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Multicultural education or is it possible to create a common cultural space?
A proposal for the reading of educational systems in Ontario and Québec
Michal C. Jankowski (Institute of Philosophy, Warsaw University)
A Society of the Good and Wise People? An Idea of Multicultural Education from Philosophical PerspectiveFlorian Znaniecki (a world-renowned sociologist, philosopher of culture, co-author of The Polish Peasant in Europe and America 1918-1920 made an attempt to explain immigrant sociology through reference to the break-up of traditional society) developed a new conception of civilization, "a civilisation of the good and wise". Znaniecki assumed that on our developmental level chosen individuals should oversee the upbringing of the young at all ages, thus functioning as a bridge between the younger and older parts of society. Already in his foreword Znaniecki concedes that his ideas are strictly utopian from the pedagogical standpoint, and notes that in order for this to change, life would have to acquire "a new kind of normality", one enabling the emergence of what he calls "new culture systems" that promote "self-dependence in an environment of self-reliant people". Such "self-reliant" persons experience a "personal evolution", typical for which is, among others, a "growing capacity for empathy with all people, including those whom they had learnt to regard as alien, or even hostile (.), gone are cultural dogmatism and moral exclusivism. Such people cease to accept certain systems as absolutely valid and reject others as absolutely invalid. They also cease identifying exclusively with one social group in demonstration of their indifference or hostility to other groups".
According to Znaniecki, "the full emergence of wisdom and goodness requires broad, universally rationalised cultural knowledge, (.) as well as a multitude on ethically interpreted and ordered social experiences ("The People of Today and the Civilisation of Tomorrow", 1974, in Polish). In my presentation, I would like to discuss the idea of multicultural education relying on above theory. I shall also refer to contemporary philosophical concepts (by J. Rawls, Ch. Taylor, R. Rorty), research programs of UNESCO, as well as to my field research on Baffin Island (1995).
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