Comparability of Tolerance Education Concepts

by Krzysztof Stanowski

Is it possible to understand and compare pedagogical practices from such different regions as the U.S.A., Northern Ireland, Israel, Mongolia and the Philippines? How can we compare the effectiveness of the strategies to increase tolerance or to build a civic society?

The Bertelsmann Foundation initiative brought together experienced practitioners from different countries, cultures and backgrounds to share their experiences, and develop new programs which can be helpful for institutions active in education towards tolerance and democracy around the world.

Members of the practitioners’ working group decided to work together on two areas: collect a case studies library with regard to language and equality, and to develop a teacher training program and curriculum dealing with inequality based on linguistic competence. The greater part of the last meeting of the working group in Krzyzowa in Poland was devoted to presenting and evaluating elements of the workshop developed by group members. The Krzyzowa experience helped us to better understand some aspects of our work.

• Through their joint work on the program of future workshops, participants recognized deep, unexpected differences in their backgrounds and the approaches their institutes and communities are taking. Some are totally concentrated on individual values, believes, and behaviors; others on empowering the local community to change the local environment, or influencing the state and the formal education system to create mechanisms which will provide a tolerance environment for citizens.

• Language was a topic of the workshop, but at the same time it was an issue in the group of pedagogues meeting in Kreisau. English as lingua franca is the only effective means of communication in our group. But using it we experience the same inequality that we try to overcome in our work. Not only in that some of us speak better English than others, but often a group member from the Philippines, an Arab or a German can also better describe the problem under discussion.

• Talking about tolerance is not the same as being tolerant. All the institutes represented in the network concentrate on issues of tolerance, democracy and human rights. Working together we saw how important is to be democratic and tolerant, not only in the methods we use during the workshops but also in the everyday practice of our institutes. Education for democracy should not be a preparation for life in society - it should be life itself.

• Many of the members of the network came from areas where intolerance is close to or even reaches the level of violence. In such situations educators become part of the conflict. For people working in such difficult circumstances personal involvement in activities abroad, where the actors and the problems are different, is crucial for getting a better view of one’s own problems from a different perspective.

• Many of our programs are organized in schools. But school is a very difficult place to teach democracy or tolerance. In school students and teachers do not have many occasions to practice democracy. School is not a democratic and tolerant institution. The most striking examples can be the – supposedly democratic – teachers’ councils and student councils. In numerous high schools student councils are puppet bodies, controlled by teachers and with no real decision-making power.

I believe that working together in a tolerance network has been an important experience for all participating facilitators, trainers and institutes they represent. Unlike many ”touch and go” programs, working together has allowed us to see problems we are faced with in our countries from a different perspective. It has created an opportunity not only to exchange experiences, develop new ideas or programs but also to practice tolerance.

Index: Podium

Tolerance - Basis for Democratic Interaction
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Tolerance, Acceptance and Mutual Respect
by Micha Brumlik

Portrait
The Anti-Defamation League - A World of Difference Institute

Expert's Commentary
by Krzysztof Stanowski