INTERCULTURALITY AND INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION REPRESENTATIONS AND PRACTICES OF A GROUP OF EDUCATIONAL PARTNERS

The purpose of this article is to give an insight into interculturality and practices of intercultural education by a group of partners before and after having participated in the development of a project on intercultural education. The group was formed of 12 people representing different institutions in the community, namely primary schools, associations and the local council. Data were collected via an initial and a final interview, carried out individually with each of the partners. The answers given by the participants in the initial interview showed that, although they believe in the importance of implementing intercultural education, there was some initial ambiguity and indefiniteness in the representations of what this concept really means and sometimes interculturality is merely and restrictively associated with multiculturality. In the final interview, the partners stated that their representations of these concepts changed after participating in the project, thus helping them to differentiate between both. They also mentioned that their participation was an opportunity for rethinking and improving their work practices concerning intercultural education.