Intercultural Education

History

The intercultural education movement emerged in the aftermath of World War I as a response to the ethnocentrism that had resulted in the conflict. In the context of the United States, the movement was also informed by a range of internal political, economic, and social tensions. Migration of African Americans from southern to northern American cities, along with increasing numbers of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, was rapidly changing the face of the American public sphere. Fears about whether the new immigrants would be able to integrate into the social, cultural, and political fabric of America were commonplace. These fears were especially pronounced with reference to the assimilation of children—the “second generation problem.” During the 1920s, heightened fear of immigrants led to the enactment of the National Origins Quota Act, which imposed restrictions on the number of immigrants from southern European countries.

During the Great Depression and World War II, conflicts based on ethnicity, religion, and race intensified in the United States. For instance, discrimination against particular ethnic groups such as Japanese and Italians, religious groups such as Jews and Catholics, and racial minorities such as African Americans was institutionalized through segregated schools and housing, anti-Semitism, and biased curricula. It is in this context that the intercultural education movement emerged to address the prevailing prejudices and anxieties in society, and schools were determined to be the ideal places to prepare future generations for peaceful relations.

Philosophy and Intellectual Contributions

Scholars have placed the origins of the intercultural education movement anywhere between 1924 and 1930 and believe that it retained its influence through the 1950s. At its core, the movement sought to promote understanding of, and respect for, difference. It aimed to improve relations among peoples from different ethnic, religious, and racial backgrounds. Intercultural education scholars incorporated findings and [Page 1207]theories from other social science disciplines into education and identified critical sites and issues for further research.

One of the significant contributions of the movement was a critical engagement with, and critique of, the then prevalent models of intergroup relations. Models such as assimilation, amalgamation, and melting pot were discussed and, to some extent, discredited by intercultural education scholars; they pushed for a redefinition of citizenship, such that it incorporated a possibility for people to maintain loyalty to particular subgroups even as they remained committed to the nation-state. This model, also called cultural pluralism (and later, cultural democracy), argued for the creation of a community around a core set of principles but allowed groups to maintain their heritage, languages, and cultures. Intercultural education scholars proposed new theorizations of democracy and viewed the purpose of education as promoting democratic living in society. Democratic ideals, it was believed, would become a set of common principles that different groups could adhere to while maintaining their distinct cultural affiliations. These principles, thus, were to provide a platform around which different groups could unite.

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