ERIC Number: ED212412
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1981
Pages: 16
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Development Education and Multi-Ethnic Education: Some Tensions. Development Education Paper No. 21.
Storm, Michael
The document examines the relationships between multi-ethnic and development education in Great Britain. Multi-ethnic education, initially with a national focus, has a global dimension, and development education, initially with a global focus, has a national and even local dimension. A common interest in human diversity and human inequalities would seem to unite development and multi-ethnic education. Both approaches are engaged in helping the pupil to make sense of an essentially hierarchical world and have adopted a cross-curriculum strategy of education. Were it not for the importance of the concept of "self-image" within multi-ethnic education, its aims would be happily complementary with those of development education. From a multi-ethnic viewpoint, development education is criticized for: inculcating or reinforcing attitudes of white Western superiority; for damaging the self-image of the black or brown child within Western society; for its preoccupation with poverty, disasters, and catastrophes; and for being more successful in formulating questions than in devising solutions. However, it appears that a complete accommodation of multi-ethnic sensitivities would necessarily eliminate the welfare focus of development education. Such a strategy would constitute a futile attempt to disguise the real nature of the contemporary world and could only reinforce complacency. (NEC)
Descriptors: Cultural Awareness, Developed Nations, Developing Nations, Educational Objectives, Educational Philosophy, Elementary Secondary Education, Ethnocentrism, Foreign Countries, Global Approach, Interdisciplinary Approach, International Education, Multicultural Education, Rural Development, World Problems
UNICEF, 866 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10706.
Publication Type: Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: United Nations Children's Fund, New York, NY.
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom (Great Britain)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A