After having read the second chapter of the course on intercultural education, I found the part on the effects of multicultural education the most interesting one. Why, you ask? Well, for the obvious reason that it is very important to evaluate everything we are doing and to look at the results we are receiving while doing so.
The first sentence that got my attention was: “Negative racial and ethnic attitudes toward others can be changed through deliberate intervention, but the process is longrange.” It is clear to almost everyone that deliberate intervention is necessary because at this moment we can hardly even use the world “intercultural” when talking about our educational system. As you may remember from my previous post, what I find most important in the whole multicultural society is that we all learn to live with one another in peace. The prejudices that go around in this world about different cultures can only be dismissed through some sort of intervention. And what better place to start than during students' education? We all know that in this period of time in Flanders, there are barely any classes left with people of one same culture and/or ethnic background. Now don't me wrong, this is a magnificent start, but there is more that needs to be done. As an aspiring language teacher myself, I always look for ways to integrate different cultural factors in the lessons I am giving. When students have to take a listening or reading exam for instance, it's very easy to choose a text that talks about global cultures. Students are always very attentive during these so they subconsciously learn a lot about the culture too rather than just the language. This way, we can improve the students' tolerancy toward the unknown.
While it was not one of my biggest motivations for becoming a teacher, I am very happy to now notice that I and my classmates are effectively contributing to the global village.
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