An Introduction to Multicultural Education

Chapter 2: Citizenship Education and Diversity in a Global Age

By: Joseph R. JonesNovember 8th, 2010

After World War II Large numbers of people from the former colonies

in Asia and the West Indies to improve their economic status.

Since 1960 Canada, Germany, France, Australia, Japan and The Netherlands have experienced an increase in racial, cultural, language, religious, and ethnic diversity

In the late 19th and early 20th century most immigrants came from Europe.

Today most immigrants come from Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Philippines, China, Korea, and India

According in the Census In 2000 ethnic minorities made up 28% of the

nation’s population Predictions indicate that that will increase to 38%

in just 15 years (2025) Predictions also indicate that that will increase to

50% by the year 2050 In 2004 43% of students enrolled in public

schools were ethnic minorities In 2000 approximately 20% of students spoke a

language at home other than English

Religions Changing The fastest growing religion in the United States is

Islam Although most Islamic people in the United States do

not come from the “Middle East” as the stereotype indicates; they come from a variety of countries and ethnic groups

Muslims make up the “Largest religious minority in Europe”; Other countries with large Muslim minorities include France, Germany, United Kingdom, and Greece

Due to Muslim extremists “Islamophobia” as increased dramatically in the countries mentioned above an the United States.

Increasing World Diversity and Citizenship Education

The number of recognized nation-states increased form 43 in 1900 to approximately 190 in 2000.

The number of people living outside their country of birth or citizenship grew from 120 million in 1900 to 160 million in 2000

The events have resulted in the world becoming more of a “mixed salad” as opposed to America just being a “melting pot”.

The Western World is now perplexed, exhausted, and fear ridden as it attempts to envision an implement creative and effective strategies to resolve conflicts in the Middle East, Islamic fundamentalism, and violence in their own societies.

The Events Include… The attacks of September 11th on The World Trade

Center and The Pentagon

Train bombings in Madrid, Spain on March 11, 2004

London transportation bombings on July 7, 2005

Resort bombing in Egypt on July 23, 2005

All of these events deepened the fears associated with “Islamophobia”

In short…”The world is flat”.

Balancing Unity and Diversity

Multicultural societies are faced with the problem of constructing nation-states that reflect and incorporate the diversity of their citizens and yet have an overarching set of shared values, ideals, and goals to which all citizens are committed.

Kymlicka (A Canadian political theorist) and Rosaldo (an anthropologist at NYU) argue that in a democratic society, ethnic and immigrant groups should have the right to maintain their cultures and languages as well as to participate in the national civic culture

Definitions… Kymlicka defines this concept as ‘multicultural

citizenship’

Rosaldo defines this concept as ‘cultural citizenship’

Drachsler called in ‘cultural democracy’…in 1920

Balancing Unity and Diversity

A delicate balance of diversity and unity should be an essential goal of a democratic nation-states and or teaching and learning in democratic societies.

Citizens in a diverse democratic society should be able to maintain attachments to their to their cultural communities as well as participate effectively in the shared national culture.

Recently France prevented Muslim girls from wearing a headscarf to state schools because it is a religious symbol.

Balancing Unity and Diversity

France’s attempt to deal with unity and diversity combined with the concept of integration, means that they defined equality as “citizens…should be treated identically under the law…that no distinction can be made between citizens on the basis of race, religion, or national origin.”

This causes alienation of Muslims in France

CBS News Report --

Defining Citizenship and Citizenship Education

Citizen – “Native or naturalized member of a state or nation who owes allegiance to its government and is entitled to its protection.”

Citizenship – “State of being vested with the rights, privileges, and duties of a citizen”

Notice anything missing about multiculturalism?? In 2002, scholars at a conference in Bellagio,

Italy came together to help close the gap between their nation’s democratic ideals and practices that violate those ideals such as social, racial, cultural, and economical inequality.

Defining Citizenship and Citizenship Education

To become thoughtful decision makers and citizen actors, students need to master social science knowledge, clarify their moral commitments, identify alternative courses of action, and act in ways consistent with democratic values.

Guttman states that democratic multicultural societies are characterized by civic equality, toleration, and recognition.

This makes an important goal of citizenship education to teach toleration and recognition of culture differences.

The Bellagio Diversity and Citizenship Education Project

Project Goal – To reform citizenship education so that it will advance democracy as well as be responsive to the needs of cultural, racial, ethnic, religious, and immigrant groups within multicultural nation-states.

Part I – Conference “Ethnic Diversity and Citizenship Education in Multicultural Nation-States” held in Bellagio, Italy in July of 2002.

Participants included twelve nations: Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Palestine, Russia, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States

The Bellagio Diversity and Citizenship Education Project

Papers from the conference published in book “Diversity and Citizenship Education: Global Perspectives”

The Bellagio Diversity and Citizenship Education Project

Conclusion – World migration and the political and economical aspects of globalization are challenging nation states and national borders› Evidence – The countries associated with the U.N. have

increased from 80 in 1950 to 191 in 2002 Conclusion – Citizenship and citizenship education

is defined and implemented differently in various nations and in different, social economic, and political contexts.

Conclusion – These shared issues and problems should be indentified by an international group that would formulate guidelines for dealing with them

Democracy and Diversity Response to Bellagio – The Center for

Multicultural Education at the University of Washington created and International Consensus Panel that was supported by the University and the Spencer Foundation in Chicago

Conclusion – Diversity describes a wide range of racial, cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and religious variations that exists within and across groups that live in multicultural nation-states.

Democracy and Diversity This means that a person who is:

› Female› Mexican› American› Catholic› Working Class

› This person will be influenced by all of these groups at the same time

Assimilationist Theory & Citizenship Education

This existed in the United States prior to the Civil Rights movements of the 1960’s and 1970’s

Community Cultures and languages from diverse students would be eliminated.

People would also lose their ethnic identities. People could also become politically and socially

alienated and groups could become marginalized they are not longer part of the mainstream

Teachers and schools should practice cultural democracy – students have the right to express their cultural identity and are encouraged to use their ‘home languages’ in schools

Diversity Variables

The Development of Cultural, National, Regional, and Global Identifications