Cultural pluralism and educational policy: In search of state multiculturalism

The significance and meaning of cultural pluralism, or of multiculturalism as it is mote commonly referred to in Australia, continue to excite much debate, as well as concep-tual confusion. In this paper three possible types of multiculturalism in ethnically plural societies are analysed, namely those of 'transitional', 'residual', and 'stable ' or enduring multiculturalism. The latter orientation is carefully distinguished from separatism, while the transitional and residual types of multiculturalism are related to assimila-tionist solutions to pluralism. Throughout the paper the emphasis is placed on the paramount significance of culture in social life and on the need to distinguish between viable cultures that can be transmitted and modified by future generations, and cultures that have been reduced to residues through the loss of their core values. Such a concept of ethnic cultures, each with its distinct core, is discussed within the framework of values that are supra-ethnic, or shared by all sections of Australian society. From this vantage, the role of the school appears to be that of cultivating such shared values, and of transmitting the cores of all groups, within a social matrix that is dynamic and capable of change. This type o