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Education: Education is the process of acquiring knowledge, skills, and values. It helps us to understand the world around us and to make informed decisions. See also Knowledge, Second Nature.
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Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

Multiculturalism on Education - Dictionary of Arguments

Gaus I 253
Education/religion/multiculturalism/Kukathas: Kymlicka (1995a(1): 163), for example, recognizes
the dilemma liberals face here, but suggests that in the end children need to be educated so that they choose for themselves the paths they will take.
Others, however, have been more insistent that the education of children is without doubt of fundamental importance, both from the perspective of the individual child and from the perspective of the
Gaus I 254
liberal state - and should take priority over religious or other claims. Education is education for
citizenship.
Macedo: Stephen Macedo, for example, argues that those who embrace multiculturalism should
not forget that 'liberal citizens do not come into existence naturally' that diversity 'must be consti-
tuted for liberal democratic purposes'. Children, in his view, must be educated so that they become liberal citizens (Macedo, 1995a(2): 68; and also Macedo, 1995b(3); 2000(4)).
Gutmann; A similar view is advanced by Amy Gutmann, even as she is at pains to emphasize the importance of a multicultural education and the dangers of a schooling that ignores the diversity of traditions found in a society. Education must, in the end, be education for democratic citizenship, even if not only for citizenship (Gutmann, 1996(5)).
Walzer: That it will also tend to assimilate minorities, and work toward the transformation of religious communities, cannot be denied, and so must be accepted (Walzer, 1995(6): 29).
Callan: As Eamonn Callan observes, 'schools must somehow honour both the interest in identity
formation that rightly belongs to parents and the interest we all share as members of a civic community' (2000(7): 66; see also Callan, 1997)(8).
Religion/groups/state: The tension between the claims of state and religious community when the treatment and education of children are at issue has surfaced on numerous occasions in legal cases, which have in turn generated considerable debate in political theory.
Example: In 1972, in the case of Wisconsin v. Yoder, the United States Supreme Court decided in favour of Old Order Amish parents who wished to withdraw their children from Wisconsin state schools after eighth grade, two years earlier than statutory requirements for compulsory education permitted.
Explanation: A number of theorists have argued that this was a poor decision, either because it neglects the interests of the child, though this should not be exaggerated since only two additional years of education were at issue (Feinberg, 1980(9); Gutmann, 1980(10)), or because it fails to recognize the importance of education for citizenship (Arneson and Shapiro, 1996)(11). Others, however, have argued that the liberal state should resist usurping parental authority in order to impose its opinion on what is the best way of life for the child (Burt, 1996(12): 432).
Problems: (...) liberal theorists have been divided on the limits of parental authority and the scope for exemptions based on religious or cultural beliefs (compare Callan, 1997(8) and Tomasi, 2001(13)). One of the dilemmas posed by such circumstances is whether to bear the costs of granting exemptions or the costs of refusing them. If the cost of granting parents exemptions is that their children will not be exposed to a diversity of views (which, presumably, would make them better citizens), the cost of denying parents exemptions might be that more parents
decide to home school their children, thereby cutting them off even more seriously from the democratic mainstream (Reich, 2002(14)).
Headscarves affair: [France 1989]: in this instance, a problem arose because three North African immigrant women in a French public secondary school chose to wear their headscarves in class, in a gesture that was interpreted as a challenge to the national policy of secularism in schools. As Bhikhu Parekh notes, this issue 'went to the heart of the French conceptions of citizenship and national identity and divided the country' (2000(15): 250). But it also divided political theorists
(Galeotti, 1993(16); 1994; Moruzzi, 1994a(17); 1994b(18)).
Kukathas: in this, as with other controversies surrounding the matter of dress, the problem is that dress is not unambiguously a private matter.
Laicism: in the headscarves case, however, the problem was deepened by the French educational system and its philosophical principle, laicité, which demands state neutrality towards 'all kinds of religious practices, institutionalized through a vigilant removal of sectarian religious symbols, signs, icons, and items of clothing from official public spheres' (Benhabbib, 2002(19): 95—6).
Kuikathas: how this was to be squared with other public commitments to freedom of religion and
liberty of conscience, as well as personal liberty, became entirely obscure. Cf. >Customs/Morality/Multiculturalism.

1. Kymlicka, Will (1995a) Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2. Macedo, Stephen (1995a) 'Multiculturalism for the religious right? Defending liberal civic education'. In Yael Tamir, ed., Democratic Education in a Multicultural State. Oxford: Blackwell, 65—80.
3. Macedo, Stephen (1995b) 'Liberal civic education and religious fundamentalism: the case of God v. John Rawls'. Ethics, 105:468-96.
4. Macedo, Stephen (2000) Democracy and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
5. Gutmann, Amy (1996) 'Challenges of multiculturalism in democratic education'. In Robert K. Fullinwider, ed., Public Education in a Multicultural Society: Policy, Theory, Critique. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 156-79.
6. Walzer, Michael (1995) 'Education, democratic citizenship, and multiculturalism'. In Yeal Tamir, ed., Democratic Education in a Multicultural State. Oxford: Blackwell, 23-32.
7. Callan, Eamonn (2000) 'Discrimination and religious schooling'. In Will Kymlicka and Wayne Norman, eds, Citizenship in Diverse Societies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 45—67.
8. Callan, Eamonn (1997) Creating Citizens: Political Education and Liberal Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
9. Feinberg, Joel (1980) 'The child's right to an open future'. In William Aiken and Hugh LaFollette, eds, Whose Child? Children's Rights, Parental Authority, and State Power. Totowa, NJ: Littlefield Adams.
10. Gutmann, Amy (1980) 'Children, paternalism and education'. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 9 (4): 338—58.
11. Arneson, Richard and Ian Shapiro (1996) 'Democratic autonomy and religious freedom: a critique of Wisconsin v. Yoder'. In Ian Shapiro and Russell Hardin eds, Political Order: NOMOS XXXVIII. New York: New York University Press, 365—411.
12. Burt, Shelley (1996) 'In defense of Yoder. parental authority and the public schools'. In Ian Shapiro and Russell Hardin, eds, Political Order: NOMOS XXXVIII. New York: New York Umversity Press, 412—37.
13. Tomasi, John (2001) Liberalism Beyond Justice. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
14. Reich, Rob (2002) Bridging Liberalism and Multiculturalism in American Education. Chicago: Umversity of Chicago Press.
15. Parekh, Bhikhu (2000) Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory. London: Macmillan.
16. Galeotti, Anna Elisabetta (1993) 'Citizenship and equality: the place for toleration'. Political Theory, 21 (4): 585-605.
17. Moruzzi, Norma Claire (1994a) 'A problem with headscarves: contemporary complexities of political and social identity'. Political Theory, 22 (4): 653—72.
18. Moruzzi, Norma Claire (1994b) 'A response to Galeotti'. Political Theory, 22 (4): 678_9.
19. Benhabib, seyla (2002) The Claims of Culture: Equality and Diversity in the Global Era. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Umversity Press.

Kukathas, Chandran 2004. „Nationalism and Multiculturalism“. In: Gaus, Gerald F. & Kukathas, Chandran 2004. Handbook of Political Theory. SAGE Publications


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Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments
The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.
Multiculturalism
Gaus I
Gerald F. Gaus
Chandran Kukathas
Handbook of Political Theory London 2004


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