Multicultural education is one of the main steps toward integration but there are many barriers that students and lecturers have to overcome in order to successfully demolish those obstacles.
Dr Damian Spiteri from the University of York is about to publish a book called ‘Multiculturalism, Higher Education and Intercultural Communication’.
Dr Spiteri explains the rationale behind his research: “The reasons which led to my interest in writing this book was triggered by personal events experienced a few years back. At the time, when working at my previous job as a lecturer at a vocational college in Malta, prior to taking up a lecturing position at the University of York, I was told that among the students I would be teaching were a group of students from Africa who were asylum seekers.
“My first reaction to being told this was somewhat naïve. I believed that the Maltese students would appreciate the cultural and racial differences of the newcomers automatically and that the newcomers would integrate naturally into the Maltese social context without having problems in the process.
“Things did not quite work out that way. It took considerable effort on the part of both the Maltese and the African students to relate to one another. Even though there were times when they succeeded in forging friendships, there were times when they did not. It seemed to me that the Maltese and African students were remaining far too distant from each other.
“I realised that something had to change to bring them closer together so that they could all benefit from a more holistic education and have a more enjoyable time at this college”.
Speaking to The Malta Independent, Dr Spiteri delved further into his thoughts on the subject.
“If I were to look at my own life, and how I developed through my own school years, I went from a relatively homogeneous culture, to that of a multicultural one. When I was in primary and secondary, the foreign students I had contact with were few and far between. In sixth form, I experienced my first exposure to multiculturalism at school, in the form of a number of Korean students. When I began working and visited different schools throughout my career, I realised the number of students in a multicultural context were various.
“At MCAST, we had students from different cultural backgrounds including non-EU countries and asylum seekers from different parts of Africa. I realised It was going to be quite complex integrating them as well as the Maltese students so as to give all of them an empowering and holistic education. I began to reflect on how we could make education more meaningful to the student body as a whole. This book came about as a result of my interactions with students from an Asylum Seeking background. I remember some of them telling me; ‘Damian, we wish to make friends, but we don’t really know how’. This triggered my reflection upon their needs and I began to research what other experts were doing in the field to bring about better integration in the educational structures they were lecturing in’.
“I had asked myself; ‘in the Maltese context what can be done to emphasise the strength of all students as a student body’. In reality, while having a plurality of cultures, the Maltese culture obviously stands out with the Maltese in a majority. However, particularly to the African students, it is clear in peoples’ minds that they are not Maltese. This doesn’t necessarily feature in countries abroad, where sometimes people can look different and one wouldn’t know their origins.”
In his book, Dr Spiteri quotes from James Banks, and also looked at other authors in this field, such as Lawrence Splitter. He spoke of the importance of not stereotyping any group of students. “Recognising each student’s individuality and finding the space to allow that student to speak, argue and show his or her perception of the world is the most important part of multicultural education”.
Describing an event that occurred while he taught at the MCAST canteen, Dr Spiteri said that a group of Maltese students were in conversation with a group of African students, “when someone came in with a petition for students to sign against the presence of asylum seekers in Malta. Some of the Maltese students seemed to forget they were interacting with the African students just moments earlier and signed the petition. This showed me the importance of creating a context where relationships are not only surface deep, where we start to understand and relate to one another. This particular incident was one at MCAST which triggered something in me, where I felt something had to be done”.
Turning to the difficulty faced when trying to integrate different cultures in schools, he said that “from my own practical experience, many students I taught picked up the little things through observation. One of the most important things in multicultural education is peer-learning. Today students can also find websites in every language, and I would encourage students to do some research on other cultures on their own. I also believe in the use of personal mentors, or a buddy system. Sadly many educational institutions do not have these systems set up. I also believe in the relationship the lecturer can foster with the students, and in tutorials and small group meetings, as this is where people would voice their concerns. He said giving students group projects can help foster relationships”.
He addressed the issue of African migrants being seen as one people, rather than all coming from different cultures. “Multicultural education is about knowledge and knowledge acquisition, understanding other cultures and people. If one does this, one would notice and observe the difference between cultures”.
“I used to volunteer at Dar is-Sliem, where people from different parts of Africa lived together. They had different eating habits, different religions, and it becomes immediately apparent. However those who have never been to Dar is-Sliem, or have not had much exposure to other cultures, would not know that. It all comes down to knowledge, by meeting them, speaking with them, that makes the difference. This knowledge is at the root of multicultural education. Having said that, people tend to categorise and this is, to a certain extent, reflected in the literature in a negative way because by categorising people together it is easier to get power over them. An extreme example was Hitler’s undesirables who he eliminated. If one were to look at who these were, there were many different clusters of people. The whole concept is hard to define. If one speaks about nationality in an African context, people come from different tribes within the same country, and thus it is possible that two people from the same country would have completely different cultures”.
He was asked about the backlash seen in a number of EU countries towards EU citizen movements across borders. “Countries look for sovereignty over their borders. People want to say ‘this is my country’. The EU made these borders more fluid. The fear which led to Brexit was that Britons feared they were going to be inundated by other EU citizens who are not British. This reflects the fact that England is an Island, and islanders tend to put stricter emphasis on their borders. Another factor is the fear of finance. If one has people from poorer parts of the EU moving to England then economic concerns rise. Then there are the other kind of fears, like that of people who do not speak the same language”.
Turning to the rise of the far-right movements across a number of EU countries, he said that he sees the far-right as the political voice of people who want to keep their own and are not interested in welfare and humanitarian concerns. “It is not a question of morality and ethics, it’s just how some people are thinking. Because of this, there is a lack of cultural consensus, a lack of compassion, a lack of communication”.
While his book would be used as a reference book, given that it is academic in nature, he does hope students as well as those with an interest in social justice and integration would also be interested in picking up a copy. “The message of the book is that we can co-exist and get along, but we have to work for it”.
The book will be published in a couple of weeks’ time, and will be available for purchase through amazon.com.