How to train professionals for managing the contradictions of a multiethnic society

The society we live in is so diverse and mixed that we are no longer able to understand it only through traditional research perspectives. It is multiethnic and we often see that the stories shared in the public arena do not reflect what happens in everyday life. People are living a fragmentation of cultures and traditions due to the contact between persons and groups who have different life perspectives, which generates a form of “situated translation” of principles, rules of conduct and socially acquired beliefs. For example, young people are learning from peer-mixing practices and lifestyles that often generate cultural confusion or estrangement from their parents or the community where they have grown up. Therefore, the different contexts of modern life cannot be defined only as multiethnic or multicultural. It is not only a new conversational area, but a learning arena. To be able to understand why people close their minds from different points of view or develop violent behaviors, we need to produce more “situated knowledge”. How are students defining their identity at school or how are professionals developing informal ways to work beyond cultural, religious and ideological perspectives?