Thinking beyond recognition : multiculturalism, cultural intelligence, and the professional capacities of teachers

Megan Watkins, Greg Noble

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    19 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Multiculturalism as public policy has provided a set of programs which frame how individuals view and respond to the cultural diversity found in Australia’s cities and towns. This is nowhere more evident than in Australian schools where, from the early 1970s, a range of programs have not only assisted students and their parents with a language background other than English (LBOTE)—such as through English as a Second Language (ESL) support and community liaison—but have sought to ensure all students develop a particular ethic in dealing with cultural difference through programs of inclusive curricula and anti-racism. There is much to commend in these programs and recognition of their ongoing benefits is important to combat the regular critiques of multiculturalism by opportunistic politicians and shock jocks keen to capitalize on community concerns around social cohesion, the plight of refugees, and border control. Yet, despite these benefits, we argue that multicultural education, as it is currently practiced in schools, doesn’t quite address the challenges of the complex world in which we live, and needs to be rethought. All too often it is governed by regimes of cultural recognition premised on a view of culture as difference, shaped by assumptions about distinct, cohesive, and unchanging ethnic communities within the larger national community, which is also construed as cohesive and distinct (Noble 2009). This was the social imaginary upon which early multiculturalism was based but it is a poor fit for the more hybridized and dynamic identities of students and their wider communities in the globalized world of today. Reproducing this imaginary, we suggest, may contribute to, rather than address, the problems confronting students from ethnic minorities. Moreover, this multiculturalism has been premised on a moral discourse of tolerance and respect which, while sounding progressive, fosters an unreflexive civility that reproduces a politics of identity but detracts from a critical interrogation of the constitutive nature of cultural practices.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)42-57
    Number of pages16
    JournalReview of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies
    Volume38
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2016

    Keywords

    • Australia
    • curriculum
    • multiculturalism

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