Multicultural Education as One of the Paths to Social Well-Being

Mudjadjo"

Multiculturalism, as a theoretical movement, emerged in the mid-20th century, especially in the United States of America, in response to ethnocultural conflicts characterized by the difficulty that some individuals and groups had in accepting and living with plurality and sociocultural differences. It was initially a reaction against the monoculturalist tendency that sought to universalize the contents of a single culture. Multiculturalism then advocated the urgency of viewing society as a reality of plural identities, with diversities based on race, language and religion.

Against the backdrop of several military conflicts, and taking our own example here in Cabo Delgado, there is a need for a “chat” with religious leaders, with the aim of reflecting on the best paths for respectful and peaceful coexistence among all members of Mozambican society, within the framework of a secular State. This reflection will pay particular attention to the question of the role of multicultural and academic education in disseminating values ​​that help to create a healthy intercultural environment in society.

Religious leaders, in their role as educators, have greater responsibility for what they teach: the values ​​they instill in their circles of influence. What pastors, priests, maulanas and sheiks teach and transmit in catechism classes, Sunday schools and madrassas, contributes to healthy social coexistence. Education, as a social process involving many actors (families, institutions, groups), presents itself as the path that can lead us to healthy coexistence and management of the richness of our differences.

Although globalization tends to standardize some forms of social life (food, clothing), humanity is not satisfied with standardization, because there is a growing awareness that differences (ethnic, cultural, religious, etc.), far from being a problem, should be seen as assets. The key question is: what challenges do we encounter in our society that call for the option of educational models that take into account the multiculturalism and interculturality that characterize our world in general and our country in particular?

The world is losing its borders and national cultures will become hybrid. The first challenging phenomenon of our time is globalization and its concrete faces. The globalized world has generated situations that are a real challenge to education: - there is great human mobility. People who, in the past, lived in unknown distances, now interact through trade, tourism, migration and the search for refuge, which results in inevitable intercultural relations; - there is cultural diversity: different ways of life, linguistic, religious, political and ethnic traditions, skills and knowledge that must coexist in the same spaces - interculturality, that is, relationships between diverse cultural realities, gives rise to new forms of belonging, new forms of citizenship, a new framework of rights, but also new conflicts and forms of (self) exclusion, difficulties in communication and mutual understanding.

Multiculturalism can have two horizons: - In its embryonic form, it would be a folkloric multiculturalism, which would focus on highlighting cultural plurality in its exotic/external aspects. - In its critical and intercultural form, multiculturalism would be a form of reflection to promote the coexistence of diverse identities. It was in the United States, in a context of racial and segregationist injustices, that the idea of ​​multicultural education began, aiming to transform “school” into a place of cultural interaction. In fact, educating a human being who lives in this multicultural environment requires new methodological, pedagogical and didactic approaches: how to manage cultural diversity, identities, conflicts, the universal and the particular, clashes, and exclusions present in global and local society? How to build social cohesion and make diversity an asset rather than a threat? How to move from multiculturalism (many different people) to healthy interculturalism (relationships/interactions) of different people? An urgent response: an education that is aware of multiculturalism and promotes interculturality.

Education is very important in shaping generations with values ​​such as respect, critical citizenship and appreciation of plurality, which is why it is urgent that training and education curricula include the issue of multiculturalism. Education, and more specifically the curriculum, are therefore required to take many measures to educate citizens who are open to the world, flexible in their values, tolerant and democratic. It is therefore urgent that all educational institutions (religious, academic, professional) invest in curricula that respond to these urgent needs.

Multicultural education is one that values ​​and promotes cultural diversity, questions differences and dogmas, energizes identities against petrification, and therefore establishes connections between curriculum and cultures. Multicultural education should be conceived as an individual and social practice aimed at raising awareness of diversity. Here the question of the role of educational institutions in multiculturalism arises. Intercultural issues imply the development of cultural, social, pedagogical, communicational, individual and citizenship skills that allow for harmonious social interactions between individuals and cultures, and that promote cultural awareness, communication and intercultural dialogue, and the democratic functioning of societies. We can no longer ignore multiculturalism or relegate it to informal discourse.

Our ethnic and religious diversity cannot continue to be discussed only in the “chapas”, stalls, churches or mosques. Awareness of multiculturalism and interculturality is urgently needed not only as values ​​in themselves, but also as instruments for promoting another essential value: social well-being. The recognition of cultural pluralities challenges education and educational activity to adopt new and impactful interventions in the social fabric. Curricula and all teaching materials must view educational spaces as places where cultural multiplicity and diversity are riches. In each educational circumstance, it will be necessary to advance in specific aspects: Adopting a stance of cultural criticism, which allows students and educators to rationally analyze their cultural identities, to deconstruct myths and prejudices and build healthy solidarities.

The promotion of a plural and culturally diverse vision of reality and the world cannot be confused with the proclamation of total relativism, in which everything is accepted uncritically: dialogue must be based on authentic ethical values, which the human species shares.

The “school”, in the general sense, (as an institution of socialization and integration, a space for meeting, coexistence and learning, for acquiring skills and competencies) should be equipped with human and pedagogical/didactic resources, adapting its curricular system so that it effectively promotes multi/intercultural education and teaching. The educational curriculum should reveal and denounce exclusionary processes and stereotypes; it should enable us to denounce what in culture is rationally and legally contrary to justice and human well-being; it should include content that promotes critical citizenship, the values ​​of understanding, respect, coexistence, solidarity and respect for diversity.

Only in this way will education, in the context of educational institutions, truly play its role in social transformation and in fostering the potential for ethical and human growth. Educators must be trained in intercultural pedagogies so that they can be agents of change, capable of emancipatory practices in managing differences, of interdisciplinary dialogical teaching, and also be able to understand their own cultural identity and be aware of their own exclusionary stereotypes.

We need to develop a consensual educational policy that is accepted by all, that enshrines diversity, respect and acceptance of all, with equal rights and duties for all. In this way, we can better ensure the development of a sense of citizenship in which each of us, as a citizen, can develop feelings of empathy and solidarity towards others and other cultures. Formal and informal bodies are needed to monitor religious discourses in pulpits and in the media: incitements to hatred of those who are different, institutional self-referentiality that demonizes others, doctrines that promote intolerant proselytism, all of this must be monitored so that such latent sources of social instability are eliminated from the public space. It is necessary to rediscover and promote a characteristic that is peculiar to the Mozambican people when it comes to managing cultural and religious differences: malleability and elasticity in relationships.

In fact, socio-anthropological data tell us that people marry regardless of ethnicity or religion, people of different religions are present at parties, at funerals, in the neighborhood, at the well, at the party, etc. In short, a multicultural education requires that we make the various components of our educational system open and involved in the social problems of interculturality; multicultural education is the way to make diversity an opportunity for mutual learning and enrichment, in a globally interdependent world and heterogeneous societies; multicultural education is the main instrument for having a society in which the peaceful coexistence of cultural, political, religious and ethnic diversity is possible; a society in which different cultural, ethnic, political and religious communities live together and strive to build a life together, while at the same time enriching each other with their differences; multicultural education requires prepared educators, who are themselves convinced of the value of interculturality. To this end, it is urgent to rethink pedagogical actions in the training of educators, with themes that promote sensitivity to cultural plurality and human solidarity. In increasingly diverse societies such as ours, an education that guarantees harmonious interactions between people and groups with different cultural identities becomes essential.

2025/12/3