Multicultural internship: Key to baptizing pre-service educators into a river of non-racialism and multiculturalism

Abstract

This article uses a multicultural and non-racial baptism analogy to highlight the need for a mandatory multicultural internship to fully immerse pre-service educators in complex and interactive multicultural and non-racial experiences of the dynamic South African society. This society is, in the title of this article, symbolized as a river. Effective multicultural internship can be an educational and a social tool to develop non-racial and multicultural educators with genuine respect for the human dignity, integrity, equality and rights of all learners, educators and parents, thus regarding any South African community as an asset in developing social and reciprocal nonracial and multicultural human relationships with such persons from all racial, cultural and economic backgrounds. Multicultural internship experiences can help them understand what it means to be someone in a different community. This will enable the new breed of educators to work effectively in cross-cultural/racial situations with adequate knowledge and communication skills, which will enhance their ability to be aware of both the Western and the African cultural differences and similarities, and to provide appropriate teaching strategies that are congruent with learners, parents, and different communities' values, beliefs and expectations which are, in the social context of South Africa, influenced by both Western civilization's philosophy of libertarianism and Ubuntu/Botho's philosophy of communitarianism.

Keywords:

• multicultural internship
• cultural immersion
• multiculturalism
• non-racialism