Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper will focus on multicultural education and its ability to enhance the process of democratic transition and consolidation among post-communist countries in southeastern Europe. Multicultural education is a much discussed topic in the educational arena, and various interpretations of what multiculturalism is or can become are available in the literature, particularly as they relate to the USA. However, less research has focused on how to utilize the main tenets of multicultural education as a way by which to assist those countries which have emerged from a non-democratic political culture, and who are now attempting to transform and consolidate a version of democracy.

Of the agents of political socialization that effect the formation of political culture, education is one that is decisive in this process. By creating a multicultural educational environment, it may be possible for post-communist countries in southeastern Europe to use undergraduate education as a vehicle for changing attitudes and previously held conceptions on the part of these citizens. Students need to be taught respect for diversity, and to be able to comprehend that differences do not necessarily have to be accompanied by negative characterizations. Too often the peoples of the Balkans have been taught to despise their neighbors simply because they speak a different language, or because they are of another religion. Few if any purposeful attempts were made on the part of communist governments to teach their populations about the ways in which to view diversity. Thus these populations have emerged in the post-communist era with little or any knowledge about how to confront and understand diversity. If however, these populations are to live peacefully together, they must learn to interact in a multicultural society. Education therefore appears to be a key element in assisting these populations to acquire necessary insight and cognizance about their neighbors.