Democratic interculturality: An opportunity for development and a challenge for education

Abstract

In order to start, it is convenient to make precision of some concepts that are often handled interchangeably, such as those of multiculturalism and interculturality. Multiculturalism or cultural pluralism is the real and objective coexistence of different cultural systems in the same territory or nation, as a consequence of the existence of ethnic groups, groups or social sectors that have their own cultural codes. Despite being a natural phenomenon, many have reacted to that diversity, denying it. There has been a tendency to see it as an obstacle to the development of a society. The most widespread attitude, which occurs at the level of common sense and perhaps the oldest, is the ethnocentric, which consists of repudiating cultural, moral, religious, aesthetic social forms, which are different or that are further away from the culture hegemonic with which we identify, for our case, Western culture.