Encounters with Otherness: Curriculum and Pedagogical Challenges of Responding to Diversity in Canadian Teacher Education

Abstract

Carson, Terrance R. 2018. Encounters with Otherness: Curriculum and Pedagogical Challenges of Responding to Diversity in Canadian Teacher Education, Asian Journal of Canadian Studies, 24-2. 54-72. The purpose of this article is to find the ways to pedagogically include attention to diversity in the teacher education program. Canada is an officially multi-cultural nation with two official languages, It has never been quite possible to assimilate into one Canada. Moreover, absorbing immigrants into the existing culture is no longer the norm in an era of globalization and internationalization. We have now encountered the uncharted territory of educating teachers for diversity within a teacher education program. The major result from our work on forms of diversity in public schools in Alberta and in Canada is a shift in focus – away from an inward look at how diversity appears to the outsiders, and looking outwards towards building the foundations for forging bonds of solidarity around us.