Deliberating through Group Differences in Education for Trust and Respect

Abstract

Introduction In an educational setting with students from a variety of cultural, ethnic, and social backgrounds, there is abiding challenge of fostering mutual respect in spite of conflicting beliefs. The extent of disagreement falls along a continuum. A limited kind can be sub-cultural differences among members of same culture. For example, some Caucasian students from one geographical region or socioeconomic status hold one view, relative to their culture, about appropriate forms of expression differs from Caucasians in other regions. Another form of difference would be broader definition of family held by cultures from South and Latin American countries compared with a definition of family, as primarily nuclear, characterizes American middle-class ideal. In American context, competition among groups (e.g., Caucasians, African Americans, Native Americans, those of so-called Hispanic descent from Caribbean, South and Latin America) over whose narrative will be socially and politically determinant constitutes a form of conflict. The Jewish and Palestinian cultures, which have differing religious beliefs and political views regarding Jerusalem, are exemplars of extreme differences. In Nicholas Appleton's (1983) view, cultural occurs when there is disagreement between different groups; when culturally, ethnically, or racially identifiable groups clash over material rewards, status, power or values (p. 157). The most significant aspect of Appleton's definition of conflict for purpose of this article is conflict is based on cultural, ethnic, or racial distinctiveness of contending parties. The question I am addressing is: In context of differing conceptions of life in a democracy, on what basis can education encourage mutual respect for beliefs of others without illiberally imposing a particular moral or political view? Or, relatedly, how should respect be fostered in a democracy given differences among ways of life? As a proponent of democratic deliberation, Amy Gutmann maintains schools can promote respect through implementing principles and procedures of deliberative democracy in a of or public acknowledgement of minority beliefs and their significance for political, social, and educational policy. For Gutmann (2004), this approach recognizes the role differences have played in shaping society and world in which children live (p. 71). I argue despite Gutmann's cogent efforts to accommodate a plurality of views in politics of recognition within a deliberative democratic framework, for a multicultural democratic society, Gutmann's form of falls short of moral ideal of civic equality fosters mutual respect. I develop and elaborate upon this critique of Gutmann below. Democratic Deliberation, Gutmann, and Respect The body of Gutman's work on democratic fits within a fairly recent discourse on morally legitimate forms of government in society. Over last 30 years, democratic theory emerged in political philosophy literature as participatory politics has gained prominence on political front. It has done so as a counter reaction to liberalism and its institutions, in 1950s and 1960s, were intended to promote and preserve human flourishing but instead were exposed as failed bureaucracies (e.g., military, education, Congress). As Bohman and Rehg (1996) explain in their seminal text on deliberative democracy, two central tenets characterize deliberative democracy. The first is that constrains citizens to cast their proposals in relation to common good and second is deliberation should improve decision-making (p. xiv). (1) Gutman's work is particularly concerned with second claim, particularly given fact of pluralism in society. …