Canada is a homeland for a variety of cultures, because of the variety of mixed races and has since been called “The Mosaic” for that reason.
Canada has great appeal to many immigrants that want to leave in search of a better life. This in turn has made Canada one of the biggest sites for multiculturalism in the world. Multiculturalism effects Canada in both positive and negative ways. Before exploring these aspects, it is important to first understand the meaning of multiculturalism. Its simple definition is the existence of a culturally integrated society. By this definition, it seems easy to avoid problems, however, many problems do arise when a society is forced to change and grow.
Education is causing a major problem when it comes to how it will deal with a growing multicultural society. There has recently been complaints from various cultural groups abut the Canadian school curriculum. In 1987, a group called the Rainbow Coalition argued that the majority of the books in the curriculum were written by dead, white, European males. They felt that this was denying students of the knowledge of the contributions of people of colour, women, and other oppressed groups.
Toward the end of 1987, the faculty voted 39-4 to change the curriculum and eliminate the term “western” in order to implicate at least one study of non-European culture (Gould, 1995). Supporters of multicultural education argue that it offers students a balanced appreciation of other cultures as well as our own (Stotsky, 1992). This does hold some validity, but it is also true that one would never have enough time in a school year to equally cover the contributions of each individual nationality. This type of pressure is being placed on to teachers by many cultural activists all over Canada. The only options teachers have would be to lengthen the school year, or to modify the curriculum to fits what each teacher individually feels are the most important contributions. Lengthening the school year is too controversial, and option two also would lead to criticism from groups that were ignored.
National standards cannot be implicated because different parts of the country contain certain concentrations of nationalities. An example of this is the high concentration of Asians in british Columbia or Blacks in the East. In one Vancouver classroom, an inventive first grade teacher used minority students to her advantage by making them helper as she taught the rest of the class some chinese words and customs. This newly acquired vocabulary formed a common bond between the children in their early years, an appropriate time for learning and understanding (Pyszkowski, 1994). There certainly is no answer to the problem of multicultural education. The truth is that it is impossible for our school system to cater to the hundreds of nationalities that exist among us.
Cultural diversity also has many advantages as well. Diversity can be a decisive advantage in today’s competitve international business environment. New cultures bring energy, entrepreneurship, linguitic skills and different This growing diversity that Canada is experiencing is requiring them to make certain adjustments to ensure that all Canadians can participate fully in our society. These adjustment enable the integration of minority Canadians while encouraging our institutions to remove descriminatory barriers (Blackman, 1993). Many of Canada’s social norms and mores have been affected by the recent wave of multicultural immigration. For instance, some cultures are based around practices that favour specific genders.
In so many cultures, men are put in control over women. This causes problems when it is diffused into Canada. Some examples of these problems are the cultures that allow clitoridectomy, the marriage of children, or poligamy. Despite examples of crumbling Canada’s social structure, many people also feel that multiculturalism is vital in uniting Canada.
When Canada becomes completely and equally multicultural, racism will finally come to a stop. A large step toward this was the implementation of the Canadian Multicultural Act. It was passed by Canada’s parliament in 1988. Its aim was to preserve and intensifymulticulturalism by promoting the recognition of Canada’s cultural diversity. The Employment equity Act was also created for the purpose of dealing with minorities.
This ensures that members of four general groups achieve equitable .
