scholarly journals Cultural diversity on the Council of Europe documents: The role of education and the intercultural dialogue

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-391
Author(s):  
Juan Luis Fuentes
Author(s):  
Chrysi Rapanta ◽  
Susana Trovão

AbstractBased on the assumption that globalization should not imply homogenization, it is important for education to promote dialogue and intercultural understanding. The first appearance of the term ‘intercultural education’ in Europe dates back to 1983, when European ministers of education at a conference in Berlin, in a resolution for the schooling of migrant children, highlighted the intercultural dimension of education (Portera in Intercultural Education 19:481–491, 2008). One of the mandates of intercultural education is to promote intercultural dialogue, meaning dialogue that is “open and respectful” and that takes place between individuals or groups “with different ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds and heritage on the basis of mutual understanding and respect” (Council of Europe in White paper on intercultural dialogue: Living together as equals in dignity. Council of Europe, Strasbourg, p. 10, 2008). Such backgrounds and heritages form cultural identities, not limited to ethnic, religious and linguistic ones, as culture is a broader concept including several layers such as “experience, interest, orientation to the world, values, dispositions, sensibilities, social languages, and discourses” (Cope and Kalantzis in Pedagogies: An International Journal 4:173, 2009). As cultural identities are multi-layered, so is cultural diversity, and therefore it becomes a challenge for educators and researchers to address it (Hepple et al. in Teaching and Teacher Education 66:273–281, 2017). Referring to Leclercq (The lessons of thirty years of European co-operation for intercultural education, Steering Committee for Education, Strasbourg, 2002), Hajisoteriou and Angelides (International Journal of Inclusive Education 21:367, 2017) argue that “intercultural education aims to stress the dynamic nature of cultural diversity as an unstable mixture of sameness and otherness.” This challenge relates to the dynamic concept of culture itself, as socially constructed, and continuously shaped and reshaped through communicative interactions (Holmes et al. in Intercultural Education 26:16–30, 2015).


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 93-100
Author(s):  
Gisa Jähnichen

The Sri Lankan Ministry of National Coexistence, Dialogue, and Official Languages published the work “People of Sri Lanka” in 2017. In this comprehensive publication, 21 invited Sri Lankan scholars introduced 19 different people’s groups to public readers in English, mainly targeted at a growing number of foreign visitors in need of understanding the cultural diversity Sri Lanka has to offer. This paper will observe the presentation of these different groups of people, the role music and allied arts play in this context. Considering the non-scholarly design of the publication, a discussion of the role of music and allied arts has to be supplemented through additional analyses based on sources mentioned by the 21 participating scholars and their fragmented application of available knowledge. In result, this paper might help improve the way facts about groups of people, the way of grouping people, and the way of presenting these groupings are displayed to the world beyond South Asia. This fieldwork and literature guided investigation should also lead to suggestions for ethical principles in teaching and presenting of culturally different music practices within Sri Lanka, thus adding an example for other case studies.


Author(s):  
Admink Admink ◽  
Віта Костюк

У рамках імплементації Конвенції про охорону нематеріальної культурної спадщини вивчено заходи культурної політики, що заклали основи для втілення новітніх політичних підходів, механізмів і програм. У контексті виконання міжнародно-правових стандартів UNESCO та положень Конвенції визначено курс на аналіз, збереження й розвиток культурного розмаїття та надбання. Умотивована необхідність формування стратегії культурної політики у галузі збереження нематеріальної культурної спадщини, що полягає у проектуванні й затвердженні культурних проектів національного й регіонального спрямування. Враховано наявну ускладнену ситуацію щодо ролі місцевої влади та обмеженість бюджетного фінансування в країні загалом. Встановлено, що дії, що сприятимуть виявленню елементів нематеріальної культурної спадщини, організації та реалізації заходів щодо її збереження в Україні повинні стати цільовими пріоритетами. Cultural policy measures within the framework of the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage are examined. A course on the analysis, conservation and development of cultural diversity and heritage in the context of the implementation of UNESCO international legal standards and the provisions of the Convention has been determined. The necessity of developing a strategy of cultural policy formation in the field of preservation of the intangible cultural heritage, which consists in the design and approval of cultural projects of national and regional orientation, is substantiated. The complicated situation regarding the role of local authorities and the limited budget financing in the country are taken into account. It is established that the priority should be given to actions that will help identify elements of the intangible cultural heritage, develop and implement measures for its preservation in Ukraine.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-250
Author(s):  
Sjang L. ten Hagen

ArgumentThis article contributes to a global history of relativity, by exploring how Einstein’s theory was appropriated in Belgium. This may sound like a contradiction in terms, yet the early-twentieth-century Belgian context, because of its cultural diversity and reflectiveness of global conditions (the principal example being the First World War), proves well-suited to expose transnational flows and patterns in the global history of relativity. The attempts of Belgian physicist Théophile de Donder to contribute to relativity physics during the 1910s and 1920s illustrate the role of the war in shaping the transnational networks through which relativity circulated. The local attitudes of conservative Belgian Catholic scientists and philosophers, who denied that relativity was philosophically significant, exemplify a global pattern: while critics of relativity feared to become marginalized by the scientific, political, and cultural revolutions that Einstein and his theory were taken to represent, supporters sympathized with these revolutions.


2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 81-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard C. Lategan

The article explores the contours of multiple identities in contrast to singular identities in situations of social complexity and cultural diversity. Nyamnjoh's concepts of “incompleteness” and “frontier Africans” imply an alternative approach to identity formation. Although the formation of one's own, singular identity is a necessary stage in the development of each individual, it has specific limitations. This is especially true in situations of complexity and diversity and where the achievement of social cohesion is an important goal. With reference to existing theories of identity formation, an alternative framework is proposed that is more appropriate for the dynamic, open-ended nature of identity and better suited to encourage the enrichment of identity. The role of imagination, a strategy for crossing borders (with reference to Clingman's concept of a “grammar of identity”), the search for commonality, and the effect of historical memory are discussed. Enriched and multiple identities are not achieved by replacement or exchange, but by widening (existing) singular identities into a more inclusive and diverse understanding of the self.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  

Students participating in mobility experiences need to constantly adapt to new circumstances, not only during the experience itself, but also before leaving and after returning to their home country. They change their lifestyle, get acquainted with other cultural forms and, in some cases, they even change habits and attitudes to adapt to the new host culture. In this scenario, the different sources of support for students are of great added-value, e.g. family, friends, classmates, as well as the receiving institution – higher education institutions (HEIs) in our case. The supporting role of HEIs in the process of sending students abroad could go beyond the administrative dimension of it. A way of doing that is by offering a provision of support services on the acknowledgment and maximisation of their learning process and acquired competences (understood as a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes – see Boyatzis, 1982; or Council of Europe, 2018) gained during their adaptation to a new international context. In this way, HEIs could increase the impact of such mobility experiences on students’ professional and personal development.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 118-126
Author(s):  
A.V. Serikov

The paper analyzes the constructs of ‘play experience’ and ‘play experiencing ability’ from the perspective of cultural-historical psychology. The paper stresses the importance of education, play, art, wealth and cultural diversity in the formation of healthy and independent personality. The role of play experience as a healthful factor that allows an individual to acquire resistance to psychosomatic disorders is supported both theoretically and empirically. It is argued that the individual capable of play experience can transform the meaning of a situation (within his/her play experience) and therefore eliminate its psychotraumatic effect which contributes to the development of psychosomatic disorders. The paper provides outcomes of an empirical research with 73 participants (40 female, 33 male; aged 18—45, with the average age of 25 years). The statistical analysis revealed a significant inverse correlation between the level of the individual’s play experiencing ability and the level of his/her somatization (rs = -0,435; p ≤ 0,01), which confirms the research hypothesis.


Neofilolog ◽  
1970 ◽  
pp. 217-226
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Krzemińska

The purpose of this article is to explore the role of the ELP in teaching language skills to students of foreign languages, in my professional situation – to German Language and Literature students. The article attempts to answer the following questions: To what extent do the ELP and the Council of Europe documents help students of foreign languages use self-evaluation? How do these documents support learner autonomy? Due to the growing interest in the ELP, I focused my attention on the use of self-evaluation skills by college students during their writing tasks. The article presents the results of a study on self-evaluation. It was carried out among first and second year students of German Language and Literature Studies at the State Higher Education College in Włocławek in the academic years 2005/2006 and 2006/2007.


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