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Cultural Diversity 101

What is Cultural Diversity?

“Differences among people because of their racial or ethnic backgrounds, language, dress and traditions.” —http://www.yourdictionary.com/cultural-diversity

“A range of different societies or people of different origins, religions, and traditions all living and interacting together.” —http://www.mylearning.org/global-citizens–make-an-impact/p-2022/

Multicultural, Cross-Cultural, and Intercultural

Multicultural — relating to or containing several cultural or ethnic groups within a society.

• Multicultural relations are where people stand alongside one another; usually one cultural group is driven to learn and to understand the other.

• Polite social interaction usually takes place;  experiences typically  focus on food, folk, and festivities.

Cross-Cultural relations are where people reach across cultural boundaries, build relationships, share, listen, learn, and are open to change. 

• This usually requires specific drivers like business, educational programs, or community-building events.

• Differences are understood and acknowledged, and can bring to individual change, but not to collective transformations.

Intercultural relations are deeper than multicultural or cross-cultural relations, and no one is usually left unchanged.

• People from different cultural groups have a mutual interest to interact with one another, learn and grow together; relationships are shaped from each other’s experiences.

• The focus is relationship building — not individual gain — and learning from one another.

Multicultural Education

“A field of study and and emerging discipline whose major aim is to create equal educational opportunities for students from diverse racial, ethnic, social-class, and cultural groups.

…help all students to acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to function effectively in a pluralistic democratic society and to interact, negotiate, and communicate with peoples from diverse groups in order to create a civic and moral community that works for the common good.”

 (Banks & Banks, 1995, p. xi )