This year Eid-ul-Fitr prayers at the largest mosque in Chicago, USA, had nearly a thousand people who turned up in their traditional clothes to celebrate the end of Ramazan. Migrant Pakistanis made up the bulk of the congregation and while the older generation sported shalwar kameez and even sherwanis or achkans and spoke in their native tongues, the next generation brought up in the USA had distinct American accents. If one closed one’s eyes and heard them talk, there was nothing to distinguish them from any other born and bred American citizens.

Yet, the fashionable traditional dresses of the younger and older girls with dupattas or head coverings made you feel as if you were in one of the bigger cities of Pakistan. Evidently, cultural norms of greetings, mannerisms, family bonds had not changed or been affected by a dominant culture that was alien to this community in their adopted land.

Culture is defined as the values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours which characterise a particular group of people in any society. Over the last century, when modern nation-states came into being, the majority populations of these nations restricted cultural diversity in their country to a ‘minority’ issue. This meant that the culturally diverse, whether religious or racial, were referred to as a minority in the population statistics of a state. Numbers in minority populations increased dramatically with the cross migration of labour in the 20th century and this forced developed countries to deal with cultural diversity, particularly in their educational systems.

Questions of access, curriculum and assessment in relation to equity had to be addressed such as: Are there differences in the resources available for different groups? What is incorporated from the cultures of those attending? How do we enable the histories and cultures of people of colour, and of women, to be taught in responsible and responsive ways? Are the form, content and mode of assessment appropriate for different groups and individuals?

Conversely, migration and media aided by present advanced communication technologies and swift modes of travel is continuously spreading a new culture called ‘globalisation’. This has further evolved a new discourse in educational know-how as ‘multiculturalism.’

In a study done by Wan Shun Eva Lam of North Western University, Chicago, USA, globalisation has been classified in the context of the major changes that the world of today faces. It says: “Globalisation has become an umbrella term for what is taking place around the world in association with global integration of economies, rapid media and information flow facilitated by new communication technologies, international migration of labour and resultant cultural transformations challenging traditional social structures.”

Thus, culture, community, identity and processes of learning are being challenged when young people interact with others in the context of media and migration of populations. These socio-cultural changes taking place in the context of globalisation are affecting how young people grow up, learn, play, work and interact with the world around them. Already there are concrete signs of adopting trans-cultural practices in areas such as music, marketing, food and ways of dressing across countries and cultures.

While in the past decade or two, educators and researchers are trying to integrate multicultural norms of learning in schools, Pakistani education has lagged behind in securing their historical and cultural roots to form a firm base for a sound and focused generation to make the country progress as a modern nation-state. Educational research finds a vital link between learning and the culture of the country in which the education system is grounded. Understanding the relation of culture and learning is crucial to qualitative understanding of knowledge being gained by students in their schooling.

In this, language plays a pivotal role in keeping students grounded in their own cultural moorings. With Pakistan inheriting a colonial system of education, a break with the past was inevitable to give a new direction to its educational system, imbibing its own culture and civilisation. Unfortunately, the way change has been effected over the years has only caused confusion in the minds of young Pakistanis. Two glaring examples are of the Urdu medium and English medium divide and insensitive use of textbooks to propagate irrelevant content.

More importantly, Pakistan’s raison d’etre has not been clearly defined to give direction in evolving a literate and committed citizenry. Added to that is the continuance of rote learning and outdated curricula for teacher training when the present generation requires a new set of skills, sensibilities and habits of mind to deal with the emerging global transformation.

However, the introduction of social studies at primary level for classes one to five in the 2006 curriculum is a step towards multiculturalism. The content of social studies is based on the dominant culture, i.e., Pakistani and other forms of cultures found within the country and without. Learning about other cultures and religions predisposes in the young acceptance and tolerance of other nations and cultures.

Furthermore, the re-introduction of history and geography at the middle school level as subject disciplines, reiterate the ideas of identity as a nation-state and of a world beyond it. These subjects in the curriculum form the base of the social sciences whose knowledge and disciplines are essential in the world of today along with science and technology.

A firm and sensible education policy has to address the above issues in order to ensure Pakistan meets the needs of the present century but at the same time guards its cultural, historical, geographical, linguistic, and belief systems.

The writer is an educational consultant based in Lahore.

Ismatriaz70@gmail.com