Grappling with Diversity

Book excerpt: Written for classroom and pre-service teachers who wish to adopt a "civil rights pedagogy," Grappling with Diversity illuminates the diverse worldviews of people in our nation's history who are usually omitted, marginalized, or misrepresented in the American school curriculum. In order to prepare young people to interact in a variety of contexts with people who are different from themselves, the contributors take a serious look at teaching them to examine the origins and assumptions underlying mainstream thinking, which divides the nation into North and South, us and them, rich and poor, black and white, and to analyze alternative educational frameworks for understanding people and the planet. They also explore the concept of privilege by asking which stories are privileged in contemporary culture, what readings are available, and whose interests are served by them.