Cultural Education-Cultural Sustainability: Minority, Diaspora, Indigenous and Ethno-Religious Groups in Multicultural Societies

This volume is a path-breaking contribution to the study of efforts of diaspora, indigenous, and minority groups, broadly defined, to use education (formal and informal) to sustain cultural continuity while grappling with the influences and demands of wider globalizing, nationalizing, or other homogenizing and assimilatory forces. Particular attention is given to groups that use educational elements other than second-language teaching alone in programs to sustain their particular cultural traditions. The focus of the book on cultural sustainability changes the nature of questions posed in multicultural education from those that address the opening of boundaries to issues of preserving boundaries in an open yet sustainable way.

As forced and elective immigration trends are changing the composition of societies and the educational systems within them -- bringing a rich diversity of cultural experience to the teaching/learning process -- diaspora, indigenous, and minority groups are looking more and more for ways to sustain their cultures in the context of wider socio-political influences. This volume is a first opportunity to consider critically multicultural efforts in dialogue with educational options that are culturally particularistic but at the same time tolerant.

Academics will find this an excellent reference book. Practitioners will draw inspiration in learning of others’ efforts to sustain cultures, and will engage in critical reflection on their own work vis-a-vis that of others. Teachers will realize they do not stand alone in their educational efforts and will uncover new strategies and methodologies through which to approach their work.

Zvi Bekerman teaches anthropology of education at the School of Education and the Melton Center for Jewish Education, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His main interests are in the study of cultural, ethnic and national identity, including identity processes and negotiation during intercultural encounters and in formal/informal learning contexts.

Dr. Ezra Kopelowitz is the Founder and CEO of Research Success Technologies in Israel and holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He served as Director of Research of the Department of Education in the Jewish Agency for Israel and currently serves as a research consultant to the Jewish Agency and Panim for Jewish Renaissance in Israel. Dr. Kopelowitz has over 10 years of experience as a lecturer and researcher and has published extensively in areas of sociology, Israel-Diaspora relations, Israeli politics, and Jewish education. He has also worked closely on cooperative projects with nonprofit, educational and academic institutions.