Intercultural education is very often considered a character of a plural context in which diversities can meet and blend, rather than as a complex educational outcome, in which the role of the educator or teacher is crucial (Agostinetto, 2009, p. 34). Moreover, as underlined by recent contributions, in Italy intercultural education has often been reduced to episodic initiatives (Tarozzi, 2011, p. 175) although, according to the Ministry of Education, “teaching from an intercultural perspective means to consider diversity as a paradigm of school’s own identity” (MPI, 2007, pp. 3-4). At the same time intercultural education may appear as a “recipe book” of clear and practical solutions to urgent needs. Previous researches (e.g. Agostinetto, 2009) highlight that such assumptions are often inaccurate, not very useful and could even become dangerous. They reveal the need for a “backward step”. Given the important theoretical acquisitions made in the field of interculture and the progress regarding school programs and guidelines, as well as the general feeling on the subject, how do teachers read the intercultural issues they actually have to manage? The main aim of this still on-going research is to explore the “naïve beliefs” (especially the most benevolent, and potentially dangerous ones) of educators and teachers about intercultural education. The subjects involved in this research are a group of twenty educators and teachers directly and indirectly involved in the intercultural field. The sampling is not randomly selected. It is designed within multicultural school-contexts to cover a wide territorial area. Using a qualitative approach, the research focuses on some crucial dimensions, that can provide information on the subject of investigation: the “direct explicit” beliefs will be directly explored through a longitudinal series of interviews; the “indirect explicit” beliefs will be explored by the analysis of intercultural education school projects relevant to the scope of action of the operators involved in the survey; the “implicit” beliefs will be explored through participant observation of some practices. The interpretation of the empirical elements is made on the basis of a modelling approach, assuming an epistemological model particularly useful to the case (Dalle Fratte, 1986, 1991). This model and its implications constitute our main theoretical framework. This explorative survey will allow us to define in relevant and effective terms a training course aimed at basing the educational activity to a solid theoretical and logical framework. In this way, the centrality of the educational operator in the process of intercultural education will be based on the creation of a practical rationality through the continuous enrichment of the circularity theory-practice-theory (Cunti, 2005, p. 50).
Re-establishing intercultural education: Reading, Action, Model
AGOSTINETTO, LUCA;DAMINI, MARIALUISA
2014
Abstract
Intercultural education is very often considered a character of a plural context in which diversities can meet and blend, rather than as a complex educational outcome, in which the role of the educator or teacher is crucial (Agostinetto, 2009, p. 34). Moreover, as underlined by recent contributions, in Italy intercultural education has often been reduced to episodic initiatives (Tarozzi, 2011, p. 175) although, according to the Ministry of Education, “teaching from an intercultural perspective means to consider diversity as a paradigm of school’s own identity” (MPI, 2007, pp. 3-4). At the same time intercultural education may appear as a “recipe book” of clear and practical solutions to urgent needs. Previous researches (e.g. Agostinetto, 2009) highlight that such assumptions are often inaccurate, not very useful and could even become dangerous. They reveal the need for a “backward step”. Given the important theoretical acquisitions made in the field of interculture and the progress regarding school programs and guidelines, as well as the general feeling on the subject, how do teachers read the intercultural issues they actually have to manage? The main aim of this still on-going research is to explore the “naïve beliefs” (especially the most benevolent, and potentially dangerous ones) of educators and teachers about intercultural education. The subjects involved in this research are a group of twenty educators and teachers directly and indirectly involved in the intercultural field. The sampling is not randomly selected. It is designed within multicultural school-contexts to cover a wide territorial area. Using a qualitative approach, the research focuses on some crucial dimensions, that can provide information on the subject of investigation: the “direct explicit” beliefs will be directly explored through a longitudinal series of interviews; the “indirect explicit” beliefs will be explored by the analysis of intercultural education school projects relevant to the scope of action of the operators involved in the survey; the “implicit” beliefs will be explored through participant observation of some practices. The interpretation of the empirical elements is made on the basis of a modelling approach, assuming an epistemological model particularly useful to the case (Dalle Fratte, 1986, 1991). This model and its implications constitute our main theoretical framework. This explorative survey will allow us to define in relevant and effective terms a training course aimed at basing the educational activity to a solid theoretical and logical framework. In this way, the centrality of the educational operator in the process of intercultural education will be based on the creation of a practical rationality through the continuous enrichment of the circularity theory-practice-theory (Cunti, 2005, p. 50).
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