ArticlePDF Available

A Study of Cultural Pluralism and its Advantages for Education

Authors:
A preview of the PDF is not available
... Pluralism is the idea that a smaller culture is easily accepted by a larger culture, as long as the smaller culture keeps its own identity, religious practices, and morals or values. The smaller culture and/or its members make it clear that they should not try to blend in or become multiculturalists (Habib, 2017). They want to put more effort into becoming part of the dominant civilization without giving up their own. ...
... This independence comes from pluralism. As a position, pluralism (Habib, 2017;Santos, Nunes & Meneses, 2008) recognises every culture and validates its inherent value. For teachers, pluralism is practical when they recognise the convergent cultures in the classroom and validate them as part of the curriculum without distinctions. ...
Article
Full-text available
Teaching practice has the potential to guide acculturation educational processes to cultural inclusion. Acculturation may lead to social tensions or peaceful connivance. An acculturation process might be inclusive when educational participants symmetrically recognise, validate and use the different cultures as part of the curriculum. The Cultural Bridge (CB) is an approach that teachers might use to design inclusive teaching practices. The method is a qualitative case study on an integration course in Germany. Results evidence a partially inclusive educational process. According to the teacher's interview analysis, the teaching practice approximates the CB principles, but there are limitations because of the system and social barriers. The most relevant situations that limit the teacher's practice are the rigid curriculum, the test as the primary goal, the short time for addressing the mandatory topics and the students' social isolation. As a recommendation, integration courses might engage the local community in the educational process.
... Teacher should perceive the culturally philosophical system nature of their society in order that they may act consequently in their school rooms. Habib, Hadiya (2017) revealed in her study 'a Study of Cultural Pluralism and Its Advantages for Education' that educators should foster a positive classroom environment based on diversity. The curriculum plays a paramount role in influencing the attitudes of the students and curriculum should respect the dignity of all people. ...
Preprint
Full-text available
Nature is itself undoubtedly pluralistic and as a part of it, every ecosystem reflects pluralistic nature. The evolution of life on the planet earth is also represented a symbol of pluralism. India has a long history as a pluralistic society. Though, every society is built upon by its educational system and classrooms. Therefore, it becomes necessary what our future teachers are thinking about pluralism and culturally pluralistic classroom and how much they are aware of this domain. Objectives: This study aims (i) to know the level of awareness of future teachers about culturally pluralistic classrooms and (ii) to study attitudes of future teachers about the culturally pluralistic classrooms. Plan and Procedure: Randomly selected 125 participants are the sample of this study; participants are studying in different teacher training programmes in teacher training institutes of Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh state, India. Findings: (i) female trainee teachers were found more aware in all the domains of awareness as compared to male trainee teachers (ii) urban trainee teachers were found more aware than their rural counterparts (iv) Science stream trainee teachers were found more aware of all the domains of awareness about the culturally pluralistic classroom as compared to their Arts stream trainee teachers and (v) Most of trainee teachers showed favourable attitude towards culturally pluralistic classroom but and many of them were found in confused mode. Recommendations: Trainee teachers should be trained about the culturally pluralistic classrooms pedagogies and knowledge components related to multicultural classrooms practices should be added to the teacher training curriculum.
Article
Full-text available
This article examines the ways education isrelated to social cohesion, mainly in sociologyof education approaches. The notion ofcohesion is used widely, especially as a nobleaim worth striving at, in order to sustain theties that keep society together. Education isviewed as an important institution that contributesto cohesion by socialising the newmembers of society, providing them withknowledge and skills in order to facilitatetheir social participation. Sustaining howevercurrent societal organisation implies that socialinequality is also reproduced. Thus, weargue that, the question of cohesion is interalia a political one.
Article
The paper examines the theoretical position of intercultural educational studies. It begins by stressing the vital importance of intercultural education and the progress that has been made in recent times. It then turns to the terminological shift that occurred two decades ago, from multicultural to intercultural education, which was accepted unquestioningly at the time. Retrospectively, we might ask what was the discursive strategy of this lexical change. Did it not serve to disguise the realities of much cultural interaction: conquest, slave trade, genocide? What are the theoretical (as distinct from the moral) premises of intercultural education? Is the aspiration realistically for an education able to negotiate between cultures rather than to show that there is more than one culture? As the subject appears not to be tightly focused, so the context is also under‐theorized and effectively de‐politicized. The international political, economic and cultural contextualization (globalization) of intercultural education is essential to its understanding. Is there an international view of intercultural education, or is it rather a few paradigmatic examples? The paper shows how the development of a social sciences and comparative perspective might assist the theoretical deficit suggested above.
Article
Sometimes we protect ourselves by ostra cizing that different, sometimes by coercing, indenturing or enslaving it, sometimes by liqui dating it. Always we would, if we could, digest it culturally as we digest vegetables and animals biologically. Horace Kallen CULTURAL pluralism has been a dominant feature in man's very recent history; and, yet, there has been a general failure to consider its meaning and to ex amine its implications for American culture in general and the field of education in par ticular. The persistence of antecedent cul tural traditions and successive migrations of vast numbers of people accounts, in very large measure, for the present cultural plural ism existing in the United States and specific settings therein. The processes of cultural survival and migration contribute to a diverse and con- flictive sociocultural condition to which all institutions, including schools, must adapt. Today, the very spatial and social mobility of populations, both in terms of their urban concentration around the city core and their subsequent flight and extension to the city's more rural environs, has created many new problems for the schools and the educational process.
Cultural pluralism and the schools
  • J Banks
Banks,J.A (1974). Cultural pluralism and the schools, Educational Leadership, 32,3,162-166.
The public vs private school choice debate: pluralism and recognition in education
  • V Fabretti
Fabretti,V (2011). The public vs private school choice debate: pluralism and recognition in education. Italian journal of sociology of education, 3,1,115-139.
Pluralism in education and implications for analysis
  • C Maddalena
Maddalena,c (2013) Pluralism in education and implications for analysis, Italian journal of sociology of education,5,2.
Racism in school and ethnic differential in educational achievement
  • A Pillkington
Pillkington,A.(1999). Racism in school and ethnic differential in educational achievement. British journal of sociology of education, 20, 3, 411-417.