ABSTRACT

I have been teaching courses in multicultural education for many years, before it became a requirement and even before it was thought of as necessary in universities or schools. Although I love what I do, teaching these courses has not always been easy, as shown in this chapter. In fact, this particular course was probably the most difficult and contentious one I have ever taught. It ended up also being the most powerful and enduring lesson I have learned about teaching courses in multicultural education. Writing about the experience of teaching this particular group of graduate students years ago helped me to reflect on how tension and conflict are inevitable in teaching such courses, and about what it means to work creatively toward developing a sense of community in courses where diversity is a reality. As I discovered, “creating community” does not mean to develop an unproblematic environment in which differences are glossed over.