Critical and Emerging Discourses in Multicultural Education Literature: A Review

Abstract

This article has three objectives. First, it examines critical discourses in the academic literature on multicultural education that point to the major conceptual flaws in multicultural education theory that led to practices that have achieved effects opposite to the intent of the Canadian Multiculturalism Act. Second, it identifies some of the suggestions being made in the context of the "post-multiculturalism" discourse on how to overcome these flaws in multicultural education theory and practice. And, third, it discusses some possible implications of the key findings of the review for multicultural education. Current multicultural education practices in Canada based on ethno-racial distinctions (i.e., curricula essentializing knowledge about "Other" cultures and celebrating them) have not contributed to the elimination of racism nor the unequal treatment of minority non-White students, nor have they led to the critical examination of the dominant White, middle-class Eurocentric culture. However, the review also demonstrates that the complexity of the issues identified as problematic within multicultural theory and practice makes it difficult to formulate a unified multicultural education mission that speaks to the multiplicity of identities, fluidity of culture, negotiation of power in the cultural space, and the new politics of difference based on universal dignity and equality. It is even more difficult to organize and implement such a mission especially in the absence of a federal multicultural education policy. Suggestions as to how provincial ministries of education might use the identified shifts in the meaning of culture, cultural difference, cultural identities, citizenship, and civic and national identities are provided. Cet article poursuit trois objectifs : en premier, nous y examinons les discours critiques dans les publications universitaires qui relèvent les défauts conceptuels majeurs dans la théorie de l'éducation multiculturelle et une mise en pratique qui a atteint des résultats opposés à ceux visés par la Loi sur le multiculturalisme canadien. Deuxièmement, nous signalons quelques suggestions parmi celles proposées dans le contexte du discours « post- multiculturel » sur la manière de surmonter ces défauts dans la théorie en question et son application. Et en troisième lieu, nous nous arrêtons à quelques implications possibles des découvertes cruciales qui découlent de cet examen critique de l'éducation multiculturelle. La conduite actuelle de cette dernière au Canada s'appuie sur des distinctions ethno-raciales (par exemple, des programmes scolaires portant essentiellement sur la connaissance des cultures de l'« Autre » et sur leur célébration) et elle n'a contribué à éliminer ni le racisme, ni le traitement inégal de la minorité des étudiants non-blancs; elle n'a pas non plus mené à un examen critique de la culture dominante blanche et eurocentrée de la classe moyenne. Cependant, cette recension prouve aussi que la complexité des questions identifiées comme posant problème au sein même de la théorie multiculturelle et de sa mise en pratique, rend difficile la formulation d'une mission concernant une éducation ad hoc unifiée qui puisse s'adresser à la multiplicité des identités, à la fluidité des cultures, à la négociation du pouvoir dans le domaine culturel et aux nouvelles politiques fondées sur la dignité et l'égalité universelles. Il est particulièrement encore plus difficile d'organiser et de remplir une telle mission en l'absence d'une politique fédérale en éducation multiculturelle. Cet article offre enfin des suggestions sur la manière dont les ministères provinciaux en éducation pourraient se servir des mutations identifiées dans les concepts de culture, de différence et d'identités culturelles, de citoyenneté et d'identités civiques et nationales.

The Role of Cultural Artefacts in Play as Tools to Mediate Learning in an Intercultural Preschool Programme

“…As early childhood educators, we were challenged to create environments that were truly intercultural (Kirova, 2008). We needed 'to acknowledge that multicultural education can be rendered less effective and holistic by a superficial festival or 4-D (dance, dress, diet, dialect) approach' (Swee-Hin, 2001, p. 14).…”

“…Unlike the diverse backgrounds students come from, few teachers are newcomers to Canada and even fewer are visible minorities or second-language speakers (Kirova, 2008). Thus, teachers in general and early childhood educators in particular can find it difficult to fully understand the world views of children in their classroom whose experiences might be vastly dissimilar to their own.…”

“…However, a body of critical literature strongly suggests that these practices reduce culture to representative features (dress, food, dance, etc.) and profess predictability in the face of complexity (González et al, 2005;Kirova, 2008). The struggle in the field persists as it attempts, on the one hand, to develop environments and practices that are responsive to the diverse needs of young children in today's classrooms (Espinosa, 2010) and, on the other, to provide universally applicable guidelines that establish quality early childhood educational environments for all.…”

Unsettling Representational Practices: Inhabiting Relational Becomings in Early Childhood Education

“…While a comprehensive review and analysis of critiques of multiculturalism is beyond the scope of this article, I offer here a few insights from this work, with particular emphasis on the fixities created by practices predicated on tolerance, acceptance and recognition of cultural identity, as it is the fixities that are enacted through these seemingly benign representational practices that this article seeks to unsettle. For expanded discursive analyses and critiques of multiculturalism within the Canadian context see Bannerji (2000), de Finney (2010), Ghosh and Abdi (2004), Kirova (2008), Lee and Lutz (2005), and, Razack, Smith, and Thobani (2010).…”

“…I suggest attending to the material-discursive mobilities of subjectification as ''an experimentation in contact with the real'' (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, p. 12). Experimental approaches to early childhood education practices that engage with the ''qualities, rhythms, forces, relations, [and] movements'' (Stewart, 2011, p. 445) through which embodied subjectivities emerge might hold promise for creating movement away from getting one's cultural identity ''right''; a common underlying premise of dominant multicultural pedagogies (Kirova, 2008).…”