Reproduction of Difference Through Learning About a “Different Culture”: The Paradox of Double Subject Positions and the Pedagogy of the Privileged

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful for those who participated in this research; the director and the assistant director of the Cape College's Community Center; and the supervisor at the Transformation's Green Farm that allowed me to carry out this research. I am also grateful to Yuri Kumagai and Shinji Sato for their insightful comments on an earlier draft, Jaime Taber and Christopher Doerr for copyediting the drafts, and the editors and anonymous reviewers at the Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies for critical and constructive comments. The text's deficiencies are wholly my responsibility.

Notes

A definition can be found at: http://www.alternativebreaks2011.org/faq/.

Although they found others' role-play funny, some experienced difficulty playing the roles: “I wanted to help out but couldn't. It was frustrating” (Pam). Others also mentioned frustration at not being able to read, tell time, or make decisions.

My focus here is the double subject positions that facilitate the process of learning a different culture; thus they differ from the multiple subject positions—e.g., race, gender, class—in life.

Neither the facilitators nor the students noted that severing a hand as punishment may stereotype Poles as violent and primitive.