Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1986, No.18 non 
Albina Neéak-Lük UDC 376.744:316.356.72 
Institute for Educational 
Research at the 
Edvard Kardelj University 
Ljubljana, Yugoslavia 
EDUCATION IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETIES AND ITS SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS* 
Maintenance and promotion of ethnic (national) characteristics of 
individuals and groups is considered to be one of the fundamental 
human rights. It is evident that attention should be paid not 
only to the unhindered development of cultural and linguistic 
characteristics but also to the socio-economic policy that 
supports the realization of these rights. 
Such an approach to relations among groups in a multicultural 
society is based on the assumption that members of national 
minorities should have the possibility to participate in social 
and production relations on equal terms with members of the 
(national) majority population. When we speak of the access to 
social and economic activities on equal terms, the possibility to 
preserve and manifest their specific ethnic (national) features, 
language and culture being the most outstanding, is implied. A 
close investigation into the national minorities' situations, 
however, reveals the fact that the use of the mother tongue and 
the demonstration of the cultural distinction of national 
minorities is at least tolerated in most societies, while the 
development of the social structure of the minority groups and 
their economic prosperity are usually neglected. Therefore a 
substantial number of national minority groups (as well as other 
ethnic and linguistic groups), with very few exceptions (those 
that have strong economic sources whereby their possibility of 
participating in policy making is strengthened, are not 
minorities only in number but also in terms of their social 
status, being socially disadvantaged groups. The surplus labour 
and the surplus values produced by members of national minorities 
are namely collected in the production and the reserve funds of 
the majority (the state). Thus in reality the scope of rights of 
national minorities as well as the possibilities for their 
practical application depend upon democratic principles of the 
society and upon the good will of the majority to allocate 
sufficient financial support for this purpose. 
The system of education is the first institutional level that 
paves the way for the development of the social structure = 
groups of different ethnic origin in multicultural society cic 
for the maintenance and development of their specific linguis a 
and cultural features. 
The educational 
policy nha’ a ue 
account the linguistic, 
cultural and social needs of once t that 
entity in a multicultural 
society is based upon =e a as a 
national minorities are a constituent part of the s 
whole. 
* Original: English 
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It goes without saying that the education and socialization ina 
multilingual setting is not only the matter and the task of 
scholarly institutions alone. The concept of permanent education 
implying also personality formation is of primary importance. 
Besides schools, other societal institutions should pay attention 
to it to an appropriate extent, so that cultural and linguistic 
development of national minorities is promoted and the atmosphere 
of coexistence and understanding among social groups of different 
ethnic (national) origin is created. The results of the 
educational activities of schools, the products of their work, 
i.e. socialization and cognitive achievement of young 
generations, can grow as long-term values only if all 
institutions of socialization in a multicultural society pursue 
the same goal. The awareness of ethnic difference and of 
linguistic, cultural and social needs of groups constituting a 
multicultural society should be transferred also to the young 
generations of the majority. 
Of course, the effects of primary socialization should not be 
overlooked, the first experiences about cultural distinctions and 
language appropriateness in multilingual and multicultural 
environment being transmitted by the family. 
Education in multicultural societies, as we see it, should 
fulfill two basic and unseverable needs discussed above: 
participation of all ethnic (national) groups in socio-political 
decisions and in socio-economic development on equal terms and 
unhindered promotion of their specific cultural and ethnic 
(national) characteristics, which implies also the right to use 
their language in all spheres of private and social life. It 
depends upon specific traits of social environment, including 
ethnodemographic, social, numerical, historical and cultural 
factors, all of which influence and determine the relations 
between different ethnic (national) groups that live together, 
and the forms of organisation of educational activities to be 
chosen for each ethnic (national) group. The variety of concrete 
forms of organisation of instruction where mother tongue of 
national minorities figures as the language of instruction or as 
the subject of instruction, is the consequence of the variety of 
multilingual and multicultural societies in the world. 
Yugoslavia advocates the joint education of children and youth of 
different national origins in ethnically-mixed regions. However, 
due to different conditions under which this joint education in 
Yugoslavia takes place, the forms of instruction and education 
vary. The concept of joint education does not necessitate, but 
neither does it exclude, joint school attendance; what it 
primarily signifies is an educational process taking place in 
educational institutions where two or more languages are used 
(Mikes, 1976). In principle, children and youth of both national 
(ethnic) groups (the nationality and the nation) are taught the 
second language, the language of the social environment, in order 
to achieve a certain level of communicative competence in the 
language of their schoolfellows. They also learn the basic facts 
about each other's history and culture, whereby mutual 
understanding can be expected. 
Such solutions in education lead towards the realization of the 
equality of languages which is judged in Yugoslavia by the social 
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function these languages are involved in. All processes, 
tendencies, and mechanisms decreasing the communicative value of 
a language draw resistance from members of the ethnic (national) 
group affected (Lük, 1977). Therefore, the aim of the education 
in nationally-mixed regions is, among other things, to develop 
motivation for equal use of the languages, so that the language 
of nationalities (national minorities) becomes an appropriate 
instrument for communication also in public and social life and 
is not restricted only to private life usage. The task of 
educational institutions is to stimulate the socialization in the 
bilingual nationally-mixed environment, by creating and 
developing constructive and positive attitudes towards both 
ethnic (national) groups that live together. Thus, children and 
young people are prepared for creative life in a bilingual 
setting which is possible owing to knowledge about both ethnic 
(national) groups and owing to the social intercourse which is 
not burdened by language barriers. 
In ethnically mixed areas members of the Yugoslav nations 
increasingly learn nationality languages. The need to master 
these languages stems from the shared interests of all working 
people and citizens of a given region, who realize these 
interests at work and in the process of self-management decision- 
making and agreements. Added to this is one's natural need to 
gain at least some passive knowledge of the language spoken by 
one's close associates. As a result of democratic relations among 
nations and nationalities, the population in ethnically mixed 
areas is getting bilingual. Owing to constitutional guarantees 
and owing to the growing bilingualism in ethnically mixed areas 
supported by institutional facilities the social status of 
nationality languages is likely to grow. 
This kind of bilingualism, with bilinguals found in a given area 
not only among nationality members but also among members of the 
broader community, can be called bilateral, functional 
bilingualism (Necak-Liik, 1979). The phenomenon can be described 
as follows: nationality members are able to use their mother 
tongue in all kinds of speech situations, both formal and 
informal, for communication inside and outside their own group; 
at the formal level, the use of their mother tongue is made 
possible by the bilingual organisation of the institutional 
system; at the informal level it is made possible by at least 
passive knowledge of nationality languages on the part of the 
members of the nation they live with. 
The concept of the self-management socialist coexistence of 
nations and nationalities, together with their languages, on an 
equal footing demands theoretical examination of the contents of 
some sociolinguistic terms, such as diglossia and bilingualism. 
In dealing with diglossia, we proceed from the proposition that 
in case of two different ethnic communities living under the same 
socio-political system the functional differentiation (Fishman, 
1976) of their respective languages is based on social (and often 
legal) inferiority of the language used by one of them, a status 
resulting from the community's social, economic, cultural and 
political inequality. the inferior social status of the language 
of a minority community restricts the mobility of its members and 
prevents them from becoming involved, as equal partners, in 
economic, social and cultural activities, and from making 
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progress within the broader community by way of their own 
language, whose prospects are at the same time reduced. 
The diglossic situation involving the relation of the ethnic 
(national) minority language to the language of the broader 
community could be summed up as follows: two languages, each 
having its highly codified standard, perform different social 
functions; these are kept separate both in communication within 
the ethnic (national) minority as a group and in communication 
between its members and those of the majority people; the 
language of the ethnic minority is the medium of communication 
for its members in informal speech situations; the language of 
the broader social community is the medium of communication in 
formal speech situations and is used in discussing topics related 
to general social, political, cultural and economic development. 
The function of the minority language is thus limited to 
communication within the ethnic group. The members of minorities 
are not able to participate by using their native language in 
socio-political, economic and cultural activities; consequently, 
their mobility depends on their proficiency in the language of 
the broader social community. 
We hold the assumption of the necessity of functional 
differentiation of two lariguages to be open to question where an 
ethnic (national) minority is able to get involved by way of its 
mother tongue in socio-economic activities of the sociopolitical 
community, there is good reason to believe that it will not opt 
for renouncing the language as a comprehensive medium of 
communication in multicultural society. Demands of ethnic 
(national) minorities all over the world prove it. 
The absence of functional differentiation among the values of 
languages of the Yugoslav nations and nationalities living 
together in ethnically mixed areas is to be achieved by imparting 
appropriate social and legal status to their speakers. The 
language of any of these groups enjoys the same status in the 
group's area of residence as the language of the broader 
community. Both are official languages, and the activitiy of 
social, political, economic and educational institutions is 
regulated in such a way as to enable members of both ethnic 
groups to communicate, as a rule, in their own language. The 
nationality language, as mentioned above, is guaranteed 
institutional possibilities to attain the same social status as 
that enjoyed by the language of the broader community. 
Bilingualism, however, is still more frequent among nationality 
members than among members of the broader community. It can be 
understood if historical aspects of relations among the nations 
and nationalities on the territory of present-day Yugoslavia are 
analysed. Through history the majority and minority position of 
individual ethnic groups was changed. Once dominant nations 
(Italians, Hungarians) became minorities after the First World 
War, to give an example, in Slovenia. What happened in history ~ 
the succession of different forms of ownership and changes in the 
social living conditions, both reflected in inter-nationality 
relations in what is today Yugoslavia, and thus in the use and 
status of the various languages - constitutes a psychological 
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legacy that must be taken into account when the development of 
functional (bilateral) bilingualism is discussed. 
The visibility of functional bilingualism is borne out by the 
growing attendance of members of the Yugoslav nations in optional 
courses in nationality languages. The function of education in 
ethnically mixed areas is, among other things, to provide pupils 
with communicative competence in languages of both ethnic 
(national) communities, so that the vertical stratification of 
the nationality language might gradually disappear. Thus the 
destiny of speech nets of the nationality languages is provided 
for, concentration of speakers of the individual language in a 
multilingual setting being one of the outstanding problems for 
the development of functional bilingualism. 
Besides schools, all other institutions whose task it is to 
develop permanent education should take part in endeavours to 
promote functional bilingualism. Mass media is among the most 
powerful and influential means in this field. It goes without 
saying that a vivid contact with the parent nation of a 
nationality provides for the development of language and culture 
of the nationality. Therefore such contacts are stipulated by the 
law. Educational institutions in ethnically mixed areas take 
advantage of it by organizing common activities of schools from 
both sides of the border. These contacts are stimulative 
regarding the promotion of the nationality language and culture 
as well as the development of the awareness of coexistence among 
nations in young generations. 
Bibliography 
Fishman, Joshua, A.-, 1976, "Bilingualism With and Without 
Diglossia; Diglossia With and Without Bilingualism," Journal of 
Social Issues, No. 2, pp. 29-38 
Lik, Albina, 1977, "“Jezik kao sredstvo diskriminacije nacionalnih 
manjina" (Language as an Instrument for Discrimination Against 
National Minorities), Pregled, 7-8, Sarajevo, pp. 956-970 
Mikes, Melanija, 1976, "“Jugoslovenski model visejeziënosti" (The 
Yugoslav Model of Multilingualism), Odjek, No. 17, Sarajevo 
Mikes, Lili, Junger, 1979, "On Bilingualism in Yugoslavia," Survey, 
No. 1, Sarajevo, pp. 34-48 
Neéak-Lik, Albina, 1984, "Od dvojeziénosti v Soli do 
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