Celebrating Diversity and Denying Disparities: A Critical Assessment

In the past, researchers concerned with educational achievement gaps sought to identify underlying causes of those gaps by examining deficiencies of students’ home backgrounds. In reaction against this “blame the victim” approach, scholars have moved toward focusing on positive aspects of diversity. This article raises critical questions about the tradeoffs of framing all diversity as positive. The author contends that such framings divert attention from socioeconomic diversity and obscure larger, structural inequities. Moreover, by avoiding the difficult issues that many marginalized parents, students, and their teachers face daily, educational research risks becoming less useful and credible.