Education must feature multiculturalism

Dec 24, 2017 Education Corner, Features / Columnists

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The holiday season provides an ideal opportunity for us to reflect upon the cultural diversity that defines us as Guyanese and the role the education system should play in this regard.
We have forged for ourselves a multicultural society where for the most part our peaceful coexistence has been preserved. As one delves below the surface elements, however, there are deep fissures within the social fabric that emerge and must be addressed.
If we are to ever advance our levels of social cohesion the education system must play a primary role. To that end, multicultural education has to be regarded as a critical, cross-cutting component of the planned curriculum revision exercise. We have an opportunity to devise for ourselves a curriculum that truly reflects and values the rich cultural diversity that makes Guyana so unique.
Our existing curriculum provides at best, a superficial understanding of the diverse groups that comprise our social mosaic. It provides a rudimentary understanding of our origins and early experiences, some customs, holidays and the ways each group has contributed to building the society we now know.
In addition, our schools provide opportunities for our children to learn about some ceremonies primarily structured around religious holidays. Beyond this, there is little that speaks to who our cultural groups really are, singularly and/or collectively. Little has been done to fully define the Guyanese cultural experience and we have for the most part structured our individual perceptions of same in the absence of any informed guidance.
Where these have been examined it has been on a highly academic level from some exemplary studies at the University of Guyana, but little, if any, has trickled down to impact the perceptions, attitudes and behaviours of the average citizen.
More importantly, it must be recognized that our history has been told from a highly Eurocentric perspective that, for the most part, excludes the voices and perspectives of those who matter most—our respective fore-parents. As such, there are countless misrepresentations and slants that need to be corrected in the interest of presenting and preserving our true histories.
Multicultural education provides a framework from which we can develop a greater awareness of our various cultural groups. It is founded on principles of respect for the diversity and similarities that define us all and extends to a sincere valuing of same.
As such, issues of race, religion, historical truth, gender, socio-economic status, language, our socio-political context and a range of other socio-cultural dynamics are examined and addressed. It provides for the infusion of cultural content across the curriculum and promotes the examination of the origins and accuracy of our existing perspectives on a range of cultural constructs.
More importantly, it demands a dissection of prejudiced and stereotypical thoughts in an effort to arrive at higher levels of tolerance and appreciation of diversity, social justice and equity. This facilitates delving well beyond mere peaceful coexistence and seeks to establish a deeper level of social integration and interaction.
A precursor of this is an education in which all individuals from across the social spectrum can find relevance and value and self-actualization.
Our experience with the infusion of Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) in the school system has highlighted the fact that teachers feel ill-equipped and uncomfortable addressing value-laden topics in the curriculum.
Culturally relevant pedagogy encourages and even demands that teachers master the content and delivery strategies required to make learning more relevant to the needs of their diverse student populations.
Our existing teachers would therefore have to undergo professional development in this regard and the Cyril Potter College of Education and the Faculty of Education must infuse and amplify these concepts in their teacher education and training experiences. It must be overtly established that teachers have a role in leading the efforts to address these important values clarification exercises and equipping our children with the skill sets required to address societal issues.
More work needs to be done to ensure that our sub-cultures and our collective dominant cultural dynamics are given equal attention and priority. A prime example is our experience with language in Guyana.
A recent UNICEF study of indigenous languages highlighted the fact that in many communities the mother tongue is being lost with larger numbers of individuals, especially the younger generations, opting to speak the English language.
Language loss is usually an early indicator of cultural degradation. A recently launched pilot study with the Wapishana language is aimed at teaching English as a second language after instruction in the mother tongue in the early grades as a means of preserving the myriad of cultural benefits linked to language.
Likewise, studies from our neighbouring Caribbean territories have pointed to the dangers of our traditional practices of demanding that children leave their Creolese at the school gate. Studies have advanced the argument that Creolese is just as important as English and should not be regarded as being in conflict with, but as a means of supporting English language instruction. These issues and a multiplicity of others related to our cultural identity form a basis for extensive collaboration among educators, social scientists and historians as a means of establishing a national framework for addressing and advancing cultural studies in Guyana.
The curriculum revision experience provides an ideal platform for the commencement of the discourse around our Guyanese culture and the role the education system should play in its preservation and promotion. Key questions have to be, who is the individual the education system is expected to produce after twelve years of schooling, and what values and cultural capital should that individual possess?
Schools are at the vanguard of shaping and defining the society we envision and the enabling environment must be created for the exploration of means through which our social cohesion agenda can be advanced.
The ultimate end must be a cultural tapestry that melds the multiplicity of identities that define us as Guyanese, as deftly as the black cake, pepperpot and ginger beer at Christmas and Old Year’s Night cook up. Multicultural education is the vehicle through which this is attained.

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