Towards a critical pedagogy of diversity

This project lays out a critical approach towards a pedagogy of diversity that takes social inequality among children as a starting point and reflects on how social processes at school transform social inequality into educational inequality. The project investigates the ideological foundations in intercultural pedagogical theories as well as their inherent socio-cultural and egalitarian excesses. It also proposes an epistemological shift in perspective with particular emphasis on a) integrating pedagogical actions with theories on social inequality, especially theories by Bourdieu, Foucault and Goffman; b) the significance of the classroom as the junction where social inequality meets, i.e. gender, ethnicity, talent, language, social class, etc.; c) determining the measures necessary to diminish social exclusion at the level of the microcosm comprised by the classroom. The project equally inquires into the role teacher training and the curricula play in this area.