intercultural approach

23/07/08 INDIRE - Istituto Nazionale di Documentazione per l'innovazione e la Ricerca Educativa1

A multicultural approach into practice

Value differencesHow to react to changes. The world economically divided

between north and southPeople/s on the move due to different

problems

Italian


WORLD DIVISIONS THROUGH HISTORY

The Roman Empire and the Barbarian World

New and Ancient WorldsThe Iron Curtain between Eastern and

Western EuropeThe North and the South with poverty

as their frontier.


Multicultural Societies Different cultures, national, ethnic,

religious all living within the same territory but not necessarily coming into contact with each other. A society where difference is often seen negatively, not accepted or valued.

Minorities can be tolerated, but not accepted or valued. Even in case where there are legal rights devised to stop this practice, the law is ineffective.


Intercultural Societies

Different cultures, national, ethnic,religious all living within the same territory interact, exchange and recognize their own and respective values and ways of life.

They keep equitable relations, there are no categories inside their groups. They work in progress to achieve a better standard of living for all of them within cultural differences.


Cultural differences They concern: Family structures The relationship between sexes Time perception. The role of tradition, religion and language Rules governing food and drink consumption Information share Reaction to other cultures


Stereotypes

They concern: Shared beliefs or thoughts about a

particular human group. A mixture of characteristics summing up

a human being in terms of behaviour, habits and so on.

A simplification of reality. A connection to certain images received

at school, through mass media or at home.


Prejudices They are: Judgements we make about a person or

a group without really knowing them. Negative or positive Judgements learned as a part of our

socialization process aiming at the simplification of reality.

Schemes helping us understand reality Justifications of the ill-treatment and

discrimination of other cultures


Ethnocentrism

Our belief in the fact that our response to the world is the right one, others are somehow not normal. Our values are universally perfect and correct. Even though we can be interested in other cultures because of their exoticism, our view is negative and we reject them.

Connected to this attitude, there are other effects as discrimination, xenophobia, intolerance, anti-Semitism and racism.


Discrimination

It is a prejudice in action. Groups are labelled as different and discriminated. They are kept in isolation, changed into criminals by law, left to live in unhealthy conditions, deprived of any political rights, condemned to the humblest work conditions, denied entry to discos, subjected to random police checks.


Xenophobia

It comes from the Greek word “fear of the foreigner”. It is expressed through rejection, hostility or violence against people from other cultures or belonging to minorities.


Intolerance It is a lack of respect for practices or

beliefs different from ours. This is revealed when someone doesn’t want others to act in a different way or to have other views. Intolerance can mean that people are rejected on the grounds of their religious beliefs, their sexuality or even of their lifestyle or hairstyle.


Anti-Semitism

It is the combination of power, prejudice, xenophobia, intolerance and discrimination against Jewish people. It led to the persecution of Jews due to the Nazi ideology of racial purity. Six million Jewish people died in concentration camps during the Holocaust or Shoah.


Racism

Distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural area of public life.


A racist doctrine

It is a doctrine of superiority based on racial differentiation. This doctrine is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust and dangerous, and that there is no justification for racial discrimination, in theory or in practice.


The Intercultural challenge

A radical change in

Our personal attitudes

The systems of control and power which result in equality.


The Stages of this challenge

They are:

Accepting that every one is on the same level

Getting to know each other better

Doing things together

Exchanging viewpoints and experiencing each other’s cultures


AFS – Intercultura – “All different – All Equal, Education Pack”, European Youth Centre, 1995

intercultural approach

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