Voices Inside Schools: Skinning the Drum: Teaching about Diversity as "Other"

Abstract

In this article, Leswin Laubscher and Susan Powell explore their experiences as professors who teach about difference and are themselves considered "different" or "other." The authors describe how society and their students perceive them, and illustrate the unique pedagogical opportunities that their course offers them and their primarily White, able-bodied, and socioeconomically advantaged students to struggle not only with the theory, but also with the experience, of "difference." The authors proceed from the premise that the professor marked by difference, and who teaches about that difference, is not just teaching an academic course but is also articulating his or her life experience and self. The authors emphasize how difference is embodied in the classroom, how students respond to this difference, and the costs and benefits to educators marked as other who strive to facilitate students' self-exploration, growth, and commitment to social justice.