Quality physical education in multicultural contexts: an inclusive approach to accommodate diversity in ethnicity, gender, and disability

Multicultural education has been only recently introduced in the Greek school system, as an important step to meet the needs of an increasing diverse society, mainly due to the high immigration of foreign workers and their families. It accommodates diverse cultural identities, while at the same time provides students with strategies for developing a sense of community. Minority education - applied to Muslim minority students of Thrace - is also connected to multicultural education, since it is directed to diverse ethnic groups of students. Physical education, in multicultural contexts, more than any other discipline, sets the scene for students to integrate different backgrounds and experiences as well as values, in terms of physical activities and sports. Physical education, however, can also meet challenges with ethnic minority students due to restrictions imposed on them by their culture and religion. So, for a quality Physical Education in multicultural and minority education, an inclusive approach, not only in terms of culture and ethnicity, but also in terms of gender and disability, seems to be the most effective one in today’s education. A quality physical education should be able to accommodate such diversity, and be distinctive from the existing sport culture by re-examining assumptions based on particular cultural values. In this way, a quality PE should not cease after school but continue to feed life-long participation in physical activities and sport.

References

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