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26 Cold Case Reopening the File on Tolerance in Teaching and Learning Across Difference Ann Chinnery University of Saskatchewan Introduction Although tolerance was long considered a core virtue for citizenship in a pluralist democracy, it has recently fallen out of favour. In a nutshell, tolerance suggests having to put up with something (or some person or idea) that one would really rather not have to put up with. And while tolerance is obviously better than hatred or overt discrimination, it is, at best, a minimal virtue. Tolerance neither implies nor requires a commitment to social justice, to questioning the status quo, understanding, or having genuine respect for the other. Therefore, in societies committed to the ideals of participatory democracy with equality and justice for all, tolerance simply does not suffice as either a political or moral virtue. However, I wonder whether there are situations—specifically in teaching and learning across difference—in which tolerance might serve a strategic function not as readily achieved by other means. Let me begin by recounting an experience from my own practice that forced me to challenge my understanding of what it means to “meet the other morally” in pedagogical relations marked by radical difference.1 The Scene of the Crime In various courses I have taught in pre-service teacher education, students repeatedly express a desire to grapple with the kinds of situations and ethical dilemmas they imagine having to face once they are in the field. But, as experienced practitioners know only too well, there are no hard and fast rules or codes of conduct that can spare us the often conflicting moral demands and messiness of classroom life. In the second week of an undergraduate course on ethical issues in education, we had begun to explore David Purpel’s argument that education ought to be reframed as a vehicle for social justice and social transformation.2 I planned to show a video that 449 450 / Ann Chinnery consists of candid conversations between an off-screen interviewer and several local high school students on issues such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and class privilege. The conversations reveal a wide range of perspectives on the various issues, and the video is intended as a classroom resource to spark conversation amongst high school students. However, upon reviewing the film a few days before class, I recognized one of the students in the video as “Jack,” a student in my class that term. During the conversation about homophobia, Jack stated that, according to the Bible, which he holds to be literally true, homosexuality is wrong, and a sin punishable by death. He said, among other things, that he did not know “how or why people choose to be that way” and that “maybe, in some cases, they have been abused or something.” I had previewed the video before the course began, but, at that time, none of the students in the film were known to me. Now I was not sure how to proceed. Should I go ahead with the lesson as originally planned? Modify it somehow? Or should I simply drop my plan to show the video and prepare a different lesson? If I chose to go ahead with it, I certainly needed to speak with Jack first to ask his permission to show it in class. After all, since the interview had been conducted about five years prior, he might have changed his views on the subject, or he might not feel comfortable watching it with the rest of the class. For the better part of the next day, I tried to reach him by phone, and when we were finally able to connect later that evening, I explained the situation. I then asked whether he was comfortable with me using the video in class. He said that he had only a vague recollection of the interview and asked me what he had said. When I recounted his words to him, he said that it was fine if I wanted to use it in class. I then posed the second part of my dilemma. I explained that we were coming to the issue of homophobia from very different positions because I am a lesbian. I told him that initially I had not known how to frame the lesson, but that after giving it some thought, I wondered if he would be willing to work with me. I suggested that we share with the class what had transpired and attempt, as a group, to think through...

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