Educating for Diversity and Social Justice by Amanda Keddie (2011)

Keddie, A. (2011). Educating for Diversity and Social Justice. Routledge Research in Education. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group


I'm taking a quick break from graduate school to write a book review.  Today I realized that this book wasn't even required reading, it was only suggested reading for one of my modules. But, I read it from cover to cover and I don't regret it at all.

Amanda Keddie's Educating for Diversity and Social Justice uses 3 case studies in Queensland, Australia to provide examples for social justice work in practice. She uses the work of Nancy Fraser (3 dimensions of justice: cultural, political, and socioeconomic) and Iris Young (5 faces of oppression: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence) as a framework for analysis within her 3 case studies. I'm glad this was my first introduction to the work of these two women because I learn better from narrative and examples and they've come up a lot in subsequent reading. Educating for Diversity and Social Justice makes an excellent introductory text to the topic of social justice in education

Keddie's case studies were very easy to follow, starting from a very specific examples to one that was more broad and employed practices that could be employed almost anywhere. I liked how she addressed topics of position and showed how all of the educators reflect on their own positions and how they can relate back to their students who come from marginalised backgrounds. She also stresses that that one does not need come from a marginalized group themselves to be an effective and transformative educator for students from these backgrounds. She illustrates the complexities of working in multicultural schools, and how a solution that works with one particular marginalized group will not always work with another and warns of the dangers of taking a one-size-fits all approach to educational programs. In any case, I think there are ideas from these 3 case studies that could be implemented in a variety of settings.

I predict that this is one of the books that I will remember through to the end graduate school and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who is working at a school that is addressing any of these issues. 

Reading and Note Taking

Since the term began I've had to attend several sessions related to the topic of what it means to be in graduate school, namely the importance of reading and critically analyzing what what said. I've been told that to do well in graduate school is to read a wide range of primary and secondary sources and keep good notes.

I've also had to attend several sessions on plagiarism and how to avoid it. One of the reasons mentioned for the reason that people get caught plagiarizing is that they fail to keep good notes and they may mistake an author's idea for their own. I don't now how common this actually is but okay, point taken.

The other thing that took quite a bit of time in the first week is the Library Induction. I've been out of school for quite some time so this particular session came as a shock to me - OMG there is so much information out there!!! When I did my undergraduate degree the main limitation was what information we had access too, now we are limited by our ability to absorb and comprehend that information. The volume of just the resources and databases available to find information alone pretty much gave me a migraine. Of course with this amount of information at our finger tips somebody has already made the tools to keep track of all that information.

I use a tablet when I'm out and about so it's hand to keep all my reading on it when I'm riding the train or waiting for a bus. The app that I've found most handy is PaperShip for highlighting and keeping notes on each article that I read. It also has a handy feature which will import all the bibliographic data if you upload the article from a library database and links to Zotero so you can access all of it from your laptop or desktop. I've also been keeping track of bibliographic data in RefWorks because I get a free copy from my school but I've mainly been using it as a backup to Zotero.

Of course, I'm also pretty old school and I simply can't retain information unless I've written it out by hand so I usually go back after I've read the article and summarize all my highlights and notes in a small spiral bound notebook when I get home. My professor suggests starting off your notes on an article with the following 4 key point summary:

1. What is this study about?
2. What was their methodology?
3. What is the sample and sample size?
4. What was the argument made?

I write out my notes for physical books by hand on lined paper or in a larger spiral bound notebook. You should find a scheme that works for you but I do this:

• red pen is for articles and studies that are cited in the article or book I've just read and I should look that up later. I don't always read all of them but if I notice that it's come up a lot in one particular book or in other books then I will go find it in the library. 
• blue pen is for summarizing or paraphrasing the author's main points.
• black pen is for my own thoughts and questions concerning what the author has written to avoid plagiarizing later. 

I think that's enough for now - signing off!

Why, hello!

I decided to start a new blog to capture all of my thoughts and discoveries in grad school. For privacy reasons I've decided not to explicitly say anything about my program, professors, or university but of course some things will become more clear as the blog unfolds - and also because I don't like the idea of this site coming up on search engines when people search for my university or program.

My hope is that this blog will be a journal of the tools that find in researching my dissertation although the occasional book review or journal article may drop in from time to time when I find something juicy. I mostly keep this for myself to document the journey so that I don't bore my friends and loved ones with all the details of my dissertation and studies but another reason I keep this blog is for my friend Alice who will be applying for grad school very soon as well.

Well then, time to get to it.