Affirmation, Solidarity, and Critique: Moving Beyond Tolerance in Multicultural Education

Tolerance is a word commonly used when speaking about appropriate responses to difference. In fact, practicing tolerance is what many educators espouse as the ultimate sign of a civil and respectful society. In this chapter, I challenge this belief and suggest that tolerance actually represents a low level of support for differences. I submit instead that tolerance does little to encourage true diversity or to help schools develop a multicultural perspective.