Encountering an-other: The culture of curriculum and inclusive pedagogies

Abstract

I am interested in the multiple ways culture is understood and practiced in demographically diverse and internationally networked classrooms, in the relationship between these practices and the categorization of identities, and in the implications of these understandings for the development of inclusive pedagogies. My focus in this chapter is on the ways that teachers understand culture when they discuss their teaching practice for fee-paying international students, on the relationship between these understandings and the identification of their students, and on the consequences of their thinking for the ways in which students are included within the school. Contemporary curriculum initiatives call for pedagogies that provide all students (including international students) with access to thinking, interrogative, and life skills for a globalized world. The normative terms and systemic conditions that frame the ways that teachers approach their teaching are mediated by other notions, including those of belonging, identification, and the culture of science education. These need to be interrogated as a way to provide more inclusive education for all students in schools.