Living in a pluralistic society where diversity includes differences ,gender ,religion , age , generation education , ethnicity, mental disabilities ,physical status, marital status, personality traits , technology interest, family status, political status, etc.
These cultural and demographic diversity exist in companies ,organization, and corporate mergers, we are confronted with the reality of needing to interact , negotiate, communicate , work and live with people from diverse groups.
An example of this is the increase of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) in recent years as a modern social phenomenon where our “kababayans” have to temporarily live in a foreign country in search of employment. In the process, the new migrant might develop ‘ culture shock ‘ if he is not flexible enough to accept change. On the othe3r hand , the situation can be reversed . the Philippines might be the host country for foreign migrant students who would experience the same adjustments to the Filipino culture .
Multi-cultural education acknowledges that schools play an important role in laying the foundation for understanding the concept of diversity and the elimination of discrimination oppression and injustice to achieve a person’s potential. With this, unique characteristic s are grasped as different cultural groups and individuals relate to one another .
It aims to create equal education opportunities for diverse social and cultural groups and individuals mentioned earlier. Furthermore, multi-cultural education endeavors to foster the virtues of patience , tolerance and goodwill to build a civic and moral community that works for the common good.
It is now upon schools to its academic and academic curricula to provide some training inn diversity whether formal or informal to the faculty, staffs and students – to provide a climate conducive to multiculturalism .
Schools must have to be sensitive to the needs of multi-cultural students to give them equal opportunity to achieve their full potential and increase their self esteem as they are allowed to be in the mainstream . For instance foreign students are given tutorial in Filipino , students with disability , married students , students with absentee parents are OFW’s , some marginalized but deserving students who qualified for student assistance , etc. Like emotional intelligence (EQ) cultural intelligence ( CQ) is indeed enhances interpersonal effectiveness
By: Epifania D.Flores | Teacher II | Pagalanggang National High School | Dinalupihan, Bataan
