the presence of different cultures in schools: possibilities of dialogue and action. jurjo torres...

Curriculum Studies, Volume 4, Number 1, 1996

The Presence of DifferentCultures in Schools: possibilitiesof dialogue and action

JURJO TORRES SANTOMÉUniversity of A Coruña, Spain

ABSTRACT This article reflects on schools as spaces for the reconstructionof reality. If the school is an important part of the strategy to prepare forcritical solidarity and active democratic citizens in society, it is obvious thatit may or may not be successful in so far as the classrooms are convertedinto a space where this same society can be submitted to revision andcriticism and where the necessary skills are developed to perfect andparticipate in the community. It is not a place to convert the societal groupsand cultures without power into extras of the curriculum or additionalthemes to ease our conscience as happens in many of our classrooms whenthey develop what I call the "tourist curricula". On the contrary, ananti-marginal education must revise and reconstruct the knowledge of eachgroup and culture of the world. It is necessary to construct educationalpractices to teach students to unmask the political, historical and semioticdynamics that condition their interpretations and expectations and theirpossibilities for participating in reality.

The educational policies of most industrialised countries are now optingfor official curricula that stipulate obligatory cultural content, especiallythose countries controlled by conservative governments or, in the case ofSpain, a social democratic government. It is curious that this ishappening at a time when, in forums of debate and reflection abouteducation, one of the important themes for the majority of educationalprofessionals is how to treat cultural diversity, antiracist and anti-sexistschool practices and the defence of minority cultures without power.These official curricula tend to propose policies of homogenisation, theconstruction and legitimation of a form of "official knowledge" (Apple,1993), with only one vision and interpretation of reality, which principallyserves the interests of economic, political, military and cultural groupsthat have power. However, these are the same governments that, at somepoint in time, must admit the reality of different cultures within theirborders. For many of these governments, this recognition came duringthe 1960s when an increasing number of social groups organised aroundthe dimension of race, gender and nationality, began to vindicate theirrights. But despite this, these governments continue to assume that the

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only valid and valuable model is that of a young, Christian, middle-class,heterosexual, slim, healthy, strong, white, male. This image is difficult tocombat unless the meaning and results of what can be called 'new socialmovements' are revised (i.e. those movements which in the beginningwere formed around Marxist ideology, which later separated from it inorder to carry out very specific social fights). Such movements, forexample, include: ecological, pacifist and neighbourhood movements; thedefence of ethnic and religious minorities; homosexual and lesbian rightsorganisations and animal protection groups.

In this sense, the rapid diffusion of the philosophical positionsunder the heading of 'post-modernism', with their emphasis on'difference(s)\ favour the concentration on particularisms. This becomesso ironical that it creates an incapacity to establish relationships andcommitments between phenomena that have important similarities, suchas the problems of unequal opportunities, marginalisation andoppression. These problems are the fruit of oppression, rooted andsupported by the interests of the most favoured social groups thatcontrol the political, economic, cultural, religious and military spheres.There results, in the words of Stuart Hall (1992), such a"hyperabstraction and an excess of theorization" that we forget about theconcrete and more general historical problems. We must not forget thatthe fight against marginalisation and oppression can not be carried out inthe form of fragmented tasks, where each social group functioningaround important variables (gender, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, age)tries to solve its problems alone.

The key Marxist concept of social class has become of secondaryimportance even though it is the category that has coordinated the fightagainst the principle forms of exploitation in discourses over justice,social responsibility, democracy and solidarity throughout this century.In these new social movements, hardly any interest on the part of theworking class can be observed. Sometimes, it appears as if this socialclass no longer exists even though there is an increasing amount ofevidence showing the loss of working place autonomy, increased levels ofproletarianisation and a greater number of easier and shamelesslyproduced dismissals.

When class consciousness disappears, it is more difficult tocollaborate with immigrant and ethnic minority groups. The debate aboutimmigration and the marginalisation of oppressed ethnic groups needs tobe undertaken in the context of economic dynamics and within theframework of economic exploitation, or a form of democratic racism maybe created. Democratic racists are those citizens that recognisedemocratic norms for their group of 'equals' and exclude the rest, withgood conscience. They can be passive in the presence of racist attitudeswhich take place in their environment or fall into an application ofdemocratic norms that favour racist behaviors. The real problems ofemigration, immigration and ethnic communities that do not accept theestablished norms are not analysed. The social response is tinted with

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DIFFERENT CULTURES IN SCHOOLS

corporatism, with obsessions for the physical defence of the territoryand 'acquired rights' converted into privileges. In general, it is necessaryto keep in mind that marginalisation is related to the concept of deviance.But any norm or scale by which something or someone is measured andanalysed is always a social construction: it is elaborated in one specificsociohistoric and geographic moment, in the bosom of one concretecommunity and in accordance with the economic, cultural, political,religious and military interests of the social groups that, in this period,hold the reins of power.

There is an urgent need for a more holistic reconceptualisation aswell as a praxis that favours coordination and negotiation between allgroups including marginal, omitted and social collectives without power.Concepts such as democracy, solidarity, freedom and justice cannot beso plurally formulated that they produce antagonistic results or societieswhere these values are converted into aspirations difficult to imagine andachieve. In this sense, the dimension of social class can serve tocoordinate and negotiate the strategies of women's groups, nationalists'collectives, handicapped persons, gay and lesbian collectives, etc. as wellas respond to the difficult forms of marginalisation and discrimination towhich they are submitted. What present societies need are strategies toimprove their levels of democracy and therefore, to live with differences,without converting it into exclusion.

Education and the Reconstruction of Reality

The schools are not at the margin of this process. On the contrary, thesame trends and types of analysis shape educational programmes whichreinforce, legitimise, and also contradict, the results of previouspostures. Educational action is political and ethical action, in spite of theliberal and conservative discourses that want to obliterate thisidiosyncrasy. If the school is an important part of the strategy to prepareactive, critical and democratic citizens in a society that wants to changein a similar direction, it is obvious that it may or may not be successful inso far as classrooms are converted into a space where this same societycan be submitted to revision and criticism and the necessary skills aredeveloped to perfect and participate n the community.

It is not an attempt to convert the societal groups and cultureswithout power into curriculum extras or additional themes to ease ourconscience as happens in many of our classrooms when they develop the'tourist curricula' (Torres Santome, 1993): curricula where theinformation about silent, marginal, oppressed and powerlesscommunities is presented in a deformed manner, with manysuperficialities, centred in decontextualised anecdotes. It is a moregeneralised form translated into a series of isolated lessons or topicsdestined to give students contact with current realities and problemswhich do not appear in the principal didactic resources and aredisconnected from the official programme of the school. The touristcurricula are the result of working sporadically: for example, on one day

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JURJO TORRES SANTOME

treating such themes as the fight against racial prejudice and on another,women's oppression, the working class, pollution, war or oppressedlanguages. Silenced social situations that are considered problematic in aconcrete society (oppressed ethnic groups, silent national cultures,social class, gender and age discriminations, etc.) are analysed fromdistant, strange or problematic perspectives which do not relate to everyperson in the classroom. In addition, it is usually made clear to thestudents that solutions do not depend upon anyone in particular and thatthey are outside our reach. Often a class of problems is contemplated in away which emphasises our incapability to resolve them.

The most frequently adopted tourist curriculum strategies includethe following:(a) trivialisation: the study of culinary customs, folklore, way of dressing,holiday rituals, the decoration of houses, etc. from a tourist perspective;(b) the souvenir, or exotic treatment of information with a quantitativepresent of little importance in available didactic resources;(c) disconnection: the separation of diversity into 'the day of ...', whenthese types of social problems are considered on a specific day andsometimes in only one subject; and(d) stereotypification: the stereotyping of people and situations to justifymarginalisation.It is a fact that some classes of curricula are based upon distortion,deforming or hiding the history and the origins of these communities thatare the object of marginalisation and/or xenophobia. This is the mostperverse case of curricula treatment, since it tries to construct a history'made-to-suit' and makes situations of oppression appear 'natural'. Itexplains that, if oppressed or marginal groups exist, it is due to theirgenetic inferiority, to laziness, to innate badness, etc. It is also possible toresort to explanations of marginalisation based upon the family structureof these populations, in that they still maintain barbaric customs,inadequate lifestyles, etc.

One of the most sophisticated forms of distortion is the'psychologisation' of racial and social problems, that is, attempting tofind the explanations of marginal situations based on analyses centredupon individuals or interpersonal relations, without taking socialstructures into account. In this way, not long ago, it was common to claimthat the marginalisation of black people was due to their deficient geneticbase and/or lower intelligent quotient. In this form of distortion, theattention is never placed upon the power structure which causesmarginalisation or the political, economic, cultural, military and religiousconditions that explain these situations of oppression.

Neither can we continue using modalities of curriculum treatmentsustained by hierarchical visions of 'superiority' placing some culturesabove others. This is something seen in schools which emphasise thedeficits of oppressed people and cultures, portraying them, for example,as very poor and incapable of getting ahead without us, their savioursand redeemers. They are considered uncultured, ignorant and backward

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because the criteria used to measure them are always those which thedominant and colonial groups impose. The dynamics of exploitation,pillaging and colonisation to alter their lifestyles and values and sofacilitate their domination are not emphasised. In this form of curriculumwork, it is frequent to hear such words as 'donation', 'sacrifice' and'charity' in relation to the people of the Third World, while others, suchas 'justice', 'solidarity' and 'equality' hardly appear.

A democratic and non-exclusive education should not fragmentcultural content to reflect only the history, traditions, products andvoices of the hegemonic social groups with economic, political, social,military and religious power or what is generally referred to as Europeanculture. On the contrary, an anti-marginal education must revise andreconstruct the knowledge of each group and culture of the world.

It should not be forgotten that assimilationism has been the mostfrequent educational strategy to solve questions of cultural diversity. It isa strategy that continues to be employed even though it is now morehidden. For example, when a core curriculum is legislated, as in the caseof Spain, the schools are forced to study the same cultural content, whichis a new form of neo-assimilationism. The core curriculum is not theresult of debate and consensus among all cultures and groups, but aprogramme elaborated with hardly any discussion and imposed uponcitizens. A core curriculum arising from, and directed to, a democraticand just society should be the consequence of public participation,solidarity and commitment among the different communities and socialgroups and the different alternatives proposed by them. Schools shouldbe forced to incorporate the history and experience of women, silentnationalities, ethnic minorities and oppressed social groups. As MichaelApple (1993, p. 62) emphasises, "a 'common culture' can never be anextension to everyone of what a minority mean and believe".

However, the official culture of the majority of Westerngovernments, through the promotion of the core curricula, only valuesknowledge pertaining to the capabilities of the working-aged masculineworld. A glance at the textbooks permits us to observe numerous silent,hidden perspectives and realities. In these textbooks, the disfiguration ofthe working class is obvious. A manipulated 'theory of consensus' doesnot depict the history, culture and reality of why working struggles wereindispensable to counteract exploitation (i.e. schedule excess hours andabusive rhythms of work, low salaries, poor living conditions, absence ofparticipation in the management of the business, etc.) or how tointroduce changes in society, in the long march toward a moredemocratic, equal and free society.

In Spain there are also other inadmissible silences. One example isthat realistic data on the rural and fishing cultures can hardly be found,which is somewhat ironic, keeping in mind that Spain is a country withmany kilometres of coast and a high percentage of people living in ruralareas. Other omissions include children, adolescents and senior citizens.Therefore, young people do not know the significance of being young, a

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senior citizen, or of the cultural peculiarities that they produce, contestand resist (e.g. comic books, rock music, fashion, etc.). Also omitted asspecific foci of attention are: ethnic minorities without power, thenational culture, the Third World, the poor, the voices of homosexualsand lesbians and mentally and/or physically handicapped people.

In general, it can be affirmed that the culture with which schoolswork, is reduced to what is called 'Western culture' or more precisely,'Eurocentrism'. The history, tradition, products and lifestyles of suchlarge continents as Africa, Asia and Oceania are not considered otherthan in a stereotypical form from the perspective of the power structureof the more industrialised countries.

Every anti-discrimination curricular project should providesufficient information for students to gain insights into the causes ofviolence and marginalisation and, in this way, the implications of theirachievements in quality of life to the detriment of other more distantpeoples and cultures; and information that permits a glimpse of hope fora better world. The history of humankind is filled with examples thatcontribute to optimism, to victories over injustice, the conquest ofliberties. For this reason, it is important to emphasise and analyse thesocial conquests that countries and social groups have achieved throughan appropriate analysis of the practices to confront forms of oppressionand domination.

This attention to social collectives with silent and manipulatedvoices does not mean simply adding more content to school programmes,since they are presently overworked. Something that is typical in manyteaching and learning practices, such as the situation of women, thehistory and present situation of gypsies, the hunger of the Third World,unemployment, etc., are additions to textbook contents. These themesare usually presented in an isolated form not clearly connected with therest of the course contents, nor are they explicitly evaluated or taken intoconsideration in the final course evaluation.

In order to treat these silent and marginal cultures appropriately, itis necessary to redefine the present culture, taking into consideration thesilent voices of nations, collectives and social groups. This is a task thatsurpasses the curriculum proposals of an additive character and onewhich is normally limited to the social sciences, especially to history. Allareas of knowledge need to be revised and their contents updated toincorporate these dimensions and absent voices. By adding these themesto existing courses, rather than restructuring them, it frequently appearsas if new topics permit the continuation of conceptions of the hegemonicsocial groups to maintain their situation of power and privilege in thissociohistorical moment. This is especially true with dates, perspectivesand theories that cannot be easily silenced since the mass media putthem easily within reach of the majority of the people within society. Oneexample of this additive approach was the initiation of evolutionstheories in biology textbooks, evolution was only one lesson more. In thislesson, Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution are explained in a

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superfluous and anecdotal form. But in the rest of the lessons from thesame textbook, in all themes when evolutionism could compete withcreationism, creationism is continued as the exclusive perspective andtherefore, the only valid one. As a consequence, the theory of evolution isreduced to anecdotal information, so as not to restructure the entirevision of science in all of those questions having to do with this theory.

Another example is the case of Eurocentrism of 'chauvinisticWesterners' which affects such fields of knowledge as mathematics andthe physical and natural sciences where the hegemonic perspective iscatalogued as realms of objectivity, disinterest and neutrality. In this way,it is concealed that inventions and discoveries considered as Westernachievements were actually those of the Chinese and some Arabiccountries, hundreds of years ago for, for example, in the field ofagriculture: the iron plough, the multitube seed drill; in the area ofastronomy and cartography: the recognition of sunspots as solarphenomena, quantitative cartography, equatorial astronomicalinstruments; in the field of engineering: cast iron, water power,suspension bridges, the driving belt; in domestic and industrialtechnology: petroleum, natural gas, paper, the magic lantern, porcelain,the umbrella, chess, brandy and whisky, paper money; in the field ofmedicine and health: the circulation of the blood, diabetes, immunology;in the area of mathematics: the decimal system, negative numbers,decimal fractions, using algebra in geometry; in magnetism: the firstcompasses, magnetic remanence and induction; in the physical sciences:seismography, spontaneous combustion and phosphorescent paint; inthe field of transportation and exploration: the kite, the parachute, therudder, masts and sailing; in sound and music: the large tuned bell, thefirst understanding of musical timbre; in warfare: chemical warfare,poison gas, smoke bombs and tear gas, the crossbow, gunpowder, guns,cannons, mortars and repeating guns (Temple, 1987).

A 'silence of women' was caused in a series of 26 episodes producedby the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in 1990 and 1991 entitledThey Made Our World. It was an attempt to study the life and work ofthose people who made significant contributions to the development ofthe world. Altogether 28 individuals were selected, all of whom were menborn in Europe (no one in Spain) and the USA: Francis Bacon, IsaacNewton, Joseph Priestley, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, Michael Faraday,James C. Maxwell, Charles Lyell, Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, EdwardJenner, Louis Pasteur, James Watt, George and Robert Stephenson,Alexander Graham Bell, Wilbur and Orville Wright, Henry Ford, WilhelmRontgen, Guglielmo Marconi, John L. Baird, Leo H. Baekeland, AlbertEinstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Alexander Fleming, Ernest Rutherford,Alan Turing, and Thomas Edison (Reiss, 1993, pp. 18-19). The vision ofscience with which students are in contact usually appears withahistorical tints, at the margin of social, political and cultural contexts. Itis hardly made clear that the people who do research are conditioned bythe context in which they live and in addition, by their own

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preconceptions, prejudices and expectations. All fields of scientificresearch are influenced by interests, values, suppositions and beliefs. Aknowledge of dimensions such as the gender of who is doing theresearch, their religious beliefs, ethnic origin, values, politicalcommitments and the origin of financial support, is necessary tounderstand the majority of the results and lines of research. Such femaleresearchers as Diane Fossey, by introducing her own experience as awoman, revolutionised the study of animal behaviour when living withgorillas in the volcanoes of Virunga, Rwanda. In this way, she was able torevise the predominant explanation up until that time which gave thepassive role to the female in the reproduction of the species.

No one can deny how the military interests of such countries as theUSA, United Kingdom, Germany, etc. conditioned the development ofscience. As a result, we now have arms of destruction that can annihilatethe life of the entire planet. The sophistication of death machines hasreached limits unimaginable in science fiction. However, we still have notresolved such problems as hunger, pollution of the planet, the origin andtreatment of numerous illnesses or the use of alternative forms ofnon-contaminating energy.

Narcissistic Eurocentrism is also visible in the field of thehumanities. The literature, poetry, painting and music of many Westernartists, such as, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi, GustaveFlaubert, Victor Hugo, Antonin Artaud, Johann W. von Goethe, IsabelleEberhardt, Lord Byron, the Marchioness of Alorna, Henri Matisse, EugeneDelacroix, Paul Klee, etc. are not entirely, comprehensible without takinginto account their oriental influence, an influence which is increasinglyobserved in a significant number of Western artists.

At the present time, there are around 300 million people who belongto nearly 200 different ethnic groups who have their future threatened. Incommercialised curricular materials, these groups do not exist becausetheir reality is ignored or in some cases these themes are treated in acircus-like manner. Frequently, the Third World is presented from twoperspectives: (a) as exotic sensual places with superstitious people, wholive in a happy savage state with few daily problems, specialise in magicand folk medicine and are incapable of constructing scientific knowledge;and (b) as scenarios of every class of warfare between ethnic groups as aform of hidden discourse that defines these groups as primitive, withoutevolution and therefore, with an innate preference for violence and war.In general, it is Manichean constructed information, in which anundervaluation of those people is assumed. A historical continuity neverappears to the readers in which all variables are considered in order tounderstand the reason for their underdevelopment, poverty, violence andoptions for massive emigration to the 'first' world countries. Perhaps, asAlber Memmi (1971, p. 155) affirms, "The most serious lack that thecolonialized suffer is to find themselves out of history and society"'.

This racist treatment, in summary, is nothing more than a coherentelaboration and organisation of information with racism typical of

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Western culture from the nineteenth century. Since that time, the methodthat has been proposed defends a "form of biologization of social thinkingthat makes absolute the different, converting it into a naturalcharacteristic" (Wieviorka, 1991, p. 84). In this manner, it is easier topresent what is a sociocultural construction as an innate characteristic ofinferiority, and is the most comfortable way to promote social, economic,political and cultural exclusion.

An education that follows the line of constructing a moredemocratic and just society needs to reconstruct curriculum knowledge,taking into account the points of view of those who belong to silent andexcluded cultures without power. It is urgent to redefine our entireculture to avoid the deformations that created the dominant, Eurocentric,masculine conceptions and the visions of the social groups with morepower. In each theme of study, it should be obligatory to take intoconsideration the points of view of those who have something to say butwho, until this moment, have not had the opportunity. A similar model ofwork, for instance, is that which was carried out by some schools andintellectuals during 1992 to celebrate the five hundredth anniversary ofthe 'discovery of America', according to the conception of history ofSpanish hegemonic groups. The objective of whoever decided to carryout the work of decolonising history, was to reconstruct this historicalevent, taking into consideration the voices and reality of those whosuffered the process of invasion and colonisation. It was not ChristopherColumbus who discovered the American continent, since numerousIndian communities had lived there for thousands of years beforehand. Itwas and is necessary to employ a better reconceptualisation from theperspective of the silent ethnic groups by using the strategy of modifyinginstitutionalised stereotypes and erroneous conceptions about groups,collectives, ethnic groups and nations. It is necessary to elaborate newmodels, concepts and a new paradigm capable of promoting a moredemocratic and just vision of reality, regaining the presence of those whowere and are eliminated from history. A similar task is to attempt toreconstruct history, like women's movements have been doing for sometime, in order to defend their place in history. It does not just meanadding new themes, but reconstructing traditional themes while keepingin mind absent perspectives.

The research about some of these people, ethnic groups, women,etc., is now becoming important, but we run the risk that this researchwill remain in isolated and erudite studies which will only reach peoplemore sensitive toward these type of topics, and will not force areinterpretation of hegemonic discourse. Another risk is that thesestudies may be converted into one textbook chapter or appendix withoutchanging textbook content as a whole. One example of this type of'additive' approach is what happened with the introduction of theevolutionist theories in Spanish textbooks. Given the impact of thesetheories, the textbooks eventually incorporated the theories of evolutionas only one more topic, but did not re-elaborate the other themes in

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accordance with the evolutionist theory, as mentioned above. Thereappeared some reference to evolutionism, but normally it was reduced toa short biography of Charles Darwin. However, in the rest of the bookcreationist positions were promoted. Apparently, the new theory wasjustified, but it did not change the hegemonic argument of the RomanCatholic Church and in particular of the conservative groups that saw adanger in losing key support for the 'justification' of their privileges andpositions of power.

The support of creationist theories is usually based uponexplanations involving personal intelligence and other innate features. Itis worth remembering that the theory (ecclesiastic parable) of 'innatetalents', as promoted by fundamentalist positions of the Roman CatholicChurch, was used to guarantee all kinds of social, economic and politicalstratifications. Even the biblical metaphor of creation (i.e. the creation ofEve and therefore all women) facilitated arguments to justify maledominance and female oppression. If scientific arguments stand incontradiction to literal and conservative readings of religious texts, sucharguments are ignored. These readings tend to defend situations ofoppression and exclusion and postpone solving them until life afterdeath. When proponents of evolutionist theories appear within theCatholic Church, (i.e. the French Jesuit Pierre Theilhard of Chardin), theyare silenced by Church censors.

Along this line, it is necessary to remember that the students whobelong to the dominant ethnic group need to keep in mind that they aremembers of this group. Not questioning the fact that they are themselvesan integral part of the ethnic group with more economic, political,military and cultural power, will condition their construction ofknowledge. Only taking into consideration one's own ethnicity, can oneview other ethnic groups as deficient. The 'dishistorisation' of theconstruction of ethnic identities facilitates the reproduction ofconceptions and explanations of social behaviour as something innate.

"Only racism permits one to consider as eternal, substantiving it, anhistorical relation that began at some point in time in the past", saidMemmi (1971, p. 132) trying to explain some characteristic or real orimagined peculiarity, in support of the dominant or colonialist group. It isnecessary to remember that this way of thinking, behaving and speaking,including the language itself, is also explained and legitimated by thosegroups with sufficient power to impose them as universal norms. Thesebehaviours serve to facilitate the access and control of economic andcultural resources and structures of power. It is necessary to constructeducational practices which teach students to unmask the political,historical and semiotic dynamics that condition the interpretations,expectations and possibilities to participate in reality. Apart from theknowledge learned in schools, the students have previous concepts,experiences, conceptions of life, expectations and prejudices which havebeen learned in their families, neighbourhoods and especially throughthe mass media. An anti-exclusive school is one in which all this passively

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acquired previous knowledge is contrasted, using democraticallyconstructed and reconstructed criticism and taking account of theperspectives of social class, gender, sexuality, ethnic group andnationality.

An anti-discrimination curriculum will facilitate the reconstructionof the history and culture of silent groups and peoples. In order to dothis, it is essential that the students participate in debates about theconstruction of knowledge, about the conflictive interpretations of thepresent and, at the same time, force themselves to identify their ownpositions, interests, ideologies and assumptions (Banks, 1993, p. 5).Students should also learn to discern how knowledge is constructed,disseminated and legitimated; in what way the selection, constructionand reconstruction of knowledge influences personal perspectives,experiences, presumptions, prejudices, frames of reference and positionsof power; and how to revise the knowledge that surrounds each context.

In knowledge formulation, the identity of the person that isexplaining, interpreting and acting over reality, is influenced by suchfactors as one's position of power, gender, sexual preference, class,ethnic group and age. The identification of the positions of whoconstructs knowledge has usually been put aside, which has served toreproduce arguments with negative effects for women, people of theThird World, minority groups without power, nations without states (i.e.those people who claim a nationality not officially recognised as such bythe government of the country of which they are a part) and the workingclass. Some of these dimensions are beginning to be taken intoconsideration, thanks principally to the efficient coordination of thevindications of people united in the defence of such perspectives - forexample, the feminist movements' emphasis on how history is writtenfrom a masculine position. Also, the movement of black people and othersuch groups have insisted for some time that the partiality and bias ofthe hegemonic culture is constructed from white people with power.

However, it is important to note that the additive form of work inthe schools was very positive because it permitted the criticism of thereproductionist theories which failed to analyse the meaning of what wasoccurring in the schools. It was not the Spanish Government thatstimulated the teachers to construct and incorporate topic work on suchthemes in the classroom. On the contrary, if today the government talksabout diversity and cross-curriculum, it is due to the praxis of manyteachers who have been successful in linking their classrooms with themore urgent problems of society (wars, oppressed cultures,unemployment, drugs, the problems of women, etc.). However, asintellectual critics, we ought to focus on the detection of our own faultsand learn how to revise them. It is from this perspective that we oftenintroduce problematic societal questions in 'tourist' form with a certainsuperficiality, something sporadic and out of context and with an excessof optimism.

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Some people thought that it would be relatively easy for studentswithout a voice and whose culture was continually denied, to suddenlyregain their voice, analyse their own reality and perhaps, transform it.This excess of optimism causes some teachers to blame themselves andstop moving forward when their attempts fail. It is essential toacknowledge that this task is not easy for many reasons and thatunderstanding is needed in order not to lose momentum. Those who feel'different' are unappreciated by everyone, and they are very afraid whensuddenly asked to talk about their experiences and feelings. It isimportant that they see that our interest in them is serious and that weare not trying to discover their weak points in order to attack them.Those who belong to ignored cultures and oppressed social groupsobserve that the only way to enjoy the same privileges that the socialgroups with power enjoy, is to deny themselves. This denial is describedby Frantz Fanon when, in relation to the people of colonised countries, hewrites: "The colonized person is envious and the colonist does not ignoreit when looking in the other direction, but on the contrary, is bitterlychecking and always alert, for he knows that 'the colonized want tooccupy our position'. It is true that there is not a colonized person whodoes not dream at least once a day of the time when he or she will changeposition with the colonist" (Fanon, 1973, p. 34). Those who feel differentare converted into mute people by their resentments, fears and doubts.Since it takes time for the members of such groups to gain confidence,the best strategy to reconstruct and submit to critical analysis theinjustices and problems of these groups, is not through the dedication of'the day of...'.

It is necessary that silent and oppressed cultures and the problemsof the working class are presented in such school resources as referencebooks, novels and stories, newspapers, magazines, illustrations, videos,games, decor, etc. As a result, there can arise points of view thatincorporate the reality of diversity, not only in the social sciences, but inall areas of knowledge. This will gradually build students' confidence inthe teachers and consequently lead to a better understanding of theirtrue intentions. At the same time, they must be able to see that teachersare critical of their own advantages and see evidence of their solidarityand empathy with them. If we admit that school and life must beconnected, as John Dewey said, it is obvious that our own sociopoliticalcommitments need to be submitted to a critical revision in the schoolwith this aim: the detection of our own contradictions and an attempt toovercome them.

Every social group possesses a concrete knowledge of the reality inwhich it participates, that is the fruit of social relations, social andproductive experiences and of the influences of the mass media. It is alsoassumed that in this knowledge, doses of partiality and contradictionscan be detected and overcome to the extent that we participate in aprocess where our participation, discussion and criticism are assured.With such a philosophy, the manipulation or reification of knowledge

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transmitted through textbooks can be counteracted. The establishmentof fixed compartments between academic knowledge (that which onlyserves to pass examinations) and social knowledge (that which is used tounderstand and solve daily problems) would be eliminated.

Beforehand, however, it is necessary to face one of the principleobstacles of the dichotomisation of knowledge or the form in whichinformation is presented to students. Facing reality in the school, bymeans of presentations divided into subjects, facilitates the manipulationof more conflictual realities. It does not help with understanding thesocial situations and conflicts of the past or present. Reality appears likethe Tower of Babel, without the possibilities of being understood, due toan inability to connect the different information with which it enters intocontact. Dislocations are produced with ease between the different fieldsof knowledge. Communication is not stimulated and it is not possible fora dialogue to take place between parts of knowledge even though theyhave the same aspect of reality and history as their centre of study.Useful knowledge and the quality of analysis about concrete realitiesdepend upon the possibility for dealing with entire issues, theconnections and interactions between parts and the resultantconsequences to the whole.

For many years, an interdisciplinary and integrated form ofcurriculum has been emphasised. However, the majority of students havehad to work with a knowledge impaired by a large division of subjectswithout any visible connection between them, and on many occasions, asimilar division within the same subject. The fragmentation of knowledge,typical of many schools, is the consequence of societal and politicalfragmentation which has been alluded to before. Fragmenting knowledgeruns the risk of losing contact with reality; it does not favour a'sensitivity' toward knowledge and its union with daily problems. Theresult is something incoherent with a conception of the school as a livingspace where students and teachers learn solidarity, to develop objectivesand strategies and to revise their teaching and learning processes.Committing oneself to an emancipatory education means, to paraphraseCameron McCarthy (1990), a critical redefinition of school knowledgefrom the heterogeneous perspective and identities to the disadvantagedsocial groups; a process that goes further than the language of'inclusivity' and puts the emphasis upon the relationships and theplurality of voices as central strategies in the production of knowledge.

It is the mission of schools to help boys and girls understand howknowledge is constructed. In order to accomplish this, the students needto have opportunities to research and discover how specific conceptualmodels, research strategies, perspectives and prejudices condition theconstruction knowledge. They also need to explore how their ownconceptions and options can be biased and limited by their assumptions,positions and experiences which can reinforce situations of oppressionand marginalisation.

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Education must contribute to the development of the students'ability to make decisions, based upon reflection and dialogue; toconstruct the skills needed to assure their social participation; to analysethe political effects of their actions and to act as democratic, responsible,critical and jointly liable people. The schools have to commit themselvesto the promotion of values, attitudes and behaviours that respectpluralism and cultural diversity and that make compatible theenrichment of cultural idiosyncrasies of every people and race while atthe same time, creating solidarity between them. There is, however, arelation of 'non-synchrony' (McCarthy, 1990) in racial relations, gender,class, nationality and sexuality in the school as well as in the otherspheres of society. Non-synchronisation is the result of the fact that thepeople in schools are not uniform. It is normal to have importantdifferences in the interests, needs, desires and identities that divide thedifferent minority groups without power. Such groups do not share asimilar consciousness and perspective in their institutional relations. Forany of the dimensions that are chosen for analysis and praxis, be it race,nationality, gender, sexuality or handicap, their intersection with thedimension of social class is going to help us better understand andpropose anti-discrimination strategies. The linking of social class withother dimensions is not an obstacle to the establishment of unity aroundany of the other variables. We have to be conscious that contradictionsand non-synchronies are going to be produced in any of the modalities ofintervention and praxis. As Cameron McCarthy explains (1990, p. 95),"different race-class-gender groups not only have qualitatively differentexperiences in schools, but actually exist in constitutive tension, oftenengage in active competition with each other, receive different forms ofrewards, sanctions and evaluation, and are ultimately structured intodifferential futures".

A truly democratic society must facilitate the dismantlement,denouncement and elimination of those forms of oppression, as well asprejudices and unjust conceptions. Such a society recognises cultural,linguistic and cultural plurality without converting them into forms ofdiscrimination. The philosophy of equal opportunities for all childrendoes not only refer to sitting at a school desk and forgetting about theimportant inequalities in access to a worthy job, a home, a culture, healthcare and satisfactory living conditions. Neither can the schools beconsidered neutral arenas. The teaching staff, resources, school tasks,modalities of organisation and strategies of evaluation can not beconsidered neutral, if the students do not learn to understand clearly theorigins of social, economic and political inequalities of society and theworld in which we live.

An anti-discriminatory education has to recognise the errors of thepast and unveil the way in which the educational system has been one ofthe focal points of the politics of assimilation by creating monocultures.To be conscious of the forms in which the schools are doing these tasksis one of the first steps to overcoming this politics of partiality and

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domination. However, it is essential to be conscious of a series ofobstacles in order to overcome them:(a) The culture of individualism dominates our society and impregnates oureducational work. It is difficult to construct and work in teams.(b) The culture of excellence and competition promoted in our educationalsystem will be further reinforced by the Administration's evaluation plan tobe implemented by the 'Instituto Nacional de Calidad y Evaluacion', asannounced in LOGSE (An educational reform law recently passed by theSpanish Government General Organic Law of the Educational System). Onedanger of governmental intervention is that it tries to control theeducational system to such an extent that it results in a higher level ofcentralisation and the teachers and students are left without anydecision-making authority. The implementation of an interventionistpolicy, through a centralised evaluation of the educational system, willprobably produce more homogenised curriculum contents and practices,while at the same time producing a greater level of teacherdeprofessionalisation.

The promotion of scholastic institution evaluations throughhomogeneous examinations to test the level of compliance with theobligatory contents of the educational system, can result in the end ofschool autonomy. At the same time, a similar praxis of control canindirectly produce a standardisation of textbook contents and curriculumresources. This is something that goes against a curriculum policy thatrespects diversity. Administrative interventions and controls such asthese serve only to benefit the large publishers that control the textbookmarket and that tend to include the same cultural contents, with thesame type of information, from the same point of view. The curriculummaterials end up having an exclusive objective: that the students passofficial examinations imposed by the national government. It is alsoimportant not to forget that the modalities of evaluation have a directinfluence upon teaching practices and resources used in the classroom.

(c) The distorted vision of reality that the textbooks transport and the fewsources of information to which the students have access in the schools. Thetextbook, like the Trojan horse, is one of the most efficient ways for thehegemonic groups to perpetuate their conceptions of the world. In thesecurriculum materials, like the rest of the mass media, "the area ofsymbolic production is not divorced from the unequal relations of powerthat structure other spheres" (Apple, 1993, p. 58). However, this too canbe used to dismantle deformed visions and to silence distortedinformation. If used by committed and critical teachers, such materialscan be a resource to learn to detect distorted arguments and typicalforms of reasoning used in the manipulation of information. This hasbecome even more urgent with the resurgence of authoritarian andneofacist forms, however tinted they may be with populism. Whenconservative governments and entrepreneurs work together with morecoordination, democratic practices tend to be reduced to voting fromtime to time with the expectation that it is impossible to better and

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JURJO TORRES SANTOMfc

correct the defects of society. There have been only a few times inhistory when it was as urgent as it is in the present, to regain the typicalUtopias of the political left.(d) The difficulties of introducing and working with the mass media inclassrooms and schools. The mass media has been converted into one ofthe most significant instruments of manipulation. Social groups withpower invest large quantities of money to control the mass media andother spheres of representation in order to reinforce and reconstructracial, class and gender meaning in support of their political andeconomic interests. In the classroom, we are forced to analyse criticallyand deconstruct the popular knowledge produced by the differenttelevision and radio channels and in general by the cultural industries.This implies reviewing the texts and images about the cultures andtraditions of the community upon which the students base thereconstruction of their individual and collective identities. According toNoam Chomsky (1993, p. 31), the schools need to provide students with"mechanisms of intellectual self defense" in order to be able to defendthemselves from the manipulation of information to which they aresubmitted by the mass media and institutions with strong political andeconomical interests.(e) The lack of resources for teacher education in these areas. Thegovernmental administration of education is not interested in teachereducation and intervention.(0 The difficulty teachers have in sharing materials, support staff, antiracist,anti-sexist and anti<lassist experiences due to the dispersion and lack ofcoordination of those working in this line of action and commitment. It isessential to bring up to date and re-arm teachers. As teachers, we need toregain moral courage and critical capacity in light of the excessive weightand new attacks of conservative and neo-conservative politics. We needto make an effort to see with clarity the interconnections betweeneducational problems and questions and more global political, economicand cultural processes.

In addition to overcoming the ethnocentrism, racism, gender and classdiscrimination that prevail in the majority of schools, education againstdiscrimination supposes an intervention in other social realms where thedifferent modalities of discrimination are forged and consolidated: in theworkplace, the mass media, labour, cultural and sanitary policies, etc.The committed teacher must work with and not for the sociallydisadvantaged collectives (McCarthy, 1990, p. 122). Teachers also need tobe committed to the problems of oppressed women and to participate inworkers' organisations because facing inequalities in education impliesintervention in the other social, economic and political realms wherediscrimination is also forged.

In summary, it is necessary to regain a political language foreducation and coordinate our work within broader strategies in order totransform society. This implies coordinating forces with other social

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movements away from the walls of the schools. There are urgentcommon problems which must be grouped together. The fragmentationof our fights around small ghettos and private problems affecting onlyfew people are inadequate models of analysis. As citizens of a democracy,we are forced to commit ourselves to define social problems andformulate multiple proposals to solve them. This is indeed a task whichrequires a certain amount of Utopianism. The possibility of imagining newfutures is an indispensable condition in order to transform existingsituations of discrimination.

Correspondence

Jurjo Torres Santomé, Faculty of Humanities, University of A Coruña,Campus de Elviña, E-5071 A Coruña, Spain.

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Age. New York: Routledge.Banks, J. A. (1993) The canon debate, knowledge construction, and multicultural

education, Educational Researcher, 22, pp. 4-14.Benedict, R. (1983) Race and Racism. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Chomsky, N. (1993) Crónicas de la discrepancia. (Entrevistas de David Barsamian).

Madrid: Visor.Fanon, F. (1973) Los condenados de la tierra. Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Econ6mica,

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Memmi, A. (1971) Retrato del colonizado. Madrid: Cuadernos para el Diálogo.Reiss, M. J. (1993) Science Education for a Pluralist Society. Buckingham: Open

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invention. New York: Simon & Schuster.Torres Santomé, J. (1991a): El curriculum oculto. Madrid: Morata.Torres Santomé, J. (1991b): La Reforma educativa y la psicologizacion de los

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