Teaching and learning about multi-dimensional identity is complex. I attach an article chronicling my own wrestling with this issue in the context of Australian young people and the Australian school curriculum.
But supervising some excellent higher degree research candidates exploring the teaching of identity in other contexts such as Pakistan, Nepal, and international schools around the world has only underlined the complexities. Respect for ethnic, indigenous and religious minority groups is usually extolled in official curriculum documents but often majoritarian views dominate in reality in prescribed textbooks, and there are degrees of 'othering' of in-country minorities or countries that are perceived as different.
It would be great to hear from countries or jurisdictions where you feel that genuine, successful and intelligently nuanced educational practices are in place in relation to teaching about identity.
Did you try inclusive classes, I think that should work very well. Projects with social outreach, interaction with local communities and with the students within their project groups should also contribute to your issue solution. Next consid4r mobility classes, where children travel to other countries with different language and cultural background. There’s hardly a “silver bullet” though.
Hello Airat - Thanks for your thoughts. At least three relevant observations here:
- Yes, joint/collaborative/partnership/'interactive' projects between different local community groups can be fantastic ways of deepening appreciation of diversity and others' identities;
- Yes, international partnerships and exchanges can do much to enhance inter-cultural understanding and
- Yes, in undertaking educational work in this space there are multiple policy and practice levers to pull and no 'silver bullets'.
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