Against the waste of experiences in intercultural learning

Abstract

Intercultural learning has played a key role in non-formal education processes with young people, especially those associated with youth programmes and activities of the Council of Europe and of the European Commission. The main purpose of intercultural learning – to inflect ethnocentric perspectives, fight prejudices and promote solidarity actions that support equality in human dignity and respect for the plurality of cultural identities – remains fully valid and more relevant than ever in European societies whose futures are further intertwined and interdependent with the rest of the world. This article seeks to engage in a critique of intercultural learning by restating its key premises, exploring current challenges and proposing a renewed criticism of the concepts and practices of intercultural learning as a way to make possible the potential it carries for social transformation. The article also explores a possible relationship between intercultural learning and intercultural dialogue in which the former can be understood as the necessary educational approach to the latter.