Browsing by Author "Palomäki, Sanni"

Through intercultural education, it is possible to learn how to face diversity and otherness in a globalizing world, depending on the kind of intercultural understanding it is based on. Through the solid and Janusian understandings of interculturality, culture and identity can be seen as essentialistic constructions that explain people’s actions. Unquestioned stereotypes and assumptions of the other can lead to othering. From a critical point of view, liquid interculturality emphasizes the flexible and interactional nature of both culture and identity. Liquid interculturality is also associated with an intersectional perspective, which takes into account individuals’ multiple identities and their intersections. Diversity includes, for example, gender, socio-economic status or age, and culture is not seen as the sole determinant of identity or action. The aim of this thesis was to examine the role of intersectionality in the field of intercultural education. The literature review was based on critical educational research, which is built on post-structuralist and post-colonialist traditions. The perspective of intersectionality was examined through questions about to whom intercultural education is directed, what it pursues and how it is implemented. Different ways of understanding interculturality were used in the analysis. Intersectionality can be implemented through critical intercultural education which is directed to all students and recognizes diversity within all individuals. In teaching and educational practices, intersectional intercultural education takes into account both the individual ways of identification and the underlying structures and power relations. It is challenging to integrate intersectionality into an intercultural education that is based on a solid or Janusian view of interculturality.