Goal Setting

READING & STUDYSKILLSCHAVONNE PATTERSON

CHRISTY COX “GOAL SETTING”NOVEMBER 28, 2007

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PENDIDIKAN MULTIBUDAYA

Dr Abdul Talib Mohamed HashimDr Abdul Talib Mohamed Hashim

Diversity:

• At its simplest it is a term that means:

• “the state of being diverse” or

• a “point or respect in which things differ” (Grant and Ladson-Billing1996, p.93).

• Thus from this perspective, diversity simply refers to human characteristics that make people different from one another.

Lynch, Modgil et al

• mentioned the ‘multidimensionality of cultural diversity’.

“If we consider the overlapping dimensions of cultural diversity … (e.g.) racial, religious, linguistic, regional, ethnic, gender, age, social class and…caste…we cannot avoid the conclusion that, not only are most nation states culturally diverse, but that the world population as a whole manifests a rich diversity across a large number of overlapping cultural factors and dimensions, representing a pluralism of pluralism which are not usually embraced within the academic and political discourse about cultural diversity.” (1992, p. 5)

• Watson argues that ‘multicultural’ is different from the other terms because the views that

• Multicultural…is to create not just a sense of differences but to recognize those differences as springing from a universally shared attachment of importance to culture and to an implicit knowledge of the equality of all cultures not capacity or ability to create.

• (2000, p. 2)

According to Kymlicka (1998, p. 11),

a “multicultural” society can be of two kinds: either ‘multinational’ or ‘polyethnic’

• Multinational refers to the presence within a state of different nations or peoples. Here, cultural diversity arises from the “incorporation of previously self-governing, territorially concentrated cultures into a larger society” (p.10).

• These incorporated cultures, by which he call ‘national minorities’, typically wish to maintain themselves as distinct societies along side the majority culture, and demand various forms of autonomy or self-government to ensure their survival as distinct societies.

• Polyethnic refers to the presence within a state of people who have emigrated from different nations and whose national or ethnic origin is of enduring importance to them and their descendants. Here the source of cultural diversity arises from individual and familial immigration. Such immigrants often “coalesce into loose association” which he call ‘ethnic minorities’ (p.9).

• Unlike national minorities, according to Kymlicka, they voluntarily integrate into the larger society and whish to be accepted as full members of it. While they often seek greater recognition of their ethnic identity, according to Kymlicka, their aim is not to become a separate and self-governing nation along side the larger society, but “to modify the institutions and laws of the main society to make them more accommodating of cultural differences” (p.11)

Assimilation

According to Grant and Ladson-Billing:

• Assimilation is the process by which a person or group is absorbed into the social structures and cultural life of another person, group, or society. (1997, p. 24)

• the formula A+B+C=A, where A, B, and C represent different social groups and A represents the dominant group”.

• The goal for the assimilations is to make it possible for everyone to be “melted” into homogeneous whole.

Cultural Pluralism

• Kallen claimed that a nation (in his case the United States) could be seen as an orchestra:

“As in an orchestra, the different instruments, each with its own characteristic timbre and theme, contribute distinct and recognizable parts to the composition, so in the life and culture of a nation, the different regional, ethnic, occupational, religious and other communities compound their different activities to make up the national spirit”. (1924, p. 125)

• Finally, to endorse cultural pluralism is to appreciate the similarities and differences that exist among nation’s citizens.

• Pluralism in this context must consider such sources of cultural identity as nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, geographic region, and must look at how each of these has had an impact on the society or groups.

• Unlike assimilation, cultural pluralism theorizes that different groups can maintain their distinctive subcultures and simultaneously interact with relative equality in the larger society.

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