CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION, PROBLEM FORMULATION, MOTIVATION AND AIMS
INTRODUCTION
Social ills such as racism, discrimination, social injustices and inequalities, past prejudices, oppressive practices and gender inequalities have all greatly impacted on society and societal practices with regards to education, employment, places of residence and organisational power structures. In South Africa apartheid policies dictated where people lived and what opportunities and privileges different race groups were afforded. Unequal educational opportunities existed for different race groups and schools were resourced according to race.
Similarly, inequality and prejudice can be identified worldwide. According to Shah (2004:1), when racism is discussed, Europe is one of the first places that come to mind. In Western Europe in 2002, racist attacks against Jews and Arabs increased due to increasing hostile activities in the Middle East. Shah (2004:1) quoted in the The Human Rights Watch (1997) stated: “The U.K. has one of the highest levels of racially motivated violence and harassment in Western Europe … London saw two bombs explode in predominantly ethnic minority areas”. Spain has noted an increase in racial violence as immigrants from North Africa continue to infiltrate the region, leading to increased friction and confrontations. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, Greece has one of the worst records in the European Union regarding racism and treatment of ethnic minorities (Shah, 2004:2). The practice of racism in Australia has caused many indigenous Aborigines to lose their land. In Zimbabwe, poverty and the lack of land ownership have caused an increase in racist acts against white farmers. In the Middle
East, friction and racial conflict is ongoing between Palestinians and Israelis (Shah, 2004:3). Cambodia expresses a strong anti-Vietnamese sentiment in its various activities and policies. Affluent Chinese populations in Indonesia are threatened by violent acts and until 2003, Chinese students born in Malaysia were discriminated against with regard to university entrance. In the United States, racism is an issue that is well known. Other related issues have emerged such as police brutality against minority groups, the legacy of the history of slavery and the harsh treatment of immigrants (Shah, 2004:4). Whilst race is a common issue leading to inequality, gender issues also cause the suffering of many women around the world. For many years women were seen as inferior counterparts in the workplace, deprived of proper health care and deprived of education, for example, in ancient Greece and the present Arab countries. This has in cases led to double discrimination.
The above mentioned global issues cast light on the emergence of multicultural education, whose main purpose is to educate people to practice respect and tolerance of all. Multicultural education is described by Banks (in Banks, 2002) as an idea, a movement that contributes to educational reform and as a process. The idea behind multicultural education is to create equality amongst racial, social class and ethnic groups in terms of the educational opportunities provided to them by schools. Schools and their classroom environments should therefore reflect evidence of recognition and acknowledgement of diverse cultures. The process that underlies multicultural education involves the constant endeavour of teachers and administrators to achieve the best educational practices. In doing so, teachers need to modify their teaching methods to enhance academic achievement.
Multicultural education has been defined by the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) (NAME, 2003:1) as “a philosophical concept built on the ideals of freedom, justice, equality, equity, and human dignity.” It further states that schools play an important role in the development of attitudes and values that create a democratic society. The belief at the center of the teaching and learning process should be placed on students’ life histories and experiences and pedagogy should be contextualised to enhance multiple ways of thinking.
Seldom will two people define multicultural education in the same way. While some view it as a shift in curriculum to include underrepresented ethnic and cultural groups, others view it as a change in teaching styles and classroom climates. Still, others talk of changes in institutions and systems and educational and societal transformations (Gorski, 2006b:1). In whatever way multicultural education is defined or changes made, it seems as if teachers are not always competent to teach in multicultural classes, because since the inception of multiculturalism, racism, social injustices and inequalities are still practised. Public schooling in South Africa has undergone major changes since the 1994 general elections. Schools are now open to all children and there is an influx of learners of diverse races, cultures and religions into schools. But teachers were neither trained nor prepared for this. The challenge of de-racialisation was the result of the education policy prior to 1994. Research on schools in South Africa has shown that the challenge to manage integration has grown more serious because no race relations programme has been developed to provide guidelines on de-racialisation or racial harmony in schools ( Khosa, 2001).