ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the challenges of religious and cultural diversity cannot be met by the educational system unless teachers are adequately trained. Many obstacles to this kind of training are identified. The most important one is probably the absence of consensus among experts on a model where the complex issues related to this sensible area would be articulated in a coherent structure defining the knowledge and skills to be mastered. After presenting an outline of such a model, the chapter discusses some other obstacles: teachers’ perceptions of immigration as a threat to national identity, the perverse effects of an ideology of cultural pluralism and cultural relativism, lack of clear government policy of intercultural education and severe budgetary restrictions in education. The last section presents some suggestions on how the initial training of teachers could show more concern for the challenges of ethnocultural pluralism.
