The consciousness of ethnic difference: identity and cultural distance in teacher’s discourse

Abstract

This paper is divided in three parts. First of all, it explores the theoretical frame needed for the analysis of the main question: the representation of difference within ethnic relations. The second part stresses the importance of this question for the development of intercultural education and particularly for a more precise account of the way in which teachers build that difference. The third part reports the findings of a study of teachers discourse on their gypsies and second-generation immigrants pupils. It is suggested that their perception of ethnic difference is tied to the building of their own identity and to processes of hierarchical categorization which have to be understood in relation with the power of the dominant group to classify the others along a scale of cultural distance.