Beyond Dualism_toward a Dialogic Negotiation of Difference - Rishma Dunlop
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Beyond Dualism: Toward a Dialogic Negotiation of DifferenceAuthor(s): Rishma DunlopReviewed work(s):Source: Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l'éducation, Vol. 24, No. 1
(Winter, 1999), pp. 57-69Published by: Canadian Society for the Study of Education
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Beyond Dualism:Towarda Dialogic Negotiationof Difference
Rishma Dunlop
universityof britishcolumbia
In this articleI explorethedevelopmentof a criticalpedagogythat nterrogates ommonlyheld assumptionsaboutidentityand culture n social, political,and historicalperceptionsof culturaldifference. I attempt o deconstructdichotomizing endenciesof thinkingabout
differences, with the aim to position thinking in the borderlandor on the fault line
between cultures,a "thirdspace"in which to live critically. I examine perspectivesof
criticalconsciousness, third-spacepositionings,and dialogic negotiationsof differencesthrough he lenses of feministtheory,narrative nquiry,andliterary heoryto suggesthow
these perspectivesmay lead to cross-cultural dentificationsor understandingsn post-
secondaryclassrooms. The responsibility or the tracingof the "other"within self is seen
as central to teaching practice, in order to live, as T. Minh-ha Trinh (1989b) states:
"fearlesslywith and withindifference(s)"(p. 84).
Cet article porte sur le developpementde la pedagogie critique, qui remet en questioncertaines idles pr6conquessur l'identite et la culture dans les perceptions sociales,
politiques et historiques.L'auteureexpose les points de vue de la conscience critiquea
travers a theorief6ministe, 'investigationnarrative t la theorie litt6raireafinde montrercomment ces perspectives peuvent mener a la comprehension nterculturelledans des
cours au niveaupostsecondaire.Laresponsabilitede cerner< l'autre?'
l'interieurde soi
est pr6senteecomme un aspectcl de l'enseignement<<ans apprehension n compagnieet au sein de diff6rence(s)? (T. Minh-haTrinh, 1989b,p. 84).
PROLOGUE:OSITIONINGS
Critical pedagogy that engages students and teachers in dialogues about diverse
forms of cross-cultural narratives can deconstruct dichotomizing and pervasivepolarizing tendencies by positioning thinking in the borderland or on the fault
line between cultures, in what Bhaba (1994) refers to as a "third space." This
notion of a third space in which to live critically between multiple cultures is
also reflected in the perspectives of critical consciousness of feminist theorists
Anzaldtia (1987), Kramsch (1993a, 1993b) Kramsch and Hoene (1995), Haraway
(1985), and hooks (1984, 1989), among others. Although these positionings are
common themes in women's studies courses, their application to classroom
communities in Faculties of Education is more novel. My goal is to suggest how
third-space positionings and pedagogical aims can destabilize entrenched ethno-centrism, leading to cross-cultural understandings in classroom communities.
57 CANADIAN JOURNALOF EDUCATION24, 1 (1999): 57-69
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58 RISHMA DUNLOP
As Kramsch(1993a) states:
Indeedhephrase"being n the fence" s deceptive,or it seems o suggest hatwe par-takeof onlytwo differentultures,hatof ourpastand hatof ourpresent, r the culturewe left behindand the one we havemoved nto. . . . Butexperiencinghe boundarymeansdiscoveringhat achof theseculturess much essmonolithichanwasoriginallyperceived;ach ncludesa myriad f potentialhanges. . . Thuswe have to view the
boundary otas an actual ventbut, rather, s a stateof mind,as a positioning f thelearner tthe intersectionf multipleocialrolesand ndividualhoices. p.234)
Tocounteractdominantcultural tories andvisions, we need criticalpedagogy
that raises students'politicalawarenessby challengingthe hegemonyof frozen,dichotomized conceptions. Considerations of current debates and divisions
betweenmarginalized roupsoftenreveal differenceswithingroups hemselves-
between dissenting feminists and between dissenting writers and scholars of
similarandvaryingethnicoriginsandin similarandvaryingdisciplinesof study.
Caughtin these divides, as a writer,educator,and academic,I seek approachesto diversitythatpointto connectionsacrossdifferences of race,of gender,and
of disciplines of study.
READING AND WRITINGPRACTICESAS INTERCULTURALKNOWLEDGE
Practices of reading and writing informedby diverse forms of narrative(in-
cluding the works of formerly excluded writers) can usefully inform critical
pedagogy and intercultural tudies. Diverse literacy and discursive practices
expose learnersto cultures in numerousways. Spitta (1995), a literaryscholar
writingaboutLatinAmerican iterature, alls for a "transcultural"nderstandingof diversecultures.She sees LatinAmericancultureas the mixingof Indigenous,African, Asian, and Europeanclass and genderexperiences.Whereas culture is
understoodas contingenton materialandideologicalconcerns,Spittaemphasizesidentities as "always in flux, split between two or more worlds, cultures, and
languages"(p. 8). She expressesprismatically he implicationsfor "transcultur-
alism" for those involved in literarystudy:
If thecharactersepictedn novelsand f thesubjectivitiesf writers reassumedo be
splitand n flux,thenone mustalsocall for thecreation f newtypesof readers.That
is, readerswhoarecapable f reading tleastbiculturallyndbilinguallyndwhodo notthusread . . novelsandnarratives onologically.Spitta,1995,p. 8)
However, it is dangerousto place narrativeswithin frameworks that envisiondifferencesas deviations.Rather, o transform urriculumubstantially, ducatorsneed to unfixmindsetsandunmappolarizednotions of geography.Throughcriti-cal explorationsof literatureas well as multipleforms of narratives,educators
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TOWARD A DIALOGIC NEGOTIATIONOF DIFFERENCE 59
and students can allow works by diverse authorsto re-formdeeply embedded
assumptionsandpedagogies,especially in termsof perceptionsof who can speak
and what is heard.In this way, narratives an be understoodas symbolic frame-works in which the complexities of relationshipsamong narrative,power, and
culture are given significance and meaning. Our recognition of difference as
inherent o the humancondition becomes a site for pedagogy thatparadoxically
attemptsto bridge gaps of understandingwithin diverse humandiscourses.
My own particularizingnarrative ncludes my voices as a female academic,a writer,a poet, and a teacher,of East Indiandescent, who immigrated o Can-
adaat the age of 1 and who was raisedin Quebec.I considermy multiplevoices
and the issues of voice and silence in the context of my locations and my per-
ceptions of identity. By accepting multiplicity of voice, the intertwiningofspeech andsilence, ellipses, autobiography ndfiction, t seems possible to create
new discourses that cut acrossgenderandethnicity.This languageof pedagogy
may be found through the discourses of interculturalism.These discourses
acknowledgedifferences,as official tenetsof multiculturalismwould haveus do,but they also seek to find places of understanding, ome borderlandor third
space between cultures,by enablingthe learner o findor recognize the "other"
within her/himself.
These discourses reflectthe polyphonicnatureof our world more adequately
than do dualistic discourses. By reinventing, by listening to speech and by
hearingandfeeling "articulate ilences"(Cheung,1993), we enter new domains
of languagein which we can drawfreely frommultipletraditions o findmiddle
grounds as spaces of understanding.These domains are spaces of heightenedconsciousness and awarenessof the multiplemodalities of words. Althoughwe
may begin with language, t is deep below the surfaceof languagethat we create
new meaningsfor ourselves and with others.
STORIESFROM THE CLASSROOM: NARRATIVESAND SUBJECT POSITIONS
I recall one of my firstexperiencesof teachinga course in a teachereducation
programat a majorCanadianuniversity.The course was designedfor secondaryteachers,and focused on literacy practicesacrosscultures and across the curric-
ulum. During the semester,discussions about multiculturalismand the role of
language in constructingperceptionsof identitywere hotly debatedthemes. In
particular, ne young woman, of Punjabiheritage, continuously challenged my
thinking. Many of her statements n class, her writings, and her insistence on
scribblingphrases n Punjabion herassignmentscommunicatedheropinionthat
I had bought into the GreatWhite Myth.Inourclassroom,tensions and differencesbetweenmy studentandme became
increasinglyevidentthroughour intenseengagementin dialogues,journals,and
readingsof each other's written narratives. sharedpoems andjournalentries
with her thatdescribedthe complexities and paradoxesof my life in Canada.
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60 RISHMADUNLOP
I was born in India and immigrated o Canadawith my parentswhen I was
a yearold. My fatherwas a biochemistandmy motherwas an elementary chool
teacher.Both my parentswere schooled underBritish rule and were educated nEnglish. I was raised in an environment hat was culturallydiverse, in a com-
munityof internationalriendsyet in a climateof acculturation o Canadian ife.
AlthoughI was raised with an awarenessof Sikh religioustraditions, attended
a Unitarian church with my family and grew up in a predominantlyWhite,
upper-middle-class uburbof Montreal.
As I sharedmy stories,my student earned hroughmy narratives hatI could
not read or writePunjabi.It was no longermy nativetongue.My student earned
that my languages were English and French,and that the spaces my heritage
culture occupied were different from her own. I, like so many others, am aforeigner,a minority, he other, n the land of my birth.As Mukherjee ays: "MyIndianness, s fragile ... my use of English as a first languagehas cut me off
from my desh (homeland)" Mukherjee& Blaise, 1977, p. 170).In turn,my studentwrote of herimmigrationo Canadaas a teenager, he ugly
and painful strugglesof poverty, family illiteracy,and battles with racism. In a
creative writing assignment,I asked students to write a work inspiredby the
colour blue. This student titled her story "Blue," and in her narrative,blue
representedthe blood of her father,bruised and batteredby the politics and
social pressuresof his life; by alcoholism;by the lack of highereducation orvocational training;by difficulties with language.The spillover of this bruised
existence affected her life in profoundways.On the last day of class, she read herstoryout loud to the class. Althoughshe
had always expressedher views in class, she had never allowed manyothersto
hearthe depthof emotionshe expressed n herwriting.Formanystudents, t was
probablythe first time that access to dialogue was opened up to intercultural
understandings.On her finalexam, my student wrotea note acknowledgingthe
negotiationsof our differences in the classroom, along with an expression of
appreciationfor my role as a teacher in this context of "site of continuous
struggle."She ended with: "This is how you write your name in Punjabi,"
inscribingmy name in Punjabi scriptat the end of her examinationpaper.This encounter was a gift to me as a teacher,a place of learningfrom my
student'snarrativeshat forced me to questionmy own positioningsandperspec-tives. Indeed, this was the first of many events in my teaching practice that
reinforced he fact that ncreasedknowledgeof familiaror othercultures,classes,
contexts, and marginalizedgroups does not in itself lead to understandingor
socially transformative ractices.In additionto knowledge,criticalscrutinyand
destabilizationof one's own subject position and explorations of the manydiscursivepositionsencountereds necessary.Myclassroomexperiencesrevealed
thatby placingourselves in each other'snarratives ome understandings f each
other were reached.Sharedpersonalnarrativesallow a necessary questioningof
thecategorizations f minoritiesso thatunderlying mplicationsof suchlabelling
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TOWARD A DIALOGICNEGOTIATIONOF DIFFERENCE 61
may be explored. We were forced to interrogateour own subjective positions,our biases, our privileges, and our assumptionsabout the other,within cultures
andacrossdifferencesandsimilarities.This involves aprocessof "self-othering,"
or, to resist the pervasivedichotomizingtendency,a dialogic process of recog-
nizing the other in self and the self from the position of the other as the pre-
requisiteto developing a transformed elation to differences.
SPEECHAND SILENCE:UNMAPPINGEAST-WESTTHROUGHNARRATIVESOF FICTION
A work s tied to ideologynot so muchby what t saysasby what t does notsay.Itisin the significant ilences of the text, in its gaps and absences hat the presenceof
ideologycan mostpositivelybe felt.
-Terry Eagleton,Marxism ndLiteraryCriticism
There s a silence hatcannot peak.There s a silence hatwill notspeak.Beneath he
grass hespeaking reams ndbeneathhe dreamss a sensate ea. Thespeech hat reescomesforth rom hatamniotic eep.Toattendtsvoice,I can hear t say, s to embraceits absence.
-Joy Kogawa,Obasan
As I consider the possibilities of interculturalnarrativesas pedagogical texts,notions of speech and silence arejuxtaposed against stereotypicalconstructions
of culturalidentities;the uses of silence become voices themselves, including
ellipses andexclusions;"what s left out"or unsaidspeakseloquently.As Trinh
(1989a) states, "Silence as a will not to say or a will to unsay and as a languageof its own has barelybeen explored"(p. 373).
If we reconsidernarrativeexts,theoreticalworks,andperceptionsof ethnicityandrace,we can envision new realmsof expressioncontained n silence. Cheung
(1993), in herbookArticulateSilences,exploresthe rhetoricaland thematicuses
of silence in the fiction of three North American women of second-generationAsian descent: Hisaye Yamamoto,Maxine Hong Kingston, and Joy Kogawa.
Cheung posits that these authors' narrativeschallenge and subvert western
notions thatspeech andsilence arepolarized,opposed,andhierachicallydefined
by culture.Simplistic ideas of East-Westdualism in fact, dualistic considera-
tions of most aspects of human life: male/female, heterosexual/homosexual,
Black/White--are rejectedas stereotypesthatnarrowour vision.
In her considerationsof Kingston's The WomanWarrior 1976/1989b) and
Kogawa's Obasan (1981), Cheung challenges stereotypicaltendencies to value
speech and self-expression by contrastingthese notions with Asian women'ssilence andpassivity.Inbothworks,women characters ace prohibitionof speechas well as coercion to speak. Cheungdirectsour attention o the complexitiesand
difficulties experiencedby women who must strugglewith issues of silences in
situationsshapedby socially imposedstructuresof gender,culture,and race.
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62 RISHMADUNLOP
Cheung'sexplorationsof the texts of Yamamoto,Kingston,andKogawasteer
us away froman unqualified ndorsementof the verballyassertivefemale as the
only viable model. Cheung disputesthe associationof Asian silence with femi-
ninity or inscrutability.The texts of Yamamoto,Kingston, and Kogawa givevoice to the voiceless, increasingour awarenessof the nuancesof silence.
Cheung'sArticulate Silences explores new ways of readingwomen's narra-
tives, situating he readerbetweenfeminist andculturalpoetics andpolitics. The
extent of ourunderstanding ependson ourwillingnessto suspendandchallengethe language and knowledge to which we have access. Cheung's interpretive
strategiesreveal subversiveunderstatementn the texts she considers. In "The
Legend of Miss Sasagarawa"by Yamamoto 1988), the mechanismsof family,
state, and communitymirroreach other but are presentedwith an increasing
degree of muteness. In The WomanWarrior, he narrator'sanger at the im-
migrant community's devaluing of girls conceals a strong racial self-hatred,
perceivedto be instilledby the Americaneducational stablishment.As educators
in culturally diverse classrooms, we need to recognize the possibilities and
implicationsof similarnarrativesbeing reflectedin our systems of schooling.
Cheung suggests that Yamamoto,Kingston, and Kogawa resist patriarchalforces in the dominantcultureand in theirown ethnic cultures.They challengetraditional rameworksof historical,legal, and culturaltruths.Similarly,class-
room educators can expose language's complicity by engaging in narrativeenquiriesthat circumventthe restraintsof ghettoized, frozen forms of culture.
Throughgaps,contradictions, ndfragments,ntercultural arratives an reinvent
the past, not by reapppropriatingt but by decentring t and challengingit.
Works ike Yamamoto's"TheLegendof Miss Sasagarawa,"Kingston'sChina
Men(1980/1989a),andKogawa'sObasanchallengeAnglo-American enericand
historicalconventionsby dissolving the boundariesbetween privateand public
history and between fact and fiction. This kind of strategy, acknowledgingculturalcomplexityas essentiallyhumanand not simply socially constructedand
defined,may lead educators owarda criticalpedagogythatacknowledgesmul-tiple subjectivitiesand multipleforms of literacyand discursivepractices.
Said (1979/1984) comments on the effect of categorizing Orientals and
Westerners:
Whenone uses categoriesike Oriental nd Western s both the starting nd the end
pointsof analysis . .. the resultis usuallyto polarizedistinction--the Orientalbecomes
more Oriental,the Westernermore Western--and limit the human encounter between
differentcultures, raditions,andsocieties. Inshort,from its earliestmodernhistoryto the
present,Orientalismas a form of
thoughtor
dealingwiththe
foreignhas
typicallyshown
the altogetherregrettableendencyof any knowledgebasedon hard-and-fast istinctions
... to channelthought nto a West or an Eastcompartment.pp. 45-46)
Said makes relevantpoints about the effect of this split on North Americans
with Asian heritageof second andsubsequentgenerations.Fromthis stems our
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TOWARD A DIALOGICNEGOTIATIONOF DIFFERENCE 63
currentdebate about the hyphen as an adequatedescriptorfor heritage in our
concernsfor multiculturalism.Theimplications
of dualpersonality
are that the
parts of Asian-American, Chinese-Canadian,Japanese-Canadian,and Indo-
Canadiancan be easily split, keeping individuals strangers, foreigners in the
countriesin which they were born.For manyof us, these hyphenated erms fail
to name us adequatelyand fail to provideus with alternative pace, a thirdspaceof intersectingmultiple positionings.The hyphenated abel may cast doubt on
wholeness of statusas Americanor Canadian.The essence of the questionabout
the hyphenextendsto questionsof identityin the roles of teachersand educators
in Faculties of Education, interrogating he hyphenatedidentities of student-
teachers and teacher-educators.These questions about labelling identities andcategorizationsevoke my readingsof Rushdie's (1994) East, West:
I, too,haveropesaroundmyneck,Ihavethem o thisday,pullingmethiswayand hat,East andWest, he noosestightening,ommanding,hoose,choose. I buck,I snort,I
whinny, rear, kick.Ropes,I do not choosebetweenyou. Lassoes, ariats, choose
neither f you,andboth.Do youhear? refuse o choose. p.211)
POTENTIALPROBLEMSWITH NARRATIVES
Inacademia,ourresponses o multiculturalismndissues of marginalization ave
includedopeningup the canon to includeformerlyexcluded works of ethnic and
culturaldiversity.However, our efforts to respond to "multiculturalism" s a
political movement still leave us groping for the right "mix,"the appropriatebalance between texts and pedagogy,between art and politics, between multi-
culturalismand culturalspecificity.Many of us who see ourselves teaching for
social change need to teach throughand across political culturalmandates,not
simply throughassimilationthat distances itself from ethnic particularities, nd
not simply throughforms of culturalnationalismthatheroicallyreclaim ethnicheritage.The path we need to take rejectseither/orbinaryoppositionsof East/
West or assimilation/ethnocentrism. he aim is neverto return o originalforms
andperceptions,but to narrate ur stories with a difference,drawingfreely from
multipletraditions,refusingto be defined or confinedby any one of them. Our
teachingmust interrogatepolitical,historical,and social constructsthatattemptto define and confine us, enabling us then to challenge these constructs by
reshaping dentities in ways thatchallenge pre-determined erceptions.If our language and our texts representvisions of our cultures, we need to
develop forms of expressionthat may be otherwise marginalizedby dominantcultures.Teachingmust involve students n multipleforms of discourseas they
engage in challengingnot only theirown and others' texts butalso the rhetorical
conventions of the academy.Therefore,as we consider how our forms of dis-
course embodyus, languagebecomes a rangeof "truth" ealizedby oppositions
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64 RISHMADUNLOP
and challenges to dominantparadigms.In other words, "truth" ies not in the
words themselves, but in theirparadoxesandjuxtapositions:
An understandingf language s a site of struggle r as a conductor f ideologywill
empower s as both readers ndwriters.Theright o claim inguistic pace s a basichuman ight.Rather hanset theagendasorvariouskindsof writings,we can do nomore hanaskof oureducationystem hat tencouragehewriter othink bouthowshe
positionsherself n thatpolitical pace.(Wicomb, s citedin Britzmant al., 1993,p.188)
HOW SHALL WE TEACH NOW? QUESTIONSOF PRIVILEGE
Narrativeconsiderationsof classroom events and literarytexts have made me
realize that a complex mappingof our differences is needed. This will requireus to clear morespace in ourcurricula o focus on the meaningof privilege from
our varioussubjectpositions.Colonization rom within andwithoutis centralto
our classroomcommunities,notjust in the context of marginalizedpeoples but
for all membersof the community.There is a need for Spivak's (1990) "un-
learning privilege"(p. 30) so that we may "becomeable to listen to that other
constituency" p. 42).
Fostering classroom environmentsthat encouragea transformedrelation todifferenceswill requirecriticalpedagogythatinsists on self-reflexivityand self-
revisionbasedon notions such as Kristeva's(1980) "subject-in-process,"where
emphasis is on the vigilantrecuperation f the strangerwithin. For example, in
Strangersto Ourselves,Kristeva(1991) stresses thatmakingourselves alien to
ourselves is a necessarypositionfrom whichto supportnon-hierarchicalelations
to difference:"Itis not simply humanistically a matterof our being able to
accept the other,but of being in his [sic] place, and this means to imagine and
make oneself other for oneself' (p. 13).
As considerations of narrativeshave shown, narratives ntended to oppose
patriarchal iscoursehavenotalwaysfelt empowering.Ellsworth 1989) exploresthis in her influentialarticle "WhyDoesn't This Feel Empowering?"Two re-
sponses to Ellsworth'squestioncome to mind:we fail to recognize the multiplenatureof subjectivity,hence the complex way we constructmeaning,and we fail
to develop an ethical vision based on our differences(Razack, 1993, p. 108).Ellsworth (1989) notes that in a mixed-sex, mixed-race class on racism,
studentsenter with"investments f privilegeandstrugglealreadymade in favour
of some ethical and political positions concerning racism and against other
positions"(p. 301). In the classroom the strategiesof empowerment,dialogue,and voice do not, in fact, work as neatlyas we might wish them to. Oppressedand marginalizedgroupsdo not possess internalunity,and individualhistoriesare not discardedoutside the classroom door.Ellsworth'sstudents were unable
to "hear" ach other acrosstheirdifferences.Theoperativemode of thoughtwas
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TOWARD A DIALOGICNEGOTIATIONOF DIFFERENCE 65
rationalityandthe narratives f variousgroupshadto bejustifiedandexplicated
using the very tools that held these stories to be inadmissible.Going beyond
simplistic calls for tolerating ambiguity,Ellsworth suggests that we respectdiversity of voices, of narratives,and of stories, and that we recognize thatthe
voices are "valid-but not without response" (p. 305). In other words, she
believes the stories must be critiquedand offers a numberof concrete sugges-tions for doing so.
Ellsworth(1989) recommendsthat we work hard at building trust,to which
end we mustbuildopportunities or social interaction; hat we stress the need to
learnabout the realitiesof others withoutrelyingon them to informus; thatwe
namethe inequalities n the classroom and devise groundrules for communicat-
ion (Narayan's1988 article"WorkingAcross Differences"would be useful forthis); that we consider strategies such as encouraging affinity between those
groups most likely to share the same forms of oppression;and that we con-
sciously offer such groupstime to coalesce so that individuals can speak from
within groups. All of these recommendedpedagogical practices evolve from
Ellsworth's central advice that we critically examine what we do and do not
share.This done, we can workfrom the basis thatwe all have partialknowledgeand thatwe come from differentsubject positions.Most important,no one is let
off the hook, since we can all claim to be oppressoror oppressedin relation to
someone else. These suggestions comprisean excellent startingpoint. My own
practiceof using an exchange of autobiographical arrativesas a way to begin
dialogue and build classroom communityhas been invaluable in shaping my
teaching.However,as I have elaboratedwithrespectto my own narratives, uch
strategiesdo not always save us from ethical dilemmas andproblematicencoun-
ters in our classrooms.
The dialogic emergenceof differencemayalso be viewed as an intersubjective
process, central to Lugones' (1990) concept of "world-travelling."Envisioningthe classroom as a potential site for conscious constructionsof positions that
challenge the intra-andintersubjective elationsof poweralso evokes Kristeva's
(1980) notion of subject-in-process ndhooks' (1989) theoryon coming to voice
and self-recovery.A critical pedagogy would requiremembers of a classroom community to
engage in dialogue about narrativesof diverse forms-literary texts, personalnarratives, ilms, oralhistories,drama-to inviteresponsesthatreflectcriticallyon difference and voice. In otherwords, teachersand studentswill need to deal
explicitly with difference and diversity of voices in classroom contexts. This
explicitnessis oftenglossedover forthe sakeof politicalcorrectness,particularlyin courses in Facultiesof Education,where our desire to offer inclusive educa-
tion and to be sensitive to the oppressionsof marginalizedgroupsoften leads us
to rathersanitized discussions and avoidance of issues. Applying some of the
theorizingI have mentioned n this articlewill provideavenues to overcome the
homegenization of voice in post-secondaryclassrooms of teacher education.
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66 RISHMA DUNLOP
Languagebecomes not only a medium for instructionand dialogue, but also a
style of interactionthat explores the enactmentof difference and encourages
critical reflectionand revisions of one's own subjectposition.In this situation hecommunity engaged in discourse practices that emerge in the classroom can
consciously choose to produce, reproduce,or resist existing relationshipsof
power, race, nationality,class, and gender(Kramsch,1993b).From this criticalpedagogy, t becomespossibleto developa "double-voiced"
discourse.The notions of single-voiced discourseand double-voiced discourse
are Bakhtin's(1986), and were laterechoed by feminists like Kristeva(1990-
1991) andhooks (1989). Single-voiceddiscourseis a style in which the speakeradheresto his or herown viewpoint,withoutperceivingthe need to acknowledge
his or her own stance nor to revise it in light of possibly conflicting voiceswithin and without. In single-voiced discourse, speakers do not attempt to
perceive themselves as others see or hear them. When speaking with a singlevoice, speakersremain within their usualway of speaking,not recognizing that
interactionwithother anguagesor culturesor withoppressedgroupsmight placein questiontheir usual worldview.
On the other hand, double-voiced discourse is consistent with what hooks
(1989) calls "the social constructionof the self in relation," n which the self is
seen "notas a signifierof one 'I' but the coming togetherof many 'I's,' the self
embodyingcollective realitypast and present,family and community" p. 31).Sheldon (1992) describes double-voiced discourse in this way:
Theprimaryrientations to theself, to one's ownagenda.The otherorientations tomembers f thegroup.Theorientationo othersdoes not mean hat hespeaker eces-
sarilyacts in an altruistic, ccommodating,r even self-sacrificingmanner. t means,rather,hat the speakerpaysattention o the companion's ointof view, even while
pursuing erownagenda.As a result, he voiceof theself is enmeshedwithandregu-latedby the voiceof the other. p.99)
Indouble-voicedclassroomdiscourse, eacherandstudentsdevelop and revise
theirown views throughdialogic interactionwith other members of the group.This does not mean that all these intra-andintersubjective oices are always in
harmonywith each other;in fact, it may be quite the contrary.Morson (1981)
speaks of the "cacophonyof values" that underlieBakhtin's"play of voices"
(Morson, 1981, p. 4). In addition,Morson states, "Language, or [Bakhtin]is
open to historyand social conflict. Eachword is open to conflictingpronuncia-tions, intonationsand allusionsand so may be an arena of social conflict and asensitive barometerof social change" (p. 6).
CODA
I have suggested ways to facilitateeducationthatfosterscritical consciousness
of difference in classrooms. I have arguedthat central to the developmentof
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TOWARD DIALOGICEGOTIATIONFDIFFERENCE 67
critical consciousness in our pedagogy and in our students is a transformed
response to conceptionsof difference.As Lorde(1984) states:
Institutionalizedejectionf differences anabsolute ecessityn aprofit conomywhichneedsoutsiders s surplus eople.As members f such an economy,we have all been
programmedorespondo thehuman ifferencesetweenuswithfearand oathing....Butwe havenopatternsorrelating cross urhuman ifferences s equals.As aresult,those differences avebeen misnamed ndmisused n the serviceof separationndconfusion.... Wedo notdevelop oolsforusinghuman ifference s a springboardorcreative hangewithinour ives.(p. 115)
Our classroomshave the potentialto facilitatedialogic encountersgearedto
creativechangeand the constructionof solidarityandequalitynot in spite of but
ratherbecause of difference.Inthedialogic engagements n eachclassroom,each
with its multiple variables of voice (accordingto influences of race, culture,
class, andgender), ies theopportunityo reflectcriticallyuponandto revise our
own individual and culturalpracticesof human interaction.
Two types of dialogic encountersare identifiedby anthropological inguistsAttinasi and Friedrich(1995). Among the first type are the often repetitious,routineconversationsanddialoguesthat functionprimarily o maintainrelations
between friends, families, and neighbours.The secondtype
ofdialogue
is a
catalyst thateffects a change in the imaginationsof those engaged in dialogic
exchange. Dialogues of this type elicit fundamentalreassessmentsand reposi-
tioningsof psychologicalstances in the mindsof the interlocutors.The meaningsof thesedialoguesare notalwaysrecognized mmediatelybutemergedynamical-
ly as dialogues are relived, reconsidered,and transformed hroughcontinued
engagementsof the interlocutors' maginings and reflections.As Attinasi and
Friedrich llustrate, hesedialogic breakthroughs rovideopportunities or trans-
formations n cognitive andaffectivedomains; herefore, hese dynamic types of
dialogicencountershavegreatpotential or thedevelopmentof criticalpedagogy.As teachersreflecton theirpastteachingexperiences, they can also encounter
opportunities or realigningandre-evaluating heir own and theirstudents'per-
ceptions.Theseeffortscan helpthem to imagineandanticipate utureencounters
with the intersectingboundariesof self and other. This critical consciousness
calls for new approachesn teacher raining, ocussingon the social constructions
withinlanguagesandculturesof the many"I"s(hooks, 1989, p. 31) who inhabit
each person. Consequently, f we wish to encourageour students to "go so far
as to questionthe foundationof theirbeings andmakings" Trinh,1989b,p. 88),we must engage in thatprocess ourselves.
Inconsideringnarratives s sourcesforpromoting ntercultural nderstanding,stories and choices of classroom curriculumneed to reflect a movement awayfrom definingourselves as a unifiedsubjectidentity:
YouandI areclose,we intertwine;ou maystandon the other ideof thehill oncein
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68 RISHMAUNLOP
a while;butyou mayalso beme,whileremaining hatyouareandwhatI amnot.The
differencesmadebetween ntities omprehendeds absoluteresences hence henotion
of pureoriginand rueself-- areanoutgrowthf a dualisticystemof thought eculiarto theOccident.Trinh, 989b,p. 90)
When we realize that we are without true selves, without pure origins or
absolutes, it becomes imperativeto increase awareness of how our multipleidentities are constructedand played out at any given time and in any givencontext.As we seek bridgingterritories or understandinghroughcross-cultural
narratives,we seek to deconstruct rozen, false boundariesof gender, ethnicity,culture,geography,andtemporality.n theclassroom,ourresponsibilitybecomes
"a responsibilityto trace the other in self' (Spivak, 1990, p. 47). To find thewillingness to live "fearlesslywith and within difference(s)"(Trinh, 1989b, p.
84), we must make centralto our teaching process the task of tracingthe other
in self. The developmentof criticalpedagogythroughclassroomdialogues and
exchanges of cross-culturalnarratives eads to transformedunderstandingsof
human differences.
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Rishma Dunlop teaches in the Departmentof Language Educationat the University of British
Columbia,2125 Main Mall, Vancouver,BritishColumbia,V6T 1Z4.