Session Information
04 SES 08C, Identity and Difference
Paper Session
Time:
2008-09-12
08:30-10:00
Room:
AK2 138
Chair:
Anne-Lise Arnesen
Contribution
Academic discourses on educational responses to differences among students tend to focus on the most evident ways in which identity and difference reveal themselves, to the neglect of less visible aspects of difference, which are often excluded from official discourses, although they may be significant from the standpoint of those who experience them. Indeed, many discourses about difference are focused on highly visible instances of difference (related to dimensions like race and gender, for example) and, through rhetoric that emphasises advocacy of minorities, end up by privileging the majority among the minority. In this paper, I will argue that this tendency hinders the development of a fully inclusive approach to curriculum and instruction.
I will also comment on the fact that various dimensions of difference that operate in educational contexts have become the objects of study of academic specialities, such as multicultural education, education of students with Special Educational Needs, and gifted education. These fields have produced discourses that, being naturally focused on specific aspects of difference, are sometimes extended to difference at large and in some cases are used to claim some leadership in the construction of innovative approaches to difference in general. This specialisation in the study of difference has the advantage of allowing for the deepening of one’s knowledge on one or more of its dimensions. But the usage that is made of that specialised knowledge often loses sight of the multidimensional nature of difference and becomes locked in categorisations whose educational value is small, because they are limited to artificially isolated aspects of students’ identity.
Finally, I will argue that Curriculum Theory and Development, – which, when deployed in inclusive systems, searches for answers to the question “what to teach to every student?” – can play a more central role as a source of discourses that are naturally open to all the dimensions of difference (including the least visible ones) that can operate in school. Some approaches within this field, especially those that have been influenced by Cultural Studies, have frequently addressed issues of difference among students by raising the question “how are identity and difference produced?” (Silva, 2000, p. 99). From an inclusive point of view, curriculum theorists cannot simply discuss identity and difference themselves or how they are produced. The discussion needs to be focused on how identity and difference affect the relationship of students with the knowledge valued by school, and, consequently, how they affect learning. From a curricular perspective, more than raising questions about where the specificity of each individual comes from, it is crucial to raise and answer questions that allow us to understand “where the specificity of each individual’s way of learning comes from” (Roldão, 2003, p. 57). Locating these questions at the centre of research on curriculum and curriculum differentiation avoids, on the one hand, that discussions on identity and difference in educational contexts lose sight of the school’s central aim – the promotion of learning. On the other hand, it prevents the conceptualisation of differentiation from being reduced to the idea of response to difficulty or easiness in learning.
Method
This essay is based on a review of theoretical texts. It also deploys some findings from empirical research.
Expected Outcomes
I expect to emphasise the central role that Curriculum Theory and Development can play in the construction of responses to differences that affect students’ work in school, without rejecting the contribution of fields of study that are more specialised in specific aspects of difference.
References
Roldão, M. C. (2003). Diferenciação curricular revisitada. Porto: Porto Editora. Silva, T. T. (2000). A produção social da identidade e da diferença. In T. T. Silva (Org.), Identidade e diferença: A perspectiva dos estudos culturais (pp. 73-102). Petrópolis: Vozes.
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