ABSTRACT
Chapter 3, “Schools as Sites of Constructing Otherness,” establishes the rationale for deconstructing the knowledge found in classrooms. Otherness is a concept that has been studied in cultural studies. However, this chapter contends that the knowledge disseminated in classrooms carried a degree of normativity and is dominant in a way that rivals that of print and television news and informational media. Extant research tends to focus on social studies textbooks instead of teachers. This chapter establishes the case for focusing on teachers’ discourse. Moreover, the chapter argues the need to build upon multicultural education research and examine the depiction of subaltern communities outside the United States in the particular social setting of the school.
