On the intercultural, multicultural and cross-cultural relation
Intercultural education and intercultural relations do not concern foreign citizens onlyor any single group of people.
Many times, I heard and, obviously, I spent time to argue with those persons who wrongly consider that the intercultural perspective concerns only the educational field. Furthermore, it is to be noted that intercultural education is not the education of migrants or even more, is not intercultural pedagogy. Still, there is a lot of misconception on the meaning of the terminology.
As regards migration, recent times brought about a new world order, involving countries like Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Holland, Lebanon, Canada, and the US, especially Venezuela. Humankind has been always featured by the phenomenon of migration. Many socio-political continental scenarios will increase migration flows.
This is the reason why intercultural and not multicultural or cross-cultural or trans-cultural might be the right answer to globalization, interaction and interactive integration.
I am quite aware that “intercultural” might seem for some a revolutionary word.
Well, this is not. Words are not as revolutionary as long they are adequate. Behaviours are.
Whereas multi or pluri-culture refers to “a peaceful coexistence of cultures” [1], an approach claiming that all cultural traditions are equally good and choosing one or another is based only on taste, recognizing diversities and respecting them “as they are” without asking to influence them, intercultural refers to a place between universalism [2] and relativism [3].
Whereas multi- and pluri-culture refers to events with people from different cultures living peacefully side by side, inter-culture implies dialogue, exchange, interaction with a comparison of preconceptions and, possibly, constructive negotiation.
All this should be encouraged in a spirit of communicative and cultural changes in the identity of all individuals.
[1] Steven Lukes, Rethinking social criticism : some puzzles,’ History of the Human Sciences’
[2] Luigi Secco, Education of the human being regardless of colour of skin, language, culture and religion
[3] William H Shaw Relativism In Ethics, right of equality in the difference of cultural identity
