Education and Social Justice:Diversity and Intersectionality

Hanna RagnarsdóttirNERA 2012

Network 14: Preconference March 8

Education and Social Justice• Paulo Freire (1998):

„The struggle to bring dignity to the practice of teaching is as much a part of the activity of teaching as is the respect that the teacher should have for the identity of the student, for the student himself or herself, and his or her right to be.“ (p. 64)

„ … in the context of true learning, the learners will be engaged in a continuous transformation through which they become authentic subjects of the construction and reconstruction of what is being taught, side by side with the teacher, who is equally subject to the same process.“ (p. 33)

NERA 2012: Preconference March 8

Theoretical framework

• Key concepts for discussion:– Diversity – Intersectionality– Multiplicity

NERA 2012: Preconference March 8

Diversity and the multicultural

• Why problematic?– Who and what do these concepts refer to?– Problem of referring only to the „other“– Symbolic, constructed rather than critical?– Not addressing underlying unjustice and

construction of differences.– Focusing on culture, excluding other

diversities?

NERA 2012: Preconference March 8

Diversity

• According to Vertovec and Wessendorf (2010), „diversity“ emerged in part as a kind of transference from a corporatist, or group-ist approach to ethnic minority incorporation … towards more individual modes of inclusion.

NERA 2012: Preconference March 8

Steven Vertovec (2009):„Diversity is not what it used to be“

• From (so-conceived) population segments based on class, region and, especially large ethnic minority groups.

• To far more complex, multiple, cross-cutting, self-identified/mobilized, categories of ´difference´.

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Fazal Rizvi (2010): ‘Re-thinking Issues of Diversity within the Context of an Emergent Transnationalism’

• Diversity cannot be read against a universal set of criteria.

• The moral claims surrounding diversity are contextually specific.

• The multiple ways in which people now experience, interpret, negotiate and work with diversity are affected by factors that are deeply shaped by the emerging patterns of global mobility and interconnectivity.

NERA 2012: Preconference March 8

Intersectionality• The theory of Intersectionality seeks to examine the

ways in which various socially and culturally constructed categories interact on multiple levels to manifest themselves as inequality in society.

• Intersectionality holds that the classical models of oppression within society, such as those based on race/ ethnicity, gender, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, class, or disability do not act independently of one another; instead, these forms of oppression interrelate creating a system of oppression that reflects the "intersection" of multiple forms of discrimination.

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Deleuze and Guattari• Rhizome – „an acentred, nonhierarchical,

nonsignifying system without a General and without an organizing memory or central automaton, defined solely by the circulation of states“(1987, p. 21).

• Rhizomes … are networks, cut across borders ... build links between preexisting gaps and between nodes that are separated by categories and orders of segmented thinking, acting and being.

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Deleuze and Guattari

• Rhizomes develop and function according to six fundamental principles: Connection, heterogeneity, multiplicity, asignifying rupture, cartography and decalcomania.

• The principle of multiplicity: A rhizomatic system is comprised of a multiplicity of lines and connections. Multiplicity celebrates plurality and proliferative modes of thinking, acting and being.

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Research and teaching• Research and Research Networks, f.ex. NERA:

– Multicultural Educational Research– Inclusive Education

• Teacher Education and Educational Studies in Higher Education

– Separation of f.ex. Inclusive Education, Multicultural Education, Special Education.

– Importance of multiplicity and intersectionality, joining the various areas of teaching and research.

– Danger of losing sight of the multiple issues that need to be addressed.

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Conclusion and next steps

• New concepts and paradigms replacing multicultural education and research?

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References• Darder, A., Baltodano, M. P. & Torres, R. D. (2009). Critical pedagogy: An

introduction. In A. Darder, M. Baltodano & R. D. Torres (eds.), The critical pedagogy reader. New York: Routledge.

• Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

• Dimitriadis, G. and Kamberelis, G. (2006). Theory for education. New York: Routledge.

• Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom: Ethics, democracy, and civic courage. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

• Rizvi, F. (2010). ‘Re-thinking Issues of Diversity within the Context of an Emergent Transnationalism. Invited Keynote Lecture. ECER conference, Helsinki.

• Vertovec, S. (2009). Conceiving diversity. Lecture at Einstein Forum (Potsdam), 11.11.2009

• Vertovec, S. & Wessendorf, S. (2010). Introduction. In S. Vertovec & S. Wessendorf (eds.), The multiculturalism backlash: European discourses, policies and practices. London: Routledge.

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