Dealing with individuals and groups who have been excluded, or who face particular types of discrimination, is an important but difficult task for the educator.
In some cases these groups are invisible to any other than themselves and some advocates or interest groups which have emerged from the group or have a particular political, rights, or welfare interest in the group. In other cases, the society has been constructed in such a way that seeking to work with such groups directly puts in question, and hence raises resistance from, the powerful in that society.
Those working in societies with a normative framework which disallows exclusion or discrimination find themselves at an advantage. These norms may be entrenched in a constitution or in cultural and religious institutions. Where this framework does not exist, educators will look for, and educate people about, possible frameworks which could find legitimacy or acceptance, by the discriminated or excluded groups or by a broader section of the society.
For example, educators will look to the international human rights treaties and statements, to regional guidelines and charters, or to hidden traditions and to the re-interpretation of significant texts. In some countries, individuals who demonstrate the values of inclusiveness and non-discrimination, whether mythic, historic or contemporary may be invoked.
Educators may thus find ways to create a mandate for reaching out to such groups, and they may find that this mandate – and the values underpinning it – has to form the primary part of the educational programme. This topic area makes the point that education has to be an empowering activity if it is to enable growth and change – and therefore the excluded and discriminated against will be the first constituency. But to support their emergence, especially if they begin to exercize political power or seek a public role, education will also have to be directed to those who are opposed to their empowerment.
There are costs of exclusion and discrimination, and these costs are often described and analysed in such education. For example, exclusion creates poverty and instability – which must subsequently have implications for the broader society; discrimination raises conflict in societies and excludes many people with great potential from participating fully in the development of that country. But these cognitive approaches on their own are often insufficient.
As a result, a broad range of educational methodologies and programmes have been developed, especially by human rights institutions, faith based advocacy groups and women’s movements.
