Multiculturalism and Interculturalism in Quebec : Between Myth and Reality

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
Multiculturalism and Interculturalism in Quebec : Between Myth and Reality
Abstract
The author discusses procedural liberalism as the main obstacle to democratic, pluralist cultural and educational practice in Quebec, arguing that institutional-level procedural liberalism promotes the status quo and precludes the democratic practice of intercultural education. He attributes this status quo to:(1) the Quebec government's definition of and policy on pluralism and its much-contested cultural orientations of "la culture de concergence"; and (2) the Ministry of Education's lack of an explicit intercultural education policy. The author points out that this has led to a cultural pluralist model of a "no man's land" that manifested itself in the mid-1980s into a de facto multiculturalism in reality focused on integration combined with a politicized rhetoric of interculturalism in educational milieux. To illustrate this inherent ambiguity in Quebec's model of pluralism and its policy of occulation in intercultural education, the author describes the replication of Quebec's institutional pluralism in the educational system and enforcement of the essentialist ideology of "la culture publique commune" in university-level research practices since the late 1980s. He highlights research on multicultural and intercultural studies at the Université de Montréal as a sample of the transfer of the essentialist ideology of "la culture publique commune" in scientific research.
Publication
IMAGO Interculturalité et Didactique
Volume
Vol. 6
Issue
no. 1
Pages
97-108
Date
2003
Language
en
URL
Citation
Belhachmi, Zakia. “Multiculturalism and Interculturalism in Quebec : Between Myth and Reality.” IMAGO Interculturalité et Didactique Vol. 6, no. 1 (2003): 97–108. http://193.194.91.150:8080/en/downArticle/543/6/1/71216.
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