Education for Intercultural Understanding in Australian Schools: A Review of its Contribution to Education for a Sustainable Future

Abstract

Education for Intercultural Understanding seeks a better world. Its principal goal is education for change through addressing social issues with an intercultural perspective arising at the local, national and especially international levels. Underpinning this cross-curricular dimension is education for a sustainable future - a core concern of Environmental Education.This article will review Australia's engagement with international and intercultural education within formal education with a specific focus on its contribution to a sustainable future. It identifies recent influences that have shaped school policy and practice in this area. Lost opportunities are discussed as well as the scope for future developments, in particular within the socially critical fields of Citizenship Education, Futures Education, Global Education and Anti-racism Education as well as Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development. This paper is an extract from a recent report commissioned by the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Centre for Education for International Understanding (APCEIU).

Teacher professionalism and cultural diversity: Skills, knowledge and values for a changing Australia

“…In Australia, intercultural education has not yet been formally recognized as a crosscurricular priority, however, Tilbury and Henderson (2003) To this end, values education in Australia is currently mandated within a performative discourse of quality, with intercultural education framed by an alternative discourse of social critique. Despite these differences, values and intercultural education both connect teachers to a broader national discourse about Australian identity, cultural diversity and collective unity.…”

“…The increasing interest also highlights the dialectical relationship between intercultural education and the political, economic and social environment. As Tilbury and Henderson (2003) assert, intercultural education "is clearly influenced by existing relationships and social conditions even though ultimately it seeks to transform these" (Tilbury & Henderson,p. 81).…”

Environmental Education and Multicultural Education – Too Close to Be Separate?

“…It tries to make it possible for children from diverse cultures to transcend their cultural borders and connect with people who differ from them in significant ways (Sleeter & Grant, 1988). The terms Intercultural learning (Fennes & Hapgood, 1997) and Education for intercultural understanding (Tilbury & Henderson, 2003) are also used in order to underline the importance of intercultural dialogue and communication.…”

“…Kaivola (2004), on the other hand, sees co-operation between environmental education and intercultural education in preventing social inclusion, which in turn could endanger cultural diversity. Emphasis has also been given to cross-cultural communication and co-operation (Matthews, 1994), to enhanced participation in environmental decision making (Marouli, 2002) and to equality, peace, respect and reconciliation (Tilbury & Henderson, 2003). Salter-Stith et al (1994) suggest combining environmental and multicultural education as they are both needed for solving local, national and global environmental problems.…”

“…However, the cultural dimension is narrowly understood and seldom as a part of the practice of environmental education (e.g. McKeown & Hopkins, 2003;Tilbury & Henderson, 2003). This may hinder environmental education in gaining its goals in present-day multicultural schools and societies.…”