6.1.

Heritage and identity in a multicultural educational space:

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION:
Human beings are diverse, that is a fact; when we assume this diversity, we assume that
within a group of beings, we are going to find people from a great variety of cultures,
multiple backgrounds, functional diversity, different ages, etc. Diversity, then, brings us the
opportunity of accepting the benefit from the richness that differences can bring to society
and what we can learn from other cultures.
In fact, the social landscape of Spain and other countries of immigration has been
transformed in the past two decades. The arrival of migrants from many different countries,
combined with longer established minority populations, has resulted in an unprecedented
variety of cultures, identities, faiths, languages, and immigration statuses. Precisely, this
situation has resulted into the appearance of super diverse classrooms, in which sometimes,
we can find more than five heritage or mother languages.
As a response to that situation, nowadays educators have the role of mediators between the
“old world” and the increasingly changing Europe. Furthermore, they have to provide
intercultural education, by teaching how to handle their similarities and differences related
to characteristics of ethnic and cultural backgrounds so as to ensure equality and a
harmonious participation on society… and to develop European citizenship (we are equals,
we have rights but also duties).
In order to ensure this process, some projects have been developed, such as the “Inclusive
Cities for all”, which foments actions for providing housing, education and inclusion for
migrants and refugees… or the “Frame 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, which
encompasses actions of equality and non-discrimination, economic, civil and social rights,
as well as political, cultural and developmental rights; and the principles (based on Human
Rights) of leaving no one behind and gender equality and women empowerment…
In Spain, the objectives of primary school (specified in the law 174/2005) recognizes that
children have to learn to know and respect the differences among cultures and people and
ensure equal opportunities and non-discrimination actions towards women, people with
disabilities, etc. In the same line, children have to acquire knowledge about resolution of
conflicts, coexistence,diversityin Spain and Navarra, etc.
HOLISTIC INSPIRATIONS: MARIA MONTESSORI
María Montessori was a pioneer scientist and educator
who developed the “Montessori Method”. She inspired
people globally with her genuinely universal approach
of the development of the child and she was an
advocate of education for peace.
Education for peace is based on Cosmic vision, which
involves an all-inclusive way of understanding the
world, across nature (throughout different elements of
the biosphere), humanity (throughout time) and person
development stages (throughout different ages…);
Cosmic plan, which involves the development of a plan to find agents and work in a
conscious way within nature and humanity; and a Cosmic education, so as to achieve this
cosmic vision, enabling children to become aware about the interdependencies and
interrelationships among agents (values of collaboration, autonomy…), constructing their
identity as human beings, etc. Cosmic education for adults involves keeping alive the so-
called “Cosmic Household”.
For all this approaches, she was nominated three times for a Nobel Peace Prize (1949-1950-
1951) and, today, Montessori Education is applied across all ages in more than 140
countries.
UNESCO MISSION
The UNESCO is the institution in charge of protecting World Heritage. This concept is
related to the “cosmic vision” and “global house” developed by Maria Montessori. In fact,
she became involved with the UNESCO in the years 1950-1951 as a member of the Italian
delegation to the General Assembly (Florence 1950). Her main aim was to reach better
international understanding through education and, precisely, Cosmic Education was one of
the most potent inspirations for UNESCO.

Nowadays, the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organization) seeks to build peace through international cooperation in Education, Sciences
and Culture. UNESCO's programs contribute to achieve the Sustainable Development
Goals defined in Agenda 2030 (adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015).
Furthermore, it recognizes World Heritage as an “Outstanding Universal Value”.
An example that may contradict those principles is the
Concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, however, it serves
as a symbol of humanity's cruelty in the 20th century, as an
irrefutable evidence to one of the greatest crimes ever
perpetrated against humanity and as a monument to the strength
of human spirit. In fact, the camp has become a key place of
memory of the racist policies and barbarism and as a place of
collective memory to transmit younger generations the
consequences of extreme ideologies and denial of human
dignity.
FINAL REMARKS FOR FUTURE TEACHERS
As we have seen, cultures are not isolated islands, they interact and enriches each other and,
therefore, educators have a paramount role in constructing an inclusive society starting from
theirown classrooms.
Moreover, there’re many inclusive projects funded by international institutions such as the
Council of Europe, The European Commission, The European Union, and UNESCO; and is
the mission of teachers to put them into practice. In fact, the school has a crucial role in
building peace and understanding (Maria Montessori).
As a conclusion, valuating diversity it’s crucial not to forget OUV concept and Human
Rights…
6.2. Cultural heritage as an educational resource for the learning of
history:
“Cultural Heritage” is an expression of the ways of living developed by a community and
passed on from generation to generation, including customs, practices, places, objects,
artistic expressions and values. Cultural Heritage is often expressed as either Intangible or
Tangible Cultural Heritage (ICOMOS, 2002).

Once we have recognized its importance, as future teachers, it is necessary to develop some
teaching strategies based on cultural heritage as an educational resource for learning history;
the most important are:

- Observation: To observe our surrounding, the streets, urbanization…

- Critical thinking.
- Emotional engagement: For example, doing researches about one’s own family
(historyfrom below…).
- Doing the right questions and starting by familiar things such as houses, familiar
objects, issues of preservation and destruction of different agents and elements, etc.

On the other hand, we can distinguish between five main principles involved in a good
history education:

- It does not have to attempt to transmit a single truth about the past.
- It has to be significant in relation to experiences and challenges.
- It has to introduce global perspectives.
- It has to raise awareness on the fact that the past is perceived differently.
- It has to embrace cultural, religious and linguistic diversity.

As well, as educators, our role is to distinguish between the past, the story and memory, so
as to provide a complete and meaningful education of history.

First of all, we have to understand that History and the Past are not the same. In fact, the
past can never be recreated in full as what remains of the past is just fragmentary, thanks to
some material source that can be used to put together theories about the past, often called
“historical interpretations”. In order to do these interpretations, we need to be very aware of
what material source has survived, which are often written material sources, usually from the
further past, which favors the experience of the powerful and dominant groups. Other
material sources, coming from archaeology and oral history often help to balance this
distortion (Immaterial sources are also important to understand the past and the present).

Story involves a great variety of histories. As we have seen, people today are diverse in
identity (gender, place of origin, family, heritage…), and, therefore, history classrooms
should reflect diverse pasts. History lessons should not just select from the pasts of the
powerful and dominant groups; besides, it should examine the experiences and perspectives
of many people. Then, we have to think of the importance of ordinary lives in the Past and
in History working from below, as the past could be as diverse as the present.

Finally, memory, which seems to be the most basic, may be defined as acts of recounting
or remembering experienced events, a conceptualization of Memory as something
intangible but performed over space and time. In fact, memory is an aspect of social
construction, production and performance of our daily social live, which by extension
includes heritage and identity. Then, this memory is manifested through a huge range of
oral narratives, as well as physical events or performances such as dance, routines,
religious rituals, festivals…

In conclusion, history is a subject and discipline with its own terminology and conceptual
approach, with its disciplinary concepts. History (and historians), explain and asses causes
and consequences, changes and continuity, time and place… by using sources and
evidences used to construct interpretations. After all, it allows people to communicate their
thoughts in a way that is accountable and can be verified.

6.3. The urban landscape from the archaeological perspective to the

current urbanism:
The Valetta Principles (ICONOS) define “heritage” as an essential resource and as part of
the urban ecosystem, so it must be strictly respected in order to ensure the harmonious
development of historic towns and their settings.
These principles have the objective of providing strategies applicable to every intervention
in historic towns and urban areas so as to safeguard the values of historic towns and their
settings, as well as to foment their integration into social, cultural and economic life of
nowadays. Another important point is that these interventions must ensure respect for
tangible and intangible heritagevalues, as well as for the quality of life of inhabitants…