Seán Crowe
Question:524 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Education and Science his plans to introduce a series of anti-racist packages to the school curriculum. [15603/02]
Written Answers. - Anti-Racism Education.
Anti-racism attitudes are fostered through a number of curricular areas in primary and second level schools.
At primary level, subjects such as social, personal and health education, geography and history contribute to the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes that encourage respect for human and cultural diversity. Social, personal and health education – SPHE – seeks to foster in the child a sense of care and respect for himself-herself and others and an appreciation of the dignity of every human being. It also seeks to enable the child to respect human and cultural diversity and to appreciate and understand the interdependent nature of the world. In addition, the geography curriculum aims to enable children to develop empathy with people from diverse environments and an understanding of human interdependence, while the history curriculum is designed to enable children to acquire a balanced appreciation of cultural and historical inheritances from local, national and global contexts.
These aims are reflected in many of the detailed objectives outlined in the various strands and strand units of these curricula. For example, in the strand unit developing citizenship in the SPHE curriculum at fifth and sixth class level, children will be taught "to recognise and acknowledge the various cultural, religious, ethnic or other groups that exist in a community or society and explore ways in which these differences can be respected". At the same level in the geography curriculum, the strand human environments provides that children will learn about and appreciate the peoples and communities who live and work in the locality, in other parts of Ireland, Europe and the wider world. In doing so, the curriculum states that they will "develop an increasing awareness of the interdependence of people in these places and people in Ireland" and "learn to value and respect the diversity of peoples and their lifestyles in these areas and other parts of the world".
At second level, civic, social and political education – CSPE – and geography are among the subject areas that seek explicitly to develop responsible citizenship and anti-racist values.
Through CSPE, which is a compulsory syllabus for all pupils preparing for the junior certificate, pupils are encouraged to recognise values and develop positive attitudes in relation to themselves, other people, the environment and the wider world. Several of these attitudes and values are pertinent to the promotion of anti-racism, including a commitment to the values of human rights, social responsibilities and democracy; an appreciation of and respect for differing viewpoints, ideas and cultures and an ability to empathise with the situation of other individuals and groups; and an awareness of, and respect for, the rights and responsibilities of all individuals and groups in society.
As at primary level, geography in the second level curriculum encourages in students a sensitive awareness of peoples, both in their own country and elsewhere, and it contributes to their understanding of important issues and problems in contemporary society. A study of geography develops students' understanding of social, cultural and economic phenomena relating to Ireland and how these phenomena interact, and it enables them to acquire knowledge of the nature and diversity of physical and cultural landscapes in Ireland and elsewhere. Through the medium of this work, the geography syllabus encourages students to perceive and evaluate phenomena from the point of view of others, to appreciate social and cultural diversity, to become aware of the dangers of all types of stereotyping and prejudice, and to acquire a sensitivity towards the aesthetic quality of the cultural environment.
In addition to this comprehensive curricular provision for the fostering of ant-racist attitudes, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment – NCCA – has engaged in an initiative called interculturalism and the curriculum and has appointed two full-time education officers, one for primary level and one for post-primary level, to work on the initiative.
The initiative aims to research and examine ways in which the existing curriculum at both primary and post-primary level can best be mediated and adapted to reflect the emergence of an expanding multicultural society; to research and examine curriculum mediation in other multicultural societies and present these as well as appropriate examples of best practice in Ireland; to develop guidelines for schools and teachers on how best to mediate the curriculum for a multicultural society; to provide initial advice on how best to implement these guidelines; to examine ways in which the area of early childhood education can best incorporate intercultural education, and, with a view to effective monitoring of the initiative, to establish a base-line index against which the mediation of the national curriculum in an expanding multicultural society can be measured. Phase One of this initiative is currently under way and I look forward to receiving proposals from the NCCA in due course.