ПОЛІКУЛЬТУРНІ ЗАСАДИ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ ВЕЛИКОЇ БРИТАНІЇ, США, КАНАДИ І АВСТРАЛІЇ

The article reveals the essential characteristics of multicultural education, analyzes key concepts and models of multicultural education in the UK, the USA, Canada and Australia; defines their common features and differences; outlines the trends of multicultural education in the UK, the USA, Canada and Australia in the context of integration processes taking place in the global educational space. The study made it possible to conclude that the specific feature of the XXI century is a tendency for formation of multicultural space in the context of globalization and changes of the information society; multicultural education is a relatively new concept which is quite dynamic; its basis is the transformation according to the needs of constantly changing society; multicultural education should be considered as a complex progressive process of restructuring and reforming of education, the main objective of which is global reconsideration of existing deficiencies and prevention of discriminatory processes in educational practice; the formation of multicultural education in the UK, the USA, Canada and Australia took place in the second half of the XX century during the acute debate with traditional concepts of monoculturalism, assimilation, ethnocentrism, need for cultural and educational integration of immigrants, civil rights, search for compromise between subcultures, development of integration ideology of multinational civil society, needs in education as a source of social stability and economic prosperity; emphasis on the idea of racial equality of citizens and equal access of all members of society to quality education despite the differences between them in racial, ethnic, social, gender, cultural and religious attitudes differs the American interpretation of multicultural education from the British one, whose main idea is the dialogue of cultures; Higher Education of the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia is based on multicultural principles of its development and operation; although multicultural education in each country is different, the context of globalization and integration is marked by the development of common trends (increase in awareness of the needs of population, strengthening of international coordination between learning practices, tolerance towards people of other races, ethnicities and cultures).