Farideh Salili – författare

Many books on multicultural education focus on a country and provide indepth discussion of issues pertinent to that country at the time. Alternately, understanding of multicultural education is sought through comparison between a society of special interest and a reference society, often the United States. An interesting recent example is Constructing Multicultural Education in a Diverse Society by Ilghiz Sinagatullin (2003), drawing on the author’s knowledge of Russia and more particularly the Republic of Bashkortostan, itself an ethnically and culturally diverse part of Russia. The approach taken in this volume is to focus on an aspect of diversity, and look at its ramifications across the world. This provides an understanding of the nature of multicultural education itself, as well as insights into local issues through the experience of other places.

The aim of this book is to present some recent research findings on dif-ferent aspects of multicultural education, thus informing educators of issues, policies and new approaches to multicultural education being used around the world. The chapters that you are about to read document sev-eral important themes in multicultural education. The first chapter by the editors presents an introduction and overview of the field of multicultural education by presenting its goals, historical background, assumptions and conceptual framework so as to set the stage for the chapters to follow. Attempting to cover the many views on different aspects of multicultural education goes beyond the scope of this introductory chapter. However, we have presented the historical origin and some of the recent issues and sug-gestions by prominent scholars including James Bank, Christine Sleeter, Sonia Nieto, Robert Cooper, and Robert Slavin with regards to policies, curriculum contents and teaching approaches in multicultural education.

The volume 3 of this series is designed to present educators with current research and emerging issues in teaching, learning and motivation in a multicultural context. The book is separated into four sections. In the introduction section we have outlined some of the current issues and recent thoughts about the nature of learning, teaching, and school reforms from a multicultural perspective.

The influence of culture on learning and motivation has been the topic of much research in recent years. Educational and psychological researchers are now aware that the findings of their studies may not apply to other cultures, and that in this age of globalization and multiculturalism it is very important to examine the applicability of psychoeducational constructs to other cultures. Understanding learning and motivational characteristics of students of diverse backgrounds will enable educators to develop appropriate curriculum and teaching strategies to motivate these students.

The aim of this book is to present research findings and views of scholars and researchers in the field of motivation and learning, from a multicultural and international perspective. Educators and scholars from different parts of the world have examined recent learning and motivation theories in different cultural contexts in order to explore the dynamics of sociocultural processes affecting student motivation. Others have focused on teaching and learning strategies that are known to be effective with culturally diverse students.

The National Association for Multicultural Education in Washington, D.C., listed a number of issues that the school curriculum should address with reference to multicultural education, including racism, sexism, classism, linguicism, ablism, ageism, heterosexism, and religious intolerance. It is noteworthy that of all these issues, religion is about the only one that throughout history people are willing to die for, although whether what is at issue is really religion or other things such as territory is another matter. It is also interesting that all the others have isms in their names but religious issues are characterized by intolerance. Perhaps we should try to understand this intolerance and look at what steps might help to alleviate it.

However, while intolerance might seem a simple thing, understanding what is behind it and how it plays such a crucial role in religion requires what we refer to in the Introduction chapter as a multifaceted approach at multiple levels. It is not enough just to try to dispel stereotypes of followers of other religions, or to point out commonalities in world religions. We should, for example, try to understand and appreciate how adherents of other religions try to answer questions regarding their adaptation to the contemporary environment. It is through understanding how different religions coexist side by side at various levels that we truly come to learn about religion in multicultural education.