Does Multicultural Education Really Benefit Various Cultures?

This study is a reflection on the theory and practice of multicultural education after almost 40 years of development. After reviewing many recent works on multicultural education, the author found that, basically, there is not much difference in the definition and content of the various forms of multicultural education, even though there may be some variation in terms of the purposes of multicultural education. The author also found that two issues need further clarification. First when there are limited educational resources, there will always be a problem of fairly and accurately distributing those resources to those who need them most. Second, in terms of the direction of the reform for multicultural education, constructing knowledge with the constructivist theory is the main trend. However, the author believes that there are other ways of learning and teaching, especially for the purpose of advancing our understanding of education. To discuss these two primary issues, the author concluded that if we understand multiculturalism through the perspective of environmental education, we can resolve some conflicts based on the problems of fairness and inclusion.

關鍵字

multicultural education ； environmental education ； indigenous knowledge

並列摘要

多元文化教育由1960年代的大力提倡到21世紀，已經有40餘年，但在理論與實踐上，仍有許多問題需要澄清，本文將省思其中的兩個問題。首先，在理想的理論之下，如何達到公平與正義？其次，以建構主義的方法建構知識，是多元文化教育的主要改革方向，但若以永續教育作爲教育目標，爲延續我們的文化，與永續的生存，是否須保留一些其他的學習與教導方式？爲探討上述兩個議題，本文將多元文化教育放在環境教育的思考下，期望有更寬廣的討論與實踐空間。