 Diversity and Citizenship Education: Global Perspectivesreviewed by Iftikhar Ahmad - 2004  Title: Diversity and Citizenship Education: Global PerspectivesAuthor(s): James A. Banks (Editor) Publisher: Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco ISBN: 0787966517, Pages: 485, Year: 2004 Search for book at Amazon.com Describing the functions of a teacher, a twentieth century English philosopher, Bertrand Russell (1950), noted that a teacher should seek to produce in his pupils the kind of tolerance that springs from an endeavor to understand those who are culturally different (p. 121). For Russell and other thoughtful humanists, the prerequisite for a democratic civic life is mutual understanding and tolerance among citizens. Indeed, no democratic community can sustain itself unless its citizens are tolerant of each other. But tolerant citizens are not born—they are created. More than ever in this age of global migration when democratic societies experience demographic transformations and people of different cultures and ethnicities are engaged in a variety of social, political, and economic relations with each other, the preparation of tolerant and knowledgeable citizens becomes a vital necessity. That is why the mission of citizenship education programs in multicultural democracies, which up till now stressed national unity, would surely be inadequate without including teaching and learning about diversity in curricula. Similarly, multicultural education programs... (preview truncated at 150 words.) To view the full-text for this article you must be signed-in with the appropriate membership. Please review your options below:
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