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.
