Education as Transcultural Education: A Global Challenge

Abstract

In all European countries, education has been related to nation building. It has contributed to the building of national identity, national consciousness and the development of a nation state. Since the Second World War and above all since the fall of the Berlin Wall, education in the European Union has also included a consideration of European and cultural diversity. Culture does not designate a self-contained, uniquely definable ensemble of practices, values, symbolizations and imaginations. The borders between cultures are dynamic and change according to context. Globalization must be understood as a process in which two global developmental tendencies that define the present are advancing reciprocally in a manner that is not without conflict. One tendency is toward universal standardization of the world; the other tendency is toward provision of room for cultural diversity in the process. Both tendencies also create new forms of globalization. The mission of transcultural education is contact with the other and with alterity in a manner that is free of violence. Within the scope of transcultural education, the terms differentiation, transformation and hybrid formation play a central role in dealing with the foreign, the other and alterity. These terms are interrelated. Their interconnectedness is obvious. In education from an transcultural point of view, it is important to make use of these three concepts for the analysis of cultural phenomena and relations. Transcultural learning, which is oriented toward a better understanding of the other and toward a reduction in violence toward other people and future generations, will also have to develop innovative forms of learning. In a radical perspective, a transcultural education for sustainability oriented toward peace and social justice leads to a far-reaching reform of the educational system. In conjunction with the realization of a complex multimodal learning process, four perspectives play an important role: mimetic learning, performativity of learning, inquiry learning, and rituals of learning and communication.