Report: Intercultural Education

Susanne Binder [BIO] /Mikael Luciak [BIO] (Vienna)

Procedure

The section on intercultural education had 16 presenters and two virtual contributors from Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Turkey, the United States of America, England, and Romania. The contributors have a background in the disciplines of education, anthropology, political science, and philosophy and work as university professors and lecturers, school teachers, in educational administration, as parliamentary advisors, and in non-governmental organisations. Most presentations were attended by 20 to 30 listeners and feedback of the presenters and the participants shows a high satisfaction with the process and content of the discussed topics in the section. The aim to improve networking between researchers and practitioners across different disciplines and work areas and across different countries, has been accomplished.

Contents

The topics addressed in the presentations included:

• The educational situation of ethnic minorities, migrants and returned migrants as well as of international students in different countries;
• The situation of Roma children in schools in the Czech Republic and in Romania;
• Intercultural learning in the Austrian school context, reaching from kindergarten to schools to adult education;
• Intercultural education in daily school practice, initiatives by individual teachers and the need to work on oneself as a teacher;
• Lack of comparability of educational enrolment and achievement data between the different European countries;
• The importance of ethnographic research, which can lead to a better understanding of minority groups' educational experiences;
• The relevance of Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital for the area of education;
• Furthermore, it was highlighted that a common political agenda rather than cultural interests often interconnects different minority groups;
• Finally, there were reflections on the concept of culture.

Conclusions

Main concerns and recommendations mentioned in various presentations were the following:

• Intercultural education is a necessity and its concepts and practical applications have to be further developed.
• We all have a partial view on the concept and applicability of intercultural education, which can be seen as strength, rather than weakness.
• To bring about positive change, a dialectical approach is required, which asks on the one hand for "proactivity" and initiative on the part of educators. On the other hand, structural changes are required, because current inadequate means limit the success of teachers and educators.
• Intercultural education initiatives, which are often blind towards power relations, have to be aware of the dangers of "culturalisation" and "ethnisation".
• The origin of the discourse, which concentrates on issues of cultural difference and "otherness", has to be examined and better understood.
• In this respect we also have to become more aware of the political dimension of intercultural education, the role of governments, and policy making. The current policies implemented in different countries view intercultural education quite differently and at this point we do not yet agree within and between countries on what intercultural education means to accomplish. While we look at intercultural education from different angles, which is rooted in our different experiences, we agree that we have to go beyond the mere celebrating of multicultural folklore and pseudo-harmonisation or just targeting inequalities as symptoms on the surface. The causes and roots of racism, ethnic discrimination, exclusion, and segregation have to be highlighted and combated. Programs geared to foster diversity and equality need to be evaluated to insure their success.
• To gain a better understanding of different ethnic groups' educational experiences, research, and in particular qualitative research, has to be widened with the support from national, European, and international organizations.
• Overall, we recognize that if intercultural education is applied appropriately, we learn more about ourselves than others.

© Susanne Binder/Mikael Luciak (Vienna)

8.1. Intercultural Education

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