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| Saturday, 31 July 2004 |
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Multicultural education and school curriculum by Anil Pagoda Arachchi There is no denying the fact that the success of the education reforms now in operation in the school system will to a greater extent depend on the implementation of the changes made with a realistic approach to it. The reforms provide ample space for educating students to respect the values of the other cultures, and to be tolerant of the other communities, their religions and way of life. At the same time, they seek to make students understand with a wide perspective of the society they live in, the independence of all individuals and their different cultures. Therefore it has become inevitable for us to think of appropriate strategies to achieve these goals. The national goal of creating national integrity and social cohesion must not be confined only to a few subjects, but it must permeate the whole curriculum. Thus it is the responsibility of all those who are involved in the field of education to consider using multicultural education as an integral part of the national curriculum. There are a number of subject areas in the curriculum which have the potential for playing an important role in multicultural education such as geography, history, art, mathematics, science, English, social studies and so on. One can perhaps question as to how a subject like mathematics can be used for multicultural education. Mathematics, a universal language It is appropriate for us to use the term 'multicultural mathematics' simply because of the fact that mathematics is a subject which was emerged as a product of different cultures right from the beginning of the human history. On the other hand, it has become a universal language since all the people irrespective of their nationality, religion or race use it in their daily life. Since mathematics provides opportunities for students to employ different strategies for problem solving, there are a lot of avenues for teachers to create appropriate learning situations in the classroom through both subject content and teaching methodology to facilitate multicultural education. On the other hand, learning mathematics tends to develop personal qualities such as positive attitudes which in turn can be chandelled for the understanding of different aspects of other cultures. The ability to find ways of perceiving and making sense of the world is yet another advantage of learning mathematics. Therefore it is the responsibility of the teachers who genuinely want to achieve the goals sent in the education reforms to provide a model or models of the cross section of the existing problems related to cultural misunderstanding so that the students can attempt to understand and analyze them rationally. Mathematics also provides necessary skills and competencies for creating new imaginative words to explore, which, if taught with the objective of achieving national integrity through cultural education, enables the students to discover the prevailing character of the Sri Lankan society. Language and culture Since the majority of the schools in the country are segregated ones, the atmosphere in the classroom is monolingual and as a result students do not get an opportunity to be mingled with students coming from other cultures. However in Sri Lankan context, there must be a different component or a part of another subject area where students can learn literature of the other communities. For this the literature written in vernacular languages can be translated into English and then integrated into the national syllabus. This will help them develop their knowledge of how language operates in our society, including the basic experience of vernacular languages and cultures to which they belong. Or else, the opportunities given to the students to learn the national languages can be further developed by revising the syllabuses in that students can learn not only the syntactic and semantic rules of the vernacular languages but also the culture embedded in them. Religious education Religion is an integral part of any culture. It is evident that teachings of the founders of all religions have contributed immensely to the development of human society. The major reason for this is that all religions represent the needs of the people to seek meaning of life for them to mould their lives accordingly. There is a need to make an attempt to find the essence of religions practised in Sri Lanka and incorporate it into school curriculum. And also, there must be opportunities for students to explore the complexity of the various phenomena of all religions, which in turn enhances their knowledge of other cultures. However it is essential to adopt non-dogmatic approach lest there should be a misunderstanding about the nature of inquiry in that students of different faiths tend to consider all other religions inferior to their own ones. It is important to provide the necessary atmosphere for students to celebrate all the major religious festivals of all the communities living in the country and involve them in those festivals. At the same time, religious dignitaries from other religions can be invited to schools for collective worship. Further groups of children can be given opportunities to visit other religious establishments for the purpose of improving their knowledge of other religious practices. This will pave the way for them to widen their knowledge of morality and spiritually found in other religions. Art and culture It is generally accepted that responses to the arts reflect values, ideas and beliefs. However it is pertinent to ask whether students of Sri Lanka have been provided with enough opportunities to study and appreciate the different art forms of the other communities. Therefore it is essential to revives the curriculum and the syllabuses in order to familiarise the students with the art forms of other communities. This will enable them to understand the notion that an art form is a product of the culture where it has evolved with time. Moreover students can be made to understand that they have to employ different criteria when they respond to, compare or contrast the art forms of the other cultures belonging to different communities. This will provide a favourable atmosphere for them to realise the pluralistic character of our society. |
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