Expanding the Notion of "the Other": A More Inclusive Multicultural Leadership Response

• In Event: 30.080 - Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: 30.080-19 - We Are Clearly Not Asking the Right Questions: Rethinking "Knowledge to Action" as Social Justice

Abstract

Our third prompt focuses on expanding the notion of “the other” so that, at the macro level, we come to understand conservative American values and issues of alienation. We come to understand that our description of charter school parents who take initiatives to visit and complete application, versus those who do not and whose children are left inside failing public schools – this is an unacceptable analysis as it fails to account for the lack of parental support (Fabricant & Fine, 2015). It leaves the status quo in place, offering weak political and cultural arguments to explain such deplorable behaviors. Should not we be learning from transgender issues and same sex marriage as civil rights when dealing with intractable social and political problems such as the roll back of abortion clinics or voting rights? How are we incorporating data from recent studies on suicide among white males with high school or less educations? Our analyses of “the other” has been limited and inadequate, socially and politically (Crichlow, 2013; Fabian, 2014).

Author

• Floyd D. Beachum, Lehigh University