Productive engagements with student difference: Supporting equity through cultural recognition

Abstract

In this paper, the focus is on how a group of Australian educators support student equity through cultural recognition. Young's theorising of justice is drawn on to illuminate the problematic impacts arising from the group's efforts to value students’ cultural difference associated, for example, with quantifying justice along distributive lines and with essentialising student difference as negation and lack within a frame of cultural imperialism. These theoretical tools draw attention to, and support a critical examination of, the social rules and relations within the school that create barriers to equity. Towards reconciling discrepancies relating to how student difference might best be supported, the paper endorses the prevailing imperative of centring students’ perspectives and experiences. Such centring remains crucial to educators recognising the partiality and interest within their attempts to ‘help’ marginalised students and disrupting the relations of teacher privilege and authority that reinscribe domination, control and exclusion.

Doubts about Religious Education in public schooling

“…Likewise, it has also been argued that minority ethnic and cultural groups can be stigmatized by political agendas that seek to make schools and society more equitable (Archer and Francis, 2006). Forms of education that aim to address prejudice and inequality, such as ignorance and prejudice about religions, could reinforce those differences rather than combatting them by creating a discourse of 'the other' in juxtaposition with the normal (Keddie and Niesche, 2012). This is because in creating a discourse of 'otherness', minority groups can be essentialized as static and inferior (Gore, 1992;Said, 2003).…”

The identity game: constructing and enabling multicultural identities in a Finland–Swedish school setting

“…This article builds on previous research on race/ethnic relations in schools from an equity point of view, in particular on the beneficial consequences of a positive ethnic minority identity for sense of self, school belonging and ensuing academic achievement (see Goodenow & Grady, ; Cummins, ; Chavous et al ., ; Keddie & Niesche, ). For example, Wong et al .…”

“…We foreground the importance of listening to students' voices and seeing issues from their perspectives to find common understandings from which the educational efforts can have a starting‐point (cf. McCluskey et al ., ; see also Keddie & Niesche, ).…”

“…The importance of affirming the bilingual and bicultural identities of children and teenagers for positive identity construction and personal empowerment is often stated by researchers and in educational policy documents, particularly considering its relation to educational achievement (see Cummins, , e.g., pp. 40–46; OECD, ; see also Keddie & Niesche, ). In the UK context, for example, policy documents such as DCLG (e.g., , pp.…”

Using modelling to make culturally responsive pedagogy explicit in preservice teacher education in Finland

“…Although multiculturalism might be discussed in teacher education, teachers still often feel unprepared and uncertain how to respond to cultural diversity in the classroom (Seidl, ; Mansikka & Holm, ; Keddie & Niesche, ; Acquah, ; Szelei et al ., ). These challenges continue to raise questions for initial teacher education, and how cultural diversity perspectives are taught: the marginal position of the subject; the way courses tend to transmit superficial understandings, often contradictory to the goals of social justice; and the little influence they have in actually preparing teachers to develop pedagogies in diverse contexts (Conklin, ; Gorski, , ; Lander, ; Bottiani et al ., ).…”