Engaging the Discourse of Diversity: Educators' Frameworks for Working with Linguistic and Cultural Difference

Abstract

Although plurality and diversity are often taken as givens in the ongoing conversation on the role of public schooling, practitioners do not necessarily share the same understandings of these sociological facts. This article explores ways in which teachers who are committed to working within ethnically and linguistically diverse settings make sense of their professional missions. We examine these ways through the lens, or interpretative framework, of scholarly discussions on discourse and subjectivity. We present four discourses for understanding diversity that we encountered in our professional development work with teachers in two urban school settings in Ontario, Canada. To represent the core narratives associated with these discourses, we use the following templates: difference as deficit; preparing minority students and families to facilitate the school's agenda; intercultural sensitivity as a pedagogic tool; and diversity as curriculum. The respective different understandings and rhetorical practices aligning to these templates impacted classroom curriculum, students' socialisation within the school, and the relationship between school, home and community.