Multiculturalism and

Modernisation
● Apartheid can be seen as a comprehensive attempt to stem the tide of Modernisation. Modernisation erodes
traditional cultures and the stable of identities associated with them.
● Some of the stimulants and features of Modernisation which apartheid tried to control are urbbanisatiin,the
spread of mass media and new technologies which penetration into everyday life, all of which shrink space and
time and disrespect traditional geographical and cultural borders.
● Such developments expose people to to a strong mix of disparate cultural influences and images, increase
matual dependence between people.
● One of main deficiencies of monocultural education is that it traps students in a traditional culture and thus,
fails to contribute to their access to the modern world, it provides at best only limited opportunities for students
to develop the talants and virtues needed to cope well in that world diversity.
● According to Parekh, multicultural education enables the students to accept, enjoy and cope with diversity, and
being able to to do this is at the heart of what is needed to handle the diversity and lackof certanity that
charactrises a modernnising society.
● This especally true in the case of South Africa, where the processesvof Modernisation were kept under sich a
tight rein during the previous half century in which Modernisation increased apace in much of the world
● Modernisation and multiculturalism are two sides of the samecoin, and multicultural education is a form of
education that provides access to Modernisation and develops the mobile intellectual and moral capabilities
need to survive and flourish in the modern world.
○ This provides a further reson for South Africato foster multicultural education.