Education and the Politics of Difference : Canadian Perspectives

This book tackles the role education can play in the peaceful and productive globalization of difference. The authors focus on how the politics of difference influences and is influenced by educational programs, and provisions in Canadian, and in other parts of the world. Dr. Ghosh and Dr. Abdi discuss theories of knowledge, and examine how these define and represent new and established notions, practices of schooling, and social development. This book tackles the role education can play in dealing productively and peacefully with the challenges of the "localization" as well as the globalization of difference. The authors focus on how the politics of difference influences and is influenced by educational programs and provisions in Canada and, possibly, elsewhere in the world. They also discuss how different theories of knowledge define and represent new and established notions and practices of schooling and social development. Important factors, such as social class, race, and gender, are explored in the authors' investigation of the politics of difference in spaces of public schooling. Ghosh and Abdi contend that despite the rhetoric of official multiculturalism, and multicultural education, the realities on the ground still depict a Canadian public space in which cultural minorities and the peoples of First Nations continue to be, relatively speaking, marginalized. The authors conclude that with the continuities of the Euro-centered focus, these policies and their possible praxes have not achieved the desired goals of "true" multiculturalism. Following acknowledgements, and an introduction, the book contains five chapters: (1) Schooling and Society: Perspectives on Knowledge, Culture and Difference; (2) Issues in Multicultural Education; (3) Multicultural Policy and Multicultural Education: A Canadian Case Study; (4) Education and the Globalization of Difference with Reference to the Post-September 11 World; and (5) Multicultural Education in the Future. References are also included "This book tackles the role education can play in dealing productively and peacefully with the challenges of the "localization" as well as the globalization of difference. The authors focus on how the politics of difference influences and is influenced by educational programs and provisions in Canada and, possibly, elsewhere in the world. They also discuss how different theories of knowledge define and represent new and established notions and practices of schooling and social development."--Jacket