RESPECT for diversity, multiculturalism and partnership with minority groupings and the socially excluded will be the new values in Irish education, a leading educationalist has told a cross Border conference.
Prof John Coolahan, of St Patrick's College, Maynooth, told the second conference on pluralism in education at the Slieve Russell Hotel, Co Cavan, that the dominant philosophies in Irish education in the past had been utilitarianism, child centredness and cultural nationalism.
None of these laid much stress on diversity or empathetic reaching out to other cultures and traditions. Similarly the churches had moved from being antipathetic to each other to a "live and let live" position which meant they were preoccupied with their own culture and ethos.
In recent decades, particularly the 1990s, this had begun to change as Ireland was influenced by documents on education and human rights from international bodies, drawn up by some of the best minds in the developed world. They emphasised the necessity and the values of pluralism.
Pluralism was the "key challenge of our time", as societies struggled to ensure that "the benefits of education and cultural development reach everyone". This would be done by making culturally different minority and socially excluded groups partners in the process, by cherishing the richness of their traditions.
The three day conference is organised by Dublin City University and the University of Ulster. This morning delegates will see and hear presentations, papers and videos on the integration of the disabled into mainstream education, North and South; the experience of multi denominational school movements in Northern Ireland, the Republic and England; the European Studies Project featuring schools from Co Derry and Co Wicklow; the operation of the Education for Mutual Understanding programme in the North; and a school community links initiative in Derry.
This afternoon it will hear about a peer mediation project in Derry primary schools and a longstanding cross Border exchange. Tomorrow there will be papers on Dublin's Muslim school, traveller children in Dublin schools and a project for a cross Border lifelong learning college.