Introduction

Many terms and phrases in public discourse carry multiple meanings and lack specific definition. Diversity is certainly one such term. Because it has acquired an accepted connotation in popular use, it has received only occasional close examination in scholarship (Smith, 2009; Stulberg & Weinberg, 2011). In light of its contradictory meanings in the history of education and its rapidly expanding applications in educational research, policy, and rhetoric, there is an obvious threat of confusion that can jeopardize the desired ends associated with the use of this term. One of the intended contributions of this book is to further appreciation of diversity as text, in context, and within the many subtexts from which it derives its meanings.