The Role of Education in the Advancement of Cultural Harmony (REACH): Toward a Global Initiative

An important mean for dealing with Huntington warning of “clash of civilizations” is to enhance “cultural harmony” and establish “cultural pluralism”. In essence, cultural harmony is a knowledge society problem concerned with “cultural knowledge: CK” preparation, diffusion and exploitation in real life practices. In this respect, educational institutions, through their knowledge mission, can play an essential role in the promotion of cultural harmony. This paper is concerned with initiating a global initiative on the “role of education in the advancement of cultural harmony: REACH”. It provides a background on the issues and structure of the target initiative. In addressing the issues two types of references have been considered. One is concerned with how key educational and other related institutions view cultural harmony in the 21st century; while the other is related to how key cultural dialogue efforts view the role of education in this harmony. The target structure of the initiative is considered to be based on the knowledge society ecosystem framework of “knowledge circle in the scope of strategy, technology, organization, people and environment: KC-STOPE”. The paper hopes to provide the first step toward the initiation of REACH, putting it into global practice, and contributing to peace and well-being.