Agentic ambiguity and the politics of privilege
Subtitle: recognition versus re-evaluation of privilege in social justice education.
Published: 2004
Language: eng
Number of pages: 72
Subjects: Elite (Social sciences).; Social justice -- Study and teaching
Description: This project deconstructs the concept of privilege by reviewing two approaches---recognition and re-evaluation ---to deploying the concept in critical educational theory and practice. While the former approach intends to reveal the hidden and denied structural mechanisms working to secure and maintain privilege, the latter one aims at re-evaluating the notion of privilege itself, understanding it not only through what is gained by its perpetuation, but also by what is lost. I argue that the concept of privilege as used in ordinary language and much discursive inquiry is misleading, such that even those actively working to subvert domination end up reproducing those very structures through their use of the term. I urge that dismantling privilege requires its re-evaluation  in addition to its recognition. Reconceiving privilege provides social justice educators with fruitful ways to engage resistant students in the project of personal and social transformation.
Notes: Adviser:  Dwight Boyd.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2004.

Electronic version licensed for access by U. of T. users.

Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 43-03, page: 0670.

MICR copy on microfiche (1 microfiche).