Engaging Difference

Engaging Difference brings a breath of fresh air into the professional development for educators engaged in K-12 as well as higher education environments. As the classrooms across the United States are becoming more diverse, we as faculty, administrators, tutors and advisors must keep pace with the multilayered, intersectional identities of the students whom we serve. We must stay ahead of the curve with new concepts, approaches and best practices through which we can reach the students and support their academic, personal and professional growth. This unique volume offers equally multifaceted approaches to theory and practice which help us understand and work effectively with the current and incoming student populations. Budryte and Boykin build an exceptional anthology of resources, advice, and tools, practical and applicable in their scope and depth across all fields of education. -- Anna M. Kuthy, PhD, Director, Ursuline Center for Teaching and Learning, Brescia University, Owensboro, KY
This book is without doubt a great contribution to the literature on teaching and learning.By carefully reflecting on how to understand and respect both students and instructors as individuals, the volume opens a necessary critical space to reflect on the relationship between education, culture, and intersectionality. I strongly believe this volume provides a concise and readable introduction to the theme. The chapters are well crafted as they explore several possibilities to bring sensitive topics to class - including major global experiences, such as the Holocaust or the cultural dominance imposed by Western academic standards to other cultures. This highlight reflects the editors’ concern on bringing contributors from multiple areas and cultures to the debate. I am particularly grateful to how the chapters have the potential to contribute to the development of active teaching and learning methods. The key aspect that guides these methods is the ability of creating meaningful connections between the learned and the object of study in order to enhance the learning process. This volume richly provides examples and experiences on how to engage students by offering instructors the tools to understand each student and each class as unique. -- Marcelo M. Valeņca, PhD, Faculty, State University of Rio de Janeiro
There is a common knowledge that education is a crucial institution which deeply affects society’s mindset and value system and makes impact on all social structures. In the 21th century education undergoes constant challenges which are the products of social and cultural changes resulting from globalization, international mobility and the diversity of identities and cultures. Pedagogies could hardly rely on traditional concepts and practices of membership and should seek insights on how to deal with new forms of identity and plural feelings of belonging. The book Engaging Difference edited by Budryte and Boykin offers innovative approaches to teaching in diverse classrooms. The authors, who contributed to the book, have adopted theoretical concepts of intersectionality and provided very practical solutions based on their own experiences in teaching in multicultural classrooms. They offer the ways for transformational pedagogies that are committed to challenge hierarchies between teachers and students and make an open environment for sharing, learning and empowering. The book contributes to the understanding of teaching as a process of anchoring the diversity values and inclusive practices transformable to creating plural communities and society. Professionals and human right advocates involved in training and teaching activities will get a lot of inspirations and practical ideas from the readings in Engaging Difference. -- Vilana Pilinkaite Sotirovic, PhD, Research fellow, Lithuanian Social Research Centre, Institute for Ethnic Studies
Engaging Difference offers a critical and necessary lens to the construction of intersectional pedagogy. This text effectively applies intersectionality, an interdisciplinary framework that locates the ways social categories construct oppression and privilege. This is so essential for effective instruction. For one, when an individual think with an intersectional lens, biases, such as white privilege, can be acknowledged and accounted for and in this way intersectionality can lead to student and teacher empathy, breaking down disruptive power dynamics. Both these tools are necessary in 21st century collegiate institutions in which populations and needed life skills are diverse and complex. In Budryte and Boykin’s book we are offered ways to engage with and employ intersectionality. Both editors have masterfully used their own experiences in applied and researched intersectional scholarship to offer an essential look at how to honor difference and move past fear in a safe place of learning; this text is wonderful addition to my pedagogical preparation. -- Marni Brown, PhD, Sociology Georgia Gwinnett College
At the time when ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds of students in our classrooms play a decreasing role when it comes to assessment of their own success and lecturers’ performance, this volume draws attention to the untapped potential of diversity readily available to all education professionals. Whether it is the content of material, methods used to communicate, or benchmarks to assess learning outcomes, authors in this collection share their experiences of engagement with diverse classrooms to improve student experience and effects of education. The volume should help anyone teaching challenging topic to citizens of changing societies, and will benefit anyone seeing education as going beyond just its monetary value. -- Timofey Agarin, Queen's University, Belfast, Lecturer in Politics and Ethnic Conflict