Multicultural education in the early years

Abstract

Multiculturalism relates to communities containing multiple cultures. Multicultural education came into context through the evolution of four concepts, namely assimilation, integration, multiculturalism and anti-racism. Multicultural education is all about accepting and acknowledging the student and the family. This research focuses on three government schools. The schools were chosen on the basis of their location so as to analyse how multiculturalism is being treated in different parts of Malta – the northern part, the southern part and the central part. Nine foreign parents from these schools were interviewed and contributed by providing an insight of how multiculturalism is developing in local state schools. Questionnaires were also distributed to collect views from representatives of important stakeholders such as the DQSE and NGOs. Through the data collected, one can note that society is much more conscious about multiculturalism and now-a-days it is being given more importance. This is due to the fact that in recent years there has been an increase of children coming from different ethnic and/or cultural background attending state schools. This research also analyzes the level of acceptance of Maltese children towards children coming from ethnic minorities, the promotion of multiculturalism in government schools, the importance of an inclusion policy in state schools, communication and language barriers encountered by teachers, parents and children. This research also questions the teaching of Catholic religion while also analyzing the possibility of introducing teaching of different religions in state schools. This research leads to various interesting observations including the fact that state schools lack a common policy and are using different methods in dealing with multiculturalism. It also highlights the difficulties encountered by parents of children with different ethnic background, and provides various recommendations to provide a more holistic approach to better integrate multicultural pupils in government schools.