Multicultural education and the Czechoslovak situation

The paper presents a basic overview on the topic called „multicultural (intercultural, interethnic, global) education“. Two groups of questions are discussed in the paper: (1) What is multicultural education? The core definitions are: (a) Multicultural education is a process through which individuals develop ways of perceiving, evaluating, and behaving within cultural systems different from their owns. This definition reflects an approach to multicultural education that aims at preparing individuals for respecting other cultural systems. (b) Multicultural education is an educational program that provides learning environment matching the academic, social, and linguistic needs of students of different ethnic, racial, atc. minorities. This definition reflects an approach that aims at developing self-esteem in individuals of particular minorities as to preserving their own cultural system. (2) How multicultural education can be explored? Two kinds of research approaches and the respective methods are mentioned: – multicultural study on educational contents (analysis of cultural values, attitudes to other cultures, etc. in textbook or other instructional materials), — psycho-social measurement of cultural (cross-cultural) differences.