CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES OF INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION IN MACEDONIA

Abstract

An individual’s education process is fulfilled as it deals intensely both with its own culture and with the foreign one. The aim is to develop its intercultural competence in the sense of an intercultural empathy. Intercultural learning can be understood as a very important part of the multiperspective general formation. In the educational process with the help of different role-playing games, simulations of different situations of misunderstanding, films, and sequences, students should perceive and understand the way of speaking, thinking and behavior of members of foreign culture, analyze them and make a connection with their own ways. One of the most important aspects of intercultural education is intercultural communication by which we understand interpersonal understanding between people of different cultural or ethnic groups who have not met or have just met. The Macedonian education system is designed to function in the context of advancement and promotion of citizens’ individual and group values. This paper analyzes the latest developments in the field of intercultural education in Macedonia from the aspect of legislation and teaching practice.