PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION SETTING IN WOLKITE SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF WOLKITE TOWN

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to assess problems and prospects multicultural education setting school learning. The research employed observation, focus group discussion and questionnaire to gather data from secondary students and teachers of Dalocha secondary schools, in Dalocha Woreda Silte zone. It employed simple random and purposive sampling techniques in which it covered 61 sample students out of 826 targeted student population and 34 secondary school teachers, that was, 50% of the focused teacher population of the schools. The study was employed both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Moreover, the quantitative data analysis was complemented by tabular descriptions, whereas, the qualitative data was analyzed by narration and description. The result reveals that the major multiracial prospects and problems for the students to express their own opinions are: fear of self expression, lack of multicultural responsiveness, inadequacy of exposure to multicultural accommodative environment, fear of being politicized, complexity of the existing ethno-linguistic and cultural diversity, the time-esteemed nature of teaching methods, and conceptual and attitudinal challenges. In contrast, the apparently existing opportunities are the existence of constructive views about cultural diversity in education, the inclusive attempts of school mini media services, the celebration of a special school culture day and the feeling of liberalism. In a short, teaching in a multiethnic and multicultural setting demands the need to build up a system of shared learning practices, and inter-reliant relationships between schools and the communities at large. The study was tried to explore and identify multiracial prospects and challenges and in multiethnic school learning. As to the result, students face a number of challenges to communicate their own socio-cultural experiences. Some of the common themes stated as challenges are: fear of self expression, lack of enough multicultural awareness, inadequacy of exposure to multicultural responsive environment, fear of being politicized, the existence of complex ethno-linguistic diversity, and conceptual and attitudinal challenges. Finally, in the stud some students tended to fear of being marginalized. Therefore, teacher recommended that they should acknowledge, recognize as well as give an opportunity to participate, communicate freely during instruction and in every situation.