ABSTRACT
Intercultural education is the object of ever growing attention in current educational debate, but the problem of relating to differences between cultures has as long a history as humanity itself. It depends on the universally human dilemma between the acknowledgement of some features shared by all human beings as distinct from the world of non-human entities (animals, things), and each human group’s cultural invention of boundaries which determine one’s own identity with respect to some ‘human otherness’ defined on the basis of the most varied features, such as the colour of skin or language, religion or political ideology. Nowadays, the contacts and reciprocal knowledge between different cultures have grown greatly, both through living together in the same territories and through the spread of communication systems. Awareness of the interdependence between individuals, groups and societies for the solution of global problems, however, stands together with hostility, exclusion, discrimination and violence towards minority or weaker groups in real life practices and in cultural patterns. These range from episodes of ‘ordinary’ sexism, racism, homophobia, to persistent or resurgent particularisms, separatisms and conflicts with outcomes of dramatic collective aggression.
