The micro-politics of student voices: Moving from diversity of bodies to diversity of voices in schools

The 1980s have left in their wake a neoconservative backlash against affirmative action, the cynical characterization of concern for poor and disenfranchised groups as ‘political correctness’, and a resegregation of the United States of America’s schools. In spite of all of this, ‘diversity’ is still in vogue in most social institutions, and educational institutions generally support the notion of diversity and multiculturalism. As Sleeter (1991) points out, however, there is a generalized misunderstanding of what diversity and multiculturalism mean. Sleeter argues that too often it means curricular add-ons, or merely having a culturally diverse student body. Baptiste (1986) claims that multiculturalism must move beyond the mere addition of courses or formalization of certain experiences to ‘a highly sophisticated internalization of the process of multiculturalism combined with a philosophical or ientation that permeates all components of the educational entity’ (p. 308).