“Soon we shall breathe our last,” wrote Seneca at the end of his treatise on the destructive effects of anger and hatred. “Meanwhile, while we live, while we are among human beings, let us cultivate our humanity” (Nussbaum, Citation1998, p. 301)
Do our education systems cultivate humanity? In Nussbaum’s widely acclaimed book, titled Cultivating Humanity (1998), she posited three capacities that are foundational to the cultivation of humanity: (1) ‘critical examination of oneself and one’s traditions’, (2) ‘an ability to see themselves not simply as citizens of some local region or group but also, and above all, as human beings bound to all other human beings by ties of recognition and concern’ and (3) ‘narrative imagination’ meaning, the ability to think what it might be like to be in the shoes of a person different from oneself, to be an intelligent reader of that person’s story, and to understand the emotions and wishes and desires that someone so placed might have. (pp. 9–11).
How can multicultural education contribute to preparing students for those capacities?
In this issue, the four articles shed light on how certain educational ideas and/or practices equipped with multiculturalism can promote certain features of the three capacities noted above. Specifically, Dreamson attempts to reconstruct culturally inclusive global citizenship education (GCE). To this end, he first problematizes that non-Western perspectives of ontology, epistemology and axiology have been silenced in contemporary GCE discourses. He then argues that positioning non-Western cultures/religions (e.g. Aboriginality, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam and Taoism) into contemporary GCE discourses as equal agents is the first necessary step towards reconstructing culturally inclusive GCE. Notably, Dreamson’s conceptualization of culturally inclusive GCE is deeply linked to the capacities proposed by Nussbaum while also critically accommodating Nussbaum’s idea and attempting to go beyond it.
Similar as Dreamson’s argument, Wiggan’s article highlights culturally inclusive and relevant educational practices. He takes another critical lens, which he calls “Critical Postmodern Science Pedagogy” (CPSP) for teaching diversity. His framework of CPSP is based on the amalgamation of selected literature (e.g. Critical Pedagogy and Science, Culturally Relevant/Responsive Pedagogy and Science and Multicultural Science). This framework has potential to add another repertoire of educational practices that may (1) address issues of diversity in classrooms and schools and (2) facilitate some aspects of the capacities suggested by Nussbaum.
Smith’s article documents how teachers across different sectors (i.e. early childhood, primary and secondary) in New Zealand respond to ‘increasing ethnic and cultural diversity’. On the one hand, the study reveals tensions and discrepancies around culturally inclusive pedagogy practices across the sectors. On the other hand, the example of culturally inclusive visual arts presented in this study could be a useful tool for cultivating Nussbaum’s three capacities noted above.
Childs’s article tackles the issue of psychological well-being of immigrants in Australia. Using the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth project, Childs shows that young immigrants tend to be far less employed than Australians despite their relatively higher levels of educational attainment. Further, within the category of immigrants, ‘young female, first generation immigrants from refugee source countries’ were most vulnerable to psychological distress. These findings imply that although Australia has placed societal value and policy efforts on building a multicultural society in recent years, on the ground level many immigrants from refugee source countries are struggling in their long-term settlement. In this regard, Nussbaum’s three capacities should be revisited in efforts to fulfil a multicultural society.
We believe that the four articles in this issue pitch a number of ideas, concepts and issues around how to cultivate humanity in general and how multicultural education can contribute to Nussbaum’s three capacities in particular. We hope the articles published in this issue can ignite further conversations on cultivating humanity and the role of multicultural education in it.
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Yun-Kyung Cha
Reference
- Nussbaum, M. C. (1998). Cultivating humanity: A classical defense of reform in liberal education . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.