MULTICULTURALISM AMD MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION TOWARDS AN AUSTRALIAN ORIENTATION TO THE CURRICULUM ' by P.W. Matthews INTRODUCTION: ; •, (+ ;' ' ■= i : -Over the last decade, the concept of multiculturalism has gathered force as that national cultural policy to replace the discredited earlier assimilationist policy which, under a variety of names, has .prevailed since about 1915. Con­ currently, multicultural education has emerged as a new field of education and, as is to be expected in an evolving situation, there has been little clarity of orientation in developments to date. In this paper the nature of multiculturalism. is explored and the nature of multicultural education - as the educational , •: response to multiculturalism - is examined. * - . PAST NATIONAL CULTURAL POLICIES: The responses by the dominant ethnic groups throughout Australians history towards the ethnicity of the non-dominant groups have been almost always: negative. Thus, at varous times, the following policies have been, followed: a. ____Extermination . ; - -.-.^r j-.-; -j This was the major orientation towards Aboriginal-Australians throughoutL most of the colonial period. b. ____Separatism : . From the end of the nineteenth century until the present, many administrations . have pursued this policy. For Aboriginal-Australians this has meant being confined to reserves and the like, while for numbers of other ethnic minorities, e.g, Greek-Australians and Italian-Australians, it has meant that their cultures have been excluded from the public sphere. c. ____Assimilation ' ;' This policy, the internal component of the externally directed White Australia policy, has been the dominant policy at least since about the start of the First World War. Its basic tenet was that Australia was a raonocultural, Anglo- centric and Anglo-conformist country in which the cultural heritage of;all its members was or had to be drawn from England or Great Eritain. There was thus no place for "ethnic minorities”?, 'their numbers had to assimilate. It was not until the late 1960s and early 1970s that it-.was realized that this policy, which had been successful to a degree in earlier years, was not being , 79/9/40 FOR PRIVATE USE AND STUDY PURPOSES ONLY ■.. _4 .... \ ' • . } r. •. "Vp i ( \ H Clearing House on Migration Issues 133 Church St. Richmond, Vic., Australia, 3121. Tel. (03) 428 4948 2 successful with the post world war 2 immigrants. The policy was then changed to "integration" which in practice simply meant slow assimilation. MULTICULTURAL!SH; Since about the late 1960s, however, national cultural policies have been increasingly under evaluation and there has been a search for a national cultural policy more in harmony with national cultural realities. Two tyres of mohocultural societies have been rejected: firstly, that of an Anglo-A.us.tralian society j.n which all would conform to Anglo-Australian ideals and, secondly, that of the "melting-pot" in which all would change, though to varying degrees, and a mono- cultural Australian society, differing to an unknown degree from an Anglo- Australian society, .woul4; .emerge. ~ More and more multiculturalism. has been advanced as that policy which would replace mohocultural national policies. However, great care must be taken to ensure that the issues are clarified and that the various types of multiculturalism (and hence!'of multicultural societies) are distinguished from each other. Most importantly, it should be understood that currently the major thrust in , "multiculturalism" is towards the recognition of ethnic diversity and not to the recognition of multiculturalism along other lines. Some types of multiculturalism ■are: •’> ' . a'._____Descriptive ':MUit icuiturali sm This type is simply -statistical. A society is multicultural because the papulation comes fromKhL diversity of ethnic backgrounds. b. Tokenistic Multiculturalism Within the society, various manifestations of ethnic diversity are allowed, but only in so far as they do not interfere with the overall goal of assimilation. £_._____ Multiculturalism-for-assimilation . This; policy consciously supports the ethnic diversity of its population in order to facilitate the assimilation process. Thus the. Bilingual Education Act in the United States of America deliberately sought to support students from non-English speaking backgrounds through using their mother-tongue while they were learning English. When enough English was learnt, the use of the mother-tongue was to he discontinued. ^ 'r ; d.____ Hierarchical multiculturalism In this 'ype of society, e.g., a slave society,'a colonial society, or an assimilationist immigrant receiving society, the ethnic diversity is found only in the lowest socio-economic1 'stratum. To move out of that' stratum* ,'tHe individual must either assimilate or must be skilled in "passing", i.e. appearing to be a meiitber bf 'the dominant ethnic group while in the company of members of that group. e. ____ Regional multiculturalism This type is based on historical claims to territory and takes two forms. Firstly, there are nations such as Canada (English speaking versus French speaking), India and Switzerland where ethnic diversity is regionally based and is accommodated in administrative structure, e.g., provinces, states and cantons. Secondly, there are countries Where the historical links are not recognized in administrative or political divisions; typical of these countries are France (with the Basques, Bretons, Catalans, Alsatians and Occitain speakers) and Spain (with;Basques, Catalans and Gallicians). f. ..y-Qpen multiculturalism This is the type of multiculturalism that is being seen as appropriate for Australia as, apart from Aboriginal-Australians, no other ethnic group has group claims to territory. What is important is the ethnic identity of Australians; through the acceptance of the principle of equality of ethnicities, each Australian would be able to maintain their ethnic identity at all levels in 3 the society, thus being occupationally and socially upwardly mobile without having to change their ethnic identity. In all cases that ethnic identity vrould be embedded within an Australian national identity. ETHNIC IDENTITY: A. key concept in multiculturalism is thus ethnicity or ethnic identity. It is a difficult concept to appreciate because, like all concepts related to culture, there are many variables, many choice patterns and many differences of degree involved. However, an individual's ethnic identity is that facet of the individual that is related to the group from which the individual derives or believes that he or she derives his or her cultural origins. The components of that ethnicity are many: language, tradition , religion and values concerning family and interpersonal relations and many other things. In all cases, the combination of components is complex and different, clearly, for each ethnic group, i.e., one ethnic group is delineated from another by its unique combination of components. However, when it comes to the individual's ethnic identity other factors come into play. Thus one's ethnicity is a personal factor defined by oneself rather than by outsiders. Thus individuals can choose: a. To change their ethnic identity b. How much of the ethnic group's culture they wish to absorb (i.e. they may belong to the group but have learned only a few characteristics of the group) and c. To manifest their ethnicity to varying degrees, depending on the soeio-cultural situation (i.e. a person can manipulate their ethnic identity in the same way that they do their other identities). Four further points need to be noted about ethnicity - firstly, ethnic identity is non the same as racial identity; secondly, ethnic identity is not the same as national identity and, thirdly, ethnic identity is not related to migration or migrants simply because everyone has cultural origins and hence an ethnic identity. A fourth point, tied in to the second point, is perhaps the most important. Ethnic groups in Australia are Australian ethnic groups. Thus Australian ethnic groups are not simply transposed national groups which have an independent existence in Australiaj an existence tied closely to the life of the nation or locale from which the original migrants came. Rather, since the first members of any ethnic group came to Australia, the culture of the group here has evolved away from the culture of the place of origin and has evolved Australian forms for all components of the culture of the ethnic group. Some may hanker for the "pure" culture of origin, but the reality is a dynamic, evolving, needs- satisfying Australian ethnic culture. NATIONAL IDENTITY: Ethnicity is a factor which groups, or tends to group, individuals into small socio-cultural units. However, all Australians - irrespective of ethnic identities - are members of the one multicultural nation. Thus the individual's national identity, as an Australian, is also a significant component of multi­ culturalism. as a national cultural policy. This raises the issue of what does it mean to say that one is an "Australian"? And clearly, in a multicultural Australia, the response must be that an Australian is an individual of any ethnic background who adheres to that set of national core values that are deemed to be those which distinguish Australians from members of other nations. - 4 - National core values are not easy to define or clarify as they only become consciously important in times of national crisis. However, in the move from monocultural policies to multicultural