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About 90% of the teachers in the United States are White, which is mirrored at the preservice level. In addition, schools of education have historically grounded their curricula in cannons of positivist science and Eurocentrism that are transmitted through conventional styles of pedagogy. Given the apartheid nature of U.S society and the disinterest and/or resistance of preservice teachers to teach in urban settings where students of color are the norm, teacher educators need to help their students develop the dispositions they need to rethink their assumptions about "others." Using dramaturgy, this self-study demonstrates how the connection of multiple epistemologies and other emancipatory pedagogies can stimulate the dispositions needed to rethink assumptions about the children and adults who live in communities of color.

Diversity is a highly popular and oft-used term and concept in K-12 and higher education. This literature review examines the dominant discourse on diversity-a discourse that positions difference as deficit. Although traditional schooling has been resistant to system-wide change, this review will also consider research showing teachers as well positioned to make emancipatory choices-critically engaging in and demonstrating values and classroom practices that can counteract the limited knowledge and normative practices so common in schools today. This review concludes with a discussion of an emancipatory model of education that educators can build on as part of a paradigm shift grounded in the Black Studies intellectual tradition. This model represents an alternative to the hierarchy of human worth embedded in the predominant conception of diversity. By moving past the constraints of traditional schooling, emancipatory educators can affirm the collective humanity of all students-teachers-families and the cultures and groups they represent.