Are We Ready for Critical Multiculturalism? Paul Ilsley Faculty of Behavioural Sciences University of Helsinki [email protected] 11.5.2010.

Are We Ready for Critical Multiculturalism?

Paul IlsleyFaculty of Behavioural SciencesUniversity of [email protected]

Reframing... Is Finland ready for multiculturalism? Is multiculturalism ready for Finland?

Context and Definition are critical to our understandings.

“A human being is part of a whole, called by us ‘universe,’ limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest-- a kind of optical delusion of our consciousness. This delusion is a prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons close to us.”

“Our task must be to free ourselves from our prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all humanity and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Albert Einstein

Let’s Address the QuestionIt depends.What does it mean to be an educated

person in Finland?What are the multicultural attributes?What are the challenges?

Competing values – valuing competitionDiscourses of progressivism, goal

achievement, practicalityNationalism embedded in EU sanctionsOne-way internationalism, traditionsEnvironment of individualism, freedom,

loneliness, and fear

Central Questions What does multiculturalism mean?

What is culture? What does it mean to be a multicultural

person?(What does it mean to be an educated

person?) Who are the stakeholders? Whose values are served by the

various definitions? What are the implicit and explicit

ideals of multiculturalism?

The Approach

Formal remarks,Group discussion,Invitation for social gathering after this

colloquium,The future.

Chorus of WritersCritical pedagogy

Frankfurt School -> Habermas -> Marx, Kant, Hegel, Weber…

Social Theory – power : Gramsci, Freire, Apple, Giroux, McLaren, Foucault, Horton

Critical Women’s Studies - Lahelma, Brunilla, Critical Race Theory, Asante, Jeffries, bell

hooksPostcolonialism

Challenges to the natural superiority of the west: Said, Spivak, Asante

Postmodernism and IntersectionismDiaspora, otherness, diversity – relativity of

truth - Phoenix, Quinn

Forms (Steps, Levels) of Multiculturalism

An attitude, a set of skills, knowledge that an individual may possess?

An egalitarian state of affairs of a collective-- a just organization, community, society?

An ideal of egalitarianism and justice?

What are the opposite terms?Multiculturalism vs. what?

Intolerance Apolitical localism Corporate democracy Nationalism Poverty and unemployment Injustice (e.g., racism, classism,

sexism, religious bigotry, ethnic discrimination)

Stakeholders Analysis-- Whose Values are Served?

Multiculturalism is... ... a curricular device used in schools. ... a threat to nationalists. ... a marketing tool for increased profit

of businesses of various sizes and types. ... a political ping-pong greatly misused. ... an ontology looking for a context. ... a fetish of individual identity and

expertise.

Multiculturalism is... (cont.)

Knowing another language and being at home in more than one culture.

Reconceptualization of civil society A pathway for giving privilege to groups

that have been victimized. Post-colonial discourse. The conflation of decolonization.

Multiculturalism is... (continued) ... a new paradigm for education in

the 21st century. ... cosmopolitan idealism and the

belief that we all belong to the same moral community.

... a system of beliefs that values complex human situations and human differences, and encourages and enables the voices of people from all socio-cultural strata, for the betterment of all.

Another ViewFriendsEnemiesStrangers

The practice and discourse of inclusionary and participatory politics, in the strongest possible terms.

Individualistic ApproachesCultural CompetenceIntercultural IntelligenceCulturally AwareInternational CurriculaMulticultural Programming

Are these approaches sufficient? Sufficient for What?

Multiculturalism in Education

Equality in schools<---> Equality in Society?Multicultural curricula:

Teaching multiple contextsUnderstanding “we” vs. “they” issuesInstilling a sense of commitment, idealism,

awareness, multicontextual identity, peace

Issues in MulticulturalismCan the utopian values someday

become dominant?Is is rooted in laws of conformity?Does it promote a sort of colonization

of its own?Even with its utopian principles will it

end up reproducing the very values it intended to transcend?

Will it ever enjoy the sort of institutionalized cultural power its opposite enjoys today?

Expanding the Educator’s RoleUnderstand concientization, praxis,

and the social purposes of education.Create and live expanded social

visions.Advocate quality of life issues.Expand social forums and tools for

world-making.Transcend boundaries of different

social worlds.Bring to the front what it means to be

educated, in terms of justice, peace, equality and liberty.