Eighteenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

The term multicultural is interpreted differently by most educators for their own needs or interests; resulting in having a negative connotation for most traditional groups. Ignoring differences of most learners’ cultural backgrounds can cause the educator to look at the world evolving from his/her personal experiences he/she living in with the results that other learners differing from his/her cultural background are ignored. This paper will evaluate how the curriculum can be structured in such a way that it should incorporate aspects of inclusivity from a South African perspective based on the philosophy of inclusive education as outlined in White Paper 6 as a way of trying to accommodate all learners from different backgrounds. It should however be mentioned that the major challenge faced by educators in this regard is that no proper training has been done to enable them to deal with cultural diversity in the classroom. Educators are often at the disadvantaged because they do not live near, nor have they lived in the community in which their learners live. To make learners feel at home we need to learn the cultures our learners especially if learners are from a disadvantage group.