Instead of providing some ª quick ® xº prescriptive recipes to education for culturally diverse school populations, this paper would argue instead in favour of the necessity to embrace a philosophy and practice of culturally responsive education in all schools. Effective education for cultural diversity is thus viewed in terms of successful classroom practices where all students are sensitively accommodated and thus learn successfully. Effective education is particularly directed and relevant to the speci® c and unique learning needs of all students. Theoretical consideration of culturally responsive schooling is relatively simple, but the practical implementation thereof often gives rise to fundamental challenges and problems. With the required empathetic understanding, knowledge and skills, which should be addressed in teacher training, teachers can make an exceptional contribution towards creating equal education opportunities for all children within a culturally diverse society. To ensure this, an accommodative, appreciative and a responsive approach to the reality of cultural diversity is of utmost importance.
Instruction and learning are socially determined activities, where social forces such as classroom atmosphere, social feelings, cultural sentiments, prejudice and stereotyping, interpersonal relations and expectations, as well as the re ection of social reality in subject matter all have a signi cant in uence on the effectiveness of teaching and learning. The effective "multicultural" teacher has to be concerned about each individual student, and also be sensitive to the group and cultural af liations of each of his or her students. Intercultural relations in the classroom may be a source of knowledge and mutual enrichment between culturally diverse learners if managed proactively by teachers. Frustration, misapprehensions and intercultural con ict are a more likely outcome if teachers do not deal with diversity in a sensitive manner.
In a new South African dispensation, the reconstruction of a national education system necessitates fundamental change to existing educational policies and practices. Seen as a cultural kaleidoscope or ethnic mosaic of peoples, m odern South African society can be characterised as being multicultural. It stands to reason, therefore, that multicultural education for a new m ulticultural South Africa has become a logical, outcomes-based necessity. The extent to which m ulticultural education will succeed depends largely on the knowledge, attitudes, views and conduct of the teacher as initia tor, facilitator and m anager of the educational and learning practice. M ost teachers in this country have been trained in a m onocultural context and are therefore not adequately prepared for implementing multicultural education. All educators in South Africa who are seriously concerned with the formal education of children will have to become equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to initia te and facilitate optimal learning in a m ulticultural context. W hat is needed is an innovative and studious predisposition, cultural reappraisal, and the acceptance of co-ownership in building a new dem ocratic dispensation for South Africa. Teachers within m ulticultural school contexts need to bring about this conceptual paradigm shift in the hearts and minds of young people.
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