Multiculturalism,Interculturalisms and the Majority

Interculturalism, in its two forms, critiques multiculturalism. A European version emphasises cultural encounter and novelty, and is relatively apolitical except for its disavowal of the national in preference for the local and the transnational. In contrast, its Quebecan counterpart gives significance to the idea of the right of a national community to use state power to reproduce itself. Whilst the former is a recognisably cosmopolitan vision I ask if the latter represents a distinctive mode of integration. The core of the article is a textual examination of two recent publications by leading public intellectual scholars in Quebec, Gerard Bouchard and Charles Taylor, respectively, including a lengthy discussion of the former’s concept of ‘majority precedence’. I argue that Quebecan interculturalism challenges multiculturalists to offer a positive view of ‘the majority’, which to date they have largely neglected to do, but which is possible within the conceptual and normative resources of multiculturalism.     

论多元文化视域中学生的品德发展

在多元文化背景下,多种文化与价值观相互间交织、渗透与冲突给学生的品德发展带来了前所未有的冲击,使他们道德认知变得模糊,道德情感趋于干涸,道德评价陷入相对主义。唯有在德育内容上凸显主流价值观教育,在德育过程上突出学生的道德主体地位,在德育方法上注重实践体验,才能找到多元文化背景下学生品德发展的新出路。     

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.     

The Status of Public Education in Our Nation's Large Urban Areas

The vast majority of America's cultural/ethnic/linguistic minorities are found in the nation's 50 largest cities. The problems that will eventually be faced by all communities are being confronted in these large cities first. While there are many problems, there are also a number of encouraging trends. Suggestions for continued improvement are made.     

Postcolonial Interventions Within Science Education: Using postcolonial ideas to reconsider cultural diversity scholarship

In this paper, I utilise key postcolonial perspectives on multiculturalism and boundaries to reconsider some of science education's scholarship on cultural diversity in order to extend the discourses and methodologies of science education. I begin with a brief overview of postcolonialism that argues its ability to offer theoretical insights to help revise science education's philosophical frameworks in the face of the newly intercivilisational encounters of contemporaneity. I then describe the constructs of multiculturalism, and borders and ‘border thinking’ (after ) that become useful to develop postcolonial readings as an active methodology of critique able to intervene and develops more revealing interpretations of some of science education's scholarship and differentiated experiences. As the focus of these interventions, I have selected ) ‘Defining “Science” in a Multicultural World: Implications for science education’ and ) ‘Multiculturalism, Universalism and Science Education: In search of common ground’ from the ongoing discussion on multiculturalism and cultural diversity within the journal Science Education. Finally, I conclude this paper with some general comments regarding postcolonialism and the science education scholarship on cultural diversity.     

历史小说《纽约》中谱系的多元文化性

爱德华·拉瑟福德在2009年出版的历史小说《纽约》以梵.迪克和马斯特家族为线,时间跨度达400年。其错综复杂的姓氏谱系来源广泛,反映了各个时期、各个民族、各个人种等文化多元现象,特别是在小说中的一章《爱丽丝岛》里,蕴涵了《纽约》的宏大历史背景下的身份政治和多元文化特性,移民的阶级、性别和种族在纽约这座大都市里显示了个体的差异性和不平等境遇,但强调平等、无差别待遇和文化共存的多元文化主义最终有了强大的生命力。     

Reading Canonical Texts in Multicultural Classrooms

This essay explores the complexity of imposing texts that are considered part of the English literary canon on students from multicultural backgrounds. It considers the rhetoric of the coalition government, in the recent drive to emphasize the importance of the literary heritage and return to English culture and how its impact has been felt in the classroom. It focuses mainly on the teaching of The Scarlet Letter to a Year 9 class and the issues presented when teaching it to a class of learners from very different ethnic backgrounds. It considers whether the true value of studying these texts is worthwhile for very different reasons from the social and cultural ones that have driven recent educational policy in England.     

Pre‐service teachers explore cultural identity and ideology through picture books

This paper draws on early data from a cross‐Canada research project in which researchers at six Faculties of Education have been engaged in introducing picture books with multiple and diverse representations of Canadians to classes of pre‐service teachers, inviting them to explore the pedagogical possibilities of the picture books and to discuss their cultural identities in focus groups and interviews. The paper reports the participants' expressed understandings of multiculturalism and their own relations and experiences with it, as well as their thoughts on classroom implementation of curriculum that incorporates picture books with multicultural and diversity themes. The paper also includes a case study of one Canadian province to further explore the wider context of pre‐service teachers' understandings and ideologies by examining discourses in policy and practices in Newfoundland and Labrador.