School, cultural diversity, multiculturalism, and contact

Abstract

The basic assumption of this paper is that school’s potential to improve cross-cultural relations, as well as interpersonal relations in general, is enormous. This assumption is supported by a number of theoretical considerations and by the analysis of data we obtained from a study we conducted on the attitudes toward diversity and multiculturalism of pupils attending Italian schools. Our research findings indicate that both teachers and pupils seldom perceive school as a place that can provide this positive and significant opportunity. Many of the difficulties in pupils’ relationships with culturally diverse peers at school coincide with, or are very similar to, the difficulties in their relationships with peers in general, thus supporting the assumption that there are some common basic motivations underlying the acceptance or the rejection of ‘the other,’ be ‘the other’ culturally diverse or not. Depending on the cases, cross-cultural relations among pupils at school can be characterized by empathy, curiosity, failed attempts or a dearth of attempts to get to know each other, indifference, resentment, envy, and rejection. Our results are analyzed within a theoretical framework which includes the concept of diversity, contact theory, multicultural ideology, and competitive lifestyles. Teachers’ roles in fostering pupils’ cross-cultural relations are discussed and several educational interventions aiming to develop acceptance of and interest in diversity, as well as empathy toward outgroup members, are suggested.

L’assunto di base di questo articolo è che il potenziale della scuola nel migliorare le relazioni interculturali, come pure le relazioni interpersonali in genere, sia enorme. Questo assunto si basa su alcune considerazioni teoriche come pure sull’analisi di alcuni dati che abbiamo ottenuto da uno studio da noi effettuato sugli atteggiamenti verso la diversità e il multiculturalismo di alunni che frequentano le scuole italiane. I nostri risultati indicano che sia gli insegnanti che gli alunni raramente percepiscono la scuola come un luogo in grado di offrire questa opportunità positiva e significativa. Molte delle difficoltà nelle relazioni degli alunni a scuola con compagni di culture diverse coincidono con le difficoltà o sono molto simili alle difficoltà che essi incontrano nei loro rapporti con i compagni in generale, dimostrando quindi che ci sono alcune motivazioni di base comuni sottostanti l’accettazione o il rifiuto dell’“altro”, sia che l’“altro” sia culturalmente diverso o No. A seconda dei casi, le relazioni interculturali tra gli alunni a scuola possono essere caratterizzate da empatia, curiosità, tentativi falliti o scarsi di conoscersi reciprocamente, indifferenza, risentimento, invidia e rifiuto. I nostri risultati sono analizzati in un quadro teorico che include il concetto di diversità, la teoria del contatto, l’ideologia multiculturale e il modello di vita competitivo. E’ analizzato il ruolo degli insegnanti nel promuovere le relazioni interculturali degli studenti e sono suggeriti alcuni interventi educativi tesi a sviluppare l’accettazione e l’interesse nei confronti della diversità, come pure l’empatia verso i membri dell’outgroup.

Keywords:

• school
• cultural diversity
• contact theory
• ingroup-outgroup
• cross-cultural relations

Notes

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the International Conference ‘Intercultural Education: Paideia, Polity, Demoi’ organized by the International Association for Intercultural Education (IAIE) and the Hellenic Migration Policy Institute (IMEPO) (Athens, 22–26 June 2009) and was published in its Proceedings. This paper is one of the outcomes of a study conducted within the ‘Progetto Migrazioni’ – Department of Cultural Identity, Italian National Research Council.

1. In Italy immigrant and foreign children are enrolled in mainstream classes.

2. In the quotations from pupils’ essays we did not eliminate spelling, grammatical, syntactic, or lexical mistakes. In brackets we specified participants’ age and gender. Only in those cases when it was possible to infer that the participant was not Italian, we also indicated her/his status as an immigrant or a foreign adopted child. Since immigrant pupils only very rarely mentioned their country of origin, we never specified it in brackets.

3. Since 1977, the Italian Ministry of Education has adopted the principles of inclusion and integration also with respect to pupils with disabilities.

4. In its original version, this essay contained many spelling, grammatical, syntactic, and lexical mistakes. Although, for obvious reasons, we could not reproduce most of them, we still took a lot of effort not to alter the authenticity of the essay as a whole.