Public Pedagogy and the City

Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to the interdisciplinary discussion of the all-too-oftencontested concept of multicultural education and, specifically, the way it is conceptualized and put into practice in city libraries, museums, cultural centers, and other emerging sites of public education. As the formal education system has so far been seen as the main venue for research on multicultural education, to date there is relatively little empirical inquiry exploring how the ideas of multicultural education play out outside the school settings. The study aims to address this gap and explore the educators' perspective, the views of those who set the agenda for educational programs. Based on 10 in-depth interviews with the educators in Oslo and Moscow, two cities with extensive networks of public education, the study sheds light on how multicultural education is interpreted in this often-overlooked context. Drawing on the transformative approaches in multicultural education on the one hand and the concept of public pedagogy on the other, the discussion uncovers some of the potentials and limitations intrinsic to the practices of multicultural education in the settings of public education.