Discussion of the structured interviews

The structured interview was chosen in order to ensure standardization in the questions to allow for comparison of the answers between different participants. In order to probe into deeper questions, in many cases a few unstructured questions were asked. The number of participants from among the M.I.E staff was higher simply because the institution has higher human resources compare to the other two participating organizations. The M.I.E staff have all been involved directly or indirectly in the Intercultural Education project. In the other two institutions only a few members are aware of intercultural education. This justifies the higher participation of the M.I.E members. The structured interview was divided into three parts, namely:

a) Encountering diversity at work

b) Infusing intercultural competence through education c) Social cohesion in SIDS.

Through the three main sections, the trainers were questioned on the main research areas of this thesis. In order to analyse their answers, the theoretical framework of Allport‟s contact theory will be used to understand how contact at their work place can lead to intercultural experience.

a) Encountering diversity at work.

In this section, the main questions focused on their exposure as trainers to diversity. The following questions were raised:

1. Who are the people you mainly face in your work?

160

2. What kind of diversity have you recognised in your work?

All of the trainers answered that they face diversity in term of ethnicity, cultural, religious, regional, colour, and race. This is through their daily encounters with teacher-trainees at the primary, primary (in-service and service), and secondary (in-service and pre-service) levels. Mr.Chenganna stated that he is mainly exposed to diversity through his university students and Mrs Rose at the school, when she is involved with students regarding the Intercultural Projects. The frequency of contact between different cultural groups at their work place is very high. In the general work environment of the teacher trainers there is also a high deal of contact between the heterogenous staff members of these Institutions. What the trainers are experiencing is broadly representative of the wider Mauritian culture.

Such experience is not contextualized spatially within the institute‟s environment only because the wider Mauritian society is exposed to diversity in their neighbourhood, the supermarket, beaches, and other public spaces. Mauritian trainees are not colour-blind in their daily life as they themselves they are not coming from moncultural settings. Their experience of diversity will be influential towards their students. The multicultural nature of the working space will have positive effects in the promotion of social cohesion in an informal manner. This may explain why when they were asked What is especially positive when working with people from diverse cultures, all of the participants talked about the rich experience of working with students from different backgrounds. They get the opportunity to learn, appreciate, and see things from different and rich perspectives. One lecturer from the M.I.E, who is an Art lecturer, said the diversity presence in her classroom is often reflected in the artwork and it is so beautiful to see this richness. Thus, diversity does not hinder their work; instead they use diversity as an advantage in order for teaching and learning to take place positively.

161

When they were asked: What has been challenging or problematic and why? The answers varied. One participant from M.I.E, who is a lecturer from the applied sciences department, believed that getting different perspectives can be challenging as sometimes it is then difficult to find common grounds in terms of social justice and equity. This is very important, as Allport(1954) firmly believed that one of the conditions of contact should be on the basis of equality. The teachers, when exposed to such diverse cultures, must be in a position to ensure equality among the students. The students must not feel that one culture is given more importance or preferential treatment over another. The teacher has the task to safeguard any kind of inferiority/superiority complexes, stereotyping, or intolerance towards the various cultures.

All students should be treated on equal footing when it‟s come to their cultural background. And most importantly, the teacher who is a carrier of their own culture shouldn‟t use that culture as a superiority marker. That is why to avoid such situations; one participant from the Home Economics department believes the challenge will be to have the ability to unlearn and to learn.

These are two very important points. Teachers might have been exposed to or have built an incorrect conception of other cultures⁵¹. They shouldn‟t use this to alienate a culture in their classroom.

The following question will help identify if the teachers have the necessary competence to work in a multicultural environment: What are the most importance competences (knowledge,

51There are many cases in for example in American schools where Teachers are openly accusing students of being terrorists just because they belong to the Muslim community.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/04/02/texas-student-terrorist-accusation/ Accessed date: 14^th of Oct 2016

Ahmed Mohamed, a student, who created clock and he showed to his teacher he was accused of bringing a bomb.

The fact that he has a Muslim name so he is quickly associated it with terrorism. These are important information that teachers should unlearn and learn about other culture. And they should not felt in the trap of negative portrayal by the media or society.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/16/us/texas-student-ahmed-muslim-clock-bomb/ Accessed date: 14^th of Oct 2016

162

skills, or attitudes) that are needed for encountering diversity in your work? Most of the participants stressed the importance of having the following traits, including an open-mind, empathy, curiosity, tolerance, and the willingness to learn from other people. At the same time, they believed it is important to develop mutual respect towards each other. However, the answers to the last question in this section is quite alarming: How would you evaluate your own competences? How have you developed those competences that are needed in your work? Most of the teachers replied that they build their competences through their own experiences. This indicates that they have not necessarily gone through any formal training on multicultural or intercultural education. Only Mrs Pottaren, one of the lecturers from the M.I.E, said that her educational background has helped her to develop competences to work in a multicultural environment: “I am happy with my competences, although there is still room for improvement. I have a Masters in Counselling, I also have a Post Graduate Diploma in Inclusive and Special Education. I have learned to accept people and behave properly and respectfully, not to be judgmental, and to believe that people are empowered beings.”

The first part of this structured interview has clearly indicated there is a constant contact taking place between different cultural groups of students. The fact that the teacher-trainers valued such diversity means that it can be assumed that they will ensure equal status to all the students in their classroom. And another condition for successful contact to take place is as Allport (1954) stated is known as the „Authority Support.‟ Eventually, as the teacher trainers are consistently exposed to diversity and, above all, they value such encounters, they will be in a position to encourage positive intercultural contact.

b.) Infusing intercultural competence through education

163

The second section will focus on the importance of Intercultural Education. The participants were first asked the following question: What do you understand by Intercultural Education? Through this question will enable an understanding of the teacher-trainers‟

awareness of Intercultural Education. All of the participants gave general answers to this question. A few of their answers are presented below:

„We are all different and let‟s celebrate this difference‟

„It takes into consideration the culture of the person. Draws out the strengths and builds learning around that‟

„Accepting and Adapting to other cultures‟

Their answers indicate that they don‟t know much about intercultural education as a formal pedagogy. In the first section of the questionnaire, it can be said that the teacher-trainers are very much exposed to interculturalism as a practical approach.

But they are not exposed to the theoretical concepts behind Intercultural Education. This opinion is further sustained when an unstructured question arose during the investigation to get a clearer picture of the opinion of the participants on the difference between Multicultural and Intercultural Education. Most of them couldn‟t make a distinction. One of the participants from the M.I.E believed that „Both are related to belonging to diverse cultures. While multicultural education talks about educating people to accept the other culture and live side by side the

„other,‟ intercultural education teaches us how to live together with the diversity while each keeping their own culture and identity. No appropriation.‟ Though the participants couldn‟t distinguish between the two pedagogies strongly in their answers, they all answered positively to

164

the following question: Do you think Intercultural Education should be implemented in the curriculum in Mauritius? And to the question: What do you want your students to achieve through Intercultural Education? They all responded that they want their students to be open to other culture and to recognise the value/worth of the cultures of other people and understand how culture can shape a person. The following question: Intercultural Education can be promoted across the curriculum. Can you give a practical example of how Intercultural Education can be integrated in your subject area?, has also highlighted the creativity of some of the teacher-trainees. They blended intercultural Education in the Mauritian context in a very creative way.

Some of the answers of the participant are presented as follow:

„We could study how different culture can influence the type of leadership styles. For example, in some culture, women cannot assume leading role in some sphere. It is male-dominated. It will be interesting to know how to deal in such situation without creating negative stereotyping.”

„Through practical classes during the Home- Economics training-when making a dish we could use Indian spices instead of soya sauce for fried noodles. We can create a fusion in the cooking class or making a coursework on the theme e.g garments of different cultures”

The richness of the Mauritian culture was reflected in their answers. Surprisingly all of the participants believed that intercultural competence must be inculcated in the education system (Do you think intercultural competence must be as important as basic numeracy and literacy? Why?) because according to them, it will sustain social cohesion in the Mauritian society.

165 c.) Social cohesion in SIDS

In the last section of the structured interview, the participants were asked questions on the importance of social cohesion in SIDS. All the participants agreed that SIDS can use Education as a mean to consolidate its social fabrics. The question was as followed:

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have an extremely fragile ecosystem, social fabrics and economic backwardness. Do the features of SIDS make social inclusion more important than ever in order to survive? Do they need a system of education that supports a cohesive society?

Here are a few examples of the answers from the participants:

„Yes, given the odds that are against the SIDS, then they need to rely on internal factor in order to thrive and social inclusion is thus important. A cohesive society ensure economic and social stability and progress‟

„Yes, because most for these island asset is the human capital and if there is no peace and understanding then death will follow-chaos‟

„Yes, because Education is the way we can touch the life and understanding of so many people and this will be passed on from one person to another‟

All participants believed that Intercultural education can play a major role in sustaining social cohesion in Mauritius. According to them, the education system welcomes pluralist learning, teachers and students from a variety of cultures being positive for interaction and understanding as well as sharing. In situations where there are cases of cultural bias, a culture being left out, or negative media associated with racism in the education system, these can lead to friction among the diverse cultural groups. Thus, there is a need for reinforcement of

166

intercultural values, sharing of values and attitudes, respect for faith, understanding of others, and empathy in the Mauritian educational system. But many participants said that the main constraints (What are the constraints that the Mauritian system of education might face in the effective promotion of intercultural education?) to the application of Intercultural education in the Mauritian system will be time constraints due to heavy syllabus, government policies, and a lack of resources, such as persons who are specialists in Intercultural education. Many participants stressed that if Intercultural Education is done in an amateur way, it can cause more harm than good, leading to a compartmentalisation of the cultures. This is why the Intercultural Education pedagogy should be formally adopted to the Mauritian context and promoted by specialists from this field. And to the final question: Do you think a teacher has a role to play as advocate of social cohesion? If Yes, please explain why, all interviewees agreed that they have a fundamental role to play in the education system as advocates of social cohesion. They should be the main showcase of intercultural understanding and acceptance in their daily work.