– Written by Kinga Csorba
Introduction
“Every saint has his hand out for himself!” says the proverb and how true it is. I teach social education at the Petőfi Sándor Elementary Liceum in Székelyhíd, for students in grades V-VIII, and this inspired the topic of my writing.
I would like to say a few words about the town and our school. The town of Székelyhíd is situated in the northern part of Bihor County, near the Romanian-Hungarian border, 40 km from Oradea. The population is about 12,600 inhabitants, and the ethnic distribution of the town is 67% Hungarian, 25% Roma and 8% Romanian. The Sándor Petőfi Theoretical Liceum, the most historical secondary school in the Érmellék region, was the predecessor of the Székelyhíd Hungarian-language Mixed Secondary School, founded in 1954. The Lyceum took over the name of Sándor Petőfi in 1990 and currently educates nearly 600 students in grades V-XII. Like our town, our school is a multi-ethnic institution, with Hungarian, Romanian and Roma students. Cultural diversity is most noticeable in grades V-VIII.
The 2017-2018 school year brought innovations in the field of Human and Social Education, as the subject of Civic Education was introduced in the 7th -VIIIrd grades, instead of the previous subject of Civic Education, and was extended to the whole primary school year. The name of the subject Social Education is in fact a generic term, as each grade is introduced to a specific segment of social education. The new subject is called Critical Thinking and the Rights of the Child in Year V, Intercultural Education in Year VI, Education for Democratic Citizenship in Year VII and Economic and Financial Education in Year VIII.
Within these, I would like to focus on Intercultural Education, which is the subject of my study in class VI.
The Intercultural Education planned for VI is perhaps the biggest change from the previous curriculum, since interculturality was only included in the previous curriculum as a core value to be followed.
The new curriculum requires the correct use of the concepts of cultural diversity, cultural heritage, patriotism, multiculturalism and interculturalism. In order for pupils to internalise and apply the terms identity, otherness, tolerance, it is proposed to create projects, to sketch problematic situations . The subject tries to put emphasis on learning appropriate self-identity and openness to other cultures. Cultural empathy” can only be developed by imagining these lessons as problem-solving, project-based activities. It is important to emphasise that human beings are social beings, but the new curriculum takes on a new dimension through the cultural/intercultural dimension. Obviously, the curriculum also covers the cultural elements that are essential to the life of an intercultural society: cultural identity and diversity, the values and principles of intercultural society, the characteristics of a person living in an intercultural society, the characteristics of intercultural communication If we study these concepts, we can see that the teacher has a huge task and responsibility in how far he or she succeeds in creating tolerant and accepting persons out of the students, who are very much needed in our diverse world. This is why I consider this subject to be a great challenge from several points of view: firstly, it is no small task for a student in grade VI to reflect on the serious problems of minority and disadvantaged communities, to come up with proposals for solutions and to prepare projects in this regard, and secondly, to develop social and civic competences which he or she can use in real life later on.
In the first part of my study, I would like to clarify the concepts involved. I will first approach the issue from a theoretical point of view. There is hardly any term in dictionaries and lexicons that has as many and varied explanations as culture. We are confronted with it every day, it is closely linked to our identity, our nationality, our everyday life. It has been the subject of much debate and different perspectives.
In the next section, I would like to discuss the evolution of multiculturalism and interculturalism, and explore the causal links. The 21st century is a period of multicultural societies. We are witnessing an unprecedented cultural pluralism and the future is one of multicultural, multi-ethnic, multilingual societies.
In the last section I would like to highlight the importance of intercultural education. As we all live in multicultural societies, it is very important that respect for diversity, acceptance of different ways of thinking, of diversity in education, is a priority.