Diversity and multiculturalism from a policy perspective.

All levels of government in Australia, including the Victorian State Government, are committed to providing quality education for all students irrespective of socio-economic status, ethnicity, gender or religious affiliation. This commitment is pursued through a number of policies and structures aimed at equipping and enabling schools to achieve this objective.

As with the concept of multiculturalism itself, there are varying ideas about multicultural education. [1] Broadly speaking, there are certain common objectives of multicultural education:

  • multicultural education allows students to explore the meaning of culture and how culture operates, share their cultures with each other, and explore that which they share across cultures. Thus multicultural education promotes an “awareness and appreciation” of the student’s own culture and the cultures of others;
  • multicultural education helps to promote mutual understanding and a sense of belonging within and across communities in which students are located, and an ability to engage with a variety of other communities through meaningful cross-cultural communication. Thus students may develop a broader awareness of community at local, national, regional and global levels, and more successfully interact and engage across these levels;
  • multicultural education values the experiences and backgrounds of all students, staff and families, and draws upon these in a positive manner as a learning resource;
  • multicultural education affirms the right of all students to access important learning strategies and resources, as well as broader social resources, and promotes the ability of all students to contribute to the school community and to society;.
  • multicultural education provides an educational framework that is relevant and responsive to all students, keeping in mind their varied experiences, knowledge and backgrounds; and
  • multicultural education uses cultural diversity as a positive learning resource to develop in all students the skills, knowledge, values and attitudes needed to participate actively as a critically informed member of society: local, national, regional and global.

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(1) For further information on multicultural education policies and resources, please visit the following website: http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/lem/multi/index.htm

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