A Fervent Need and Desire for Affirmation of Diversity
There is a fervent need and desire for affirming diversity and insisting on equity and social justice in our communities, schools and other public places. In a paper I published, I addressed the various ways in which society, our schools, leaders and teachers attempt to bring their quest for equity and social justice to life. While affirming one of the approaches used by these various parties, I challenged them to move beyond celebration of diversity to another level – from what I call “Eating the other multiculturalism (ETOM) to another level that requires more proactive polices, strategies, teaching approaches, and a general perspective of diversity as something to celebrated only when all the people equal access and are welcome. We cannot bring about equity if we don’t all start at the same level.
Providing Shoes That Fit
Insisting on equity means making sure that we don’t give the same size of shoes to ALL but taking care to ensure that the shoes reflect the various foot sizes of the people they are meant for. To gain a more insight of the recommendations I made to school leaders and teachers, please see my article: Reexamining the Concept Multicultural Education: Recommendation for Moving beyond “Eating the other Multiculturalism”, published in the Spring 2016 volume Journal of Intercultural Disciplines. It is important to move beyond a superficial conception of multiculturalism to a focus on social justice and equity with issues. My paper re-examines the concept and its pedagogical implications.
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Sidonia Jessie Alenuma-Nimoh
Associate Professor of Education
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