Abstract
In this article I explore the implications of the educational use of diversity in current discourse and practice. I argue that the current recognition of differences through the emphasis on social identity is just the continuity of the logic that traditionally has responded to otherness through suppression or possession. The central idea is that the category of diversity, even if it is used in the educational sphere as a purveyor of recognition of otherness, hides in reality a fear of the other, as it comes from the consideration of human beings in terms of power (on/of the other or against her). The result of this fear is the attempt to decode the other by enclosing her in an alienated and standardized identity. Finally I will propose dependence as a main educational category that understands humans as recipients of other beings, thus values as responsibility, gratitude and generosity become prominent over those of respect or tolerance.
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Notes
The argument presented in the text has been concluded from a revision of the latest literature using as key words “diversity education”, “identity education” and “pedagogy of difference”, with the aim of locating the way in which diversity is being understood in educational literature. Terms as multicultural education, gender education, inclusive education, and so on, have been excluded from the search, as they explicitly address to specific ways of understanding diversity. For contrasting the literature review see, as an example, Gonçalves and Carpenter (2013), Gorski and Pothini (2014), Hyde (2013), Keddie (2012), Little et al. (2014), Maurianne (2000), Maurianne (2007), Reynolds and Trehan (2001), Sanchez-Casal and MacDonald (2009) and Westwood (2013). All those texts, even if their titles announce diversity and difference, inside they categorize it as structural differences, as culture, race, gender, religion, and so on.
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Prieto, M. The Other from an Educational Perspective: Beyond Fear, Dependence. Stud Philos Educ 34, 297–309 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-014-9442-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-014-9442-3