ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at commonality in theory and difference in theory then commonality in practice and difference in practice. Commonality as a theory is a shifting concept. Black women blazed the trail when they called attention to difference by reference to their own experience and the fact that the mainstream stress on commonality belied that experience. The students want recognition of their difference which is not just observation but a real openness to their life experience. They also want a commonality which can accept that difference, which encompasses that complicated network of similarities and relationships of which L. Wittgenstein spoke. There are differences in the lecture room as well. The fact that Women's Studies draws from across the disciplines can compound the differences. It is not, though, the academic differences which are most salient but the experiential and existential differences. Those very differences of class, sexuality, colour, disability and so on, make up the lived experience of students' lives.
