‘Cultural Diversity’ in Teacher Education: Understanding the Workings of Whiteness in Institutional Discourses

Author(s):

Sandra Fylkesnes(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

07. Social Justice and Intercultural Education

Format:

Paper (Copy for Joint Session)

Session Information

07 SES 09 D JS, Gender, Social Class and Cultural Diversity

Joint Paper Session with NW 07 and NW 10

Time:

2017-08-24

13:30-15:00

Room:

K5.02

Chair:

Susann Hofbauer

Contribution

This paper contributes to the understanding of the subtle workings of Whiteness in European teacher education institutional discourses by pointing at central knowledge-promoting actors’ discursive practices. I compare and discuss the findings of three studies (a critical, interpretative literature review; a policy and curriculum documents analysis; and a teacher educator interview analysis), which form part of my upcoming doctoral thesis. The studies analyse the discursive use of the term ‘cultural diversity’ in three knowledge-promoting domains of teacher education: (1) international research articles; (2) Norwegian national policy and curriculum documents; and (3) Norwegian teacher educators. The aim of this paper is to shed light upon how central actors in teacher education - researchers, policy makers, and teacher educators - use the term ‘cultural diversity’, and thus promote discourses of a certain worldview.

In the European context today, supranational organisations, such as the OECD and the EU, have become central actors influencing educational policy. These organisations argue that increasing demographic changes cause challenges for teacher education (OECD 2010; e.g. Van Driel, Darmody, & Kerzil, 2016). Internationally, researchers also agree that teacher education needs to ensure that student teachers gain relevant knowledge about ‘cultural diversity’ (e.g. OECD 2010; Lovdata, 2013; Ministry of Education and Research, 1009; 2010) in relation to social justice (e.g. Van Driel, Darmody, & Kerzil, 2016; UNESCO, 2015). Furthermore, these arguments influence European states’ national educational policies (e.g. Norway, see Ministry of Education and Research, 2009; 2010; Lovdata, 2013). Although the term ‘cultural diversity’ is frequently used in both policy and research (e.g. OECD 2010; Artiles, Palmer, & Trent, 2004; Banks, 2012; Banks, 2014; May & Sleeter, 2010), its meaning remains undefined and therefore not clear.

The relationship between teachers and students’ cultural-, ethnic-, and racial background has been given increased attention in international research lately. Central actors in Western/European education are mainly White, of a middle-class background and they generally identify with most of the majority’s values. This is contrary to minoritised (Adair, 2008) students’ identity experiences. Seen from a social justice perspective, these divergent identity experiences are closely linked to the ‘cultural diversity’ discourses that educational actors promote. It is therefore interesting to explore what European teacher students learn about ‘cultural diversity’ through the discourses they are exposed to during their education. In this paper, I discuss the following question: What discourse does central actors in teacher education, such as researchers, policy makers, and teacher educators, promote about ‘cultural diversity’?

The theoretical framework guiding this paper is based on perspectives central to both critical whiteness studies and critical discourse analysis. These perspectives share the aims of detecting and dismantling social hegemonic power relations. However, whilst critical whiteness studies aim at dismantling the social hegemonic power of Whiteness, critical discourse analysis aims at dismantling the hegemony of any social group mainly through the critical analysis of discourses in text. Particularly relevant in this paper are the concepts normalising/neutralising (e.g. Frankenberg, 1993); othering (cf. Said, 2003); binaries; ideology (Van Dijk, 2006); and discursive hierarchy (Goldberg, 1993). When central knowledge-promoting actors in teacher education use the term ‘cultural diversity’, they do not only produce certain objects of discourse (Goldberg, 2006), but they also reveal their positionality and implicit understanding of the world.

Method

The three studies compared in this paper build on data collected from three different knowledge-promoting domains of teacher education: (1) a critical interpretative literature review that consists of 67 international studies on teacher education (Fylkesnes, forthcoming); (2) an analysis of six national policy and curriculum documents (Fylkesnes, forthcoming); and an analysis of 12 individual interviews with teacher educators (Fylkesnes, Mausethagen, & Nilsen, forthcoming). Even though the data consist of texts collected from three different domains, the strategy for analysing the data was similar: an analytical strategy of three readings was used (inspired by Søreide, 200; Mausethagen & Granlund, 2012). In the first reading, the term ‘cultural diversity’ served as a starting point for obtaining an overview of terms related to it. A ‘word-search’ strategy was applied for all three domains. The purpose of this reading was to identify and map the terms that co-occured prominently and frequently with ‘cultural diversity’. In the second reading, excerpts from the first reading’s mapping of terms were drawn. This was done with the purpose of enabling a deeper analysis and understanding of the usage of ‘cultural diversity’ and its related terms through their representations and descriptions. The third reading built further on the analyses of the first two readings. In this reading, the focus was on synthesising and comparing how ‘cultural diversity’ and its related terms promoted patterns of certain discourses of ‘cultural diversity’.

Expected Outcomes

The analyses across the three domains showed a consistency in the use of ‘cultural diversity’, but that the three domains produced three different discursive logics. In all three studies ‘cultural diversity’ was primarily related to the term ‘multicultural’ and sometimes used interchangeably or replaced by it. In addition, the terms ‘cultural diversity’ and ‘multicultural’ both referred to terms and descriptions that represented ‘the Other', mainly in forms of racial and ethnic difference .‘Cultural diversity’ represented as ‘the Other was found to rest upon an assumed, but not necessarily explicit or visible, presence of Whiteness. Whiteness here refers to White bodies (e.g. student teachers or students), White values (e.g. ways of behaving) and White privilege (e.g. property in forms of entitlements and restrictions of ownership). In all three domains, the knowledge-promoting actors explicitly claimed to promote social justice, were positive towards ‘cultural diversity’, and understood the term as central to teacher education. Nonetheless, by comparing the three studies and uncovering ‘cultural diversity’ as ‘Other’, three rather distinct discursive patterns were found. These patterns pointed to an overall uniform knowledge-promoting discursive practice that discriminated ‘cultural diversity’ from certain privileged discursive positions. In spite of central knowledge-promoting actors’ concern with social justice and their positive attitudes towards ‘cultural diversity’, I argue that the discursive patterns found represent a uniform discursive practice that conflate the meaning of ‘cultural diversity’ with the Other. As such, this practice contributes to the reproduction of existing social power structures and constitutes the hegemony of Whiteness through the promotion of discourses featured by White supremacy (Gillborn, 2008).

References

Adair, J. (2008). White Pre-Servioce Teachers and "De-Privledging Spaces". Teacher Education Quarterly, 35(4), 189-206. Artiles, A. J., Palmer, J. D., & Trent, S. C. (2004). Culturally Diverse Students in Special Education - Legacies and Prospects. In J. A. Banks & C. A. M. Banks (Eds.), Handbook of research on multicultural education (pp. 716-735). San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass. Banks, J. A. (2012). Encyclopedia of diversity in education. Los Angeles: Sage. Banks, J. A. (2014). Cultural diversity and education: foundations, curriculum, and teaching. Boston: Pearson. Frankenberg, R. (1993). White women, race matters: the social construction of whiteness. London: Routledge. Gillborn, D. (2008). Racism and Education. Coincidence or Conspiracy? New York: Routledge. Goldberg, D. T. (1993). Racist culture : philosophy and the politics of meaning. Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell Ministry of Edcuation and Research. (2009). Læreren: rollen og utdanningen (Vol. nr. 11 (2008-2009)). [Oslo]: [Regjeringen]. Ministry of Edcuation and Research. (2010). Nasjonale Retningslinjer for Grunnskolelærerutdanningen, 1.-7- trinn Oslo: Retrieved from http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/KD/Rundskriv/2010/Retningslinjer_grunnskolelaererutdanningen_1_7_trinn.pdf#page=1&zoom=auto,0,792. Lovdata. (2013). Lov om grunnskolen og den videregående opplæringa (opplæringslova). Lovdata. Retrieved from http://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/1998-07-17-61 Mausethagen, S., & Granlund, L. (2012). Contested discourses of teacher professionalism: current tensions between education policy and teachers’ union. Journal of Education Policy, 27(6), 815-833. doi: 10.1080/02680939.2012.672656 May, S., & Sleeter, C. E. (2010). Introduction, Critical Multiculturalism: Theory and Praxis. In S. May & C. E. Sleeter (Eds.), Critical multiculturalism: theory and praxis (pp. 1-16). New York: Routledge. OECD. (2010). Educating Teachers for Diversity: Meeting the Challenge Educational Research and Innovation: OECD Publishing. Said, E. W. (2003). Orientalism. London: Penguin Books. Søreide, G. (2007). Narrative construction of teacher identity. [PhD- thesis], University of Bergen, Bergen Retrieved from http://bora.uib.no/handle/1956/2532 UNESCO. (2015). Education 2030. Incheon Declaration. Towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all. Retrieved 26.09.2016, From: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002432/243278e.pdf Van Dijk, T. A. (2006). Ideology and discourse analysis. Journal of Political Ideologies, 11(2), 115-140. doi: 10.1080/13569310600687908 Van Driel, B., Darmody, M., Kerzil, J., (2016). Education policies and practices to foster tolerance, respect for diversity and civic responsibility in children and young people in the EU. [NESET II report]. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. doi:10.2766/46172.

Author Information

Sandra Fylkesnes (presenting / submitting)

Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway

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