Made in the (Multicultural) U.S.A.: Unpacking Tensions of Race, Culture, Gender, and Sexuality in Education

Abstract

The author discusses the challenges of educating teachers to engage, rather than deny or repress, differences that emerge at the dynamic, context-specific intersections of race, culture, gender, and sexuality. Although multicultural education discourse is well established, stereotypic representations and repressive silences persist in the sphere of practice. Interweaving postcolonial and feminist theories with reflections emerging from her multicultural teacher education practice, the author highlights tensions of doing multicultural work. She discusses how silencing forces operate even in seemingly “open” micro and macro contexts. To illustrate these arguments, the author engages two areas that have received limited attention in multicultural discourse itself: representations of Asian Americans and differences of sexuality. She recommends that the multicultural teacher education classroom serve as a site for modeling critical, self-reflexive engagement with difference and democratic participation, even as she acknowledges the limits of individual efforts in the process of educational and social change.