Doing Diversity Differently in a Culturally Complex World - Critical Perspectives on Multicultural Education

Doing Diversity Differently in a Culturally Complex World explores the challenges facing multicultural education in the 21st century. It argues that the ideas fashioned in 1970s 'multiculturalism' are no longer adequate for the culturally complex world in which we now live. Much multicultural education celebrates superficial forms of difference and avoids difficult questions around culture in an age of transnational flows and hybrid identities. Megan Watkins and Greg Noble explore the understandings of multiculturalism that exist amongst teachers, parents and students. They demonstrate that ideas around culture and identity don't match the complexities of the social contexts of schooling in migrant-based nations such as Australia, the UK, the USA, Canada and New Zealand. Doing Diversity Differently in a Culturally Complex World draws on comprehensive research undertaken in Australian schools. It examines how a diverse range of schools address the challenges that 'superdiversity' poses, considering how the strengths and limitations of each school's approach reflect wider logics of traditional multiculturalism. In contrast, the authors argue for a transformative multiculturalism involving a critically reflexive approach to understanding the processes, relations and identities of the contemporary world.

With a Foreword by Fazal Rivzi, Emeritus Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA and Professor of Global Studies in Education, University of Melbourne, Australia.

List of contents

List of Figures
Foreword, Fazal Rivzi, Emeritus Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA and Professor of Global Studies in Education, University of Melbourne, Australia
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Doing Diversity Differently
1. 'Thinking' Multiculturalism and Multicultural Education
2. Questions of Identity and Culture
3. Grappling with Cultural Complexity: Knowledge Translation and Professional Learning
4. Lazy Multiculturalism: Civility, Celebration and the Limitations of Cultural Recognition
5. Engaging with Others: Constructing Educational Problems
6. From Inclusive Curriculum to Cultural Intelligence
7. Engaging with Cultural Complexity, Enhancing Professional Practice
Conclusion: Diversity Done Differently
References
Index

About the author

Megan Watkins is Professor in the School of Education and Research Fellow in the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University, Australia. She is co-author (with Greg Noble) of Disposed to Learn: Schooling, Ethnicity and the Scholarly Habitus (Bloomsbury, 2013).Greg Noble is Professor in the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University, Australia. He is co-author (with Megan Watkins) of Disposed to Learn: Schooling, Ethnicity and the Scholarly Habitus (Bloomsbury, 2013).

Summary

Doing Diversity Differently in a Culturally Complex World explores the challenges facing multicultural education in the 21st century. It argues that the ideas fashioned in 1970s ‘multiculturalism’ are no longer adequate for the culturally complex world in which we now live. Much multicultural education celebrates superficial forms of difference and avoids difficult questions around culture in an age of transnational flows and hybrid identities. Megan Watkins and Greg Noble explore the understandings of multiculturalism that exist amongst teachers, parents and students. They demonstrate that ideas around culture and identity don’t match the complexities of the social contexts of schooling in migrant-based nations such as Australia, the UK, the USA, Canada and New Zealand. Doing Diversity Differently in a Culturally Complex World draws on comprehensive research undertaken in Australian schools. It examines how a diverse range of schools address the challenges that ‘superdiversity’ poses, considering how the strengths and limitations of each school’s approach reflect wider logics of traditional multiculturalism. In contrast, the authors argue for a transformative multiculturalism involving a critically reflexive approach to understanding the processes, relations and identities of the contemporary world.

With a Foreword by Fazal Rivzi, Emeritus Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA and Professor of Global Studies in Education, University of Melbourne, Australia.

Foreword

Provides a new take on multicultural education, exploring how teachers are meeting the challenges that increasing cultural complexity now poses for their schools and communities.

Additional text

Concerning key concepts such as ethnicity and culture, Watkins and Noble investigate common understandings and offer crucially needed reconceptualization. Further, they offer important proposals for reorienting approaches to educational and social environments characterized by increasingly multifaceted characteristics. This book is a real milestone for grasping and shaping change.

Product details

• Authors: Greg Noble, Megan Watkins
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.11.2021
• EAN: 9781350012998
• ISBN: 978-1-350-01299-8
• No. of pages: 248
• Dimensions: 234 mm x 156 mm x 14 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Education > School education, didactics, methodology; EDUCATION / Professional Development, EDUCATION / Multicultural Education, Multicultural education, Educational strategies and policy