Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is a concept found most often in the educational context in the United States. It does not have a single uncontested meaning. Various practitioners and academics use the term in various ways. There is considerable miscommunication when this term is used, partially because it has so many meanings and has acquired political overtones.

There are commonalities in most visions of multiculturalism. These include the recognition and acknowledgment of racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity within a society; the acceptance of the right of groups within a nation to maintain their different cultures and identities, provided they adhere to the society's basic tenets and do not conflict with the society's laws; the support of greater equity between groups (including more equitable inclusion) for people of different self-identities; the belief that each individual/cultural group matters to the whole; the provision of voice to groups that may not previously have been heard by the dominant society; and the conviction that differences associated with social identities should be valued and not feared.

Multiculturalism can also include legal and political accommodation of ethnic diversity. It often means that many different cultures exist side by side in any given area, where each group makes an effort to understand and accommodate the needs of the others without resorting to conflict or violence to resolve their differences. This greater understanding is regarded as a major advantage of multiculturalism. It is based on the emergence of individual group consciousness and the rejection of labels and categorization of smaller groups by the dominant groups in society.

Ideological perspectives on multiculturalism include the idea that it contradicts assimilation, or the “melting pot” theory of societies, and acculturation. The tension among such concepts does not mean that they are incompatible. Such perspectives have resulted in positions taken by public officials for and against multiculturalism. Some opponents of multiculturalism believe that it contributes to splintering of the body politic. There are sometimes irrational fears of multiculturalism, based on people's different dress, accent, [Page 1507]and language. The opposite extreme of multiculturalism may be xenophobia.

Multiculturalism and diversity both emerged in the 1960s in the United States. The term has been used retrospectively to describe developments that occurred prior to its advent. For example, it superseded the term multiethnic, which was popular in certain circles in the 1970s. “Multicultural” took on a larger meaning than “multiethnic” by including such categories as gender, sexual orientation, religion, and disability. This may be because the concept of culture is a very broad one.

Multiculturalism has had an important effect on education in the United States. This impact is discussed in detail elsewhere in this encyclopedia. The impact and acceptance in other countries and parts of countries varys. For example, most Quebec leaders oppose the Canadian national government's adoption of official multiculturalism as a nation-building public philosophy on the grounds that it undermines the special status of the French language and culture. In the Netherlands, an anti-immigrant backlash has caused a rejection of multiculturalism policies promulgated in the 1980s. In Germany, the idea of Parallelgesellschaften (self-separating, “parallel societies”) has existed since the 1990s as a backlash against multiculturalism. France is a primary exponent of an official national culture and has legally rejected female Islamic dress.

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