Education and Otherness

Kevin Kumashiro's article, "Toward a Theory of Anti-Oppressive Education", takes the closest look at the "Other", as he calls it, and the implications of the educational environment on the other that I have ever read. I thought this article was very dense in its amount of information (and I don't mean this in a bad way) and explores every possible consideration one may have when it comes to the concept of the "other" in an educational setting. Because this was the case, I ended up having to rethink or reexamine the ways I had previously viewed certain aspects of education. One point he made in particular really struck a chord with me and that is that when we use multicultural literature in a classroom, we should be using it not to have our students simply learn about another type of person's experience, but to use that reading to also deconstruct the hierarchy of power in place between normal and other. He also said that often times reading this multicultural literature and talking about these issues leads to empathy, but that empathy should not be the final goal. Again, it should be to deconstruct the partial knowledge that is in place surrounding those who are othered. Before reading this article, I think I was in the group of people Kumashiro was talking about that only have empathy in mind. I can't feel too bad about this, though, because empathy is a good trait, but, again, not the end all be all in this specific discussion. I now see that I, and we as educators, must go beyond even our good intentions and really seek fundamental change when it comes to how certain groups of people are treated and educated in our schools. And as this article points out, as we try to do this, we will keep coming across more and more considerations and obstacles, but we must not be deterred for the sake of each and every one of our students.