THE COURSE OF "CULTURE" IN MULTICULTURALISM

A bstract .  In this essay Tim McDonough analyzes a number of different positions within the ongoing discussion on multicultural education in order to provide a conceptual map of the development of the term "culture." His examination of the discourse begins with liberal multiculturalism; moves through the stages of difference, critical, and poststructural multiculturalism; and ends with what he terms "transfigurative multiculturalism." McDonough describes how a conception of culture as a field of collective symbolic work has been arrived at through a dialectical movement of the concept across these different phases of multicultural discourse. This review does not attempt to provide a comprehensive account of the complex discourse of multiculturalism. Rather, McDonough charts a course representative of the field for the purpose of enhancing the readers' understanding of "transfigurative" multiculturalism, which represents a fresh approach in the continuing inquiry into democratic multicultural education in an increasingly global society.     

On Canadian’s Multiculturalism in the Late 20th Century

In 1971 the government of Canada adopted the policy of multiculturalism. Since then Canada has become the first western country to announce and implement an official policy of multiculturalism. While it is not easy to achieve this policy. The policies seem just to strengthen the racial consciousness in some extent, and the immigrant groups have to tackle the problem of how to fuse into the Canadian culture. Multiculturalism will have a bright future only if it would experience constant adjustment and improvement.     

加拿大多元文化主义与唐人街的衰落

近代加拿大唐人街日渐衰落与加政府奉行的多元文化主义有密切关系。首先,多元文化主义在执行过程中,加拿大这个国家本身缺少自由开放的土壤和决断的勇气,政府对“种族平等”的概念没有做深入的解释,对“种族平等”也没有具体建议;另外,中国文化在加拿大的多元文化环境中作为一种异质文化,在现实中有被加拿大主流文化涵化的趋势。因此,唐人街慢慢丧失了其海外文化中心的功能。     

西方多元文化教育政策的理论局限及其超越

长期以来较为盛行的多元文化主义理念,在理论上基于本质主义性质的文化概念,对文化多样性持相对主义立场,实践上采用单向地突出弱势文化的补偿性课程模式,从而在促进互惠性文化对话和社会整合等方面存在局限。而后来兴起的文化互动主义,针对这些局限,强调不同文化间的相互尊重和成功交流,促进所有学生的发展与社会团结,因此日益受到国际社会重视。     

Multicultural education,gender and social justice: liberal feminist misgivings

This chapter argues the need to acknowledge the limitations of multiculturalism in approaching social justice in South African education, in the face of the understandable post-apartheid enthusiasm for multiculturalism. Examining policy documents and public discourse about the concept and implementation of multiculturalism as well as the concept of culture itself, the authors raises a tension between multiculturalism, on the one hand, and the frequently proclaimed policy goals of promoting a non-sexist order and of teaching critical thinking in a culture of human rights, on the other. Indeed, it is suggested that an uncritical enthrallment to multiculturalism is more likely to prejudice the education of girls by preventing a critique of oppressive practices that undermine their interests and rights. While the political liberalism that preoccupies political philosophy in the West offers little guidance on dealing with difference to countries like South Africa, the emergence of a liberal universalist feminism offers greater scope for educational intervention against oppressive practices wrongly defended in the name of multiculturalism.     

‘Being’ a critical multicultural pedagogue in the art education classroom

Art educators continuously struggle to understand what multiculturalism ‘looks like’ in the art classroom. This has resulted in multicultural art education becoming superficial, in which art teachers guide students through art projects like creating African masks, Native American dream catchers, Aboriginal totems, and sand paintings, all without communicating the context of the art. This type of multiculturalism essentializes cultures, and builds Western, myopic narratives about groups of people, specifically about their ‘Art’. Critical multiculturalism is a power-focused upgrade of multiculturalism that calls for a critique of power and demands recognition that racism and other discriminations are enmeshed in the fabric of our social order. Teaching through a critical multiculturalism framework helps teachers dismantle Western, normalized narratives and produce counter-hegemonic curriculum that contextualizes culture and reveals its fluidity. In this article, the author shares a teacher action research study in which she describes what critical multiculturalism looks like in her art education classroom. The study focuses on ‘being’ a critically multicultural educator versus ‘doing’ critical multiculturalism. Such a position counters the idea that critical multiculturalism is a thing to complete, but instead is an ongoing process that rests on specific ways of thinking and considering the classroom, curriculum, and students.     

The Educational Politics of Identity and Category

This paper attempts to strike a new educational path through the politics of identity and multiculturalism by arguing that we need to equip the young with an understanding of how such powerful categories as culture, race, and nation have been constructed. It uses the philosophical position of Simone Weil on the need for roots to establish the importance of learning to judge how the ethical qualities of the categories of identify. It then turns this position against the shortcomings of Charles Taylor's politics of recognition, in its attempt to reconcile liberal individualism with the collective rights. Proceeding into the arena of public policy, the paper applies these philosophical perspectives to the multicultural and anti-racist initiatives of two Canadian provincial Ministries of Education. Finally, it reviews the impassioned critiques of multiculturalism by Neil Bissoondath and Arthur Schlesinger exposing the currents of ethic nationalism which underwrite their position and which again obscure what should be the educational priority of uncovering the political processes, including schooling itself, which give these points of identity their public weight and personal significance.     

全球化时代背景下多元文化教育的内涵与中国特色

在很多西方国家,多元文化主义公共政策领域的重要话语,对教育领域的影响尤其深远,但这种理念也始终面临各种价值争议与实践困惑。所以,在借鉴西方经验的过程中,中国学者必须始终坚持批判与自省的立场,深入探讨多元文化教育的中国意义与中国问题。本文认为,多元文化主义的理论精髓在于强调文化的多样性、动态性与协商性,这一观点提示人们在追求公平与正义的道路上重新审视主流文化与非主流文化之间的关系。这种文化反思不仅为我国少数民族教育带来新的启示,也为中国社会现代化变革所带来的诸多问题开辟了更广阔、更深刻的理解角度。同时,多元文化主义还促使人们深入思考我国教育在西方文化帝国主义面前的立场与价值担当。     

Australia’s 1988 Bicentennial: national history and multiculturalism in the primary school curriculum

As in many countries, such as Germany, Turkey, the United States and Japan the history/culture wars of the past two decades have increased public interest in what is taught in schools. This has resulted in rigorous debates in the general community, encouraged and sustained through regular media coverage. Partly as a response to this, History has been designated as a separate subject in the first wave of planning and implementation of the Australian National Curriculum. Two of the reasons for this include first, to recognise the importance of teaching historical skills as a distinct subject; and second there is an ongoing bipartisan political interest in privileging history disciplinary knowledge and content to ensure that national history narratives are taught to students. To contribute meaningfully towards the development and implementation of a National Curriculum, it is important to understand past curriculum constructions, so that the disciplinary knowledge and content of history remains independent, and not subsumed within current (or future) political trends. Based on examples of national history from the Queensland Social Studies syllabus and government endorsed sourcebooks in the lead-up to the 1988 Bicentennial of British colonisation of the Australian continent, this article examines the influence and role of multiculturalism in History teaching in primary schools. Particular attention is paid to Indigenous representations and British heritages, as an example of two groups that have often been represented as binaries to each other throughout Australian history. An analysis of the curriculum materials illuminates the differences between multiculturalism and history—highlighting how the two are merged at the expense of accurate historical knowledge and concepts, particularly in the area of national history. This study will demonstrate that as a result of the infiltration of multiculturalism into history content within the Social Studies curriculum, historical knowledge becomes silenced in the school curriculum – resulting in vague and sometimes historically inaccurate information being presented to students; and the privileging of certain types of multiculturalism.     

后现代、全球化与多元文化

后现代主义是现代社会在思维方式上的一次根本性转型。以多元和差异为精髓的后现代主义思想理所当然地成为多元文化的认识论渊源和基本价值基础。多元文化的冲突、交流和融合,导致文化的不断创新,促进了人类文明的发展。在全球化的背景下发展多元文化,需要正确解决文化全球化与多元文化的悖论,做到“和而不同”。     

Multiculturalism and Inter-Faith Understanding at Teaching Colleges in Israel: Minority vs. Majority Perspectives

Abstract

Living in a pluralistic society where groups are ethnically, nationally and religiously different and sometimes live in conflict with one another requires teachers to be prepared to deal with conflict-laden issues. In such societies, educational institutions in general and especially teaching colleges should not be ethnocentric but should acknowledge the experiences, cultures, and histories of different minority groups to educate for multiculturalism and to promote multi-cultural and inter-faith education. For this reason, the main purpose of this study was to investigate the manifestations of multiculturalism and multicultural and inter-faith education in two teaching colleges in Israel, one that belongs to the Arab minority and one that belongs to the Jewish majority. Seven senior staff members of each college were interviewed and asked about the way multiculturalism is demonstrated in their college and how multicultural and inter-faith education are expressed. The findings confirm that multicultural and inter-faith education have not penetrated all realms of activity in the two colleges and the gap existing between preaching multiculturalism and practicing it is still deep.     

国外多元文化课程开发模式的演进及其启示

国外多元文化教育在近半个世纪的发展历程中，逐渐成为西方社会一种政治或教育的理念，一项教育改革的运动和一个连续不断发展的过程。多元文化课程目标也经历了单一种族取向、多元种族取向、多元文化教育取向，多元文化教育重建取向的发展历程。以此为背景，国外多元文化课程开发模式由平行式向整合式再向拓展式演进，为我们解决在国家主流文化的基础上如何体现文化的多元化提供了可资借鉴的经验。     

Inside and outside the integrated bilingual Palestinian-Jewish schools in Israel: Teachers’ perceptions of personal, professional and political positioning

The purpose of this study was to investigate how teachers of the integrated bilingual Palestinian-Jewish schools in Israel construct their school culture in relation to various outside pressures in their attempt to achieve educational change. Field notes from an in-service training workshop were analyzed according to three levels of the teaching context: the personal, professional and political. It was found that the teachers perceive themselves as primarily pedagogical experts with a shared vision based on multiculturalism and coexistence. According to the findings, recommendations are made for improving the positioning of the teachers in relation to pupils, parents and policy-makers.     

Multicultural perspectives in the curricula of two colleges of education in Israel: ‘The curriculum is a cruel mirror of our society’

This study reveals the multicultural perspectives in the curricula of two colleges of education in Israel. It examines the perceptions of teacher educators with regard to: the importance of the teacher's role in educating students for sensitivity and diversity; the needs of students from different cultural backgrounds in colleges of education; the roles of the teacher and the college; and an evaluation of how multiculturalism is dealt with in teacher education in Israel. Faculty members in both colleges perceived multiculturalism as relating to two domains: student population and curriculum. The findings and conclusions confirm the existence and increasing awareness of multiculturalism in the two colleges. However, it is obvious that as yet the concept has not been thoroughly investigated, nor has it penetrated all realms of activity. Clearly, teacher educators know the meaning of multiculturalism and believe that it should play a more significant role in colleges of education. However, they seem to be uncertain as to how to go about it.     

Multiculturalism and Multicultural Curricula in the United States

The authors make a plea for multicultural education at all levels of education in the United States but particularly at the level of higher education. For them, earlier conceptions of multiculturalism have not worked, be they assimilation, transitional multiculturalism #opanother term to designate the melting pot#cp, and finally, what the authors call residual multiculturalism or what might also be called tokenism or the attempt to be overly all‐inclusive in terms of emphasis of the particular. The authors propose a variety of multiculturalism that while emphasizing the core values of cultures serves as a unifying factor in a culture of difference. The latter must be incorporated into curricula, but not in a particularistic fashion; rather, “the myriad groups must be interwoven into the very fabric of the university experience”.     

Diversity and multiculturalism in Japan: what is called into question?

This study explores the different ways in which the notion of multiculturalism in Japan has been influenced by various social and historical trajectories. Since the Japanese government started to promote “internationalization” in the 1980’s, slogans such as “international exchange,” “cultural exchange,” and “understanding of other cultures” have become the most popular expressions among policy makers and educators. This article demonstrates that the notion of Japanese multiculturalism is intricately and deeply embedded in the society, culture, and education system of Japan. It also points out that this particularly Japanese style of multiculturalism excludes some immigrants who have lived in Japan for generations, and that this exclusion is not the result of ideological products, but rather the effect of multiple power relations.     

农民工城市融入研究的价值澄清——多元文化主义视角

在社会发展城市化的背景下,农民工“城市融入”成了热门话题,而农民工“市民化”作为“城市融入”的基本路径,几乎成为多数研究者的共识。但是,这种“教育或塑造农民工”的单向度研究理路和文化范式,是与多元文化主义思想相背离的。从多元文化主义视角看,农民工城市融入是农民工与市民的对话及相互磨合与适应的过程、城市文化与乡村文化的双向作用与融合的过程、生长出新的社会文化的过程;从过程本身看,农民工城市融入是在他们的社会行动与不断反思中实现的;从演进条件看,农民工城市融入需要一个平等、支持的外部环境。     

The politics of Britishness: multiculturalism,schooling and social cohesion

This paper is set against a backdrop of contemporary concerns about Britishness. It explores the dominant view that unprecedented levels of cultural diversity within western contexts such as the UK are undermining social cohesion and are attributable to minority groups’ failure to connect or assimilate with mainstream ‘British’ (read White Anglo) culture. The paper focuses on how these issues play out for several of the key teachers at ‘Hamilton Court’, a large English comprehensive multicultural school. Despite the school being a socially cohesive space, these teachers were concerned with students’ lack of affiliation with ‘British’ culture. The paper examines these concerns through critical lenses that problematise reductionist and racialised understandings of Britishness and assumptions that associate an affiliation with Britishness with generating social cohesion. Against this backdrop, the paper provides further warrant for continued critical discussion about issues of Britishness, multiculturalism and schooling.     

中文电影片名英译的后殖民语视角

与传统的电影翻译提倡归化的翻译策略不同,后殖民理论给中文电影片名英译时异化策略的选择提供了重要的理论依据。面向英美观众的异化的翻译策略可以抵抗强势文化的文化霸权、确立其文化身份、促进多元文化健康发展。     

论多元文化视野下的大学生文化自觉意识

文化的自觉层面在于超越文化模式,追求文化精神。在此基础上,大学生的文化自觉应该包括大学生的自我觉悟、觉醒,对本民族文化的认同和反思,对国外文化的借鉴与批判,进而发挥在文化参与和文化创造中的主体性,逐步实现对文化精神的追求。大学生文化自觉的实现有利于多元文化的和谐发展,两者是互为影响的。