Migration, pluralism and ‘Earth’s consciousness’: Some reflections starting from Ettore Gelpiʼs thought

Known worldwide level as an expert in lifelong learning, Ettore Gelpi (1933–2002) devoted his most important ‘educational struggles’ to issues of discrimination in acquiring education, sustainable development, education for democracy and cultural pluralism. His engagement has involved all categories of ‘minority’, and he has been able to place the issues related to the coexistence of people with different cultures and languages within a wide, complex and interdisciplinary framework that beyond local and national boundaries. The aim of this chapter is to investigate the concept of intercultural education developed by Gelpi since all humans are unique, not only in language and traditions, but also with regard to countless other individual characteristics, we contend that humans are innately, intercultural. The main question is this: must we educate towards cultural pluralism or analyse how cultural pluralism can be educational? Probably, the latter assumption is the more valid: learning to live together in cultural diversity means above all to live an exchange with people from different cultures and is a real learning opportunity.