The Unifying Aspects of Cultures

SECTION:

The "general human right" in Multilingual Elementary Education

Paolo Pasi (Research Project "New regional identities and strategic essentialism", Universität Potsdam, Deutschland)
Safeguard of linguistic minorities and bilingualism: a difficult point of equilibrium? The case of South Tyrol

The autonomy system of South Tyrol represents one of the most successful examples of safeguard of the cultural peculiarities of different ethno-linguistic groups co-habiting in the same region. The respect of different identities has been obtained with a substantial "separation" of the groups (e.g. a German school system and an Italian school system with the other language studied as second language) with the consequence of the lack of a real bilingual society. - In the last decade the matter of bilingual educational system has more and more entered in the public debates arousing positive opinions but also strong opposition. The aim of my paper is to reflect about the possible consequences on the autonomous system of South Tyrol and on safeguard of minorities of a bilingual educational system.

THE UNIFYING ASPECTS OF CULTURES

INST