The double bind of interculturality and the implications for education

Aman, R. (2015) The double bind of interculturality and the implications for education. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 36(2), pp. 149-165. (doi: 10.1080/07256868.2015.1008431)

Full text not currently available from Enlighten.

Abstract

This paper explores the ways in which boundaries of estrangement are produced in the academic literature assigned for courses on interculturality. As the existence of interculturality is dependent on the ascription of content to culture – since the notion, by definition, always involves more than one singular culture – this essay seeks to provide an answer to the question of what this literature, implicitly or otherwise, defines in terms of sameness vis-à-vis otherness, and thereby to chart the conditions for becoming intercultural. This question is especially important because the self in interculturality has to be, in principle, generalizable: it should signify a position available for occupation by anybody with proper training in this approach. Starting from the assumption that different experiences, languages and identities, already intersect and are indeed already intercultural before being subjected to study under the auspices of ‘interculturality’ as an educational topic, the essay goes on to problematize the way in which interculturality tends to construe sameness and difference along national lines and does little to cater for multiple, as opposed to national, or other unified, identities.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Aman, Dr Robert
Authors: Aman, R.
College/School:College of Social Sciences > School of Education
Journal Name:Journal of Intercultural Studies
Publisher:Routledge
ISSN:0725-6868
ISSN (Online):1469-9540

University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record