Just Schools: Pursuing Equality in Societies of Difference

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments This project is an ethnographic, legal, and conceptual exploration of the tensions between the vicissitudes of the pluralism agenda (seeking recognition and respect of diverse group traditions) and the inclusion agenda (seeking equal opportunity and mainstream status for members of all groups) in America ’s schools. The project would not have been possible without the vision and support of the Russell Sage Foundation, its inspirational president Eric Wanner, its “Culture Contact Program,” and its program officers Stephanie Platz (who helped us first imagine this collection of essays) and Jitka Maleckova (who brilliantly and substantially guided our meetings and writings on the topic almost from the beginning). We also wish to thank Suzanne Nichols, director of publications at the Russell Sage Foundation, for the care and efficiency with which this book has been reviewed and produced, and two anonymous reviewers of the manuscript, whose detailed summaries and critiques were both insightful and helpful. Those of us in the social sciences are grateful that the Russell Sage Foundation has become one of America’s leading centers for research on diversity, equality, and the lives of both immigrant and nonimmigrant minority groups in the United States. The project also would have not been possible without the support of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and the members of the SSRC Working Group on “Law and Culture” (initially called the Working Group on “Ethnic Customs, Assimilation and American Law”), whose members are listed in the front matter of this volume. The editors and authors owe large collegial debts to Frank Kessel, the program officer of the group at the time of its formation and its animating spirit for several years; Craig Calhoun, President of SSRC; Kevin Moore, the program officer of the group at the time the “Just Schools” project was first conceived; and Josh DeWind, the current program officer of the group and the wise intelligence behind all our efforts in recent years. We express our thanks to Elissa Klein and Wonny Lervisit (at SSRC), Kristin Flower (at Harvard Law School), and Michele Wittels (at the xi University of Chicago) for their assistance over the years in the organization of meetings and the preparation of the manuscript, as well as to Jonathan Burton-Macleod and Taki Flevaris (at Harvard Law School), who helped with the editing of parts of the final draft. This volume developed in part while Richard A. Shweder was a Carnegie Scholar. Special thanks and appreciation to Vartan Gregorian, President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Patricia L. Rosenfield, Program Officer at the Carnegie Scholars Program, for their support. This is the third publication of the Working Group on “Law and Culture.” In the year 2000, the Working Group published a special issue of Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (volume 129, number 4), entitled “The End of Tolerance.” In 2002, the group published a book entitled Engaging Cultural Differences: The Multicultural Challenge in Liberal Democracies (edited by Richard A. Shweder, Martha Minow, and Hazel Markus). We three editors are grateful to all who have supported these efforts. —M.M., R.A.S., and H.M. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...