Assimilation and celebration?: Discourses of difference and the application of critical diversity literacy in education

Reygan, Finn; Walton, Elizabeth; Osman, Ruksana

Abstract

Globally, classrooms have become more complex and more demanding spaces for teaching and learning in recent years. This is the result of the interplay of numerous factors, which include the demands of late capitalism and the impact of social media. 1 In addition, diversity in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, dis/ability, age, ethnicity, and language, among other identity markers, has become a defining feature of schools. As a result, teachers need to be increasingly ‘diversity literate’ to negotiate the demands of the classroom. The challenge teacher educators now face is to determine how best to educate a generation of teachers with a sophisticated understanding of the diverse identities of their learners, as well as how these identities intersect. This is important because not all identities are equally valorised in schools and society, and oppression is experienced by those whose identities are not valued. Indeed, multiple axes of oppression converge to determine the scholastic outcomes – and life courses – of particular groups of learners. Grant and Zwier (2011, p. 182) contend that there is a “need for theory and practice that would consider the intersection of multiple identities and how these [produce] lived experiences of oppression and privilege”. This leads us to ask: What are the determining discourses around difference that pervade school settings and what is both foregrounded and repressed in these discourses? And: How can teachers be equipped to move beyond outmoded ways of thinking about difference and diversity 2 so as to create genuinely inclusive school spaces?

Citation

Reygan, F., Walton, E., & Osman, R. (2018). Assimilation and celebration?: Discourses of difference and the application of critical diversity literacy in education. In Teacher Education for Diversity: Conversations from the Global South (1-20). Routledge

• Online Publication Date: Feb 19, 2018
• Publication Date: 2018
• Deposit Date: Jul 19, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 24, 2024
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 1-20
• Book Title: Teacher Education for Diversity: Conversations from the Global South
• Chapter Number: 1
• ISBN: 9781315209418
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/37310147
• Publisher URL: https://uat.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781315209418-1/assimilation-celebration-finn-reygan-elizabeth-walton-ruksana-osman