Pluralism in education and implications for analysis

pluralism refers to the existence of diverse and competing interests as the basis for a democratic equilibrium, which is crucial for the possibility of individuals to obtain goals. Thus it represents not only a consequence of the complexity of our social systems, a “descriptive” principle to better understand modern institutions and agents, but also a “normative principle” of democracy in the sense of a “combination between diversities”.what makes a cultural frame pluralist is that single groups not only co-exist side by side, but also consider the qualities of other groups as traits worth having in the dominant environment. That is, in a pluralistic social setting we don’t find an expectation of assimilation but rather strong expectations on integration taking place between majority and minority. Given that pluralism is a core-value of education, the aim should be to understand and translate a pluralized educational demand into an effective and equal supply, involving both the public and the private sector.