ABSTRACT
Applying a Durkheimian social realist approach to knowledge implies a delineation between “external” cognitive biases and “internal” processes and structures of knowledge production that have at least an approximation to or mapping onto reality. This delineation is crucial to developing an epistemology that both recognizes the importance of what science in its widest sense can offer to marginalized groups, as well as responding to the legitimate calling out of bias of the sociological critique of difference. Crucially, in this chapter, I argue that this delineation preserves a space for understanding the different political value preferences that adhere to liberal and traditional perspectives on knowledge. The implications of such a delineation for dealing with difference in the classroom are further explored.
