1. Are We Ready for Critical
Multiculturalism?
Paul Ilsley
Faculty of Behavioural Sciences
University of Helsinki
paul.ilsley@helsinki.fi
11.5.2010

2. Reframing...
 Is Finland ready for multiculturalism?
 Is multiculturalism ready for Finland?
 Context and Definition are critical to our understandings.

3. “A human being is part of a whole, called by us
‘universe,’ limited in time and space. We
experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as
something separated from the rest-- a kind of optical
delusion of our consciousness. This delusion is a
prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to
affection for a few persons close to us.”
“Our task must be to free ourselves from our prison by
widening our circle of compassion to embrace all
humanity and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
Albert Einstein

4. Let’s Address the Question
It depends.
What does it mean to be an educated person in
Finland?
What are the multicultural attributes?
What are the challenges?
Competing values – valuing competition
Discourses of progressivism, goal achievement, practicality
Nationalism embedded in EU sanctions
One-way internationalism, traditions
Environment of individualism, freedom, loneliness, and
fear

5. Central Questions
 What does multiculturalism mean?
 What is culture?
 What does it mean to be a multicultural person?
 (What does it mean to be an educated person?)
 Who are the stakeholders?
 Whose values are served by the various definitions?
 What are the implicit and explicit ideals of
multiculturalism?

6. The Approach
Formal remarks,
Group discussion,
Invitation for social gathering after this colloquium,
The future.

7. Chorus of Writers
Critical pedagogy
Frankfurt School -> Habermas -> Marx, Kant, Hegel,
Weber…
Social Theory – power : Gramsci, Freire, Apple, Giroux,
McLaren, Foucault, Horton
Critical Women’s Studies - Lahelma, Brunilla,
Critical Race Theory, Asante, Jeffries, bell hooks
Postcolonialism
Challenges to the natural superiority of the west: Said,
Spivak, Asante
Postmodernism and Intersectionism
Diaspora, otherness, diversity – relativity of truth -
Phoenix, Quinn

8. Forms (Steps, Levels) of Multiculturalism
 An attitude, a set of skills, knowledge that an individual may
possess?
 An egalitarian state of affairs of a collective-- a just
organization, community, society?
 An ideal of egalitarianism and justice?

9. What are the opposite terms?
Multiculturalism vs. what?
 Intolerance
 Apolitical localism
 Corporate democracy
 Nationalism
 Poverty and unemployment
 Injustice (e.g., racism, classism, sexism, religious
bigotry, ethnic discrimination)

10. Stakeholders Analysis-- Whose Values are
Served?
Multiculturalism is...
 ... a curricular device used in schools.
 ... a threat to nationalists.
 ... a marketing tool for increased profit of businesses
of various sizes and types.
 ... a political ping-pong greatly misused.
 ... an ontology looking for a context.
 ... a fetish of individual identity and expertise.

11. Multiculturalism is... (cont.)
 Knowing another language and being at home in more than
one culture.
 Reconceptualization of civil society
 A pathway for giving privilege to groups that have been
victimized.
 Post-colonial discourse.
 The conflation of decolonization.

12. Multiculturalism is... (continued)
 ... a new paradigm for education in the 21st century.
 ... cosmopolitan idealism and the belief that we all
belong to the same moral community.
 ... a system of beliefs that values complex human
situations and human differences, and encourages
and enables the voices of people from all socio-
cultural strata, for the betterment of all.

13. Another View
Friends
Enemies
Strangers
The practice and discourse of inclusionary and participatory
politics, in the strongest possible terms.

14. Individualistic Approaches
Cultural Competence
Intercultural Intelligence
Culturally Aware
International Curricula
Multicultural Programming
Are these approaches sufficient?
Sufficient for What?

15. Multiculturalism in Education
Equality in schools<---> Equality in Society?
Multicultural curricula:
Teaching multiple contexts
Understanding “we” vs. “they” issues
Instilling a sense of commitment, idealism, awareness, multicontextual
identity, peace

16. Issues in Multiculturalism
Can the utopian values someday become dominant?
Is is rooted in laws of conformity?
Does it promote a sort of colonization of its own?
Even with its utopian principles will it end up
reproducing the very values it intended to transcend?
Will it ever enjoy the sort of institutionalized cultural
power its opposite enjoys today?

17. Expanding the Educator’s Role
Understand concientization, praxis, and the social
purposes of education.
Create and live expanded social visions.
Advocate quality of life issues.
Expand social forums and tools for world-making.
Transcend boundaries of different social worlds.
Bring to the front what it means to be educated, in
terms of justice, peace, equality and liberty.