The difficulty with difference in teacher education: Toward a pedagogy of compassion

Abstract

In this article we consider possibilities for addressing the dilemmas and difficulties that often arise in preparing beginning teachers for culturally diverse classrooms. Based on our research and personal experiences in teacher education classes and informed by psychoanalytic theory, we discuss student teachers' possible resistance to the "difficult knowledge" of racism and oppression We suggest that a pedagogy of compassion may offer potential for opening productive conversations with our students on questions of cultural difference and teaching.