An alternative education path (ATP) which is well integrated with the creation of a better and safer world is presented here. One part of ATP can be called Core 1 and the essence of this remains the same from the beginning of school education to post-graduation, although of course the learning is different for various classes and age-groups. This core[Read More…]

Universities are no longer producing critical mass to question power for social, political and economic transformation of society for greater common goods. Universities are no longer producing independent knowledge traditions to address essentialist and emancipatory needs of individuals and societies in short run and long run. The governmental and non-governmental funding bodies control the nature, scope, structure and outputs of[Read More…]

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (Nelson Mandela). There are varied perspectives  exist among the scholars with regard to the role of School  as an agency of social change. For some, modern  institutions like Schools and Colleges (by promoting secular and democratic thinking  through critical pedagogy) could play progressive role  in the[Read More…]

Every academic year comes to an end with the graduation of students who are ostensibly ready to take up a new set of challenges and goals. Many of them have dreams both big and small, however, it is merely survival that matters the most as many of them consider their dreams to be silly. Pash, a Punjabi poet says, “The most[Read More…]

Every year in India we celebrate 5th September as the National Teachers’ Day and just a month later the world observes 5th October as ‘World Teachers’ Day’. The theme this year is: “Teachers at the heart of education recovery”. It was UNESCO that established this day in 1994 to celebrate and recognize the immense contribute of all those in the[Read More…]

Someone I know very well has just completed his engineering course and joined an IT company. He was selected by the company after a rigorous online selection test. Many of his friends have also taken the selection test in other renowned companies. I have seen him taking online selection tests on behalf of his friends and all of his friends[Read More…]

Prologue Some years back, I was visiting government schools in an eastern state of India, when the government official accompanying me said, “Let me take you to a SMART school, which is doing exceptionally well”. With much anticipation and apprehension (because I’ve already had experienced some SMART schools in other states), I agreed, and within half an hour’s drive we[Read More…]

The results of Term 1 exam of class X have been declared. As a student myself, I can intensely feel how the educational atmosphere is laden with the brute bulkiness of marks-mania. Toppers have got 100% marks, and this has naturally created an ugly scenario where each student’s worth is measured vis-à-vis this standard. While schools are garlanding the toppers[Read More…]

Several students of mine on Saturday came to meet me. Since I stay near JNU, we decided to go to the campus. For those who may not know, I am teaching a paper on political science at Moti Lal Nehru College, University of Delhi. Please do not think that I am a permanent teacher. Nor am I an ad-hoc teacher.[Read More…]

With the re-opening of schools, there is a need for pedagogic support for students belonging to the marginalized sections to help them acquire linguistic, numerical, and cognitive competencies. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the contradiction between instrumentalism and morality as educational aims has reached the state of a full-blown crisis. This has percolated in the educational institutions as they[Read More…]

by Sandeep Pandey, Seema Muniz and Gopal Krishna Verma Some people are disheartened with  the disruption in children’s education due to the menace of Covid and the successive lockdowns. While a number of children are getting used to attending online classes, their counterparts from the weaker socio-economic backgrounds continue to struggle either because of unfamiliarity with  technology or because of [Read More…]

“General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that education is the foundation of a century-old plan. It is hoped that the People’s Education Press will focus on the fundamental task of fostering morality, adhere to the correct political direction, carry forward the fine traditions, promote reforms and innovations, and create excellent teaching materials with Bacon casting soul, enlightening wisdom, and making new[Read More…]

Recently, I was involved in a discussion about the things we do and do not teach our children. I’ve already said quite a bit on this subject. But after talking with a few other people about education, and especially secondary education, I realized I approached the subject from the assumption that the purpose of school is to train the mind in skills[Read More…]

PBL: “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him how to catch a fish and he will never go hungry”. This simple quote emphasizes the key tenet of education – providing people with the means to succeed in their future endeavours. But does our education system fulfil the basic needs of the people? The[Read More…]

“Cultivation of the Mind should be the ultimate aim of human existence” – said Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Well, what could be more stimulating and productive than art? The art of creating something, where the brain intercepts an idea and grows it into a manifold entity. Whether it’s writing an article, a poem, a story or making a painting, a[Read More…]

Global Classroom is a novel and innovative way to gain international experience, virtually, from wherever you are! When talking about Global Classroom we mean a unique class consisting of students from two or more different countries. Even while students in a virtual classroom are divided by physical space, they are connected by being involved in the identical practical activities, learning[Read More…]

The need for introducing more issues of social relevance in school and college education has been often emphasized, as also the need for improving the ethical content of education. At the same time, the need for making education more interesting and participative for students at all levels is increasingly realized. All of these on objectives can be advanced by making[Read More…]

The last year has been extremely difficult for school education. On the one hand there have been very prolonged school closures due to COVID related factors and on the other hand the new situation has been used to push commercialization trends which already existed but appear to have gained more strength in these exceptional times. There is a feeling of[Read More…]

The disruption of education in Covid times has caused serious concern, and there are well-justified calls for  urgent corrective action. Along with this, however, there is compelling reason to give much more thought to where exactly business-as-usual education systems are taking us and to what extent, if at all, these are capable of contributing to the creation of a better, [Read More…]

Along with COVID 19 and its associated terminology, we are currently being educated in a new jargon regarding one of the oldest occupations, namely, teaching. We now are told of online learning, e-teaching, edtech, edutech, smartphones in the new role of teacher, and so on and so forth. India is a large country with a very young population, where almost[Read More…]

Education has always been considered as one of the most important weapons for improving the living standards of society and help the nation progress. Though it is seen as a great equalizer, inequality in education leads to the reinforcement of social and economic inequalities, thus, widening the gap and not progressing the society as a whole. As the Oxfam International report[Read More…]

Education is the foremost tool that can be used to empower entire communities towards progress. Consider any issue that plagues a community, and education would be a key resolution mechanism. It is therefore of highest importance that right education is dispensed to all members of a community from an early age. This equips them with the necessary skills to take[Read More…]

The pandemic and the extended lockdown in India has hit the poor disproportionately hard. They have a higher risk of infection, significant loss of income and livelihoods, and immense learning losses for their children as the schools were closed for 7+ months. During this period, government schools have been struggling with identifying new ways of working and trying to enable[Read More…]

We are all aware of the dire consequences of subjecting young kids to intense academic pressure from an early age. In India, we have coaching institutes like FIITJEE and Resonance offering programs for 6th standard kids to prepare them for “NTSE, IJSO, PRMO and other Olympiads”. The duration of these programs is around 175 hours – hours that could’ve been spent playing[Read More…]

Education is a very powerful transformative force, provided we first transform education itself. India has always been a patriarchal, feudalistic society, and even now, it is. There are certain societal and cultural norms, so deeply rooted in our culture, that a shift in mindset for the better is extremely slow, and sometimes, even close to impossible. Even today, in the[Read More…]

 “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity” – Albert Einstein Coding is a short reference to the use of programming languages to provide lengthy sets of instructions for a computer to perform specific tasks. The continuous lines of text written behind the fancy looking websites and apps are what constitute as code for the application.[Read More…]

“Education should be so revolutionized as to answer the wants of the poorest villager, instead of answering those of an imperial exploiter.” Mahatma Gandhi With Article 21A being introduced in the Constitution, elementary education became a fundamental right to all the children from the age of six to fourteen years. With the Right to Education Act 2009, it became the[Read More…]

Why does not the nation move? First educate the nation. Even for social reforms, the first duty is to educate the people. – Swami Vivekananda Education helps develop the human personality and sense of dignity while acting as a tool for effective participation in society by enabling the understanding of the key facets of its being. Education has an intrinsic[Read More…]

After certain number of years of academic jargoning, learning and unlearning existing pedagogies, meandering through honky-dory lanes of rigorous materials prescribed in concerned “syllabi”, gnawing about a future of being in “academics”, I try to make sense of the exact amount of satisfaction I have felt till this point of my life’s journey. Entering “academia” was more of a part[Read More…]

‘You may burn my books and the books of the best minds in Europe, but the ideas those books contain have passed through millions of channels and will go on.’” Helen Keller, An Open Letter to German Students ‘Fahrenheit 451’ It was the name of a movie which had appeared in mid-sixties. ( 1966) The only English movie directed by[Read More…]

During this pandemic period, virtuality has taken over many facets of our life and especially education although it could be a temporary phase. But the academic world may be realizing the immense potential as well as drawbacks of the virtual medium in the ‘give and take’ process of education. It is a near certainty that the hardest hit is pre-primary[Read More…]

How did factory schools develop? Why did factory school develop?  What does factory schools do? What is the relevance of factory schools today? The answers to these questions come from the history of factory schools, which reveals its immense impact not only on our educational system but also on our society, culture, economy, politics and individual lives. The historical perspectives[Read More…]

Once upon a time, universities were the places, where intellectuals, teachers and students as a community of learners used to reflect on everyday realities, learn the skills to use it in their professional life, discover the knowledge, to understand themselves and dissect the complexities of society. They also used to practise their utopian dreams in pursuit of knowledge for the[Read More…]

“Every major change in the education structure needs to be understood as being intimately connected to a shift in power.” Stuart Hall Ages ago, Hall rightly thought of education as a pursuit of politics ‘by other means’. Today when the Indian government has decided to eliminate certain chapters from school books, we need to see how this step is not[Read More…]

In the midst of isolation crisis, when all educational institutions have been stirred to online teaching and up-scaled teachers’ digital skills through school-based training interventions, few states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh had placed a restriction on online classes for primary school-going children. Online learning, no doubt is by far the most compelling alternative in the times of Covid-19[Read More…]

Human history as cultural history We need to reform our teaching of history so that the emphasis will be placed on the gradual growth of human culture and knowledge, a growth to which all nations and ethnic groups have contributed. A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents the history of[Read More…]

Mahabharata and Ramayana are considered as biggest epics (Mahakavya) of India are again in popular discussion with the repeat telecast of serials on Doordarshan amid Covid-19 crisis. Those who have access of television are watching the serial with great interest and rising TRPs of Doordarshan are proof of it. Coming to Mahabharata, the authorship of the great epic is accredited[Read More…]

Co-Written by Afaq Ahmad Mir & Zaraq Jahan It is a time when people from every section of the society are talking of a single discourse known globally as Covid-19. This pandemic has spread all across the globe and is contaminating humans, filling societies with fear, anxiety, horror and creating a new social stigma. Meanwhile, organizations from diverse backgrounds are[Read More…]

The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself. ~ Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton Ideal teacher could be somebody who has empathy, understanding, patience and the ability to provide the knowledge of what student seeks in a comprehensive manner by helping him to liberate his mind. Unfortunately not many[Read More…]

With the increasing pace of technological advances and globalisation rapidly taking over, India is all set to become the next hub for economic growth. Adding to this is a young population with an average age of 29 years, which puts India at an advantage. But is India’s human capital prepared to face the challenge? The role of education is crucial[Read More…]

Most of us are not stoics yet. Injustice caused to us evokes strong reactions and whenever we feel empowered enough to effect a change in our circumstances, we do. The critical element here is the personal nature of the impact of such an injustice; and this is the key focus which I address in the situations of social movements. Our[Read More…]

“Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself”- John Dewey John Dewey was an American Philosopher and educator, founder of the philosophical movement known as Pragmatism, a pioneer of functional psychology and a leader of the progressive movement in education in United States. Dewey’s authority on education was evident in his theory about social learning; he believed that[Read More…]

That time of the year.  Student evaluations are being gathered by the data crunchers.  Participation rates are being noted.  Attitudes and responses are mapped.  The vulnerable, insecure instructor, fearing an execution squad via email, looks apprehensively at comments in the attached folder that will, in all likelihood, devastate rather than reward.  “Too much teaching matter”; “Too heavy in content”; “Too[Read More…]

 ” The true teachers are those who help us think for ourselves ‘ S. Radhakrishnan While ‘teachers day ‘ is being celebrated with statements about their role in society and contribution to ‘ education ‘ of students, little light is being shed on their plight as well as some dangerous tendencies. Vacancies According to data compiled by The Times of[Read More…]

The summary   The new educational policy and proposed reforms like CBCS, RUSA, Central Universities’ Act are steps towards conformity of the WTO demands commoditization, liberalization and privatization of education on the so-called developing countries and the least developed countries. It is to be noted that the WTO representing the interests of the imperialist global capital, has included education in GATTS[Read More…]

Another suicide at the altar of so-called Education. The news report about a fortnight back shook one to the core – so much so that the tragedy stays in the mind all these days after the happening, knocking at the door of conscious thought every now and then. A young girl seeking admission to the M.Sc. (Chemistry) Course in Maharshi[Read More…]

In the name of Fundamental Research not much has been done in India in comparison with European nations. The right to education was once traditionally confined to ‘one’ community in India which is a fact that also has contributed to great extent to the degradation of Education system.  Right from School education to the PhD; the education system in India[Read More…]

‘ To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country,to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from western nomenclature , and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population ‘ Thomas B. Macaulay (Country, class dialect) With the increase in dogmatism and religion[Read More…]

  The true teachers are those who help us think for ourselves –Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan India’s education sector has expanded rapidly in the last decade but the quality of learning remains pathetic on account of unimaginative and misguided policies. The Modi government’s budget  this year was a mixed basket for the education sector, which is bogged with several serious issues aside[Read More…]

  “I always thought school was a form of torture.” — Valleria Ruselli “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” — Audre Lorde “Parents need to encourage their children to provide their teachers with tools which will enable them to instruct them along entirely new lines.” — Rachel Olivia O’Connor of the Oxman Collective (which sponsors Flannery O’Connor Academy) Stealth torture is the kind of torture[Read More…]

“Why don’t all schoolchildren know what TCE is?” — Richard Martin Oxman “Not many people want to continue to aid and abet crimes against humanity and war crimes behind big lies launched against weaker nations with fabulous resources to loot.” — John McMurty The Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada who I’m quoting above has written an article recently which puts the lie[Read More…]

“Education is the simply the soul of society as it passes from one generation to another” G. K. Chesterton T. S. Eliot started his ‘ Wasteland ‘ saying ” April is the cruelest month…” ( 1. The burial of the dead). But, for the students from KG to PG, the ‘ cruelest month’ starts in March itself. They have to[Read More…]

India’s education sector is one of the largest sunrise sectors in the economic and social development of the country. With more than 1.5 million schools — 1.1 million of them run by the Government — and more than 250 million student enrollments, the country’s K-12 school system is among the largest and most complex in the world. Between 2010-11 and[Read More…]

“I know that you’re job-hunting at present and/or looking to volunteer with non-profits. If your article gets posted, it’ll stand to undermine your chances of being brought on board in most quarters, Richard. You’re taking a risk in submitting your piece.” — One of the author’s colleagues “Why don’t you found a secular educational institution which focuses on your passion, Richard?[Read More…]

  National science day (February 28) once again shifts focus on ‘ scientific temper’ as envisaged in constitution. In the present situation, when all sorts of pseudo -scientific postulations, dogmatism and ‘ scientific religiosity ‘ are gaining momentum, this day assumes additional significance. Science and disabled According to indiacelebrating.com, the theme of 2017 was ‘ science and technology for specially[Read More…]

“Academia in the U.S. — in most places — offers kids an invitation to a mental institution where qualified medical professionals are absent and the drugs offered have not been tested.” — Annapurna Tosca Sriramarcel, a member of the Oxman Collective “One flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest.” — Ken Kesey’s inspiration Highly educated people[Read More…]

“Who trusted God was love indeed And love Creation’s final law Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, shriek’d against his creed”  — Tennyson Most college professors of literature — most readers of Flaubert across the board — will tell you that the characters in Madame Bovary are bourgeois. But one thing that should be called attention to[Read More…]

  ( Following is the Text of  Presidential Address Delivered By Dr.K.S. Sharma, President, Indian Academy of Social Sciences, ISSA, Allahabad, at the 41st  Indian Social Science Congress, held in Salem, Tamilnadu. The Annual event , held for five days from December 18 to 22, 2017, was attended by a few hundred academicians, educationists, and research scholars.   Sharma  is  Joint  Director,[Read More…]

  Not all the water in the rough rude sea Can wash the balm from an anointed king. (King Richard, Act 3 Scene 2) The ability of scientists to not only record and analyze brain activity but also influence it is growing, and those in academic circles on all levels — I humbly and respectfully submit — are obliged to[Read More…]

  “The problem I’ve always had with ‘objectivity’ as a concept is that it doesn’t have an agreed upon meaning.” — Dr. Anthony DiMaggio, author of “Confronting the Cult of Objectivity” What school has teachers who handle Social Studies and Humanities subjects without advocating a particular political point of view? Is that even possible? Certainly, there’s plenty of talk — always has[Read More…]

Two figures tower over the idea, and the realisation, of industrial America.  The first is Henry Ford, whose factory process dedicated to mass car production featured specifically focused machinery, a moving assembly line, and a linear process of interdependent tasks. The second giant in this regard is Frederick W. Taylor, whose principles of scientific management involved the division of factory[Read More…]

  When the nation celebrated children’s day, much was discussed about the pathetic situation of education as well as malnutrition of children. But, a recent Supreme Court observation on education of disabled has raised many questions on the right of disabled children to equal education along with normal children. ( Supreme Court suggests separate schools for children with disabilities :[Read More…]

Who is your Role Model? Think of someone you know or knew personally, not a public figure. For how many of you is that a parent or a teacher? If I asked your children the same question, what do you think they would say? Who would they be thinking of you? How do you know? What about you inspires your[Read More…]

  “As water seeks its own level, corruption creeps into the body politic to metastasize throughout society and its institutions.” –from Geoff Dutton’s NPR, the CIA and Corporatism While our mainstream media continue to distract us with the gender-based “horrors of Hollywood” and spotlights on other injustices (which do deserve our attention to some degree), the Big Picture is being ignored in the U.S.,[Read More…]

  “Too many educators have pigeon-holed their disciplines. This or that does or doesn’t fit in my classroom. Old school nonsense, particularly with the way in which high tech utilitarianism is bringing everyone down, preaching that the only way to fit in lies in acclimating to our momentum.” — Rachel Olivia O’Connor If you’re an educator in the U.S. —[Read More…]

  “Why do we forget our childhood? With rare exceptions we have no memory of our first four or five or six years, and yet we have to only watch the development of our own children during this period to realize that these are the most exciting, the most formative years of our life. Schachtel’ s theory is that our[Read More…]

  The missive below was sent to my colleagues at Point Arena Community Charter School in Calfiornia, U.S.A. They are preparing to blend their theme for the year (Mythology, Magic and Mystery) with the curriculum. Parents will also be made privy to the email. Perhaps this will help. A society that begins by denying the soul’s longing cannot possibly satisfy[Read More…]

Several years ago I read a children’s non-fictional book about a young American girl, who had a pen-pal in Holland shortly after WWII. This meant that they wrote letters to each other back and forth about their lives and became long-distance friends. One of the facts that the American child learned was that the war had taken a terrible toll[Read More…]

 One’s living in a proactively progressive family is not easy from a number of standpoints. Especially as a youngster, one can feel torn between wanting to fit in with contemporaries and standing up for an altogether different viewpoint and lifestyle — an alternative that could cause one to be ostracized and shunned by peers. Relative to this, I well remember[Read More…]

When I was five years old, my parents bought a television set. It was in 1955 when TV’s became affordable for the common household in the USA. One of the first films that I saw on it was a very scary cartoon of upright vertical accordions hopping around and squeezing down on a stage with a sound as they alternately[Read More…]

    “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” — from Dostoyevsky’s The House of the Dead as translated by Constance Garnett What Dostoyevsky says about the incarcerated applies to how we treat children and animals too, of course. And — of course —  we’re failing immeasurably on all those counts. But you’d[Read More…]

  “Mohammed frequently went to a cave in the desert three miles from Mecca, where he would spend months in prayer and meditation.” — Swami Sivananda’s introductory sentence to The Birth of Islam The posting of this article might — in the future — prevent me from securing a teaching position at more than 99% of the schools in the[Read More…]

We commit a big fallacy when we assume that our educational accomplishments are our individual achievements. We like to believe that we were born with a certain innate talent which makes us intellectually superior to all the rest. But the fact of the matter is that our innate talents aren’t all that different. Some people are born with genes that[Read More…]

  “The Declaration of Independence said governments are not sacred things. The laws are not sacred things. Governments are set up by people to defend rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And when governments become destructive of those ends, it’s the right of the people to alter or abolish those governments.” — Howard Zinn The obligation of the[Read More…]

“…so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.” — from the Down the Rabbit-Hole section of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland When Humpty Dumpty shakes hands with Alice he extends only one finger. In Victorian Days, when someone shook hands with a person of inferior social status it[Read More…]

  For a reduction of violence on the U.S. domestic front educators on all levels will have to do what I suggest here, or attempt to implement or embrace some significant variation of it. Educators cannot think that our present wars are necessary, cannot believe and teach that we are “exceptional” in a positive way with our ongoing behavior overseas.[Read More…]

  “There is no intelligence in Washington. Only arrogance and hubris. The quarter century I spent there was with the most utterly stupid people on the face of the earth.” — Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan, author of Another Step Toward Devastating War “The EPA was run like the Mafia for the twenty-five years I[Read More…]

  “Western indifference has been a problem. It continues to be a problem.” — Iris Chang to the author, 2004 On Craig’s List I came across an ad which called for an Elementary School Teacher to provide Spoken English instruction to youngsters in Nanjing, China. I’m highly qualified to serve in that capacity, the pay and benefits are good, and I’d love to[Read More…]

  Some of the questions below are, unquestionably, not appropriate for all grade levels. But — certainly — some should be addressed by the time a student secures entrance to, or matriculation status at, one of our institutions of higher education. If you disagree, do let me know. Over the last 34 years, incomes for the top 0.001% richest Americans[Read More…]

“We are documenting, discussing, debating, demonstrating, diverting and delaying ourselves to death in lieu of doing something new in solidarity that stands to make a big enough difference in time.” — One of the author’s home schooled youngsters at six years old (calling attention to the collective deadlines we face respecting our collective crises) “Yes, of course, one could make[Read More…]

The extraordinary achievement of Claire Simon’s latest film, The Graduation, relies on its ability to capture power at work. The film documents the entire selection process that hundreds of young candidates go through at La Femis in Paris to obtain a seat at one of the most prestigious film schools in the world.

  Schools are still shills for our collective addiction to belief in technological fixes as a decent approach to addressing climate change issues. That’s one reason to home school, among many. But my informal survey of home schooling parents nationwide has revealed that virtually no one is teaching youth that only a no-growth vision of economics can possibly give us[Read More…]

  “We live in one global environment with a huge number of ecological, economic, social, and political pressures tearing at its only dimly perceived, basically uninterpreted and uncomprehended fabric. Anyone with even a vague consciousness of this whole is alarmed at how such remorselessly selfish and narrow interests – patriotism, chauvinism, ethnic, religious, and racial hatreds – can in fact[Read More…]

“Near Eastern religions have a propensity for building massive temples and tombs and this tradition has been emulated by Christian tendencies to construct gigantic cathedrals. Temples, churches, and synagogues separate the faithful from the secular world and from the natural world as if religion needs to be isolated from the rest of human activities.” — Vine Deloria, Jr., God is Red:[Read More…]

Science has it’s roots established as old as Islamic civilization. The institutes of scientific dissemination had been established first by muslim dominated nations as is evident from history & historical monuments. The Islamic theology lays claim to the world’s oldest continually operational university. The University of Qarawi­yyin was founded in Fes Morocco in 859 AD at the beginning of an[Read More…]

                        We all constantly hear the lament of how our education system is in a mess. Education today is no more about exploring new ideas, seeking multiple forms of knowledge and an eagerness to get introduced to hitherto unknown terrains of intellectual wealth. Job security precludes the possibility of[Read More…]

Interculturality is a dynamic concept and refers to evolving relations between cultural groups. It has been defined as “the existence and equitable interaction of diverse cultures and the possibility of generating shared cultural expressions through dialogue and mutual respect. Interculturality presupposes multiculturalism and results from ‘intercultural’ exchange and dialogue on the local, regional, national or international level.