At the Core of Intercultural Education: Recognition.

The social and political demands placed on many Western societies over recent decades by demographic, social, political and cultural changes (migrants and their descendants; the extension of the moral and legal imperative to defend diversity to questions of gender, family make-up, sexuality; the pervasiveness of social media etc.) have placed the struggle for recognition center stage. For individuals, communities, and institutions alike, recognition has become a political issue in its own right, while the demand for recognition from minority and “subordinated” groups and feminist movements makes plain the interrelatedness of societal recognition, legal protections and the possibility of living a “good” life. In debate around “multiculturalism” (Taylor, 1994), it has been suggested that recognition and identity are intimately connected, bringing increased focus on the importance of being recognized as an essential human need, the lack/denial of which can trap people in a negative conception of the self, and hamper the formation of self-identity. This chapter offers a revised reading of the theory of recognition (Honneth, 2002; Ricoeur, 2007), setting out its constituent elements and highlighting how it connects at a fundamental level with the fight against racism and the struggle for social justice before evaluating it in educational terms (Dusi, 2017) and, ultimately, demonstrating its central role in the processes of an intercultural approach to education.