ABSTRACT

In the contemporary world, children from a wide range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds are “thrown together,” helping to produce very particular places such as schools and classrooms which as a result become an important meeting place or contact zone. This chapter explores some key themes relating to identity and diversity, following the life story of one particular student who became part of numerous social and cultural congeries, moving between South East Asia, the Far East, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and North America. It illustrates how shifts of identity happen over time as a result of interactions with materials, texts, educators, and other students in surprising and often unpredictable ways. Increased population mobility and migration is a key feature of life in the early 21st century. The resulting social and cultural diversity has been associated with larger metropolitan areas. This has important implications for education at all levels.