Intercultural Education and Multicultural Education: The Same or Different?

Author(s):

Gunilla HolmHarriet Zilliacus

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

07 SES 08 A, Intercultural Education: Diversity in the Class

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-30

08:30-10:00

Room:

HG, HS 31

Chair:

Yvonne Leeman

Contribution

Multicultural and intercultural education has been much discussed and researched approaches for quite some time. Multicultural education and intercultural education are often used as synonyms (Nieto, 2006; Hill, 2007), while others indicate that there is a difference between the two. In the multicultural and intercultural literature it is often unclear what the concepts mean and whether they are referring to the same or different things. Often the difference in use seems mostly geographical. In Europe the preferred term is intercultural education while especially the United States but also the rest of North America, Australia and Asia use the term multicultural education (Hill, 2007; Leeman & Reid, 2006). However, in Europe there are differences between countries as well. For example, in Sweden and the Netherlands intercultural education is used while in Great Britain and Finland multicultural education is the commonly used term. Interestingly multicultural and intercultural education are often used as if the terms are universally understood and referring to only one type of education. As can be seen in Sleeter and Grant (2003) multicultural education can take many different directions. Likewise intercultural education is sometimes mostly focused on intercultural relations but at other times more structural issues are part of the focus. Hence, our research question is focused on whether intercultural and multicultural education are the same or if there are differences between the two.

Method

This study is based on a discourse analysis of how the two concepts are used in the research literature and how the terms as well as the usage have changed over time. UNESCO defines intercultural education as a more dynamic interaction-oriented concept while multicultural education is said to refer to the cultural diversity in the classroom. Multicultural education is thus defined as referring to a more static situation. This claim that intercultural education is concerned with action while multicultural education refers only to the composition of the classroom we find unjustified at least as the concept is used in North America, Australia, and Great Britain. The multicultural education literature clearly shows that it is not who is in your classroom that matters but what you as a teacher and school leader do with the cultural diversity in your classroom

Expected Outcomes

Both multicultural and intercultural education can take many different directions, and traditional and more progressive versions of both multicultural and intercultural education can be found. 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. The critically oriented approaches of both intercultural and multicultural education of today address the culturally diverse classroom as including the intersections of ethnicity, race, class, gender, religion, language, disability, and sexual orientation. In this broad sense we are all part of a culturally diverse society, and intercultural and multicultural education is for all students, not only for minority and immigrant students.

References

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Author Information

Gunilla Holm

University of Helsinki

Education

University of Helsinki

Harriet Zilliacus

University of Helsinki, Finland

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