly on anecdotal evidence from friends, family and other
students. They had little awareness of cultural issues that relied on
personal experience or their coursework, and furthermore, since the
majority of the participants had not been abroad and had only limited
experience in interacting with foreigners, they did not know what to expect
in intercultural encounters. Moreover, they expressed that they lacked the
skills necessary to resolve misunderstandings and did not know what to do
in the event of a communication breakdown.
The findings of this study are constrained by the small number of
participants, as well as the limitations imposed by conducting the study
students enrolled in a single institution. While more generalizable results
may be obtained by conducting a similar study on a larger scale, with a
greater number of participants from other universities and teacher
education programmes, the following can be concluded in terms of the
present study: (a) the Turkish pre-service English teachers have not
developed an adequate degree of intercultural competence through their
current teacher preparation programme; (b) they have unrealistic,
stereotypical perceptions of Europe and European culture; (c) they have an
ethnocentric perception of Turkish culture; and (d) their teacher education
programme has not prepared them to contend with cultural issues. These
results are not unexpected considering that the teacher education
programme in which the participants are enrolled does not offer any
courses that specifically address cultural issues.
Practical Implications
While the number of studies conducted in the Turkish context with respect
to this issue is limited, the existing research has consistently indicated that
neither pre-service nor in-service teachers have adequate knowledge of
foreign cultures; nor do they feel confident enough to address cultural
issues in language classrooms, as is the case with the present study. Thus,
it is reasonable to argue that their ability to foster intercultural competence
in language learners is lacking, and greater attention to addressing
awareness of target cultures is necessary in designing the content of
teacher training programmes. To promote students’ motivation for
learning about cultural matters, the target culture should be presented in a
way that does not promote assimilation or admiration, but leads to the
development of true intercultural understanding. Teacher training
programmes may offer “culture” courses that not only provide information
on the values, beliefs, and norms of the target culture, but also encourage
prospective teachers to compare and contrast the target and home cultures
and to reflect on these issues in developing critical cultural awareness. An
alternative to offering a specific course would be integrating these
concepts in existing courses, such as conversation, literature, linguistics,
and methodology courses. In each of these, various aspects of cultural
issues may be explored in depth as they are made explicit to teacher
candidates.
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MULTICULTURAL DIMENSION
IN AN INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH COURSE:
A RUSSIAN EXPERIENCE
POLINA TEREKHOVA AND ALENA TIMOFEEVA
“There is no single way of teaching English, no single way of learning it,

no single motive for doing so, no single syllabus or textbook, no single
way of assessing proficiency and, indeed, no single variety of English
which provides the target of learning.” (Graddol 2006)
Introduction
Despite the ongoing debate about international and national status of the
English language by applied linguists, educators and politicians alike, we
believe that there is an urgent need for practical solutions to the problems
of teaching English as an International Language (EIL) that instructors
worldwide are confronted with on a daily basis. Quite a few novel issues
concerning multiculturalism and EIL likewise require a discussion.
It has been estimated that, today, there are as many as 2 billion of non-
native speakers (henceforth NNS) of English worldwide (Crystal 2008).
Most of them use English in a multicultural environment. The majority of
those who learn English today are taught by non-native speakers. A great
number of English language learners live in multiethnic and multicultural
countries, such as the Russian Federation, for example.
English is the most popular foreign language; it is a mandatory subject
in Russian secondary schools and a requirement for bachelor or master
programme. The number of Russian university students taking study at
universities in Europe and Asia is growing every year; this implies NNS to
NNS communication combined with an ability to fit into a different
culture, not just British or American. Moreover, a working knowledge of
English has become a requirement for young professionals. While, ten
years ago, employers were normally satisfied with a Cambridge or TOEFL
certificate, nowadays they are more likely to test the candidates’ ability to
364 Multicultural Dimension in an International English Course
solve practical tasks using English, for example, by asking them to make a
phone call to a German partner or to write a letter to an office in Turkey.
Dramatic changes foreseen by David Graddol (2006) less than a
decade ago nowadays affect everyone involved in English teaching.
Several factors have conspired to produce a new variety of English that we
may call International English or English as an International Language
(EIL): they include political, economical, and cultural globalization, as
well as anti-globalization, development of information and communication
technologies, growth of the number of non-native speakers of English,
transnational education and increased mobility of international students.
Even though Graddol himself believes that this may be just a transitional
phenomenon, this new insight in understanding the role of English in the
ever changing world inevitably raises the issue of why, what and how we
are going to teach.
Leaving the problem of conceptualization of EIL to applied linguists,
we would like to begin by citing the definition of lingua franca English
(LFE) that matches our own understanding of EIL:
“[...] an additionally acquired language system that serves as a means of

communication between speakers of different first languages, or a
language by means of which the members of different speech communities
can communicate with each other but which is not the native language
either – a language that has no native speaker.” (Seidlhoffer 2001)
Being both non-native proficient English speakers and teachers with

rigorous methodological training, we find ourselves in agreement with
Seidlhoffer and others who have recently supported their vision of
EIL/LFE as opposed to ENL centrism (Crystal 2008, Graddol 2006,
Jenkins 2002, 2008, Kachru 1992, McKay 2002, Ter-Minasova 1999). As
bilingual users in an Expanding Circle country (in Kachru’s classification),
we clearly see that the local context does not require export of cultural
norms of English native speakers (NS). On the contrary, there is a strong
demand for two other things, namely, understanding non-native speakers
(NNS) coming from different cultural backgrounds and delivering one’s
personal ideas and culture to others.
As the starting point for our discussion, we would like to use Sandra
McKay’s (2003) article on teaching English in a Chilean context. In her
excellent discussion of problems that teachers of English in Chile grapple
with, McKay has identified the following needs:
“Firstly, the cultural content of EIL materials should not be limited to

native English-speaking cultures. Secondly, an appropriate pedagogy of
Polina Terekhova and Alena Timofeeva 365
EIL needs to be informed by local expectations regarding the role of

teacher and learner, and CLT should be implemented by a locally
appropriate pedagogy. Thirdly, the strength of bilingual (or NNS) teachers
of English need to be recognized.” (McKay 2003)
In what follows, we expand this list focusing on the issues we find relevant
for teaching EIL at secondary schools.
Teenagers are often exceedingly poorly motivated to do English at
school (Graddol 2006). At the same time, teenagers are known to be the
age group with particularly high cognitive activity (Rean 2003). In our
opinion, this contradiction arises from the fact that learning English in a
local context seems almost pointless to a teenager who cannot see any
potential use in it. Teenagers at the age of 13-15 are not yet able to
develop instrumental motivation based on such uncertain future benefits as
search of information or students’ mobility programmes. What is more,
high or low grades at school do not have such a prominent position in their
value system, as their teachers would like to believe (ibidem). As a result,
they stop paying attention to the subject and soon become unable to reach
the desired standards of the class. Therefore, the fourth implication we
propose to add to McKay’s list is a call to make the learning process
meaningful by presenting practical, interesting and available ways of
applying the newly gained language skills.
Another important issue in language learning is the cognitive
development of the learners that can be boosted through many activities
and techniques, such as problem solving tasks, project work, pair and
group work, analyzing, reasoning, speculating, grouping, peer- and self-
monitoring, using efficient memory strategies, to name a few. While these
and other activities are widely used in modern language teaching, they are
not particularly typical in a traditional Russian educational context;
however, as McKay’s (2003) study made on the material of the local
Chilean context has shown, such techniques would not at all be
inappropriate in Russia. We argue that activities and strategies of this kind
enhance educational context and at the same time provide grounds for
future mobility of the students, should they choose to continue their
education in those countries where the said approach is more traditional.
The final implication concerns general attitudes. To be able to live in
the global world does not only mean to be able to speak a global language.
Rather, this is about realizing and accepting the fact that people from other
cultures may think, feel, behave in a decidedly different way from the one
commonly adopted in one’s native society. Unfortunately, ethnic problems
are getting more and more common in Russian schools. We, therefore,
submit that an EIL class is an appropriate place to develop

multiculturalism. It is essential that teachers introduce
“[...] a sphere of interculturality in EIL classrooms so that individuals gain

insight into their own culture. These insights can then be shared in cross-
cultural encounters undertaken in international contexts.” (McKay 2002)
We consider these implications to be crucial for implementing

multicultural dimension into the learning process.
Next, we briefly identify the key principles for designing an EIL
course that has a multicultural approach. We also discuss relevant types of
teaching materials and appropriate classroom activities as a framework in
which these principles should be implemented.
Implementing Syllabus Design

Following Graddol (2006), we suggest that the general approach to EIL
course design should not differ from the one that has become standard in
modern language teaching. While devising new models for EIL teaching,
Graddol bases them on a thorough analysis of needs, using familiar course
design terms.
In our opinion, it is the syllabus that can change teachers’ orientation
and facilitate the shift from the target language instruction to EIL teaching.
We find ourselves in complete agreement with Barbara Seidlhofer’s
(2001) notion that, despite the great changes in the discourse of language
planning and education policy, the daily classroom practice has not
changed much. Hence, we believe that a clear and well-structured EIL
syllabus together with supplementary materials designed in accordance
with it can serve not only as guidelines for students’ daily work but also as
a tool for teachers’ own professional and sometimes even personal
development.
From the course design perspective, the shift to EIL teaching will
mostly affect such areas as needs analysis, goals and objectives, content,
assessment and evaluation, and availability of materials; we do not foresee
any significant changes resulting from EIL teaching in course structure,
pacing, equipment and course evaluation.
Needs Analysis and Data Interpretation
“English Next” by Graddol is a full-scale detailed needs analysis that only

requires a few changes in order to be adapted to a local context and a
particular learning situation.
“Up & Up” Framework (Timofeev, Wilner & Kolesnikova 2003)1 can
be referred as a model example of a thorough and detailed study. Because
of the lack of space, we cannot give a detailed account of this study. We
just briefly describe the three areas of needs analysis that mainly affect an
EIL course designing: curriculum restrictions, learners’ motivation, and
teachers’ beliefs.
In the case of Russia, the changes would be framed by National
educational standard which describes a target for secondary school
graduates as B1 level (CEF), assuming that the course in question is
offered to teenagers (high level of secondary school).
The most significant issue is the learning environment that positively
affects learning and motivation. In the Russian learning context, two
incompatible tendencies can be identified. On the one hand, English is a
timetable subject that is learnt only in the classroom without any notable
outside support or any clear, practical goals. On the other hand, Russia has
always been a multiethnic, multicultural and multiconfessional country.
Although Russian is the official language of the country, it is not native for
a considerable number of students. Learning English in such an
environment thus entirely corresponds to the definition of EIL adopted in
the present article: different speech communities can communicate with
each other in this language, but it is a language that has no native speaker.
While the first tendency stated above clearly hinders the students’
motivation, the second one may actually trigger additional motivation for
students learning English in such a multiethnic country as Russia.
We are far from thinking that, in the present situation, teachers are
unable to benefit from the ongoing research on EIL core: even though, in
the classical pedagogical scheme “Subject-Learning-Teaching,” teaching
is the most rigid and inflexible component, teachers may still use the time
to realize, accept, and hopefully internalize the changes to come, provided
they have an opportunity to experience courses like the one we introduce
in this article.
Course Philosophy, Goals and Objectives
EIL approach prioritizes global inclusiveness and, therefore,

appropriateness and intelligibility of language use. This means a dramatic
change for thousands of school teachers in Russia where, for many
generations, language instruction has relied on the accuracy in speech
production and on faithfully imitating the native speakers. Nevertheless,
upon a closer inspection, the leap is not that big, and the gap is not that
frightening, since, in the end, we are still talking about communicative
competence, except that the focus has now been moved from the linguistic
component (as understood in TEFL) to the pragmatic and socio-linguistic
ones. EIL does not reject grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation skills;
rather, the change from the traditional approach to the EIL means that we
can finally stop treating the native speakers’ norms and correctness as
sacred cows, and thus be able to devote more of the classroom time to the
vital needs of communication.
Thus, the main goal of the course is to develop competence for
effective communication in the global world. However, considering that
the course is designed for secondary school students, we are speaking, not
about a full-scale task fulfilment, but rather about building a solid
foundation for further development towards achievement of the strategic
goal.
We have already mentioned that we find EIL class a particularly
appropriate place to develop multiculturalism, especially in Russian
multicultural context: co-learning lingua franca is likely to both facilitate
mutual understanding and provide insights into one’s own culture. Native
and non-native Russian speakers find themselves in the same position
from the language perspective, since the course gives everyone an equal
opportunity to express their identity.
Another important task to be solved is developing a motivation for
language learning. The course has to convince the students that language
skills answer their immediate needs at school and outside, even though this
might not be so obvious in the local context. The syllabus must identify
and emphasize cross-discipline links, as well as real-life situations that
require EIL skills. Motivation is not possible without success, and the
course should certainly include learner training materials to provide
students with efficient learning strategies. At the same time, the
development of learning skills provides constitutes a firm basis for
continuous language learning, which is a part of EIL approach.
Twenty years ago, the educational system in Russia was oriented
towards scholastic knowledge. Nowadays, it is slowly switching over to
competence-oriented learning, so EIL approach appears to follow this
trend. The very nature of EIL requires the syllabus to be competence-
oriented, learner centred and process-oriented. A set of strategic and
educational goals for teenagers should be specified by learning objectives
that should include linguistic, sociolinguistic, pragmatic, discourse,
cultural, cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains.
Summing up our premises, we submit that the course goals should be
formulated as a list of expected outcomes.
Content
Content selection starts with identifying contexts, communicative

situations and skills to be covered in the course. Once these have been
determined, it becomes possible to select the language materials
(functions, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation items). Finally, it is
necessary to decide on the types of texts, tasks and activities relevant to
the target audience and goal achievement.
When it comes to an integrated skills EIL course for teenagers, we find
it advisable to combine the development of multicultural awareness with
the development of receptive skills whereby production should be mostly
focused on the students’ ability to express their identity both in oral and
written forms.
In order to achieve this goal, reading skills (scanning, skimming and
reading for detailed comprehension) may be taught through short, well-
structured, informative texts (informal letters, extracts from magazine
articles, encyclopaedias, guide-, reference and travel books, and specially
written texts) telling about life and cultural traditions around the world as
well as texts on Russian culture written by foreigners, and texts with a
cross-discipline focus. Teaching listening for the gist and specific
information relies on short audio messages recorded by NS and NNS.
Speaking is taught through real-life situations relevant to the age and local
context and specially designed learning communicative situation
(classroom discussions, presentations, etc.) with a strong focus on speech
appropriateness. Writing is mainly functional (form filling, e-mails,
informal letters, CV) or academic (essays and reports).
Language material (themes, notions, functions, vocabulary, and
grammar) selected for the course corresponds to A2 (production)/B1
(reception) CEF levels, compliant with Waystage 1990 (van Ek 1998).
Pronunciation is mainly taught through listening. However, certain
issues that provide intelligibility (stress-timed rhythm, nuclear stress,
contrast between short and long vowels) (Jenkins 2002) continue being
formally taught throughout the course.
Efficient learning strategies constitute another key content component.
In particular, strong emphasis is laid on metacognitive learning strategies,
as adolescence is a singularly appropriate period to develop the ability to
centre, plan and organize learning. Direct learning strategies should be
mainly introduced through efficient classroom procedures.
In terms of activities, the course suggests a wide array of tasks
common for modern language teaching and relevant for the age group. On
the one hand, they include different interactive activities involving pair
and group work (surveys, games, discussions, project writing, etc.); on the
other hand, we believe that teenagers obviously need tasks opening space
for individual meditation, reflection and research (problem-solving based
on some data or written texts, reading comprehension and writing tasks,
etc.)
Summing up, the course content core includes the following: integrated
language skills within A2/B1levels (CEF); a selection of efficient learning
strategies; information providing multicultural awareness.
Assessment
The course previews formal, informal (performance-based) and student-

generated assessment. Some aspects of assessment require devising of
testing materials, while others are a matter of classroom management. In
all cases, approach to assessment should follow the syllabus: if the
syllabus priorities inclusiveness, appropriateness, intelligibility, and
learning skills, these should be the main subject of assessment throughout
the course.
It is evident that achievement of the stated goals cannot be assessed
across the criteria commonly used in TEFL, and EIL requires quite
specific assessment criteria. In these circumstances, it would be perfectly
appropriate to think in terms of competence development, rather than in
terms of pure language skills. Because of the lack of space, we cannot
discuss in detail how such criteria could be worked out2. In short, we argue
that students’ ability to work out problems and behave adequately in
situations involving the use of English should be the primary object of
assessment, while language proficiency should be considered a
subordinate skill.
It is the formal assessment that appears to be a problematic area due to
certain discrepancy in EIL philosophy and State National Exam’s
requirements. To meet the Russian State Educational Standard the course
should include SNE format testing materials and tasks but not as necessary
evil: these materials emphasize language skills, and we find them
extremely useful and appropriate. As we have mentioned above, EIL is not
about rejecting language, it is about enlarging its scope.
Materials Availability
However rational and sophisticated a syllabus may be, it cannot be put to

action without relevant teaching materials. The Russian book market is
rich in titles, both local and British, but all of them are written within
traditional EFL approach. Moreover, most of the local course books

convey rudiments of Grammar-Translation Method and/or early ideas of
Communicative Language Teaching. The local context is almost entirely
missing from the books. British authors targeting international audience
show respect for different cultures wherever possible, but considering the
diversity of their target audience, they can only pay extremely limited
attention to a particular culture. As for the local authors, there is a current
tendency of interpreting the idea of multicultural awareness in a rather
particular way, namely, by excluding the local context (that used to
overburden English course books produced in Russia few decades ago) in
favour of British/American realities.
The “Up & UP” series (Up & Up 2007, 2008) is a happy exception.
The authors, highly professional and experienced NNS English teachers,
succeeded in meeting all the requirements of EIL discussed in this article.
In the remainder of this article, we argue that a school course book should
be a local one or, at least, should account for local context and local
educational system.
Devising Materials
It cannot be entirely coincidental that, in two different parts of the globe,
almost simultaneously two remarkably similar course books appeared.
These are “Go for Chile” (1999, 2000) by Mugglestone, Elsworth & Rose3
and “Up & Up” (2007, 2008) by Timofeev, Wilner & Kolesnikova. The
books may seem rather different at first sight: the Chilean course book
focuses on receptive skills while the Russian book aims at developing
integrated skills; “Go for Chile” features adventures of an international
team of students exploring Chile, while “Up & Up” does not have any
coherent plot. However, conceptually, the books are remarkably similar,
sharing the same approach to the matter. Both books are aimed to increase
the motivation for language learning by meeting their actual needs relevant
to the local contexts.
“Up & Up” Framework (Timofeev, Wilner & Kolesnikova 2003)
presents a detailed description of the philosophy, aims and objectives,
methodology, and sequencing of the book. Meeting the new challenges of
the global world, the authors of “Up & Up” series support the idea of
English as International Language (EIL) and put this notion in the centre
of the course. The course framework is a result of the detailed analysis of
the situation and a comparative study of course books written and
published both in Russia and Great Britain. It is characterised by learner-
centred, communicative, cognitive, and competence approaches.
Developing the communicative competence of learners is one of the major

goals of the course. The corpus of the course is designed to meet the
demands of the modern society and to provide learners with adequate
language skills to be able to present their national and social identity in
different communicative situations. In this sense, a learner-centred
approach gives an opportunity to form the motivation. The “Up & Up”
authors’ approach to EIL agrees with the one presented in this article and
fulfils the requirements of the syllabus described above.
Although the procedure of writing a course book is inherently
remarkably similar to course content selection, it is far much more
complicated and difficult, as it involves converting a flat methodological
specification into a lively, comprehensive, substantial and enjoyable book.
It is a multidimensional task to which both factory patterns method and
factor analysis methods can be applied4. However, in the current situation,
authors can rely only on their professional knowledge and experience,
intuition, creativity, and common sense. “Up & Up” series is a truly
multidimensional book gripping from different methodological
perspective, but, in this paper, we discuss the books only in terms of the
EIL principles implementation.
Making Learning Language Meaningful and Learner-Centred
“Up & Up” series is a set of project tasks and materials. There are three
big projects in Book 10, and two in Book 11. All tasks and activities in the
units preceding a given project prepare the learners to implement it.
Moreover, each unit contains materials and tasks marked as helpful for the
upcoming project “For your project.” The projects are related to the local
context, and the project tasks are formulated in a way that requires
students to use English in order to complete the project (Figure 4-1). The
project tasks are getting more and more complicated throughout the series
both from the content and language perspective, thus remaining
challenging. Here, are some examples: designing a poster, recording a
radio programme for foreign listeners, making a website, making a TV
programme, preparing and participating in the conference “How to
improve the image of my region.”
The units preceding a given project provide students not only with
information and language necessary for successful completion of the
project, but also with ideas and advice on how to handle the task, thus
supplying the learners with metacognitive strategies. Direct strategies are
taught through well sequenced sets of pre-/post-reading/listening tasks. In
some cases, they are explained directly, for instance, guessing new words
from the context (B10, U4) or grouping words to memorize them (B10,
U5). Such target training makes project work feasible and successful. “My
Success Checklists” that follow every project allow students to monitor
their performance and help them take responsibility for their learning.
Figure 4-1. Up & Up, Book 10, p. 56
The local component is well presented in the books. Apart from factual
information about Russia and Russian culture, there are many materials
that present views of foreigners on the subject. Examples include letters
written by foreign visitors to their friends or relatives about different
Russian places they are visiting (Book 10: U2 “East or West”), or an
interview with a pop star who has been touring in Russia. (B 10: U3 “Time
Changes Places”). Some authentic materials are likewise including, for
instance, an advertisement of the Mariinsky Theatre performances in
London, giving a short account of Russian classical operas (B 10: U7 “Out
and About”) or a short review of “Crime and Punishment” by F.
Dostoyevsky from the back cover of the American edition (B 11: U5). The
authors show the interdependence of Russian and global cultures in terms
that are particularly appropriate for teenagers. Consider the following
example: “Never discuss with your hosts the origins of borsch. The
question about whether Ukrainian, Lithuanian or Russian borsch was the
first one is beyond the solution.” (B 10: U2). A newspaper report about a
13-year-old British singer and composer of Russian descent introduces the
idea of global mobility; at the same time, his vocal cycle based on the
Russian penitential verses and an opera based on “Beowulf” provide an
opportunity to talk about European culture (B 11: U6). A matching task,
where students are supposed to match the portraits of famous Russian
writers to their works (which they thus have to recall), is well illustrated
by the covers of English versions of these books published by different
British and American publishers (B 11: U5 “To Read or Not to Read?”).
Unit 6 in Book 11 introduces the controversial topic of national
stereotypes. Through a number of tasks including reading and listening to
different opinions on the issue, reading about Russian customs and
traditions, writing tips for visitors, etc., students are led to the final
discussion “What is Russia?”
The Global World is also well represented in the course books.
Students learn about Chinese New Year (B 10: U1), French cuisine (B 10:
U2), the tsunami in 2004 and the tragedy it brought to Thailand (B 10:
U8), Oriental martial arts (B 11: U4), British educational System (B 11:
U7), etc. Sometimes, multicultural component appears in unexpected
situations: for instance, a grammar exercise on have/has got consists in
comparing Murmansk situated in the north of Russia with Loviisna located
in the south of neighbouring Finland. The data are given in a table (WB
10, p. 11, task 4). Throughout the course, learners receive information
about different countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada,
China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Holland, Finland,
Thailand, Turkey, the UK, the USA). Non-native speakers from these
countries were invited to record audio texts (in cases where the plot
required an audio component and a speaker was available). Info boxes on
the margins provide brief information about geography, history, cultural
traditions, and the way of life (Figure 4-2). They also supply students with
knowledge of minor but indispensable for living in the global world details
like internationally used abbreviations and signs, tickets layout (B 10, U7)
or the tradition to print in italic foreign words used in a text (B 11, U2).
The course books contain a lot of extracts from British and American
authors. Well-known and recognizable titles have been selected to teach
genres (B 11, U5) and to talk about cinema and theatre (B 11, U2). ENL
is, thus, well presented in the books. However, the Englishes do not
feature prominently in the course books. Students are exposed to British,
American and Australian English in the audio recordings that accompany
the texts, but no particular emphasis is made on accent distinction.
Nevertheless, a number of tasks focus on lexical discrepancies, mostly as a
post-reading exercise (Figure 4-3).

Tasks related to modern communicative technologies (e-mailing, texting,

surfing the Internet) (B 11, U1, U2, U6), as well as the ability to fill in
standard international forms (B 10, U1), or write a standard document (B
10, U9) aim at future mobility (Figure 4-4). Multiculturalism also implies
self-identification as a member of the global community. Concerns about
what this world will be like in ten years’ time in terms of environment,
people’s health, school education, space travel, technology, learning
English, etc. provide an opportunity for further personal development (B
10, U 8).
Cross-discipline links and real life situations show students where and
how they can immediately apply their language skills. While such
situations as helping a lost tourist or taking visitors around (B 10, U2) are
not terribly frequent, knowledge and skills acquired in an English class can
be easily and beneficially transferred to other classes. Cross-discipline
links support studying of other subjects. Moreover, the popular science

format of the information given at EIL lessons helps students to relate a set
of dry facts, formulas and complex concepts to their world picture (B 10,
U2; B 10, U8; B 11, U5; B 11, U8) (Figure 4-5). The materials described
above are, of course, not attached to the course book as a mere supplement
and have not been devised solely in order to send a multicultural message
across. These tasks and activities serve as means of developing integrated
skills, including grammar and vocabulary skills. The main focus of this
article is the multicultural dimension of a language course, which is the
reason why we have left the language learning value of these materials
outside our discussion.
The authors believe that teacher development is a subsidiary but

nonetheless a fundamental aim of an EIL course. In the Introduction to the
Teacher’s Book, the authors explain and reason the principles of EIL
teaching, whereas Unit comments specify those principles through clearly
stated unit goals as well as through detailed explanation of the task aim
and procedure for almost every task. Besides, Teacher’s books contain
some recommendations on how to focus on memory, cognitive and
compensation strategies as teenagers are not able to cope with such
complicated things on their own. Teacher’s books also provide an
explanation of some multicultural realities that might be unfamiliar to
teachers. Teacher’s books are deliberately written in Russian not to
overload the readers with English terminology and let them concentrate on
the text content. It should be stressed that, however clear, full and
378 M
Multicultural Dim
mension in an International
I Ennglish Course
professionall the Teacher’s books are, the t course boooks as they are
a have a
lot of materiials for reflecttive teaching.
“Up & UUp” has been evaluated
e both
h formally andd informally. The book
has shown exceptionallyy high results on the scale of appropriaateness of
teaching maaterials5 (Figurre 4-6).
100%
%
93%
% 90%
% 90%
80%
%
Compliaance Coursse Classro

oom Assess ment Design and
with go
oals organisaation interacction andd layoout
evaluaation
Figure 4-6. R
Results across thhe scale of appro
opriateness of tteaching materiials
It may be helpful to coompare review ws and comm ments given by those

teachers whoo have alreadyy used these books
b in their classrooms:
“Thee course book develops

d motivvation to languuage learning, mainly
m
through iinteresting andd up-to-date materials
m and loocal componen nt.” (I.
Ignateva, Chelyabinsk, school
s 155)
“[…] a lot of meanningful and interesting tasks related to stu udents’
everyday life. Students are
a really enthu usiastic doing prrojects on sighttseeing
of their nnative city or wrriting traditionaal Russian cuisiine recipes, etc.. What
is more, tthe tasks involvve working in the t libraries, gooing to museum ms and
surfing thhe Internet.” (M
M. Teterina, Perm m, Ural Federall District)
“The course has helped my studen nts, who are reeally weak and d low-
motivatedd, to break through psychologiical barrier andd believe in feassibility
of learninng English.” (V. ( Solomakhiina, Zelenodol sk, Moscow region, r
school 9)
“[…] texts are rich and fascinating g. There are a l ot of cross-disccipline
materials useful for the classes of Histo ory, Geographyy, Math, and Ph hysics.
Strong foocus on efficieent learning strrategies as weell as Check Lists L is
highly apppreciated by mym students […]. Resource packk materials as well w as
Teacher’s book comments are very helpful. The more I work with this
book, the more I understand its logic and educational message. I just like
teaching it.” (N. Plekhanova, Chistopol, Tatarstan, school 16)
“Up & Up” has been approved by the Russian Ministry of Education and
is currently used in a number of schools across the country. Besides
schools in Moscow and the Moscow Region, St. Petersburg, Vyborg,
Velikie Luki, Chelyabinsk, Tumen (traditional Russian-speaking areas), it
has been successfully used in Kazan, Perm, Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk,
Anadyr, Yakutsk, Khabarovsk, and other areas where many students are
non-native speakers of Russian. At the moment, the authors are working
on a new series of the same type, this time for younger learners (primary
school).
Conclusions
Being bilingual users in the Expanding Circle country, we can clearly see
that, in the local context, there is a strong demand for understanding of
both native and non-native speakers from different cultural backgrounds
and delivering personal ideas and culture to others. A new perspective in
understanding the role of English in the changing world inevitably raises
the issue of why, what and how to teach. The paper suggests a number of
practical implications for teaching and shows how they can implement
syllabus and material design. From the course design perspective:
- The shift to EIL teaching mostly affects such areas as needs analysis,
goals and objectives, content, assessment and evaluation, and
availability of materials; we do not foresee any significant changes
resulting from EIL teaching in course structure, pacing, equipment, and
course evaluation.
- An EIL course focuses students’ ability to work out problems and
behave adequately in communicative situations that should be assessed
while language proficiency should be considered as a subordinate skill.
- The very nature of EIL requires a syllabus to be competence-oriented,
learner centred and process-oriented.
- The course content core includes language skills (receptive/
productive/integrated) that meet the learners’ needs in a particular
learning context; a selection of efficient learning strategies;
information providing multicultural awareness.
- A clear and well-structured EIL syllabus together with supplementary
materials designed in accordance with it can serve not only as
guidelines for students’ daily work but also as a tool for teachers’ own
professional and sometimes even personal development.
However rational and sophisticated a syllabus may be, it cannot be put to

action without relevant teaching materials. The materials meet the new
challenges of the global world if the authors support the idea of English as
International Language (EIL), put this notion in the centre of the course
and aim to increase the motivation for language learning by meeting their
actual needs relevant to the local contexts as it has been done for “Up &
UP” series. The corpus of the course is designed to meet the demands of
the modern society and provide learners with adequate language skills to
be able to present their national and social identity in different
communicative situations.
“Up & UP” series proves that it is possible to make learning
meaningful and learner-centred offering a number of challenging project
tasks. The local culture and the global world, as well as their
interdependence, should be presented in the course books. Cross-
discipline links and real life situations should be clearly included since
they show the students where and how they can immediately apply their
language skills.
The materials described above are, of course, not attached to the course
book as a mere supplement and have not been devised solely in order to
send a multicultural message across. These tasks and activities serve as
means of developing integrated skills, including grammar and vocabulary
skills. When it comes to an integrated skills EIL course for teenagers, we
find it advisable to combine the development of multicultural awareness
with the development of receptive skills whereby production should be
mostly focused on the students’ ability to express their identity both in oral
and written forms.
Such an approach to course and material design appears to be
successful. It is proved by students’ enthusiasm and irreproachable results
reported by school teachers who have piloted “Up & Up” series in high
schools across the country.
Notes
1. “Up & Up” framework (Timofeev, Wilner & Kolesnikova 2003) presents a
description of new aims and goals for English language teachers that urgently
arose at the time. In 2003, Russia joined the Bologna Process and the State
Exam Project revealed a low level of language competence of high school
students in different regions of the country. As the result of the detailed
analysis of the situation and a comparative study of course books written and
published in both Russia and Great Britain from the official list of Ministry of
Education the aims of learning, teaching strategies and techniques for the new
course were worked out. Developing of communicative competence of learners
is one of the major goals of the course. The corpus of the course is designed to
meet the demands of the modern society and to provide learners with adequate
language skills to be able to present their national and social identity in
different communicative situations. In this sense, a learner-centred approach
gives an opportunity to form the motivation.
2. The rationales, development procedure and criteria for competence-oriented
testing see in Terekhova (2012).
3. The deductions are made from McKay’s (2003) article since the authors have
not had an opportunity to see that series
4. Unfortunately, as far as we are concerned, no study has ever been done in that
area though both methods are widely used in IT, social sciences, operations
research, and other fields. A cross-discipline study aiming to create a matrix
for non-native language course book writing might be extremely challenging.
5. Evaluation criteria, measurement instruments and result interpretation can be
found in Terekhova (2009).
Acknowledgements
All examples in devising materials section are copyrighted by
ACADEMIA Publishing House, Moscow, Russia. We are sincerely and
heartily grateful to all English teachers who have taken part in approbation
of the “Up & Up” course books and gave us necessary feedback. We are
sure this article would have not been possible without their participation
and ideas.
References
Crystal, D. (2008). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Graddol, D. (2006). English Next. London: British Council.
Jenkins, Jennifer. (2002). A Sociolinguistically Based, Empirically
Researched Pronunciation Syllabus for English as an International
Language. Applied Linguistics 23 (1): 83-103.
Kachru, B. B. (1992). Models for Non-native Englishness. In B. B. Kachru
(Ed.), The Other Tongue: English across Cultures. Urbana & Chicago:
University of Illinois Press. 48-74.
McKay, Sandra Lee. (2002). Teaching English as an International
Language: Rethinking Goals and Approaches. New York, NY: Oxford
University Press.
—. (2003). Teaching English as an International Language: The Chilean

Context. ELT Journal 57 (2): 139-148.
Rean, A. (Ed.) (2003). Adolescent Psychology: Complete Guide. St.
Petersburg: Prime-EVROZNAK.
Seidlhoffer, Barbara. (2001). Closing a Conceptual Gap: The Case for a
Description of English as a Lingua Franca. International Journal of
Applied Linguistics 11 (2): 133-158.
Terekhova, Polina. (2009). Materials Evaluation: Criterion-oriented
Approach. Proceedings of XXXVIII International Philology
Conference 2. St. Petersburg: 198-211.
—. (2012). Competence-oriented Examination in a Foreign Language: The
Question of a Descriptor for a Professionally-directed Learning FL.
Bulletin of St. Petersburg State University 9 (Philology), 1: 165-180.
Ter-Minasova, S. (1999). Language as a Mirror of Culture. Moscow:
Moscow State University Press.
Timofeev, V., Wilner, A. & Kolesnikova, I. (2003). Uchebno-
metodicheskij kompleks po anglijskomu jazyku dl’a srednej shkoly
novogo pokolenija [New Generation English Coursebooks for
Secondary Schools of Russian Federation: A Framework]. St.
Petersburg: St. Petersburg State University Press.
Timofeev, V., Wilner, A. & Kolesnikova, I. (2007, 2008). Up & Up.
Books 1 and 2. Moscow: Academia.
TEACHING CHINESE IN A MULTICULTURAL
CONTEXT
XIAOJING WANG
Introduction and Background

Mandarin Chinese (abbreviated as Chinese) is the language that has the
most native speakers globally. It is believed that learning a new language
could broaden the learners’ horizon of the world and provide them with
opportunities for exposure to different cultural knowledge (Castro 2010).
Likewise, learning Chinese brings speakers of other languages to the
threshold of distinctive Chinese traditions and culture (Lee 2001, Stephens
1997, Tiedt & Tiedt 2005, Tomlinson 2005). Meanwhile, the cultural
perception could push forward the learners’ acquisition of language skills
and the knowledge beyond the language itself (Nelson 1995). In recent
years, sufficient number of Confucius Institutes has been established
globally providing a platform for Chinese language learners. In fact,
inspired by an increasing level of social awareness of Chinese, a large
number of language learners have devoted themselves to learn the Chinese
language in every corner of the world (McCall 1995, Tochon 2009).
Brown (2000) suggested that cultural distance and cognitive and affective
proximity of different cultures should be explicitly measured and
examined. Besides, in such an environment, it becomes quite necessary to
analyze the culture of the people speaking foreign languages, as well as to
establish a relationship between these cultures and the learners’ native
cultures from the aspects of humanity, social issues, literature, etc. (Frenck
& Min 2001, Holtgraves & Kashima 2008, Tang 1999, Valverde 2005).
To some extent, contextual issues should be given top priority while
teaching Chinese language worldwide. In this vein, Chinese culture,
learners’ individual cultural backgrounds, as well as the cultural
environment in which they stay should be seriously comprehended and
exploited. Moreover, an understanding is also required concerning the
linguistic and behavioural patterns of the cultures at a more conscious
level. Not everyone in this world is “just like me.” In fact, there are, in
384 Teaching Chinese in a Multicultural Context
many aspects, real differences between groups and cultures (Bentahila &
Davies 1989, Brown 2000). However, these different aspects are
sometimes interdependent. It is similar to what Tang (1999) had
propounded: culture is language and language is culture. In other words,
language cannot be wholly separated from the culture in which it is deeply
embedded, since it is necessary for the language learners to adopt a wider
perspective in the perception of reality. Students who aim at developing
cultural awareness and cultural sensitiveness are usually those who are
least disposed towards cross-cultural communication (Cakir 2006, McCall
1995). To develop cultural awareness in language classrooms, it should be
kept in mind that the language is learned along with the ways and attitudes
of the social group following different cultural patterns (Tochon 2009).
Thus, language teachers cannot avoid conveying impressions of other
cultures, which play a therapeutic role in helping learners to move through
stages of acculturation during the process of language acquisition (Cakir
2006). More importantly, if learners are supported by insightful and
perceptive teachers, they can perhaps more efficiently pass through the
stages of culture learning and, thereby, increase their chances of
succeeding in language learning (Cakır 2006, Holtgraves & Kashima
2008, Jiang 2010).
Multicultural Context
With the gradual formation of the global village, human beings nowadays
always gather near multicultural contexts, such as in schools, working
places, shopping malls and hospitals. Communication is essential to
survive in these situations. In other words, mastering a universal language
is a principal goal. Guest (2002) claimed that language and its culture are
born together. On the global stage, the spread of English as a language for
multinational and multicultural communication, utilised by an enormous
number of non-native speakers, shows the importance of English in many
regions of the world (Honna 2005, Lee 2001, Nostrand 1989). English has
been promoted in most Asian countries since the 20th century (Honna
2005). It has become a working language for intranational and
international communication in many regions of Asia. According to a
survey (Honna 2005), 350 million people speak English for various
purposes in Asia – a number that is close to the combined populations of
the United States (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK), where English is
a native tongue for most citizens. With the increasing number of English
users, English is bound to reflect a diversity of disparate cultures (Göbel &
Helmke 2010). Importantly, non-native speakers are taking advantage of
Xiaojing Wang 385
this additional language and are exploring new dimensions of English

usage, which meanwhile has brought diverse cultural elements into their
regions (Honna 2005). It could, therefore, help many learners to further
understand the language and break down the underlying blocks in
communication in most cases (Frenck & Min 2001, Gay & Howard 2010,
Nelson 1995). In some Asian countries, such as Singapore and India,
eastern cultures and western cultures are woven together en masse.
Therefore, their inhabitants have experienced challenges from such a
multicultural context, as well as opportunities for the development of their
nations (Guest 2002, Pulverness 2000). English, the world’s leading
language, stems from the UK. Tracing the history of the UK as a unitary
state, it combines, absorbs and consists of diverse cultures from the world,
since it has 14 overseas territories (Jones 2005). The UK, therefore, is
influenced by many of its former territories and also new refugees in the
aspects of language, such as culture and legal systems. That is to say, a
variety of cultures is closely intertwined into British culture through such
contact (Jones 2005, Valverde 2005). In fact, culture has been defined in
many different ways. Many teachers have accepted culture as a broadly
defined concept consisting of patterned behaviour (Cooper et al. 1990,
Hinkel 1999, 2005). More precisely, culture is conceptualised as a way of
life, a way people see and perceive the world, which sets the rules to
establish the functioning of a group of people, guiding them in their
interpretation of social life (Valverde 2005, Yule 2000). Thus, language
learners need to develop a sense of cross-cultural awareness to affect
people’s perception of contextual reality and different worldviews
(Bautista 1991). Valdes (1986) has ever raised the issue that, while diverse
cultures co-exist, new substances will occur and bring either opportunities
or threats. The multicultural environment could result in ethnic problems
among such a variety of people. Meanwhile, such coexistence may lead to
the development of culture and humanity in the regions (Castro 2010,
Nostrand 1989, Valdes 1986). In this circumstance, the cultural context of
language teaching, especially the context to teach a non-dominant
language, becomes rather complicated, but nevertheless necessary for
investigation, for instance, to teach Chinese in a multicultural context in
the UK is a truly extraordinary case.
Context of the Problem Studied

As stated previously, the UK is famous for its enormous diversity of
citizenship (Jones 2005). The British population contains a variety of
immigrants and the offspring of these immigrants. According to a recent
study carried out by the University of Leeds, ethnic minorities are set to
make up 1/5 of the UK population in 40 years (BBC 2010, Infoplease
2012). The study has predicted that the proportion of black, Asian and
other ethnic minorities will rise from 8% of the population, as recorded in
the 2001 census, to 20% by the year 2051, as a result of the expected high
levels of immigration from Europe, Australasia and the United States
(BBC 2010). With such a mixture of races, the relative educational
environment has been subject to change in the aspects of curriculum
design and teaching strategies, in order to adapt to the varied multicultural
context.
In the new century, Chinese, compared with English, has gradually
drawn the attention of the world. With the increased number of Confucius
Institutes established globally, a large number of the Chinese learners of
other languages are pursuing Chinese in multicultural and multilingual
contexts. However, at the moment, the Confucius Institutes mostly cater
for adult learners aged 16+. Therefore, the United Kingdom Association
for the Promotion of Chinese Education (UKAPCE) aims to create an
association of all local Chinese schools and promote the Chinese language
nationwide among different age groups (Blanden & Machin 2004). This
association has benefited many young Chinese learners, including children
of immigrant Chinese adults, British-born Chinese, local British,
immigrant children with other L1 (first language) backgrounds. Many
Chinese schools in the UK have been established and/or sponsored by
UKAPCE since the 20th century (ibidem).
With continuous efforts aimed at promoting Chinese nationwide in the
UK, a great number of learners have devoted themselves to learning
Chinese. Thus, effective approaches for teaching a non-dominant language
have become particularly crucial and challenging for the teachers. Many
studies have investigated language teaching approaches by considering the
learners’ capability and needs (Kashima & Kashima 1998, Tiedt & Tiedt
2005, Tochon, Kasperbauer & Potter 2007); however, rarely have studies
focused on the teaching approaches among the learners with diverse L1
backgrounds or related such approaches to the effect of language
acquisition in a wider perspective of the multicultural environment (Castro
2010, Guest 2002, Hinkel 1999, 2005).
In light of determining teaching approaches to students in multicultural
contexts, culture norms should be taken into account. Tomlinson &
Masuhara (2004) have found that, although culture is not seen as a
straitjacket binding students to particular learning styles, it does, as a
norm, deeply affect the way the learners acquire languages. For instance,
Spanish students valued both pair and group work, whereas Chinese
Xiaojing Wang 387
students did not (Pulverness 2000, Saluveer 2004, Tomlinson 2005).

Prior studies done in the multicultural context mainly concentrated on
European languages (Kramsch 1993, 1995, 2003, Tang 1999). For this
reason, a new attempt at teaching Chinese as a second or foreign language
(L2) in an assorted cultural environment is indispensable.
The current study aims to identify the influential factors in teaching
Chinese in the UK – a multicultural context; meanwhile, the feasible and
effective teaching approaches should be identified and evaluated in
accordance with the learning difficulties, so as to help young learners to
acquire Chinese as a foreign language in a non-Chinese dominant
environment.
Methodology
Research Methods
The methods for this study are a combination of quantitative

questionnaires and qualitative semi-structured interviews for different
groups of participation. In broad terms, quantitative research was to entail
the collection of numerical data and exhibit a view of the relationship
between theory and research for a natural science approach (Bryman 2004,
Creswell 2002). A questionnaire, as a quantitative approach, is usually
designed for statistical analysis of the large amounts of responses in
different forms, such as mail questionnaires and telephone questionnaires.
In this paradigm, the emphasis is on facts and causes of behaviour (Gay &
Airasian 2000).
On the other hand, qualitative research, including interviews and
observations, is a research strategy that embodies an in-depth
understanding of human behaviours and reasons governing such
behaviours (Creswell 2002, Taylor & Bogdan 1998). Semi-structured
interviews, also called focused interviews, could allow flexibility in data
collection and provide detailed information for analysis (Bernard 2010,
Rossman & Rallis 2003, Rubin & Rubin 1995). Both qualitative and
quantitative methods are employed in the current study to guarantee the
validity and reliability of research results from a wider range of
perspectives.
Research Instrumentation
In the present study, according to the research purposes and research

contexts, a questionnaire was distributed among 30 teenage Chinese
learners of other languages. Because of the young age and diverse

language backgrounds of the participants, the questionnaire was designed
in a relatively unsophisticated format in English. In total, 15 questions
were designed including only four main open questions, since the
participants were teenagers, normally incapable of answering open-ended
questions and providing objective opinions (each question has additional
space for students’ further comments). The questions were interpreted in
an easy manner, and all the participants anonymously completed their
questionnaires under the supervision of their teachers.
The questionnaire was designed on the basis of literature review and
research objectives. In spite of the students’ basic background information,
they were largely required to answer the questions based on (a) their
difficulty in learning Chinese; (b) the outcome of their Chinese
acquisition; (c) their attitudes towards teachers’ language used as
instructions; (d) their opinions as to the effectiveness of teachers’
instruction in class and their suggestions to facilitate language learning; (e)
their sensation of the atmosphere of the Chinese school; and (f) their
expectations of Chinese school and/or Chinese language learning.
Meanwhile, semi-structured interviews have been employed in order to
explore specific information about teaching strategies and teaching
difficulties among five Chinese teachers who were teaching the participant
students in the Chinese school. The interviews were recorded for data
analysis. Different from structured interviews, a semi-structured interview
did not rely on a set of relatively rigid pre-determined questions and
prompts (Berg 2004, Bernard 2010, Gay & Airasian 2000); instead, it
aimed to leave a great deal of leeway to the interviewees and allow new
questions to be brought up during the interview flexibly, while asking
scheduled questions (Bryman 2004, Rossman & Rallis 2003). The semi-
structured interview was designed under the framework of the research
purpose, and the questions were open within the constraints of this
framework (Bryman 2004, Rubin & Rubin 1995, Taylor & Bogdan 1998).
In addition, the characteristics of different groups of participants have
been measured and considered for the selection of research methods. We
see that questionnaires can anonymously reveal the students’ underlying
perceptions and thoughts in a simple and direct way, while semi-structured
interviews offer the inventory of issues in the process of interaction, which
will probably be the additional part of the study findings. In other words,
adult teachers can contribute more objective and consistent information to
the research through interviews, while young students can easily manage
the clear-cut questions displayed in questionnaires.
Xiaojing Wang 389
Research Participant
The current study was carried out in a charity-sponsored Mandarin

Chinese school in England. The school has a total of 102 students and
seven teachers (two activity teachers). All learners come to school every
Saturday to study Chinese for two to three hours. They are grouped
according to their levels of Chinese language and varied personal
requirements. In one class, each teacher normally manages around twenty
students aged 6-16. In addition to the Chinese language, the students could
also join several Chinese culture-based classes, such as Chinese
calligraphy, Chinese traditional dance, drawing, and Tai Chi.
In my study, in total, thirty Chinese learners participated, including
eleven male teenagers and nineteen female teenagers aged 11-16, who
were at least bilingual speakers before learning Chinese. Five of them
were local British children and three of them were from Spain, Germany
and the USA, respectively. Another thirteen teenagers were from
immigrant Cantonese families (abbreviated as Canton Im) who could
speak Cantonese, French and English, and the remaining participants were
six Mandarin Chinese immigrants (abbreviated as Chin Im) and three
British-born Chinese (abbreviated as BBC) students. Table 4-5
summarizes the distribution of the research participants and their language
backgrounds.
Table 4-5. Distribution of participants’ language backgrounds

Immigrant
Immigrant
Cantonese
Students
German
Spanish
Chinese
British
BBC
USA
Number 3 13 6 5 1 1 1
Language French Cantonese Chinese French Spanish German Spanish
/English /French /French /English /English /English /English
/English /English
Such distribution of participants has created a multicultural context in the

Chinese school, which could guarantee the effectiveness of the research
design and ensure the generalization of the research results could be
applied to different ranges of learner groups who take Chinese as a second
or foreign language worldwide.
Five teachers, except the two activity teachers, from the Chinese
school voluntarily joined the research. All of them have various teaching
experience in the UK or China, and they have taught Chinese for at least
two years in this school. These teachers are all native Chinese speakers
who have devoted themselves to promoting the Chinese language and
benefiting those Chinese aficionados in the UK.
Informed Consent
In the light of most ethical guidelines, certain research projects do not

require the informed consent of participants (Rossman & Rallis 2003).
Such projects may entail the use of natural naturalistic observations where
the participants cannot be personally identified or harmed in any way. All
other research projects mandate the informed consent of participants,
which is typically achieved by having them sign a consent form (Berg
2004, Rossman & Rallis 2003).
According to McKinney (2004), the consent form embodies several
key principles. The participants are told about the general nature of the
study – what they can expect to occur and what is expected of them as
participants – as well as about any potential harm or risks that the study
may cause (ibidem). The ethical conduct of research is to frame the
research questions and the agenda objectively, to widen the scope of the
social research, and to maintain confidence in the research process
(Bernard 2010). Under such consideration, all the information about the
participants would be anonymously shown in the research. The
participants are assured of confidentiality, and they have been informed
that they are free to decline participation and may withdraw from the study
at any time without penalty (Bernard 2010, Gay & Airasian 2000,
McKinney 2004).
Since my research covers social and cultural issues, the sensitivity and
conflicting interests of such issues are carefully dealt with (Taylor &
Bogdan 1998). In this case, I cautiously ensured that the conduct,
management and administration of research are framed in a way consistent
with ethical principles. More importantly, as most of the research
participants were teenagers, the consent forms were signed by their parents
or guardians.
Reliability and Validity
It is widely acknowledged that the two fundamental features of any

measurement procedure are reliability and validity, which are usually
called into question (Creswell 2002, Kumar 2011).
Validity determines whether the research truly measures what it was
intended to measure. It could refer to the success of the project in
Xiaojing Wang 391
achieving “valid” results (Joppe 2000, Kumar 2011). There are many
sources of errors that could reduce the validity of a project, including poor
sample selection, resultant bias, basic coding errors, misunderstanding of
management and research questions by the researchers, and
misunderstanding of the investigative questions by the respondents
(Creswell 2002, Golafshani 2003, Kothari 2009). The validity of the
current study would be concerned about the research results, which have
been supported and ensured through serious methods of selection and
rigorous data collection procedures.
The extent to which results are consistent over time and are an accurate
representation of the total population under study is referred to as
reliability (Joppe 2000). Simply put, reliability refers to the consistency of
the measure used in a study (Joppe 2000, Kothari 2009, Kumar 2011).
There should be compelling evidence to show that the results are
consistent across researchers and across scoring occasions (Creswell
2002). In the current research, reliability, as an indication of the
consistency of scores across studies, has been guaranteed by empirical
cross-cultural studies. The research methods have been repeatedly proven
to be reliable in many relative inquiries. Therefore, the scientific research
methods used in my study could also help to produce similar results
among different groups of participants in the future.
Limitation of Study
In general, research limitations are most often related to human beings as

well as to the research design (Kothari 2009, Tochon 2009). The
limitations of the present study include two main aspects.
First, one limitation is caused by the limited number of participants.
The size of the participant group affects the generation of research results
(Bernard 2010). However, within the context of this research, potential
teenage participants were relatively scarce, and, in addition, some parents
were not willing to allow their children to participate in such an
investigation. Therefore, the number of participants was critically
restricted, and reliability of the research results has been reduced in my
study.
Furthermore, there is no doubt that bias could be another reason for the
limitation. Obviously, the researcher’s personal bias toward the objective
world is an unavoidable limitation in all studies (Creswell 2002, Tochon
2009). For instance, the questionnaire is designed and revised based on my
personal knowledge and the reviewed literature, which may include my
subjective bias in designing the questions and, therefore, in receiving

responses.
Results and Discussion

Results from Teachers’ Interviews
The current semi-structured interviews of the five teachers have shown

that having students with diverse backgrounds in one class unequivocally
requires particular care and strategic teaching approaches in order to
facilitate their Chinese language acquisition in a non-Chinese context.
Considering the backgrounds of the students, the language in which
teachers deliver instruction has to vary in different situations (Bautista
1991, Brooks 1968, Stephens 1997). Most of the teachers switch only
between Chinese and English in class; however, a new Cantonese
immigrant required the teacher to switch sometimes to Cantonese to
explain the content of lessons to this student. Most teachers have insisted
that code switching between instructional languages was necessary and
effective for students’ comprehension, since those students were teenagers
who would be frustrated in an immersion class. The teachers have also
pointed out that the code-switching of instruction language has
unmistakably squandered too much time.
In terms of the influential factors which resulted in diverse outcomes
of language acquisition in the multicultural context, students’ L1s, their
age groups, their learning purposes, their cultural backgrounds, their
attitudes towards Chinese, and the influence of parents and friends have all
been emphasized by the teachers in the interviews. Because of such
diversity in the class, the teaching difficulty is proportionally increased.
Generally speaking, the above mentioned influential factors, mostly and
essentially, are attributed to learner difference, partially constrained by
their cultural differences.
Firstly, it has been discovered that students with Chinese backgrounds
obviously learn faster than the rest of the students, especially faster than
western students. Obviously, the non-Chinese parents could hardly help
their children review the Chinese materials or prepare for the Chinese
lessons. Instead, they purchased several teacher-recommended videos and
books for their children, in order to spark some interests in their spare
time. In the Chinese school, teachers normally encouraged and arranged
for these western students to collaborate with students who had Chinese
backgrounds so they could work productively.
Xiaojing Wang 393
Moreover, regarding age and learning differences, teachers provided

bodily-kinaesthetic activities in class, which enriched the courses and
strengthened positive learning outcomes. Complex Chinese grammar was
usually taught to higher-level or older students who had the ability to cope
with its intricate structures. In contrast, beginner groups or beginner-to-
intermediate groups largely focused on oral Chinese and written
characters.
In terms of learning outcome, all teachers stressed that older students
with Chinese backgrounds were able to comprehend Chinese quickly in all
four language skills, while those with western backgrounds were able to
handle most Chinese sounds successfully but were not proficient at the
other skills. However, there is an exceptional case. The Spanish learner
wrote Chinese characters exceptionally well as she had a habit of copying
10 Chinese characters 50 times per day. Furthermore, because of the
diverse learner backgrounds, the majority of teachers could not integrate
too many cultural activities for the consideration of the Chinese and
Cantonese immigrants.
Most of the time, the teachers followed the traditional present-practice-
produce (abbreviated as PPP) paradigm to foster the process of language
acquisition. Occasionally, they switched to implement thought-provoking
group activities or team work to draw students’ attention and
spontaneously boost critical thinking.
In addition, motivated students could comprehend language at a
relatively fast pace. All teachers have agreed that stimulating students to
learn Chinese in an English-dominant environment was a hard nut to
crack. The students immediately switched to English after classes; even
worse, students preferred to use English for group discussions and
addressing questions. Three teachers have further underlined that students’
motivation has markedly declined with constant quizzes and tests, but it is
enhanced by group performance or teamwork.
Hence, all teachers have required parents to monitor students’ study at
home or to bring their kids to make Chinese friends or join in Chinese
events region wide, which, therefore, aroused students’ attention in using
Chinese for communication or even “showing off” their Chinese language
in communities. For instance, the five British children were invited by
their Chinese partners to the Spring Festival ceremony in China town to
experience Chinese traditions. Thus, British students have developed a
fascination for both Chinese language and culture in the meantime.
Results from Students’ Questionnaires
Overall, the results generated from the students’ questionnaires have

shown their personal information and revealed their perspectives on their
individual language learning experiences at the Chinese school. Based on
the data collected and analyzed, 28 out of 30 students have enjoyed
learning Chinese, the environment of the Chinese school and meeting
friends from different schools and countries at weekends. One German
student claims to have experienced a unique cultural atmosphere at the
Chinese school, insofar as the students are expected to be exceptionally
well behaved – they can only ask questions with the teacher’s permission.
Six students would like to attempt a GCSE (General Certificate Secondary
Education) in Mandarin Chinese in a few years.
Only two students state that learning Chinese was not their own
willingness. One student emphasizes that Chinese is useless in most
communication situations in the community as she can speak Cantonese,
French and English remarkably well. Another indicates that the high
competence of the Chinese-origin peers has caused him/her to feel under
considerable pressure. Meanwhile, six western students have suggested
that teachers involve additional culture-based activities to facilitate
students’ comprehension of the underlying meaning of the Chinese
language.
The following tables list student attitudes towards teacher instruction
language and teaching approaches used in class. As Table 4-6 shows, most
students (70%) consider the instruction language to be quite effective and
necessary to understand teaching content and complementary
interpretations, while three students were not satisfied with the instruction
language used in classes, stating that code-switching or bilingual
instruction not only wasted time, but also tended to retard progress. Two
older students insisted that Chinese should be the only teaching medium so
as to benefit their language acquisition.
Table 4-6. Students’ attitudes to teachers’ instruction language
Attitudes to Very useful Useful Neutral Not useful

instruction language
Number of students 6/30 (20%) 15/30 (50%) 6/30 (20%) 3/30 (10%)
Interestingly, as shown in Table 4-7, more than half of the students were
unsatisfied with the teaching approaches (nearly 56.7%). Several students
raised the point that the teachers’ main teaching method is rigid drills and
Xiaojing Wang 395
exercises, a decidedly traditional Chinese style that is not creative or

attractive. In total, only five Chinese immigrants (about 16.7%) were
familiar with this teaching approach.
Table 4-7. Students’ attitudes to teaching approaches
Attitudes to Very useful Useful Neutral Not useful

instruction language
Number of students 0/30 (0%) 5/30 (16.7) 8/30 (26.7%) 17/30 (56.7%)
Results relating to the aspect of acquiring Chinese perceived as the most

difficult are given in Table 4-8. Almost all of the students regard Chinese
written forms, which are dramatically different from European letters, as
the most difficult aspect of Chinese, the exception being two older Chinese
immigrants who had received several years’ primary education in China.
Reading was also deemed as a difficulty by 83.3% of students, as reading
largely relied on the recognition of characters.
Table 4-8. Students’ response to learning difficulty in acquiring

Chinese
Difficulty Written Reading Listening Speaking Grammar Culture

forms skill skill skill
Number of 28/30 25/30 16/30 15/30 10/30 7/30
students (93.3%) (83.3%) (53.3%) (50%) (33.3%) (23.3%)
Among all the difficulties, interestingly, that of culture seems to be the

least significant. Roughly, 23.3% students believe that cultural themes are
particularly intriguing and sometimes difficult to understand, such as
traditions and customs. British students mentioned that grasping the
traditional stories behind Chinese idioms was always a long journey.
Half of the students could hardly manage the listening and speaking
skills, in particular those from Spain, Germany, America and Britain,
which indicated that Chinese pronunciation was indeed far removed from
that of the European languages. For example, Chinese has four tones
representing significant distinction in meaning; and even more
importantly, perhaps, the Chinese ‘xi’, or ‘chi’ sound is not used in most
European languages. The difficulty in Chinese listening and speaking was
thus automatically increased.
In total, 1/3 of participants, mostly aged 14-, addressed confusions
because of the complicated grammatical structures. One British child
cannot catch the rules of Chinese sentences since the word orders and
other grammatical structures vary in many forms under different
situations.
Discussion of Results
Teachers and students have provided their opinions and raised different
issues through questionnaires and interviews on the subject of learning a
non-dominant language in a multicultural context. In fact, it is remarkably
normal to teach or learn a language that is not dominant in a country;
however, it is extremely difficult to acquire such a language among a
group of learners with diverse cultural backgrounds. On the basis of the
research purposes and the presented research results, teacher and learner
differences have been analyzed as the main factors that affect the Chinese
language learning process in a multicultural context.
Teachers have different levels of professional competence, different
teaching styles, teaching attitudes, teaching approaches, instructional
practices, and suchlike. Tomlinson (2005) has stated that these teacher
differences could significantly affect language acquisition and students’
intellectual development.
Basically, in the current case, the five teachers all regarded teaching
Chinese in terms of their responsibility to help new generations explore
wider opportunities in the future, yet, the different teachers employed
distinctively different teaching styles. In addition to the traditional PPP
teaching format, the young female teacher tended to use vigorous teaching
approaches, so she always brought authentic materials to improve
students’ visual perception; while other experienced teachers would
occasionally integrate group activities or team work into the PPP
paradigm. The only male teacher was a Chinese editor, so his rich
knowledge and experience appealed to many students.
All the teachers were sensitive to the prevailing norms of the cultures
in which they were teaching. All the teachers were sensitive to the
prevailing norms of the cultures in which they were teaching. As has been
suggested, in classroom operation, the integration of cultural context
largely determines what is to be learned and how it is to be taught (Genc &
Bada 2005, McNeal 2005). Therefore, the cultural environment should be
brought to the forefront. Quite a few studies have provided superb
teaching insights in relation to different cultural contexts (Brown 2000,
Cohen 1998, Oxford 1990).
Culture influences one’ attitudes, emotions, beliefs and values – one’s
general behaviour, in fact (Valverde 2005, Witherspoon 1980). Put simply,
Xiaojing Wang 397
culture projects one’s entire being. Just as teacher differences are mostly
rooted in multicultural contexts, so it is also with learner differences. The
students’ individual learning attributes determine that each student should
be taught exclusively in the manner best suited to those attributes (Dirven
& Putz 1993, Valverde 2005). In other words, learner differences are
critical factors affecting learning outcome. As research data in the present
study shows, these learner differences consist of students’ L1s, their
diverse ethnic backgrounds, their expectations, attitudes, habits, needs and
learning styles, these all originating from cultural differences across
remarkably dissimilar cultures.
In any classroom, there will be individual variations of preferred
learning styles (Bentahila & Davies 1989, Pulverness 2000). The western
or BBC students here felt indisposed toward the stiff restrictions of which
most of the Chinese immigrants were in favour. Obviously, training each
student in the same way benefits some and handicaps others. Treating
Spanish students like Chinese, for example, would certainly penalize the
Spanish students. However, treating Spanish students in the same
culturally appropriate way would penalize those Spanish students whose
personalities and learning style preferences do not conform to
stereotypical norms (Ilieva 2005, McNeal 2005, Tomlinson 2005).
Nobody seems to have provided evidence to suggest that the basic
principles of successful language acquisition vary from culture to culture.
However, what do seem to differ are the typical approaches to
teaching/learning a language, which are amendable to modification (Genc
& Bada 2005, Jiang 2000, Tomlinson & Masuhara 2004).
According to the discussions during interviews, the teachers have
identified, in fact, that where designed activities and teaching contents
were able to mirror features in students’ social culture that had not
previously been exploited, then these students responded extremely
positively in terms of team cooperation and language learning. This shows
that culture has a prominent place in foreign language education. In this
case, class activities should embrace students’ socio-cultural perceptions
and accommodate their cultural differences. Instead of requiring students
to memorize the “far-reaching” Chinese characters, teachers can ask the
students to investigate the pictographic origin of these characters, thereby
enabling the (subconscious) memorisation of Chinese characters to
become a gradual, easy and enjoyable process. One teacher recommended
combining traditional music with the explanation of the four Chinese
tones, since it might enhance student memory. Techniques such as these
benefit teenage learners in particular, not only in their mastery of the
Chinese language, but also the comprehension of culture.
Some teachers insisted that culture can be hardly “squeezed” in the

already overcrowded curriculum, but it is not necessary to teach culture
separately; instead, the idea is to facilitate the process of language
acquisition through socio-cultural aspects included as part of the process
of communication, in order to develop the ability to react appropriately in
cross-cultural situations that students may face.
Many studies have proved that foreign language teaching has a cultural
dimension due to the lose linkage of language and culture
(Mohammadzadeh 2009, Stern 1992, Witherspoon 1980). Here, teachers
have suggested that, though the students were from all over the world, they
still shared a number of traits in common. It is teachers’ responsibility to
identify such traits and relate them to both cultural similarities and
differences (Dirven & Putz 1993, McNeal 2005, Valverde 2005). On this
basis, a project-based teaching approach has been recommended by the
male Chinese teacher, because it could enable the practice of Chinese
language skills while also arousing young students’ cultural awareness. As
Railsback (2002) declares, students usually find projects fun, motivating
and challenging.
As an authentic instructional modal, a project-based teaching approach
engages students through real-world applications and creates an
enthusiasm for learning (ibidem). It is a holistic instructional strategy
rather than an add-on.
“Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and
I will understand.” (Chinese proverb)
To encourage all students to work effectively, the male teacher has

required his students to partner with peers from other cultures in order to
form a multicultural group. The purpose of each group was to design a
travel brochure for the Chinese readers. In the end, the students will
present and promote their thoughts in designing and writing this brochure
to the potential publisher, competing with other peer groups. Furthermore,
their Chinese language used for group discussion and communication was
also one of the evaluation criteria. In order to complete the projects,
students would study Chinese with laudable initiative. In this process, they
cannot use only their individual learning strengths, but also practice
language skills in all aspects.
Accordingly, this project-based teaching approach could be further
explored, applied and popularized within Chinese schools or other
multicultural contexts, since it complements, builds on, and enhances what
students learn, to a large extent.
Xiaojing Wang 399
All in all, learner differences, as well as teacher differences, could by

some means affect language acquisition, in particular under multicultural
contexts. In other words, culture-related factors are significant influential
factors in language education. Considering cultural aspects helps students
to understand the way to use a language in communicative situations.
Meanwhile, teachers employ motivating approaches to foster the language
learning process, such as implementing abundant activities or making use
of project-based approaches.
Conclusion
To sum up, the purpose of the current study was to identify the potential
influential factors of language acquisition and to explore the effective
teaching approaches under multicultural contexts. On the basis of
empirical research results and literature support, the current study was
conducted among 30 Chinese learners of other languages and 5
experienced Chinese language teachers in one Chinese school in Great
Britain.
According to the data collected through questionnaires and semi-
structured interviews, it can be concluded that cultural distinction is a
serious issue in measuring language-learning outcomes, especially in such
a multicultural environment.
Furthermore, although a large amount of the literature has identified
and presented a variety of teaching methods, most are not feasible or even
insufficient to apply under such multicultural backgrounds (Cohen 1998,
Guest 2002, Kramsch 1993, 1995, 2003, Mohammadzadeh 2009, Oxford
1990). In this case, as a teacher, one should always be prepared for
diversity and constantly explore advanced approaches. In terms of the
discussion and findings of the current case, culture-based activities and
project-based teaching approaches are highly recommended for language
acquisition.
As indicated by many researchers (Brooks 1968, Göbel & Helmke
2010, Nostrand 1989, Wang 2006), culture is born together with language.
Teaching culture separately is not considered practical and applicable
(Cooper et al. 1990, McNeal 2005, Nelson 1995, Yule 2000). Therefore,
rigorous language teaching processes should involve cultural components
– and in the current study – multicultural components. Any language
skills, rendered by cultural substances, will become rather fascinating for
students. For instance, the four Chinese tones are related to the traditional
music, while the written characters are embedded with pictographic
memorization.
Besides, project-based teaching approaches, consisting of language

skills as well as cultural constituents, have been applied and shown to be
successful by the teacher in the Chinese school. This allows the students
with diverse backgrounds to collaborate and then construct new ideas or
concepts based on their current and previous knowledge (Railsback 2002).
Meanwhile, the process of completing projects could activate students’
acquisition of culture and language, and strengthen their recognition of
social identity in community (Gay & Howard 2010, Genc & Bada 2005,
Saluveer 2004, Stern 1992).
Generally speaking, under multicultural circumstances, language
teaching includes a variety of issues (Ilieva 2005, Witherspoon 1980). In
addition to the examination of language acquisition and cultural cognition,
diverse cultural environments could reinforce the acculturation of culture,
customs and social institutions in communities; that is to say, the
appropriate teaching approaches to Chinese language acquisition should
encourage the reconciliation of cultural diversity in the world.
Further Research
Cultural context becomes an indispensable part of the dynamics of the
teaching process in classrooms of every language. This still requires
further investigation. The current study is limited to teenage Chinese
learners of other languages with multicultural backgrounds. In order to
obtain more reliable data, the study should be extended to a larger number
of participants. Further study would also require supportive and updated
literature from different perspectives to bolster the validity of the research
results. For instance, the participants could involve students with rather
complex backgrounds, such as learners from Australia, Italy, Thailand, etc.
Meanwhile, sufficiently effective teaching approaches in multicultural
contexts could be exploited and validated to fit in various situations for the
benefit of both CSL (Chinese as L2) teachers and their students.
In addition, further research can be done in the area of exploring the
strong correlation between the nature of language teaching and cultural
involvement. To what extent cultural contents are involved in language
teaching should be seriously investigated to form a certain pattern for
language teaching in different socio-cultural situations. More importantly,
triangulated research methods are desired for future study to enhance the
quality of the research.
Xiaojing Wang 401
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LINGUISTIC EQUALITY IN MULTICULTURAL
SOCIETIES
DUBRAVKA PAPA
Introduction
One of the basic features of the European Union (EU) is that it is
multicultural and multilingual. The territory comprises more than 60
autochthonous languages of various positions and situations. This paper
deals with the legal framework for their equality in such a heterogeneous
society, related mainly to regional and minority languages that are
considered “endangered species”. It outlines relevant legislation regulating
the issue of the position and protection of language diversity in the EU and
aims at defining regional and minority languages and their role in
participating in a multicultural society such as the EU.
A number of international instruments regulate the status and rights of
language minorities, but there is no legally binding document in the
legislation of the EU related to the protection of minority rights, although
one of the main goals of the EU is to protect and preserve cultural
diversity and, implicitly, linguistic diversity. Minority rights are protected
in the EU by international documents related to minority rights since every
EU Member State is, at the same time, a member of the Council of
Europe.
Minorities and their languages can only be protected if they are well
defined and, as such, differentiated from the majority with which they
coexist. It is primarily the language that is the means of differentiation
(differentiation does not necessarily mean ‘dividing from’ or ‘intolerance
towards’ diversity or emphasizing differences) although not the only one.
The history of language minority protection begins with minority rights
based on traditional human rights and freedoms. The 1516 Treaty of
Perpetual Union between the King of France and the Helvetic state is
considered to be the first international treaty regulating the protection of
minorities. It contained a provision identifying those who were to receive
certain benefits as the “Swiss who speak no language other than German.”
406 Linguistic Equality in Multicultural Societies
(Varennes 1997) It guaranteed, among other issues, definite privileges for

the German-speaking Swiss within the Union. The fact is the history of a
minority reflects in the status of its language since language is what makes
it a minority.
Trudgill (2000) claims the problem of political governments is that the
actual status of a language could become the reason for discontent of a
certain minority wishing to have more power, more independence.
According to Trudgill (ibidem), the governments that consider minority
languages to be a threat refer to them with approval, whereas governments
that consider their minorities to be potentially subversive usually react in
repression as a result of fear. There is a possibility that their loyalty to
their language becomes bigger than their loyalty to the state in which they
reside. From a linguistic point of view, the future of a language depends
on the communication needs of the group speaking the language; the
extent to which these needs will develop does not only depend on social
and economic relations but also on measures for the preservation of
linguistic heritage.
European integration in the area of culture and language, unlike other
EU policies, does not rely on the principle of harmonisation. The Treaty
on EU explicitly excludes harmonisation in the area of cultural and
language policies. In reference to this, the basic documents of the EU rely
on the “rights” from which the principles of respect for basic rights as a
general principle of the European law and respect of diversity by the EU
institutions are derived. Multilingualism in the EU perpetually raises a
number of questions such as: Is there a support for language diversity? Is
language diversity a blessing or burden that modern EU must cope with?
Finally, the concrete meaning of linguistic equality assumes that all EU
citizens have the right to become acquainted with the EU legislation and to
communicate with the EU institutions in their own language. The
representatives of the EU are entitled to use their own language while
communicating with the EU citizens and within the EU institutions in
order to participate in a democratic, multicultural society.
Defining Regional and Minority Languages in the EU

The current population of the EU is characterized by the presence of
numerous ethnic groups and languages whose potential lack of language
understanding could cause intolerance, conflict and political dispute. This
abundance is considered from various standpoints. One of them is the
principle of language equality. The official languages of the EU Member
States are also known as “treaty languages,” and these languages are, at
Dubravka Papa 407
the same time, “official and working languages” in the EU. Their status
reflects political and formal, but still relative equality of languages
(Urrutia & Lasagabaster 2007). On the other hand, it affects the
performance of EU institutions both technically and financially. Internally,
in practice, mainly English, French and German are used.
In reference to recognition of linguistic diversity in the EU, the opinion
prevails that the regional and minority languages issue falls into the area of
human rights that includes the rights of linguistic minorities. Article 151
of the EC Treaty states that the Community shall contribute to the cultural
development of the Member States and, at the same time, shall respect
their national and regional diversity and promote their culture and
language.
Regional and minority languages are defined as languages
characteristic for a region that could be within a Member State or a cross-
border region but is not dominant in an EU Member State (e.g., Basque,
Frisian, etc.). Secondly, there are languages spoken by a minority in the
EU Member State, but that are official languages in some other EU
Member State (e.g., German in Southern Denmark, etc.). The third group
comprises non-territorial languages such as spoken by the Romanies and
members of the Jewish community in the EU (e.g., Romani and Yiddish).
Regional and minority languages include neither dialects of any
official language nor languages spoken by immigrant societies in the EU
(e.g., Turkish spoken in Germany, etc.). These languages are not given
formal status or recognition in EU countries. However, immigrant
communities receive EU funding to integrate into the new surrounding and
develop language skills in their mother tongue.
Legal Framework for Regional and Minority Languages

Human rights have been integrated into the legal order of the EU. Articles
6.1 and 6.2 of the EU Treaty state that the Union relies on the principles
common to the Member States such as liberty, democracy, respect for
human rights and fundamental freedoms and that the Union shall respect
fundamental rights guaranteed by the 1950 European Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Candidate states
are required to respect human rights and ratify agreements on civil and
political rights in the accession process.
Furthermore, there is a positive anti-discrimination clause in Article 13
of the EC Treaty stating that the Community may take action within the
scope of its powers against discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic
origin, etc. Language has not been mentioned as an explicit ground among
the grounds for discrimination, but this is covered by Article 21 of the

Charter of Fundamental Rights with the principle of non-discrimination
and fundamental social rights (http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries
/other/l14157_en.htm).
The right to non-discrimination is recognised by the main international
instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the
United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the United Nations
Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the United Nations
Convention on the elimination of racial discrimination, and International
Labour Organisation Convention No 111. The provisions on non-
discrimination contained in the European Convention on Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms were reinforced by the 2005 Protocol 12 to
that Convention providing for a right to equal treatment. This
antidiscrimination legislation has raised international interest in recent
developments within the EU as an effective pattern and is among the most
advanced in the world.
Article 27 of the 1966 United Nations International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights states the right, for members of religious, ethnic or
linguistic minorities, to enjoy their culture, practice their religion and use
their language.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to
National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities adopted in 1992
aims at solving the problems deriving from the United Nations 1966
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights such as the existence
of linguistic minorities, status of these rights (rights of minorities as
individual citizens or minorities as communities), as well as the obligation
of the contracting states to the Covenant to tolerate, support and help
minorities enforce their granted rights. Article 2 section 1 of the 1992
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to
National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities states that
language minorities have right to use their language in public and private,
free of any discrimination (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic
Minorities).
The 1950 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms by the Council of Europe does not contain any
explicit provision on minority protection or their rights although Article 14
of the Convention prohibits discrimination of people in their right and
freedoms set forth in the Convention according to their sex, race,
language, etc.
Dubravka Papa 409
The two Council of Europe treaties concerning languages are the

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Framework
Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. They both set the
standard for Regional and Minority Languages protection in the EU.
Legal Framework for Linguistic Diversity in the EU

The EU multilingualism relies on respect for linguistic diversity. The
Union has 23 official and working languages whereas the United Nations
as an international organisation has only six, which speaks for the
importance of respect for linguistic diversity in the EU.
At the time of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, Article 149 was introduced
on education that states that the Member States have the responsibility for
their cultural and linguistic diversity, and one on culture that reads that the
Community is responsible for supporting cultural development within the
Member States, while respecting their national and regional diversity.
This has been included in the Lisbon Treaty (Article 2.3) stating that
the EU shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and ensure
that Europe’s cultural heritage is guaranteed.
A provision similar to the above-mentioned content is included in
Article 22 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights that accompanies the
Treaty speaking for cultural, religious and linguistic diversity. It is moral
and legal obligation of the EU to respect and promote linguistic and
cultural diversity.
The task of the Lisbon Treaty and the accompanying Charter of
Fundamental Rights of 2009 was to set linguistic diversity as a specific
European value.
To what extent is linguistic diversity valuable for the EU is directly
stated in Article 22 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. However,
other provisions of that Charter are relevant in relation to effective
protection of the linguistic rights and individual preferences Europe-wide.
Article 21 prohibits discrimination on grounds of, among others, linguistic
diversity both by the EU and its Member States when they implement EU
policies. The Charter is operative only after the states implement EU laws
and national legislation transposes EU laws, which makes it the EU
standard and landmark in the treatment of languages and national
minorities. There is a language component of the right to correct
administration of the Charter.
The accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights
(e.g., Article 14) increases the importance of language and national
minority rights.
By means of the current and past documents related to linguistic rights

and diversity, the EU has set new applicable standards for general and
specific linguistic rights (often called “new architecture”) (Civil Society
Platform on Multilingualism. Policy Recommendations for the Promotion
of Multilingualism in the European Union).
Conclusion
Language is one of the prerequisites to participation in a democratic
society such as the EU. Official languages, treaty languages and regional
and minority languages of the EU are not only a blessing but also a burden
to lawmaking. The issue of language equality in the EU is regulated
essentially by legislation based on respect for fundamental human rights.
These legal instruments serve to protect and promote all languages, in
particular regional and minority languages that are considered to be
endangered heritage as their number tends to decline within the
multicultural EU. Their purpose is to ensure and allow the use of regional
and minority languages in all spheres of public and individual life.
References
Civil Society Platform on Multilingualism. Policy Recommendations for
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http://www.poliglotti4.eu/docs/publications/CSPM%20Policy%20Rec
ommendations_FULL%20VERSION.pdf.
Trudgill, P. (2000). Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and
Society. London: Penguin Books.
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to
National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. Online:
http://www.un-documents.net/a47r135.htm.
Urrutia, I. & Lasagabaster, I. (2007). Language Rights as a General
Principle of Community Law. German Law Journal 8 (5): 479-500.
Varennes, F. de. (1997). To Speak or Not to Speak: The Rights of Persons
Belonging to Linguistic Minorities. Working Paper prepared for the
UN Sub-Committee on the rights of minorities. Online:
http://www.unesco.org/most/ln2pol3.htm.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION
OF MINORITY LANGUAGE SPEAKING
CHILDREN AND THE SITUATION OF BILINGUAL
SCHOOLS IN HUNGARY
MÁRTA GALGÓCZI-DEUTSCH
AND EDIT-ILONA MÁRI
Introduction
Cultural and linguistic diversity poses a considerable challenge to schools
in many countries. However, as Freedman (1998) asserts, it is possible for
educational policy makers and practitioners to make choices about how to
respond to this challenge. Bilingual education is a controversial issue in
many countries. The questions about the exact meaning of bilingual
education, who the programmes serve, their goals for the target population
and their effectiveness have provoked considerable debates. According to
Rossell & Ross (1986), the question regarding the effectiveness of
bilingual programmes emerges especially because of the financial burden
(that mounts to millions of dollars) bilingual education programmes pose
on the government. In the United States, several minority language
speaker groups live and different models of bilingual education are
applied. It is worth examining the bilingual educational models applied in
the United States in order to see the different ways students receive
education in their native and the majority language. Similarly to the United
States, numerous schools operate in Hungary with bilingual programmes
in which the native language of a minority group is one of the teaching
languages. These schools include the Nicolae Bălcescu Primary Grammar
School (Romanian and Hungarian bilingual school) in Gyula, or the
Chinese-Hungarian bilingual primary school in Budapest, Slovakian-
Hungarian bilingual school in Békéscsaba, and Croatian-Hungarian
primary and secondary school in Pécs. By examining the American
bilingual education models and practice, the importance of native language
412 Bilingual Education of Minority Language Speaking Children
education can be understood. However, though the present study gives an

overview of the necessity and the actual reality of bilingual schools in
Hungary parallel with that of the United States, and presents the bilingual
educational programme models, it does not intend to analyze which
models are used in the Hungarian bilingual education.
The Largest Minority Language Group in the USA:

The Hispanics
In the United States, the largest language group that is the most affected by
this issue is the Hispanic with a population of 37.4 million. Basically, four
types of bilingual programmes exist in the schools of the United States,
and they work with different goals and, thus, with different efficiency.
Therefore, based on several studies done in the field of bilingual
education, the intention of the present study is to present the bilingual
education programmes that schools provide according to their strength in
native language use and give an insight of the importance of bilingual
education. By over-viewing the practice of bilingual education in the
United States, where this problem has been a fervent question for a longer
period, our study intends to investigate the importance of bilingual
education, its situation in Hungary and relate it to the international
practice. As it is demonstrated, native language education is crucial for the
student to be able to learn thoroughly the school subjects and become
professionals in any fields. However, for the better job opportunities and
to prestigious positions, students need to master the majority language
since professionalism in itself is not sufficient. Therefore, bilingual
education can provide the basic foundation for the chances of life
improvement, but this improvement can only be realized by sufficient
majority language knowledge (Kontra 2010). The bilingual education
provides minority language speaker students with the two indispensible
things for a good chance in life improvement: professionalism and
majority language knowledge. As a result of constant migration, the
number of Hispanic population in the USA is significant: according to the
US Census Bureau (2002), it was 37.4 million people in 2003, that is,
13.3% of the total U.S. population, thus making the US the fifth largest
Spanish speaking country in the world (Ardila 2005). The distribution of
Hispanics based on their origin is shown in Figure 4-7. However close the
English and Spanish cultures exist in the United States, the Hispanic
population is a minority group and, therefore, the Spanish language
remains a minority language. Although Hispanics are the largest minority
Márta Gaalgóczi-Deutsch
h and Edit-Ilonaa Mári 413
group in thee U.S., as Valddés et al. (200

08) assert it, Sppanish is a stiigmatized
minority lannguage.
Others 7%
Cubans 3
3%
Puerto
Ricans 9%
Central and
South-
Ammericans
14% Mexicans
67%
Figure 4-7. H
Hispanics by origgin (Source: U..S. Census Bureeau, Annual
Demographicc Supplement too the March 200 02 Current Popuulation Survey))
Minoority Group
ps in Hungaary
In the begiinning of thhe 21st centurry, about 100% of the Hungarian H
population bbelongs to a national
n hnical minoritty group, most of them
or eth
still preserviing and speakking their orig
ginal native lannguage. It is important
i
to point outt that, during the census of o 2001, only 3% of the population
declared theemselves as part
p of a mino ority group, thhough expertss say that
the real ratee is about 8-100% of the pop pulation. Acccording to the minority
law of 19933, any ethnicall group that has
h lived on thhe territory off Hungary
for at least a century, is a minority in number comppared to the Hungarian
H
citizens andd has its own language, traaditions and cculture that arre distinct
from those of the majoriity, and a sen nse of belongiing that preseerves and
develops alll these along with
w the proteection of theirr community’ss interest,
is a recogniized national and
a ethnical minority
m grouup. In the sense of this
law, Bulgarrians, Gypsies, Greeks, Romanians,
R Ruusins, Serbs, Slovaks,
Slovenian C Croats and Ukrrainians are officially
o residdent minority groups in
Hungary (Taable 4-9). Theeir geographiccal location iss sporadic; theey live in
about 1,5000 settlements and usually form a minoority group within w the
settlement. TThe LXXVII law of 1993 grants
g any mem mber of an ethhnical (or
religious) minority group the right to live with and declare their belonging
to the minority group. The following data about the number and the
minority languages of the ethnic groups in Hungary are from the 2001
census. From all the 13 groups of minorities, 71% declared themselves to
belong to the minority group; however, only slightly more than 30%
declared the minority language as their first language. It is important to
point out that 2/3 of those minority group members who were born abroad
originally declared themselves belonging to the group by their native
language. For instance, 92% of the foreign-born Bulgarians, more than
90% of the Polish, 81% of the Greek speak their native language as their
first language while, in the case of those born in Hungary, this rate is 30%,
21% and 16%. This phenomenon is similar to the US, where first
generation immigrants primarily speak the minority language. As it is
visible from the statistic, the number of those individuals who speak a
minority language as their mother tongue is significant in the country. In
what follows, the study demonstrates the importance of bilingual
education for those students whose first language is different from the
majority language.
Table 4-9. Number and rate of minority groups
Minority group Number of % of the % of the

persons population minorities
Armenian 1,165 0.01 0.26
Bulgarian 2,316 0.02 0.52
Croatian 25,730 0.25 5.81
German 120,344 1.18 27.18
Greek 6,619 0.06 1.50
Gypsy 205,720 2.02 46.47
Polish 5,144 0.05 1.16
Romanian 14,781 0.14 3.34
Rusin 2,079 0.02 0.47
Serbian 7,350 0.07 1.66
Slovak 39,266 0.39 8.87
Slovene 4,832 0.05 1.09
Ukrainian 7,393 0.07 1.67
All 442,739 4.34 100.00
Márta Galgóczi-Deutsch and Edit-Ilona Mári 415
Bilingual Schools in Hungary

In Hungary, eight out of thirteen recognized minority groups have the
possibility for bilingual education. The following bilingual schools
provide minority language education to students from nursery to
secondary school level: Croatian Nursery, Primary School and Grammar
School and Hostel (Budapest), Hriszto Botev Bulgarian-Hungarian
Primary and Grammar School (Budapest), Hungarian-Chinese Bilingual
Primary School (Budapest), Koch Valéria Hungarian-German Secondary
and Primary School, Nursery and Hostel (Pécs), Miroslav Krleža Croatian
Nursery, Primary and Secondary School and Hostel (Pécs), General
Culture Centre of the German Living in Hungary (Baja), Croatian
Language Education Nursery, Primary School and Hostel (Hercegszántó),
Primary School and Nursery teaching in Beas (Gypsy) and Hungarian
languages (Magyarmecske), Nicolae Bălcescu Romanian Grammar School
and Primary School and Hostel (Gyula), Kocsis József Bilingual Primary
School and Nursery (Felsőszölnök, Slovenian-Hungarian), Slovak Primary
and Grammar School and Hostel (Békéscsaba), Tolnai Lajos German
Ethnic and Bilingual Secondary and Grammar School and Hostel (Gyönk),
Baross Gábor Regional Primary Bilingual and Basic Art School offering
Polish-Hungarian education (Parasznya).
Reason for the Necessity of Bilingual Education

The primary reason for bilingual education was well articulated by
Krashen (1997): “when schools provide children quality education in their
primary language, they give them two things: knowledge and literacy.”
The easiest way for children to understand what they hear or read is if they
can do it through their mother tongue. If they develop literacy in their first
language, they can transfer it to the second language. Reading has a key
importance in independent learning necessary during the whole span of
education, and reading skills should be acquired in primary school.
However, it is always easier to learn to read in a language that students
understand. The significance of the use of mother tongue has been
demonstrated and supported by research done by Skutnabb-Kangas (1997:
117) that indicates those language minority children who were taught
through the dominant language “often performed considerably less well
than native dominant language speaking children in the same class […]
and on tests […] of school achievement.” According to the findings of
Skutnabb-Kangas (ibidem), as a result of poor primary and high school
achievement, minority language students have much higher push-out rates
and stay in school for fewer years. The insufficiency in the educational
system affects their entire life: lacking the necessary education, minority
speakers cannot get proper jobs and do not have equal chances in job
finding, and there is higher unemployment among them. Impoverishment
and marginalization are common. In addition, indicated by Skutnabb-
Kangas (ibidem), for some groups, drug use, criminality and suicide
figures are much higher. Therefore, it can be asserted that insufficient
education provokes and preserves social inequalities and, as a
consequence, it conserves the marginal status of language minority groups.
To enable Hispanic groups to be active participants of the education
process instead of excluding them, therefore, bilingual education is
indispensible. The UNESCO also recognized this necessity thus asserted
that “the best teaching language is a child’s mother tongue” (Bianco 1997:
36). In Hungary, a great proportion of ethnic minority is formed by the
Gypsy population. According to István Kemény’s study (1996), the
dropout rate among Hungarian-speaking Gypsy students below 8 grades is
22.9%, among Romanian speakers 41.6%, and 48.2% among those
Gypsies whose first language is one of the Gypsy languages. It is
concluded that the high unemployment rate among the Gypsy population
is due to the educational language “discrimination” (Kontra 2010: 170).
The fact that minority students cannot even start education in their native
language is parallel with the academic achievement and the educational
level that determines their life possibilities. There are different challenges
that minority groups face in a country with respect to language: the
difficulty of a new language needed in everyday life and for academic
progress and success, and the maintenance of their own mother tongue. In
case of the former, the first generation of immigrants have major
difficulties, as they often arrive with the complete lack of majority
language knowledge, and in America, they sometimes live their lives in
the US without learning the majority language of the country. There seems
to be an assimilation process, though the mother tongue has a special
importance not only in preserving the culture but also in gaining a chance
to receive sufficient education and integrate in society. An efficient way to
maintain the mother tongue and develop English skills for the Hispanic
population is to receive bilingual education at school. As Christian (1994)
states, in the US, bilingual education is extending. The typical goals of
bilingual programmes have three dimensions that are equally important:
“language, academic and affective,” according to which students develop
high proficiency in their first and second language, and perform at least at
the level that fits to their age group. In case subjects are taught using both
mother tongue and dominant language at primary level, students will have
“positive cross-cultural attitudes and behaviours and high levels of self-

esteem.” (idem: 4)
Different Levels of Bilingual Education
Before analyzing the different levels of bilingual education, the term itself
has to be defined. According to the definition in Skutnabb-Kangas (1997:
4), bilingual education is “the use of two [….] languages as media of
instruction in subjects other than the languages themselves.” May (1997:
20) makes this definition more precise by stating “bilingual education
involves instruction in two languages’ to deliver the curricula content and
not simply taught as a subject itself. Bilingual education can have a ‘weak
form’ and a ‘strong form.’ The aim of the weak form is the strong
dominance of the majority language and it includes ‘transitional, early-exit
and late-exit programmes’.” (Skutnabb-Kangas 1997: 4) However, the
strong form includes “mother-tongue maintenance or language shelter
programmes, two-way bilingual (dual language) programmes and plural
multi-lingual programmes […]. Only strong forms lead to high levels of
bi-/multilingualism and are associated with greater academic success for
language minority students.” According to May (1997: 20), bilingual
programmes can be classified according to their goals, whether their aim is
to “achieve, foster and/or maintain longer-term student bilingualism and
biliteracy.” This type is termed “additive approach to bilingualism,” while
the “subtractive approach” aims at shift from bilingualism to eventual
monolingualism in the dominant language with the replacement of the
minority language. In studies on bilingual education, there seems to be a
very high level of agreement that this type of bilingual education
contributes to bilingual students’ academic successes (Skutnabb-Kangas
1997, May 1997). It is important to point out that, in real bilingual
programmes, it is not the native language that is taught. That is, teachers
do not teach the minority language at school, but teach certain subjects
partly in it. Ideally, the native language is used for instruction at least 50%
of the time, and majority language at least 10% of the time. In the early
grades, the native language should be used more, at most 90% of the time
(Christian 1994). Although there are different classifications and, thus,
typologies of bilingual education, according to May (1997) there are three
models in bilingual education which are included consistently: the
transitional, maintenance and enrichment models. In the transitional
model, the mother tongue of the minority language students is used as
language of instruction in the early school years, but the aim is the shift to
the dominant language; therefore, the latter is introduced to an increasing
degree in order to ‘cope’ academically in the mainstream education. It is

an early-exit programme that uses the minority language for 1 or 2 years
and, then, replaces it with the dominant language. It means that the aim is
“moving from bilingualism to monolingualism in the majority language.”
This is the most prominent approach in the USA, and it was “developed
widely for Spanish (L1) speakers from the 1970s onward.” (May 1997)
Therefore, its aim is a complete assimilation to the dominant language
group and the loss of native language, in which the bilingual education is
merely a tool, a facilitator. On the other hand, maintenance programmes
aim to maintain the students’ minority language; moreover, to “strengthen
the student’s sense of cultural and linguistic identity, and affirm the
individual and collective ethno linguistic rights.” (idem: 22) Linguistic
human rights in education would mean that indigenous and minority
children have the right to their “mother tongue medium” in education,
access to high quality education, the right to reproduce their minority
group (Skutnabb-Kangas 1997). A maintenance programme is an additive,
strong bilingual programme (May 1997). This programme aims at
minority language maintenance for a longer time so that students could
achieve “academic language proficiency” in it. It is a late-exit model that
maintains the native language for at least 4 years (ibidem). May asserts, in
his study that, within enrichment programmes, majority language students
is taught through the minority target language. The aim is not only the
maintenance of bilingualism and biliteracy for the minority language
students, but also the maintenance and extension of minority languages in
the wider community. According to studies, this is the programme that is
the most successful in bilingual education and, most importantly, “the
most likely to reduce the educational and wider social […] inequalities
experienced by minority language speakers.” (idem: 22) Therefore, it
seems to be a highly efficient way to integrate minority language students
in the dominant society by decreasing the barriers caused by dominant
language inadequacy, and, in this way, the vicious circle of insufficient
education in primary and high school, and the subsequent decrease in the
chances of higher education and receiving proper job can be broken by
sufficient bilingual education. In Table 4-10, the types, characteristics and
aims of language programmes dealing with minority language students are
summarized from the lack of bilingual education to the intensive forms,
ordering them in the expected educational success scale.
How Bilingual Education Helps Students’ Performance
As shown in Table 4-9 above, the stronger form of bilingual education we

apply, the bigger role mother tongue has at the lessons. That is, the
stronger form the bilingual programme has, the better minority language
students can perform at school. Cummins (1997: xv) writes that, since the
1960s, hundreds of studies have been carried out that “report significant
advantages for bilingual students on a variety of metalinguistic and
cognitive tasks.” Furthermore, bilingual students provide students with
“cognitive advantages” and “higher level of metalinguistic awareness.” As
there is a “significant positive relationship […] between the development
of academic skills in first and second languages,” “the instructional time
through a minority language” has no negative consequence for the
majority language development. Edelsky (in Schwinge 1997: 52) found
that writing skills are transferred between languages and the two languages
of a student increased the students’ options for communicating in an
expanded range of texts to multiple audiences. Furthermore, bilingual
education has further advantages for such students’ cognitive development
and classroom performance: in Spanish-only classrooms, students just
usually copy sentences and are unable to participate in the lesson.
However, in bilingual classes, they are able to construct original sentences
instead of mere copying, and can participate in the lesson. Moreover, in
areas such as maths, where understanding is a crucial criterion, bilingual
students perform much better with the help of the native language
explanation and instruction from the teacher (ibidem).
Benefits of Bilingual Education
As it was examined above, bilingual education is necessary for the

acquirement of the knowledge school education provided that it is not only
the basis for better academic achievement, but also for becoming a
professional and obtaining well-paid, prestigious jobs. However, as we
show here, bilingual education in itself does not provide the possibility of
prestigious jobs: high-level native language knowledge is needed to get
them. As Kossoudji (1988) asserts immigrant workers are not only
evaluated by their skills, but also by their ability to speak the majority
language. Schooling and experience is important when a candidate applies
for a job in the US, but when he is an immigrant or non-native speaker,
English language skills are determinant. Therefore, bilingual education can
contribute to the better acquirement of knowledge and skills, but English
competence will be crucial in career building, thus life improvement.
Table 4-10. Comprehensive chart of non-bilingual and bilingual education

and their features based on May (1997) and Skutnabb-Kangas (1997)
Type of Name of Short description Aim

program Programme
me
Submersion Students accept instructions Monolingual in
on dominant language dominant
Non-bilingual
programme
programmes
ESL and Sheltered Minority language is taught language
Subtractive
Instruction in foreign language classes Assimilation
Transitional Minority language is

Weak form bilingual used in early stages
Early exit
education to facilitate shift to
Minority language is used for instructions

majority language
Maintenance Minority language Bilingualism
use for at least 4 Maintenance of
years, considers cultural identity
ethno linguistic Greater academic
rights achievement
Bilingual programme
Enrichment Teaching minority

Additive programmes
language students in
minority language
Heritage Uses and nurtures Indigenous
Strong form
minority language language and
Late exit
that is indigenous culture
maintenance and
revitalization
Conclusion
On the basis of studies and research carried out about the effect of
bilingual education on bilingual students’ – and Spanish-English bilingual
students’ – performance, it can be asserted that bilingual education is the
best way to support students’ better school achievement from the primary
level and lay down the foundations of the later academic success by giving
them understanding of the material to be learnt on their level. This way, it
is possible to hinder dropping out of school, and students can receive
quality education, stay on at school and achieve academic success that will
enable them to find better employment and avoid marginalization and
possible involvement in crime. A stronger form of bilingual education
could significantly contribute to the elimination of the conserved
marginalized status of Hispanic people in the United States. Bilingual
education in Hungary contributes the preservation of culture, language,
better academic achievement and career perspectives to the Romanian,

Chinese, Slovak speaker communities of the country. Considering the
number of schools providing bilingual education across the US and in
Hungary, it seems that the importance and necessity is recognized and
schools endeavour to meet the expectations of the multinational and
multilingual society have in order to provide equal chances for the
language minority population. In addition, a lot depends on the type of
bilingual education offered. The most successful types of programmes are
the additive and strong bilingual programmes which educate through
students’ native language instead of requiring them to leave their native
language part of their cultural identity behind. This way, besides better
academic achievement and integration into mainstream society, the native
language can also be developed and cultural identity can be maintained. In
Hungary, though, there are several schools on primary and secondary level
that provide bilingual education for those who are speakers of a minority
language as their first language, the provision of bilingual education is
only sporadically solved. The right to education is the personal right of
each citizen, but the right to native language education in an international
sense is legally not included in this declaration (Kontra 2010). Similarly to
the US, academic achievement, level of education, and employment
possibilities of the minority students are greatly determined by the
availability of the native language education. As demonstrated in Table 4-
10, there are first-generation minority language speakers in the country
who are foreign-born and, thanks to globalization, this tendency is likely
to increase. For this reason, the maintenance and extension of bilingual
schools with minority language education, especially in the strong form,
are highly required. It can be concluded that, in Hungary, similarly to the
US, the minority language education in which the native language is used
and developed along with the majority language is necessary for the better
integration and same chances in the society.
References
Ardila, A. (2005). Spanglish: An Anglicized Spanish Dialect. Hispanic
Journal of Behavioural Sciences 2 (1): 61-80.
Bianco, J. L. (1997). Bilingual education and socio-political issues. In
Nancy H. Hornberger (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of Language and
Education 5: 35-47.
Christian, Donna. (1994). Two-Way Bilingual Education: Students
Learning Through Two Languages. In NCRCDSLL Educational
Practice Reports. Berkeley, CA: Centre for Research on Education,

Diversity and Excellence.
Cummins, J. (1997). Introduction to Volume 5: Bilingual education. In
Nancy H. Hornberger (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of Language and
Education 5: XIV-XVII.
Freedman, Rebecca Diane. (1998). Bilingual Education and Social
Change. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Kemény, I. (1996). A Romák és az Iskola [The Romany and the School].
Educatio 1: 71-83.
Kontra, M. (2010). Hasznos Nyelvészet [Useful Linguistics]. Somorja:
Fórum Kisebbségkutató Intézet.
Krashen, S. (1997). Why Bilingual Education? Online:
http://www.ericdigests.org/1997-3/bilingual.html.
May, S. (1997). Bilingual/immersion Education. In Nancy H. Hornberger
(Ed.), Encyclopaedia of Language and Education 5: 19-31.
Rossel, H. Christine & Ross, J. M. (1986). The Social Science Evidence on
Bilingual Education. Online:
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bassy.de/etexts/soc/hispanicpop2002.pdf.
Schwinge, Diana. (1997). Conceptualizing biliteracy within bilingual
programs. In Nancy H. Hornberger (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of Language
and Education 5: 51-63.
Skutnabb-Kangas, T. & Mc Carty, Teresa L. (1997). Key Concepts in
Bilingual Education: Ideological, Historical, Epistemological, and
Empirical Foundations. In Nancy H. Hornberger (Ed.), Encyclopaedia
of Language and Education 5: 3-15.
Valdés, G., Fishman J. A., Chavez, R. M. & Perez, W. (2008).
Maintaining Spanish in the United States: Steps toward the Effective
Practice of Heritage Language Re Acquisition/Development. In
Theodore A. Sackett (Ed.), Hispania 91 (1): 4-24.
TEACHING MINORITY LANGUAGES,
HISTORIES AND CULTURES
IN A MULTICULTURAL CONTEXT:
THE CASE OF RUTHENIAN EDUCATION
IN VOJVODINA (SERBIA)
MIHAJLO FEJSA
Introduction
Multicultural education is about education and instruction designed for the
cultures of several different ethnicities in the educational system. This
approach relies upon consensus, respect and fostering of cultural pluralism
within societies (Oljača 2007: 33). In order to achieve its purposes for
students, teachers, parents, and administrators of the school system,
multicultural education must have the following, as its crux: (a) a learning
environment that supports positive interracial contact; (b) a multicultural
curriculum; (c) positive teacher expectations; (d) administrative support;
(e) teacher training workshops (Bennett 1995, Oljača 2007: 33-34).
Since the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina gained extensive rights
of self-rule under the 1974 Constitution, five of the Vojvodina’s peoples
were given the status of official nationalities – Serbs, Hungarians,
Romanians, Slovaks, and Ruthenians. Three decades later, the authors
emphasize Vojvodina as an example of authentic multicultural
community, which successfully reflects and promotes the diversity in its
unique democratic and civic valuable framework (Gajić & Budić 2007:
160).
The author shows it in the case of Ruthenians, the smallest national
minority in Vojvodina. According to the 2002 census, there are 15,905
Ruthenians in Serbia. Ruthenians make up 0.2% of the population of
Serbia and 0.9% of the population of Vojvodina. The effective
safeguarding of the collective identity of the Vojvodinian Ruthenians
relies on the full implementation of the novel legal provisions and on the
424 Ruthenian Education in Vojvodina (Serbia)
attitude of the Ruthenian minority itself towards the question of preserving

the community identity (Fejsa 2009: 163).
Historical Background
For centuries, the Rusyns (‘Ruthenians’) lived within the borders of the
Hungarian Kingdom. They lived in the northeast Hungarian counties,
namely, in Zemplen, Saros, Abauj-Torna, Borsod, Szabolcs, Ung, Ugocsa,
Maramaros, and Gemer. Most of these counties are today in Slovakia,
Hungary, Ukraine, and Romania. Some 260 years ago, groups of
Ruthenians began migrating south from their homeland in the Carpathian
Mountains to the Srem and Bačka regions of what is now Vojvodina, in
Serbia, and Eastern Slavonia, in Croatia.
After the defeat and retreat of the Ottoman Empire from Bačka, Srem
and Banat, in 1699, the Austro-Hungarian authorities needed more
population in the south of their state and supported colonization of
Germans, Hungarians, Slovaks and others, among them Ruthenians, as
well (Gavrilović 1977: 153). In the new world, the newcomers built
houses, economic establishments, churches, schools and other public
institutions. Тhe Ruski Krstur parish was founded in 1751, and the Ruski
Krstur primary school began to work in 1753. The first Greek-Catholic
church in Kucura was built in 1765. Primary schools began to work in
1818 in Šid, in 1823 in Novi Sad, in 1847 in Bačinci, and in 1880 in
Đurđevo.
Ever since the first Ruthenians settled in these parts and up to the First
World War, they were predominantly farmers. Their craftsmen were
organized in a guild, while there were remarkably few priests and teachers.
In time, the Ruthenians even made progress in their economic, national
and cultural life. They succeeded in preserving their identity. They formed
their language and raised it to the level that they could use it to print
books. The first book in the Ruthenian language is the poetic wreath Z
Mojoho Valala (‘From My Village’) by Havrijil Kosteljnik published in
1904.
At the end of the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian Empire
collapsed. All branches of the Ruthenian people had, until 1918, lived and
developed within the framework of a single state, the Habsburg Monarchy.
Now, for the first time, several branches of the Ruthenian people were,
somehow, cut off. The Ruthenians in Bačka had to find their own way.
Within Serbia (or the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, or,
later, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), the Ruthenians were permitted to form
national and cultural institutions by virtue of the collective rights of all
Mihajlo Fejsa 425
national minorities, which was not the case in their homeland. They were
granted the status of national minority of Slavic origin in 1919, first and
for many years to come the only one among their kinsmen in the
Carpathian area. This was an event of utmost importance, which opened
the way to their national and cultural development.
Under such circumstances, the Ruthenians felt that the founding of the
Ruthenian Popular Educational Society, the so-called Prosvita
(‘education’), was the first step in showing their striving for an
independent national cultural life. At the founding meeting, on July 2,
1919, in Novi Sad, the Ruthenian national community decided to elevate
its colloquial language (not Russian or Ukrainian) to the level of a literary
language. Since then, everyday speech has been used in education, cultural
life and press.
The first Ruthenian cultural organization published several books of
immense significance. The most influential book of the time was the first
Ruthenian grammar Hramatika Bačvansko-Ruskej Bešedi (‘Grammar of
Bačka-Rusyn Speech’ 1923) by Havrijil Kosteljnik.
After the Second World War, in 1945, several famous cultural events
took place. First, the first high school in the Ruthenian language was
established in Ruski Krstur. Second, a new Ruthenian organization was
established for all Ruthenians in Yugoslavia – Ruskа Matka (‘Ruthenian
Home’). Third, the Ruske Slovo Newspaper-Publishing Institution was
established that published Ruske Slovo (‘Ruthenian Word’) in 1945, Ruski
Kalendar (‘Ruthenian Calendar’) in 1946, Zahradka (‘Garden’) in 1947,
Švetlosc (‘Light’) in 1952.
In the following two decades, with liberal funding from the Yugoslav
government, elementary and secondary school systems and radio
programming (1948) came into being.
The Institute for Publishing Texbooks was established in 1965. The
Institute started to publish textbooks for primary and secondary school
regularly. It has published around 1,000 titles.
Тhe Autonomous Province of Vojvodina gained extensive rights of
self-rule under the 1974 Constitution, which defined Vojvodina as one of
the subjects of the Yugoslav Federation. Five of the Vojvodina’s peoples
were given the status of official nationalities – Serbs, Hungarians,
Romanians, Slovaks, and Ruthenians. The Ruthenian language became
one of the five official languages of the Autonomous Province of
Vojvodina. For the first time, it was possible to use the Ruthenian
language in court, in offices, on public signs, etc. Ruthenian translators
were employed in municipalities where there were a significant number of
the members of the Ruthenian national community.
Unfortunately, the period of ethnocultural development of the

Ruthenian culture was interrupted during the mid-1990s war in former
Yugoslavia.
Ruthenian Language Educational Vertical
It is hard to understand how such a small population managed to preserve

its national being for more than two and a half centuries. One of the most
influential factors is the existence of the educational vertical – from
preschool education to higher education (the Department of Ruthenian
Studies in Novi Sad).
The beginnings of preschool education in the Ruthenian language can
be traced at the beginning of the 20th century (1902 in Ruski Krstur and
1905 in Kucura).
There is a children’s nursery, extended stay and educational groups for
preparing children for school in Ruski Krstur (educational groups in which
children are prepared for school in the Ruthenian language, and extended
stay for preschool children exist in Kucura and Đurđevo). In places where
there is no possibility of organizing regular educational groups in the
Ruthenian language, Ruthenian is taught as a special subject called
“Fostering the Ruthenian Language with Elements of National Culture.”
Such educational groups have been organized in Kula, Novi Sad and
Vrbas, and there is a plan to organize preschool fostering the Ruthenian
language within preschool departments in Bačinci, Berkasovo, Bikič Do
and Šid (Rusnaci u Serbiji – Informator 2009: 25-26).
According to the Law, Ruthenian pupils attending primary schools in
those Vojvodinian municipalities and localities where a considerable
percentage of Ruthenians live (up to 15%) are entitled to three classes in
their mother tongue a week. All other subjects (or most of them) are also
taught in Ruthenian. The Serbian language (three classes a week) and two
foreign languages (the first foreign language from the 1st grade, the second
foreign language from the 5th grade – two classes a week) are exceptions
and they are compulsory.
Apart from the regular teaching (all subjects) in the Ruthenian
language from the 1st to the 8th grade in Ruski Krstur, Kucura and
Đurđevo, in other Ruthenian places where, because of the small number of
pupils, there is no possibility of organizing regular teaching in the
Ruthenian language, the “Ruthenian language teaching with elements of
national culture” is organized. The subject is optional and delivered on a
two-class a week basis. It takes place in Bačka Topola, Gospođinci,
Kucura, Kula, Novi Sad, Novo Orahovo, Petrovaradin, Savino Selo,
Mihajlo Fejsa 427
Sremska Kamenica, Sremska Mitrovica, Subotica, Veternik, Vrbas, and

Šid, where there are separate departments in Bačinci, Berkasovo and Bikič
Do. The total number of places amounts to 16 and more than 330 pupils
from 35 schools are included in them (Rusnaci u Serbiji – Informator
2009: 27). The general trend is that the number of pupils in schools with
regular teaching is getting lower, and the number of pupils in schools with
fostering is getting higher.
The necessary minimum number of schoolchildren for organizing a
class is 15, but with the approval of the Ministry of Education it is possible
to organize a class for less than 15 schoolchildren.
The Petro Kuzmjak High School (Gymnasium) in Ruski Krstur has
provided complete secondary education in the Ruthenian language since
1970. It is the only high school in Ruthenian in the world. There is
boarding accommodation for schoolchildren and, because of that, it is
possible to register schoolchildren from Serbia and from other countries
where Ruthenians live. It is extremely beneficial to emphasize that even
the Ruthenians from the Carpathian area feel the high school as their own,
especially those from Ukraine who have almost nothing of the educational
vertical in Serbia.
The Department of Ruthenian Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy of
the University of Novi Sad originates in the Instructorship for the
Ruthenian Language established in 1972 (from 1981, the Department for
Ruthenian Language and Literature). It presents the highest level of
education in Ruthenian. The new curriculum of the Department of
Ruthenian Studies, based on the Bologna Declaration, was accredited last
year. Apart from Ruthenian Phonetics, Ruthenian Morphology, Ruthenian
Syntax, Ruthenian Historical Grammar, Ruthenian Literature, Ruthenian
History and Ruthenian Folklore Studies, several new courses were
introduced: Ruthenian Language Orthography, English-Ruthenian
Contrastive Grammar, and Carpatho-Ruthenian Language (Professor
Mihajlo Fejsa’s courses), and Ruthenian Children Poetry, Novel and
Drama (Professor Julijan Tamaš’s courses). The professors at the
Department of Ruthenian Studies work in exceptional circumstances, and
they both describe their subjects of research and teach them.
Since the Ruthenian population in Vojvodina is rather small, the
Department of Ruthenian Studies is specific for a relatively small number
of students (about 25 students). On average, there are 5 students enrolled
per academic year.
The Ruthenian language courses can also be taken at the Media
Department where there is a possibility to enrol two budget students.
Students from several departments at the Faculty of Philosophy can study

the Ruthenian language as an elective course.
At the Beginning of the 21st Century

The beginning of the 21st century brought peace, but it was particularly
worrying to note that interethnic violence still exited and occurred mainly
between young people. It was stressed that initiatives aimed at promoting a
spirit of tolerance and intercultural dialogue need to be reinforced. It was
also necessary to take educational measures towards better tolerance of the
different communities.
In September 2005, a project for the promotion of multiculturalism and
tolerance in Vojvodina was launched by the Vojvodina Secretariat for
Legislation, Administration and National Minorities. The targets of this
initiative are mostly schoolchildren, and the project includes a media
campaign for multiculturalism.
Apart from that, efforts have been undertaken to increase the
proportion of members of national minorities in especially sensitive state
services such as police, prosecution and the courts, in which they remain
underrepresented. The Ombudsperson of Vojvodina has even published
recommendations aimed at increasing the representation of minorities in
public administration.
At the beginning of the 21st century, the Republic of Serbia adopted
international standards concerning national minorities’ rights. The two
most prestigious international documents of the Council of Europe signed
by the government bodies are the European Charter for Regional or
Minority Languages (signed by the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro
in 2005) and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities (signed by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 2001). The
essence of these documents has been incorporated in the 2006 Constitution
of the Republic of Serbia.
During the last decade, the Republic of Serbia has taken several steps
that undoubtedly reveal a great deal of effort to improve Ruthenian
minority status. The foundation of the National Council of Ruthenian
National Minority is the most notable innovation.
National councils of national minorities constitute a form of cultural
autonomy of national minorities and functional decentralization,
introduced into the legal system ten years ago (2002) by the adoption of
the Law on Protection of Rights and Freedoms of National Minorities.
Under Article 19, paragraph 1 of the Law, persons belonging to national
minorities may elect national councils for the purpose of exercising the
Mihajlo Fejsa 429
right to self-governance in the fields of official use of the language and

script, education, information and culture. National councils are financed
out of the budgets of different levels of the public authorities and out of
donations. National councils are financed by the Republic of Serbia and
the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, as well as by certain local self-
governments, out of their budgets.
Тhe Law on the National Councils was passed in 2006. Generally
speaking, the National Council of Ruthenian National Minority can and
must coordinate and take care of the implementation of minority rights in
the fields of education, culture, information and the field of official use of
language and script (Rusnaci u Serbiji – Informator 2009: 18). The
National Council of Ruthenian National Minority is a legal subject, elected
every four years. It consists of 19 members.
The members of the Ruthenian minority are entitled to use their
language within the municipality or locality in which they form 15% of the
local population. They have the right to be educated in their native
language and to attend classes that focus on the minority’s history and
culture and, at the same time, the parallel teaching in the Serbian language
is compulsory.
The Law also provides for the official use of the Ruthenian language in
judicial procedures, as well as for electoral materials. The Ruthenian
minority is granted the right to name streets and other topographical
signboards in its language. In areas where the Ruthenian minority makes
up to 15% of the local population, the state’s legislation is to be issued in
the Ruthenian language.
One of the noteworthy provisions is the right granted to members of
national minorities to freely establish and maintain relations with legal
subjects resident in foreign states, with those to which they bear some
collective, cultural, linguistic or religious similarities.
The state is also obliged to finance the main cultural activities
organized by the members of a national minority. For financing cultural
projects, the organizers are encouraged to seek funding from private and
state’s organizations and institutions based abroad.
The establishment of the Institute for Culture of the Vojvodinian
Ruthenians (in 2008) is another radical innovation. The main goal of the
Institute is to give assistance in attaining and affirmation of excellence of
culture of Vojvodinian Ruthenians in the broadest sense. Its programme is
realized through the documentation-informative programme, development-
research programme and programme for international cooperation and
cooperation with associations of citizens, nongovernment organizations,
local self-managements and other institutions. The Institute intends to raise
the cultural level of authors and audience and to connect the Ruthenian
cultural system with the local, regional, provincial, national and European
cultural systems (Rusnaci u Serbiji – Informator 2009: 32).
Both the Institute for Culture of the Vojvodinian Ruthenians and the
National Council of Ruthenian National Minority cooperate with the
Institutes for Culture and the National Councils of other national
communities in Vojvodina.
According to the first periodical Report of the Committee of Experts
on the Implementation of the European Charter for Regional and Minority
Languages (accepted on September 12, 2008) (to which the Republic of
Serbia is obliged by accepting the Framework Convention for the
Protection of National Minorities in 2001), the Ruthenian language has
been given special protection under Part III of the Charter (together with
Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Hungarian, Romani, Romanian,
Slovak, and Ukrainian). In the part Overview of the Situation of Regional
and Minority Languages, paragraph V, the Report says “The level of
protection of Ruthenian is high, which is reflected by its official status in
the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, in municipalities and courts. In
education, Ruthenian benefits from good teaching materials, a growing
number of pupils and the only Ruthenian school worldwide. Deficits exist
regarding the availability of television and radio programmes in Ruthenian
in all areas where Ruthenian is used.”
Concluding Remarks
Multiculturalism can be defined as a developmental set of activities
through which an individual enhances knowledge and skills about
different cultures so that he/she can feel comfortable in any situation and
communicate effectively with other individuals from any culture.
Multicultural education promotes respect for ethnic, cultural, race,
linguistic and other differences.
Pupils should be offered such contents that would enable them to build
their identity correctly through tolerance and exchange of experiences with
other cultures. Multicultural education should reflect the student body, as
well as promote understanding of diversity.
Gajić, Budić and Zuković point to the intercultural dimensions of civic
education and religious instruction. Zuković (2007: 180) points out that
religious instruction has been introduced to our school, among other
things, with the intention to be one of the links for dimensioning the
multicultural society and a significant achievement factor of basic
principles of religious tolerance. Budić & Gajić (2007: 198) recognize and
Mihajlo Fejsa 431
consider possibilities for implementation of the multicultural education

content into the traditional curriculum both in the form of a separate
subject (such as civic education) and through the introduction of contents
to different teaching subjects.
If we expect that a multicultural curriculum supply alternative points of
view, provide ethnic minorities with a sense of being inclusive in history,
science, etc., and decrease stereotypes, prejudice, and bigotry in the social
environment, then we must conclude that multicultural education has
reached a high level in Vojvodina.
References
Budić, S. & Gajić, O. (2007). Inkluzija multikulturalnog obrazovanja u
tradicionalni kurikulum kroz sadržaje građanskog vaspitanja [Inclusion
of Multicultural Education In The Traditional Curriculum Through The
Contents Of Civic Education]. Multikulturalno obrazovanje 2. Novi
Sad: Univerzitet u Novom Sadu. 197-208.
Fejsa, М. (2008). Ruski jazik u urjadovej sferi [The Ruthenian Language
in Official Use]. Rusin`skyj jazyk medži dvoma kongresami, Svitovyj
kongres Rusiniv, Inštitut rusin’skoho jazyka i kultury Prjašivskoj
univerzity v Prjašovi, Prjašiv. 92-95.
—. (2009). The New Serbia and Its Rusyn. Ruthenian Minority.
Rusini/Rusnaci/Ruthenians (1745-2005) 2. Filozofski fakultet – Оdsek
za rusinistiku, IК Prometej, КPD DОК, Novi Sad. 364-380.
First Periodic Report of the Committee of Experts on the Implementation
of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages.
Belgrade: Ministry for Human and Minorities Rights.
Gajić, O. & Budić, S. (2007). Interkulturalna dimenzija građanskog
vaspitanja i uloga nastavnika [Intercultural Dimension of Civic
Education and the Role of Teachers]. Multikulturalno obrazovanje 2.
Novi Sad: Univerzitet u Novom Sadu. 159-178.
Gavrilović, S. (1977). Rusini u Bačkoj i Sremu od sredine XVIII do
sredine XIX veka [The Ruthenias in Bačka and Srem from the Middle
of the 18th Century to the Middle of the 19th Century]. Godišnjak
Društva istoričara Vojvodine. Novi Sad: Društvo istoričara Vojvodine.
153-215.
Oljača, M. (2007a). Critical Pedagogy As a Theoretical Foundation of the
Multicultural Education. Multikulturalno obrazovanje 2. Novi Sad:
Univerzitet u Novom Sadu. 33-44.
Rusnaci u Serbiji – Informator (2009). Ruski Kerestur: Nacionalni sovit

ruskej nacionalnej zajednjici, Zavod za kulturu vojvodjanskih
Rusnacoch, NVU Ruske slovo.
Zuković, S. (2007). Interkulturalne dimenzije verske nastave u srednjoj
školi [Cultural Dimensions of Religious Education in High School].
Multikulturalno obrazovanje 2. Novi Sad: Univerzitet u Novom Sadu.
79-102.
METALANGUAGE IN MULTILINGUALISM
SONJA HORNJAK
Introduction
Multilingualism has become a worldwide phenomenon that led to a huge
increase in the use of metalanguage. Although authors have a tendency to
use metaphors to express opinions, metalanguage is expanding and
becoming richer in response to changing social circumstances. This paper
presents an analysis of the use of metalanguage in studies on
multilingualism, focusing on the classification and representation of such
terminology. Research results indicate significant changes in society and,
as metalanguage reflects societal change, specialist terminology
concerning multilingualism is rapidly changing. Therefore, it is necessary
to investigate and define terms that are encapsulated under metalanguage.
Multilingualism represents an integral part of everyday life and is
becoming more widespread. This is discussed in Filipović’s book (2009)
in which it is stated “Multilingualism at country level represents the
world’s reality, in other words, a rule, and not an exception.” (ibidem: 88)
and “There is no state entity in the world that could be monolingual.”
(idem)
Many scientific disciplines explore the concept of multilingualism. In
the fields of linguistics, psychology, pedagogy, sociology, politics, there
exist multiple papers that examine this phenomenon. In every scientific
sphere, aspects of multilingualism are studied that are relevant within that
specific domain of interest.
Metalanguage, in linguistic terms, represents the professional language
of scientists: in other words, it is the language in which we speak about
language (Klajn & Šipka 2007: 756). Concepts that are used to explain and
describe language use are never neutral. Linguistic choice can subordinate
or distort the image of individuals and certain groups, while
simultaneously can glorify other individuals or groups (Skutnabb-Kangas
& McCarty 2006: 1). As a consequence, it is of immense importance to
use these terms with caution.
434 Metalanguage in Multilingualism
Basic Definitions
Many scientific terms referring to specific phenomena are used in the
study of multilingualism. Scientific language refers to concepts that are
generally unknown to a wider circle of people and, because of this, every
term should be precisely defined:
- Bilingualism and multilingualism represent the use of two or more

living languages at individual or group level. If one person speaks
several languages, then the term plurilingualism is used. The use of
more languages in one community or country is called social
multilingualism and it does not imply an official language. (Skutnabb-
Kangas & McCarty 2006: 2)
- A key in the study of multilingualism is the minority language
(Skutnabb-Kangas 2002: 8). It is a language that is not dominant
within a certain territory as the speakers are a marginal group who do
not have political power. (Skutnabb-Kangas & McCarty 2006: 7)
Unlike minority language, the majority language encompasses the
language of the dominant group that is more numerous and more
powerful.
- Diglossia refers to the use of two different language varieties within
one linguistic, cultural and political community. Those varieties are in
“complementary distribution”: V variety is often used in religious
rituals, public speeches, educational system, in the media (electronic
and written), and in poetry. Meanwhile, N variety is used within the
family, when addressing servants, by representatives of lower social
classes, in professions that do not require a high level of education, in
oral literature, and popular TV shows, etc. (Filipović 2009: 89)
- Language shift is present in the world today and designates gradual or
sudden shift of one language to another. This occurs on both individual
and group level. The term language revitalization appeared in response
to attempts to prevent such a shift and to preserve effected languages.
- When we talk about factors that bind multilingualism, words such as
nationalism, xenophobia, racism, or intolerance appear. Ranko
Bugarski (2009: 164), in his book, New Faces of Language, states
“multilingualism appears as an important obstacle to the fatal
expansion of the nationalistic disdain and exclusivity, also as an
obstacle to related phenomenon of egocentrism, xenophobia,
chauvinism and racism, and as a factor which encourages linguistic
and every other tolerance.”
Sonja Hornjak 435
- A problem appears when terms are not precisely defined.

Plurilingualism describes individuals who know more languages,
whilst multilingualism implies the use of more languages on one
territory and does not refer to one person who knows several
languages. In Serbian, plurilingualism and multilingualism are treated
as synonyms, exemplified with the single term, višejezičnost, being
used for both concepts. Problems arise when the terms are both
translated as višejezičnost in Serbian. Because of a lack of
differentiation between the two terms, confusion can occur.
Use of Scientific Terms in Multilingualism Classifications

Most authors, in their discussion on multilingualism, attempt to classify
metalinguistic terms. As a result, many scientific terms have been offered,
which serve for detailed explication and understanding of this field:
- Multiple criteria for multilingualism classification exist. According to

the temporal criteria (age), bilingualism can be early or simultaneous
and successive. Early bilingualism relates to the adoption of both
languages before the age of four, and successive bilingualism refers to
second language adoption after this age.
- If we follow language knowledge, bilingualism can be symmetric or
asymmetric. Symmetric bilingualism marks equal knowledge of both
languages, whilst asymmetric bilingualism marks lower knowledge
level of the second language. (http://www.edukacija.hr/tecaj/
bilingvizam/1314)
- Social bilingualism includes social groups on a certain territory and
individual bilingualism refers to isolated phenomena.
- Unstable bilingualism refers to language knowledge whose levels on
individual plan are changing during the person’s lifetime, whilst stable
bilingualism refers to constancy. (Filipović 2009: 89)
- If we take the relation between two languages as a criterion, then the
classification of bilingualism into additive and subtractive bilingualism
exists. Additive bilingualism marks second language learning which
will not affect the first language, while subtractive bilingualism marks
knowledge acquisition of the second language at the expense of the
first language. (Baroš 2006: 37)
- A natural bilingual is a person who acquired two languages in his/her
early years without formal education. Instead, internal and external
factors within his/her everyday life developed two languages as his/her
natural medium of communication. School bilingualism refers to
language knowledge as a result of second language learning within

formal education. Related to school bilingualism, cultural bilingualism
is often used to refer to adults who learn a foreign language.
(Skutnabb-Kangas 1991: 116)
- Elite bilingualism is used in reference to people who do not have a
high level of education, although they have received some level of
education in foreign languages. Natural bilingualism relates to people
who are forced to learn a second language via indirect contact with
people who speak that language. Elite bilingualism is not associated
with societal issues, unlike folk bilingualism, which is often associated
with difficulties in education due to education organization. (ibidem)
New Terms in Multilingualism

With market development and expansion of globalization, comes the
international mobility of people, which increases the number of
immigrants and intercultural contacts. The dominance of the English
language, as well as the political and economic power of majority
languages, affects the appearance of new phenomena in languages:
therefore, new terms in the field of multilingualism studies are required.
Discussion on the topic often appears: Should immigrants keep their
identity or should they integrate into society accepting the new identity of
the country in which they are now living? Authors use the phrase
“European dilemma” which includes this battle of identities. (Skutnabb-
Kangas & Phillipson 1996: 292):
- The majority of authors agree that the solutions to this issue are
transnationalism and multiculturalism. Transnationalism is a tendency
of immigrants to maintain regular relations with their country of origin.
Multiculturalism represents the idea according to which immigrants
should not leave their identity in order to integrate in the new society.
(Kymlicka & Patten 2003: 12)
- Linguicism includes attitudes, beliefs and actions which imply that
language differences serve in structuring inequality between linguistic
groups; ideology and structure that are used to legalize, regulate and
reproduce unequal power division among groups which are defined by
language. (Skutnabb-Kangas & Mc Carty 2006: 6)
- Linguistic imperialism represents the shape of linguicism in which one
community dominates over the other. Like in colonialism, imperialism
and corporative globalism, the language of the dominant power is
Sonja Hornjak 437
structurally privileged in the division of sources and ideological in

beliefs and attitudes about language. (ibidem)
- Phillipson defines linguistic imperialism as unequal exchange and
unequal communicative rights of the person or groups defined by their
competence in certain languages, which result in unequal benefits in
the system that legalizes this exploitation and considers it natural.
(Filipović 2009: 95).
- Since concepts and terms develop throughout history, the same term
can have several definitions. For example, linguistic immersion was
related to French-Canadian immersion for Anglophone speakers from
the middle classes. In contrast, today it is related to the system of
language learning.
- In papers about multilingualism, in the last few years, abbreviations are
presented that facilitate and accelerate communication. Abbreviations
such as CLIL (Content and Language-Integrated Learning), EFL
(English as a Foreign Language), ESL (English as a Second
Language), FL (Foreign Language) originate in the English language,
but they are used in other languages as well. These abbreviations have
become universal means of communication.
Metaphors in Multilingualism
Authors use scientific terminology in their studies about multilingualism,
but they also use metaphors. For instance, Skutnabb-Kangas speaks about
the death of the languages.
Two paradigms exist which explain why languages disappear. The first
paradigm describes the disappearance of languages as a natural death,
whilst the second paradigm sees the disappearance of languages as a
murder. “Languages do not commit suicide. They are the result of
linguistic genocide.” (Skutnabb-Kangas 2006: 8) Skutnabb-Kangas
(ibidem: 6) created a neologism which was accepted by other authors:
connecting two words into one, the word lingua and the word genocide,
the word linguicide appeared as a synonym for language genocide.
Because different social, political and economic factors, many languages
lose their importance, as dominant languages violate them. This is how the
phrase endangered languages appeared.
Metaphors and personifications such as language death, linguistic
genocide, endangered languages, and language rights (Meyerhoff 2006:
104) represent extremely crucial aspects of metalanguage. With these
phrases, authors express their own attitude about unstable linguistic
situations. In this way, authors express their opinions and concerns about
the future of certain languages indirectly.
Metalanguage in Expressing Attitudes

One of the key problems considered in papers on multilingualism is
children’s right to education in their mother tongue when their mother
tongue is not the majority language within the community. If the child
attends classes taught in the majority language, the results can affect badly
their cognitive and emotional development. Skutnabb-Kangas (2004: 2)
asserts that researchers accepted measures which actively linguistic
diversity.
Many different attitudes concerning multilingual education exist. As a
result, many different types of multilingual education have developed:
- Subtractive language learning includes dominant language learning at

the expense of maternal language, while additive language learning
refers to the dominant language learning besides maternal language
which continues to be used and developed. (ibidem: 5) Often, the
influence of the English language on other languages is questioned,
whereby different scientific attitudes appear. Some authors consider
that English threatens other languages, while other authors consider
that such a danger does not exist.
- Some authors use the phrase human language rights instead of
language rights. This phrase appeared in the light of the phrase human
rights and can refer to two things. Firstly, it can refer to the right of the
person to identify with a certain group or community in linguistic,
ethnic, or cultural terms. Skutnabb-Kangas named these rights
expressive linguistic rights. The term human linguistic rights can also
refer to the right of the person to communicate in public, in education
and other domains without linguistic barrier or problems because they
are using certain language. In other words, the person has the right to
participate actively and equally in all domains within the political
community. Skutnabb-Kangas also names these kinds of language
rights instrumental language rights. (Filipović 2009: 95)
- Skutnabb-Kangas differentiates between negative and positive
language rights. Negative language rights refer to the right of
indiscrimination in enjoying human rights, while positive language
rights include the liberty of using distinctive aspects of culture,
language and religion. (Skutnabb-Kangas, 2009: 6)
Sonja Hornjak 439
Conclusion
Multilingualism as a worldwide phenomenon is the subject of many
studies. Thanks to metalanguage, we can study and explain certain
multilingualism phenomena. It is extremely beneficial to know scientific
terms and their definitions precisely.
Besides scientific terms, authors use metaphors, personifications and
neologisms to mark certain linguistic situations. Language death,
linguistic genocide, or language rights serve to express the authors’
opinions and to indicate the danger that threatens the languages.
Metalanguage, in the studies of multilingualism, is subject to change
according to the social situation and appearance of new circumstances. As
a result, the need for new terms arises that expands and enriches
metalanguage. The study of metalanguage is extremely beneficial, not
only for linguistics, but also for society.
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CONTRIBUTORS
Chana ABUCHATZIRA is currently an MA Student and a research fellow

at the Academic College for Education in Achva (Israel). She has a BA in
Education from the same college. Her main areas of interest are education
and multicultural education. She has published in the field of education.
Naghmana ALI is currently working as an Assistant Professor at the

American University of Sharjah (UAE). She has a PhD from the
University of Toronto (Canada). Her main areas of interest include TESL,
bilingualism, language and identity, curriculum design, and gender issues.
She has published widely in the field of multicultural education.
Hasan ARSLAN is currently an Associate Professor at the Onsekiz Mart

University of Çanakkale (Turkey). He has a BA in Educational
Administration and Supervision from the Hacettepe University of Ankara
(Turkey), an MA in Educational Administration and a PhD in Higher
Education from the American University of Washington, DC (U.S.A.). His
research interests are educational administration, student leadership,
multicultural education, and higher education policy. He authored Turkish
Educational System and School Administration (2010) and Class
Management (2011).
Davide ASTORI is currently a Researcher in General Linguistics at the

Università degli Studi di Parma (Italy). He has a BA in ancient languages
and a PhD in Romance Philology from the LMU in Munich (Germany).
His main areas of interest are: multicultural education, languages and
cultures in contact, language teaching, traductology, languages and
Weltanschauungen, social and language minorities, sociolinguistic aspects
of national identities. He has authored Pagine mediterranee fra lingue,
culture, identità. Riflessioni a cavallo di multilinguismo, multiculturalismo
ed esperantologia [Mediterranean pages between languages, cultures and
identities. Thoughts about multilingualism, multiculturalism and
Esperanto] (2012) and edited the monographic number of the review
Multilinguismo e società [Multilingualism and society] (2011).
442 Contributors
Lea BARATZ is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Achva College of

Education (Israel). She has a BA in Hebrew Literature, an MA in Hebrew
Literature and a PhD in Hebrew Literature from the Bar Ilan University
(Israel). Her main areas of interest are education, multicultural education,
language teaching, children literature etc. She has published widely in the
field of multicultural education.
Yeşim BEKTAŞ-ÇETINKAYA is currently an Instructor at the Dokuz

Eylul University (Turkey). She has a BA in ELT from the same university,
and an MA and PhD in Foreign and Second Language Education from the
Ohio State University (U.S.A.). Her main areas of interest are culture and
intercultural communication in English language teaching, teacher
education, and affective variables in foreign language teaching. She has
authored College Students’ Willingness to Communicate in English (2009)
and co-edited Research Perspectives on Teaching and Learning English in
Turkey: Policies and Practices (2012).
Servet ҪELIK is currently an Assistant Professor at the Karadeniz

Technical University (Turkey). He also serves as a senior researcher for
the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey
(TÜBİTAK). He holds a BA in ELT from the Gazi University (Turkey),
an MA in TESOL from the University of Pennsylvania (U.S.A.), and a
PhD in Literacy, Culture, and Language Education from the Indiana
University-Bloomington (U.S.A.). His main areas of interest are language
teacher education, teaching of culture and intercultural competence,
narrative inquiry and qualitative research. He has published widely in the
Lucie CVIKLOVÁ is currently a Senior Lecturer and a Researcher at the

Charles University and the Anglo-American University of Prague (The
Czech Republic). She has an MA in sociology from the Charles University
and the Central European University of Prague, and a PhD in political
science from the University Paris X – Nanterre (France). Her main areas
of interest are multicultural education in the context of globalization and
the development of private and public educational institutions in East and
Central Europe. She has co-edited Čítanka Kritické Teorie [Reader of
Critical Theory] (1999).
Fred DERVIN is currently a Professor of multicultural education at the

University of Helsinki (Finland). He holds a PhD in applied linguistics
from the University of Turku (Finland) and a PhD in language and
Multicultural Education: From Theory to Practice 443
intercultural education from the University of Sorbonne in Paris (France).

His main areas of interest are language and intercultural education, the
sociology of multiculturalism and intercultural competence in teacher
education. He has authored Impostures interculturelles [Intercultural
Hoaxes] (2012) and co-edited Politics of Interculturality (2011) and
Linguistics for Intercultural Education (2013).
Tatjana ĐUROVIĆ is currently an Associate Professor at the University of

Belgrade (Serbia). She has a BA in English Language and Literature, an
MA in Applied Linguistics and a PhD from the same university. Her main
research interests include cognitive linguistics, ESP and discourse
analysis. She has co-authored Javni diskurs Srbije – kognitivističko-
kritička studija [Serbian Public Discourse – A Cognitivist-Critical Study]
(2009).
Mihajlo FEJSA is currently an Associate Professor at the University of

Novi Sad (Serbia). He has a BA in English Studies from the University of
Novi Sad, an MA in English Studies from the University of Belgrade
(Serbia), and a PhD in English Studies from the University of Novi Sad.
His main areas of interest are English teaching, Ruthenian teaching,
bilingual education, and multicultural education. He has authored Anglijski
еlеmenti u ruskim jaziku [English Elements in the Ruthenian Language]
(1990) and Nova Srbija i njena rusinska manjina / Nova Serbija i jej ruska
menšina [The New Serbia and Its Ruthenian Minority] (2010); edited
Кucura nekad i sad / Kocur dakedi i teraz [Kucura in the Past and in the
Present] (2001) and Rusini / Rusnaci / Ruthenians (1745-2005) [Rusyns /
Rusnaks / Ruthenians (1745-2005)] (2006-2008); and co-authored
Serbsko-ruski slovnjik / Srpsko-rusinski rečnik [Serbian-Ruthenian
Dictionary] (1995-1998) and Rusko-serbski slovnjik / Rusinsko-srpski
rečnik [Ruthenian-Serbian Dictionary] (2010).
Márta GALGÓCZI-DEUTSCH is currently a language teacher at the

University of Szeged (Hungary). She has a BA and an MA in English and
Spanish, and a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the same university. Her
main areas of interest include languages, multilingual education and
linguistic landscape. She has published widely in the field of
multiculturalism.
Salih Zeki GENÇ is currently an Associate Professor of Education at the

Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (Turkey). He has a BA in Primary
Teacher Education from the Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, and an
444 Contributors
MA and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the Atatürk University

of Erzurum (Turkey). His main areas of interest are democracy education,
human rights education, multicultural education and values education. He
has contributed chapters in Öğretim İlke ve Yöntemleri [Instructional
Principles and Methods] (2008), Eğitim Bilimine Giriş [Introduction to
Educational Sciences] (2010) and Bilimsel Araştırma Yöntemleri
[Scientific Research Methods] (2011).
Sonja HORNJAK is currently a teacher of Serbo-Croatian at the

University of Granada (Spain). She has a BA in Spanish Language and
Hispanic Literature from the University of Belgrade (Serbia) and is a PhD
student in Applied Linguistics at the same university. Her main areas of
interest are Acquisition of Spanish as L2, Language teaching and
Sociolinguistics.
Sari HOSOYA is currently a Professor at the Kanto Gakuin University of

Yokomaha (Japan). She has a BA in Comparative Culture and an MA in
Sociology from the Sophia University of Tokyo (Japan), and a PhD in
Education from the University of California of Los Angeles (U.S.A.). Her
main areas of interest are multicultural/intercultural education and teacher
education. She has authored Japanese Teachers and Their Intercultural
Competence (2010).
Mehmet Ali İÇBAY currently works as an Assistant Professor at the

Onsekiz Mart University of Çanakkale (Turkey). He has a BA in Foreign
Language Education and Psychology and a PhD on Curriculum and
Instruction from the Middle East Technical University of Ankara
(Turkey). His primary research interests are rooted in the
ethnomethodological account of social organization in the classroom
settings. He published widely in the field of multicultural education.
Lulzime KAMBERI is currently an Assistant Professor at the State

University of Tetovo (FYRoM). She has a BA in English Language and
Literature from the University of Prishtina (Kosovo), an MA in Language
Education from Indiana University of Bloomington, IN (U.S.A.), and a
PhD in Applied Linguistics from the South East European University of
Tetovo. Her main areas of interest are second language acquisition,
multicultural education, and educational change. She has authored The
Relationship of Language, Learning Beliefs and Learning Strategies (in
print).
Efrat KASS is currently a Senior Lecturer and a Researcher at the

Academic College of Education in Achva (Israel) and a member of the
Research Committee of the Mofet Institute. She has a BA in Special
Education from Bar Ilan University of Tel Aviv (Israel), an MA in
Educational counselling and a PhD in Teachers’ Self-efficacy from the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel). Her main areas of interest are
Self-efficacy in Education, Bibliotherapy and Motivation to choose
teaching as a career. She has authored Lo lefahed mehapahad [Don’t Be
Afraid of Fear] (2012).
Ercan KOCAYÖRÜK is currently an Assistant Professor at the Onsekiz

Mart University of Çanakkale (Turkey). He has an MA and a PhD in
Psychological Counselling and Guidance from the Middle East Technical
University of Ankara (Turkey). His main areas of interest are the
relationship between parents and children and the role of parents on
healthy adolescent development. He has published widely in the field of
multicultural education.
Ljubica KORDIĆ is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of

Osijek (Croatia). She has a BA in Education, Germanistics and Anglistics
from the same university, an MA in Education Methodology and a PhD in
Linguistics from the University of Zagreb (Croatia). Her main areas of
interest are multicultural education, language teaching (LSP),
multilingualism and legal linguistics. She has published widely in the field
of multicultural education.
Edit-Ilona MÁRI is currently an Associate Professor at the University of

Szeged (Hungary). She has an MA in German, Russian and Hungarian
Literature and a PhD in literature from the same university. Her main areas
of interest include languages, multilingual education and literature. She
has published Csehov kései drámái és Goethe Fausja [Late Dramas of
Chekhov and Goethe’s Faust] (1997), Gogol, Dosztojevszkij and Faust
[Gogol, Dostoyevsky and Faust] (1999), Assisis Szent Ferenc
Szellemiségéről [About the Spirituality of Francis of Assisi] (1999),
Vallási motívumok Gogol és Lermontov Művészetében [Religious motifs in
the art of Gogol és Lermontov] (2002).
Maria NICULESCU is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of the

West in Timisoara (Romania). She has a BA in Roumanian and French
from the same university, an MA in Education Management and a PhD in
Educational Sciences from the University of Bucharest (Romania). Her
446 Contributors
main areas of interest are education, multicultural education, educational

sciences, mentoring in education, teaching and managerial competencies,
class management quality in education prevails. She has authored Abilităţi
şi tehnici manageriale [Managerial Skills and Techniques] (2009),
Competenţe manageriale – perspective ale calităţii în educaţie
[Managerial Skills: Perspectives of Quality in Education] (2010),
Dezvoltarea competenţelor managerului şcolar în contextul formării
continue [Developing the Skills of School Managers in the Context of
Continuous Education] (2010), Facilitarea dezvoltării competenţelor
profesionale prin formare continuă. Ghid de bună practică [Facilitating
the Development of Professional Skills through Continuing Education:
Best Practices] (2012).
Kevin NORLEY is currently a Senior Lecturer at Bedford College (UK).

He has a BSc (Hons) in Engineering from Brunel University (UK), an MA
in Post-16 Education and Training Policy from Sheffield University (UK),
a PGCE in Physical Sciences from London University Institute of
Education (UK), and subject teaching specialisms in numeracy, literacy
and ESOL from the University of Bedfordshire (UK). His main areas of
interest are science education, literacy, numeracy, teaching ESOL and
multicultural education. He has authored Making Britain Numerate (2011)
and Making Britain Literate (2012).
Dubravka PAPA is currently a Senior Lecturer at the J. J. Strossmayer

University of Osijek (Croatia). She has an MA in English and German
languages and literature from the same university. Her main areas of
interest are linguistics, legal linguistics, multiculturalism, language
teaching. She has published widely in the field of multicultural education.
Dana PERCEC is currently an Associate Professor at the University of the

West in Timişoara (Romania). She has a BA in English, an MA in British
and American Studies and a PhD in English literature from the same
university. Her main areas of interest are English literature, cultural
studies, gender studies and language teaching. She has authored De la
Gargantuan la Google [From Gargantua to Google] (2007), Anglia
elisabetană. Ghid de istorie culturală [Elizabethan England: A Cultural
History Guide] (2010), Drama and Culture in Shakespeare’s Age (2011),
Anglia victoriană. Ghid de istorie culturală [Victorian England: A
Cultural History Guide] (2012), edited O poveste de succes. Romanul
istoric astăzi [A Success Story: The Historical Novel Today] (2011) and
Romance. The History of a Genre (2012), and co-edited Despre lux [On
Luxury] (2007).
Svetlana POLSKAYA is currently an Associate Professor at the State

Institute of International Relations of Moscow (Russia). She has a BA in
Philology and an MA in Foreign Language Teaching from the State
Linguistic University of Moscow (Russia), and a PhD in sociolinguistics
from the Academic Institute of Linguistics of Moscow (Russia). Her main
areas of interest are sociolinguistics, terminology, multicultural education,
jargon. She has authored Categorization and Conceptualization in
Languages for Special Purposes and Professional Discourse Studies
(2009).
Danijela POP-JOVANOV is currently a teacher of English at the Karlovci

Grammar School (Serbia). She has a BA in English Language and
Literature and an MA in English Philology from the University of Novi
Sad (Serbia). Her main areas of interest are education, multicultural
education, language teaching, intercultural communication,
sociolinguistics, critical thinking and workshop facilitation. She has
published widely in the field of multicultural education.
Eliana-Alina POPEȚI is currently a PhD Student at the West University of

Timişoara (Romania). She has a BA in Philology and an MA in
Intercultural Communication from the same university. Her main areas of
interest are education, multicultural education, language teaching,
intercultural studies, anthropology. She has co-authored Educație
interculturală pentru copii migranți în România [Intercultural Education
for Migrant Children in Romania] (2012).
Biljana RADIĆ-BOJANIĆ is currently an Assistant Professor at the

University of Novi Sad (Serbia). She has a BA in English Language and
Literature, an MA in English Language and Linguistics, and a PhD in
Linguistics from the same university. Her main areas of interest are
intercultural education and language teaching. She has edited Strategije i
stilovi u nastavi engleskog jezika [Strategies and Styles in English
Language Teaching] (2012).
Georgeta RAŢĂ is currently an Associate Professor at the Banat

University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Timişoara
(Romania). She has a BA in French and English and a PhD in Linguistics
from the University of Bucharest (Romania). Her main areas of interest
448 Contributors
include languages, communication, education sciences. She has published

Contribuţii la teoria comunicării [Contributions to the Theory of
Communication] (1998), and co-edited Social Sciences Today: Between
Theory and Practice (2010), Academic Days of Timişoara: Social Sciences
Today (2011), Applied Social Sciences: Communication Studies (2013),
and Applied Social Sciences: Sociology (2013).
Nicola REGGIANI is currently a Research Assistant at the University of

Parma (Italy) and a post-doc fellow at the University of Heidelberg
(Germany). He has a BA in Humanities, an MA in Ancient History and
Archaeology, and a PhD in Greek History from the University of Parma
(Italy). His main areas of interest are ancient Greek history, digital
humanities, papyrology, and documentary evidence of linguistic and
multicultural issues in the ancient world. He has published widely in the
Roni REINGOLD is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Academic College

of Achva (Israel). He has a BA in Education from Academic College of
Beit Berl (Israel), an MA and a PhD in Education from the University of
Tel Aviv (Israel). His main areas of interest are multicultural education,
teacher education and philosophy of education. He has co-edited Changes
in Teachers’ Moral Role: From Passive Observers to Moral and
Democratic Leaders (2012).
Ioana ROMAN is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of

Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca
(Romania). She has a BA in chemistry and physics from the Babeş-Bolyai
University of Cluj-Napoca and a PhD in Horticulture from the University
of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca. Her
main areas of interest are pedagogy, specialty didactics, teaching practice,
computer-assisted training and biochemistry. She has authored Didactica
activă [Active Didactics] (2008), Didactica aplicată [Applied Didactics]
(2011) and co-authored Despre Educație [About Education] (2002).
Edit RÓZSAVÖLGYI is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of

Padua (Italy). She has an MA in contrastive linguistics and linguistic
typology from the University of Verona (Italy). She is a PhD Student in
Linguistics at the University of Pécs (Hungary). Her main areas of interest
are multicultural education, contrastive linguistics, linguistic typology,
morpho-syntax. She has published widely in the field of multicultural
education.
Nadežda SILAŠKI is currently an Associate Professor at the University of

Belgrade (Serbia). She has a BA in Linguistics and an MA in Contrastive
Analysis from the same university, and a PhD in Linguistics from the
University of Novi Sad (Serbia). Her main areas of interest are Cognitive
Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, ESP. She has authored Srpski jezik u
tranziciji – o anglicizmima u ekonomskom registru [Serbian in Transition:
On Anglicisms in the Economic Register] (2012) and co-authored Javni
disku rs Srbije – kognitivističko-kritička studija [Serbian Public Discourse:
A Cognitivist-Critical Study] (2009).
Mirja-Tytti TALIB is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of

Helsinki (Finland). She has a BA and an MA in Education from the
University of Turku (Finland) and a PhD in Multicultural education from
the University of Helsinki. Her main research interests are teachers’
intercultural competence as well as teachers’ professional identity. She has
edited Diversity – a Challenge for Educators (2006) and co-edited Dialogs
on Diversity and Global Education (2009).
Polina TEREKHOVA is currently a Senior Lecturer at the State University

St. Petersburg (Russia). She has an MA in Spanish and Spanish Literature
from the same university and an MA in EFL from the University of
Lancaster (UK). Her main areas of interest are learner training and course
design. She has published widely in the field of multicultural education.
Alena TIMOFEEVA is currently a Senior Lecturer at the State University

St. Petersburg (Russia). She has an MA in English Literature and
Language from the same university. She is a PhD Student in Language
Teaching at the same university. Her main areas of interest are English as
International Language, language teaching and multicultural education.
She has published widely in the field of multicultural education.
MONA VINTILĂ is currently a Professor at the West University of

Timişoara (Romania). She has a PhD in Medicine. Her main research
interests include health psychology, family and couple psychology, psych-
sexology. She has authored Prematuritatea. Cauze, percepţia propriei
sănătăţi, relaţionarea, orientarea şcolară [Prematurity. Causes,
Perception of One’s Own Health, Relationships, School Guidance] (2003),
Igienă şi sănătate mentală [Hygiene and Mental Health] (2004),
Compendiu de Neuropsihologie [Compendium of Neuropsychology]
(2007) and Compendiu de neuropsihologie clinic şi psihofarmacologie
450 Contributors
aplicată [Compendium of Clinical Neuropsychology and Applied

Psychopharmacology] (2007).
Xiaojing WANG is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Normal University

of Beijing (China). She has a BA in English Language and Literature from
the same university, and an MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL and a
PhD in Educational and Applied Linguistics from the University of
Newcastle (UK). Her main areas of interest are multicultural education,
language teaching, TESOL, sociolinguistics. She has published widely in
the field of multicultural education.
Sara ZAMIR is currently the Head of the B.Ed. – Educational

Administration programme at the Academic College of Education in
Achva (Israel) and teaches at the Ben-Gurion University at Eilat Campus
(Israel). She holds a PhD in Educational Policy and Administration from
the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel). Her main areas of
interest are peace-education, political socialization, communication and
learning assessment. She published The voice of Peace in the Process of
Education (2008) and Literary Texts as Peace Agents: Changes and
Diversity of Peace Education Perspectives in Israel (2012).
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Multicultural Education From Theory To Practice

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Multicultural Education From Theory to

Book · November 2015

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Hasan Arslan and Georgeta Raţă

This book first published 2013

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Copyright © 2013 by Hasan Arslan and Georgeta Raţă and contributors

ISBN (10): 1-4438-4740-2, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4740-7

List of Tables .............................................................................................. ix

List of Illustrations ..................................................................................... xi

Foreword .................................................................................................. xiii

Bi-, Cross-, Multi-, Pluri-, or Trans-Cultural Education?

Multicultural Education: Approaches, Dimensions and Principles

History of National and Ethnic Minorities in the Carpathian Basin:

Multicultural Education in the Ancient World: Dimensions of Diversity

Teaching Diversity: A Perspective on the Formation of Youth by Means

Making Sense of Education for Diversities: Criticality, Reflexivity

Language, Social Class, Ethnicity and Educational Inequality

Two Models of Education in Croatian Multilingual and Multicultural

Engaging Multicultural Students in a Cosmopolitan Curriculum:

Educational Policy towards the Ethiopian Immigrant Community

Education towards Collective Characteristics in a Plural Society:

Multicultural Counselling in Education

Development of Intercultural Communication Competence

Teacher Education in Preparing Student Teachers for Diverse Classrooms

Raising Cross-Cultural Awareness of ESP Economics Students

Classroom Strategies and Actions in a Multicultural Classroom:

Joint Effort for Early Childhood Education: A Continuous Cooperation

Introducing Hebrew Language and Culture in an Italian High School

Strengthening Self-Efficacy in the Framework of Multicultural

Implementation of Active Citizenship in Multicultural Education

Intercultural Training of Pre-Service Teachers in Multicultural

Informal Intercultural and Interlinguistic Education Materials:

Being a Minority or a Majority in Transylvania (Romania)

Considering Multi-Confessionalism while Teaching English in Russian

Perceptions of Turkish EFL Teacher Candidates on Their Level

Multicultural Dimension in an International English Course:

Teaching Chinese in a Multicultural Context

Linguistic Equality in Multicultural Societies

The Importance of Bilingual Education of Minority Language Speaking

Teaching Minority Languages, Histories and Cultures in a Multicultural

Contributors ............................................................................................. 441

Figure 1-1. Austria-Hungary. Empire of Austria (Cisleithania):

The book “Multicultural Education: from Theory to Practice” gives a

about visual presentations and class observations. A further study of Lea

importance of cooperation between family and kindergarten. The author

A multicultural curriculum decreases stereotypes, prejudice, and bigotry

Bicultural, Biculturalism, Bicultural Education

Cross-cultural, Cross-culturality, Cross-cultural

to their own society after a limited period. At the societal level, it is a

Intercultural, Interculturality, Intercultural Education

and […] understanding of and valuing self”. (http://ve.ese.ipcb.pt/index.

Multicultural, Multiculturalism, Multicultural Education

people to learn from the contributions of those of diverse ethnic

Pluricultural, Pluriculturalism, Pluricultural Education

Pluriculturalism is defined as “an approach to the self and others as

Transcultural, Transculturalism, Transcultural Education

multiculturalism [...] has created borders and boundaries, while social

to make this concept fit their particular focus, seeing multicultural

The choice of the focus in a multicultural education approach (age, class,