INTERCULTURAL AND INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUEEglantine Kientz

INTRODUCTION

My project consists of a set of 10 classes intended for high school students in France. The students are around 15 (Grade 10). I am still working on them and I will add more details for the final report.

The aim of the class is to give students an introduction to intercultural communication and some tools in order to improve the quality of interpersonal communication in an often multicultural school environment.

I decided to integrate this set of classes in the already existing “Citizenship Education”.

Before going into the actual classes, I will first motivate my choice and explain why such an approach could be appropriate.

NATIONAL IDENTITY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY IN FRANCENational identity• Since the Revolution, national identity is supposed to

express political values rather than cultural views: Republicanism, and citizenship based on jus solis (right of the soil).

• Secularism: the state became completely independent from all religions. Faith is a private matter.

• Universalism: every citizen has a direct relation to the state. Group identities are not valued. Cultural identity

• However, the French language became quickly the main cultural component associated with national identity.

• Even if group particularities are not recognized by the state, everybody has a culture which is related to his family, religion and background.

• According to this distinction between national identity and cultural identity, What society model is promoted in France for the immigrants

ASSIMILATION VERSUS

ASSIMILATION VERSUS INTEGRATION

The first idea was to assimilate the newcomers to the Republican values based on citizenship.

However, the border between the public sphere based on Republican values and the private sphere where a cultural and religious views can be expressed is blurred.

Political assimilation remains abstract: everybody has a culture and some people are sometimes discriminated because of their culture.

Today, integration, has replace assimilation as a desired outcome of multiculturalism.

Individuals can keep some cultural features and practice their religion.

Nevertheless, since in France secularism and universalism are still strongly promoted, in the public sphere, including school, integration is still difficult to implement in practice.

Assimilation Integration

CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION

In France, today: citizenship education mirrors the values mentioned previously concerning “national identity” and the desired outcome for multiculturalism, which sways between assimilation and integration.

In the 10th grade, the main themes of citizenship education are: citizenship and civility, citizenship and work, citizenship and family, and citizenship and integration.

CULTURAL TENSIONS AT SCHOOL 8 % of the population in France are foreigners but

many more have foreign origin. Concerning religion 65 % of the population is

Catholic (only 5 % of them are regularly practitioners), 6 % Muslims, 25% do not have a religion.

Ethnic statistics are forbidden. Because of the principle of secularism, religion or

history of religions is not taught in public schools. No “pluralist” approach in school. However, students with diverse cultural and

religious backgrounds meet in school which result sometimes in tensions and misunderstanding between different groups.

ADOLESCENT IDENTITY FORMATION Adolescents are chosen

as a target group since they experience often an identity formation process: torn between self assertion and identification with a group.

This is especially true for children with an immigrant background who experience often a different cultural environment at home and in school.

CHALLENGE

No “pluralist approach” in school•The cultural diversity of France is not represented in the school curricula and not acknowledged. •Religious issues are not tackled. •However students bring their own cultural/religious background in school

Tensions-Conflicts •With this identification process tensions and even conflicts happen between students of different cultural and religious and groups.•Most of the time these tensions are communication issues which can be attributed to the non-awareness of the existence of different cultures.

A set of classes on intercultural communication

•This set of classes , thought as a solution, would be integrated to the already existing “citizenship education”, with the assumption that political identity does not exclude cultural identity but complement it.•Concepts such as “religion” and “culture” must be dealt with cautiously in order to respect “secularism” and “unity”.

MODULE DIALOGUE BETWEEN CULTURES AND RELIGIONS Since “Citizenship and Integration” is part of

grade 10th curricula for “Citizenship Education”, the introduction of the set of classes “Dialogue Between Cultures and religions” is particularly appropriated.

The key idea of this set of classes is to raise awareness among students about cultural and religious diversity and to understand some features of particular religions and cultures.

In order to increase cultural awareness and understanding, the course consists of an association conceptual tools and practical exercises, inspired by “A Peace Corpse Classroom Guide To Cross-Cultural Understanding”, which I would try to adapt to the French context.

Each lesson lasts 1 hour.

LESSON 1- THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE IN FRANCE

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Key concepts and ideas

Exercises/Homework

Following the example of the Persian Letters by Montesquieu, imagine that you are a foreign student in France, who writes a letter to her/his family or to a friend at home, about culture in France. How are people? What do they eat? What are their traditions? What are they doing everyday? What seems to be their priority in life?

LESSON 2- THE ROLE OF CULTURE IN OUR LIVES

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• Students should be able to understand the role played by culture in their life.

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Exercises/Homework

LESSON 3- HOW IS CULTURE CONSTRUCTED?

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Key concepts and ideas

People are often unaware of their own culture.Culture is transmitted from generation to generation.Culture evolves in time.Different cultures influence each other.

• Read an excerpt of The Persians Letters. How does the culture in France at the time, described in the text, differs from culture today?

• Do some research on a specific culture.: traditions, food , values., values, habits. You can pick up a culture you identify with (region, country…), the cultural background of a friend or just any culture you are interested in.

LESSON 4- THE METAPHOR OF THE ICEBERG

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Key concepts and ideas

Culture is a complex concept.The invisible part of culture influences the visible part.

LESSON 5- CULTURE AND RELIGION (4 HOURS)

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Students should get acquainted with the major world religions and spiritualities: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism , Hinduism and with philosophical worldviews.

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LESSON 6- CULTURE BEYOND FRANCE

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LESSON 7- GENERALIZATIONS

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Students should understand what a generalization is and how to modify it.

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LESSON 8-MULTIPLE DIMENSIONS OF CULTURE

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Key concepts and ideas

Culture is above all transmitted by the family and can include features from the country of origin, your region, France, Europe, Western values or even humanity.The different layers of culture are inclusive and not exclusive.Identity is also shaped by factors such as gender, age, experience, own personality.

Write how you identify with four categories. Compare your answers with your friend?

LESSON 9- IMPORTANCE OF THE CULTURAL CONTEXT

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Key concepts and ideas

LESSON 10- IMPROVING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

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Key concepts and ideas

Different interpretations form the world, from a particular event depending on culture.Individuals may also have different interpretations from the same event.

Discuss in group your impression of a movie. Do you have all the same feeling about it?Read a texts from the same historical event from different countries. How are the interpretations different?Study a current event from different international media perspectives.Survey: what are some of the intercultural communications problems at school? Workshop.

CONCLUSION Even if the unity of the country is prioritized in all

aspects of the French public life, school is actually the place on which the success of integration policy depends.

Avoiding to address the cultural and religious identification issues, may actually reinforce them in a conflictual perspective.

Thanks to the introduction of intercultural communication in schools, they can be perceived groups identification can be perceived in an integrative manner in the broader framework of society.

By learning to communicate with students from other cultural background, they can socialize beyond their cultural community and learn how to both appreciate difference and what they have in common.