Facilitating the Construction of Cultural Diversity in Classroom Interactions

This paper focuses on the ways of constructing the cultural meanings of diversity in classroom interactions, mingling sociological, pedagogical and linguistic theories. Firstly, it analyzes the meanings of cultural diversity in theories of intercultural education, the importance of analyzing this education from a sociological perspective on classroom interaction, and the importance of facilitation of pupils’ participation and production of narratives in this interaction. Next, it focuses on sequences of classroom interaction to highlight the different ways of enhancing the social construction of cultural diversity through the facilitation of pupils’ participation, with different effects in terms of their authority in producing knowledge. The analysis focuses on the forms of facilitation, as social structures enhancing the production of narratives of cultural diversity in classroom interactions. It shows that, while facilitation is always based on the same types of actions, these actions may have different effects on pupils’ participation and production of narratives, depending on the form of facilitation. On the one hand, facilitation may lead to enhance narratives of cultural identity, as based on group membership and as presupposition of intercultural communication. On the other, it may lead to enhance narratives of cultural diversity as based on pupils’ personal experience and knowledge.