You want me to do WHAT?!

This man named Michael Vavrus wrote a book called Tranforming the multicultural education of teachers: Theory, research, and practice. My grad program happens to have Vavrus on faculty, so we've been required to read it throughout the program. He did, however, give us the royalties he received as a result of our purchasing it back -- a gesture no other prof in my six years of higher education has made. This quarter we read chapter six -- on incorporating issues of globalization into multicultural education -- and the importance of doing so. Here's the excerpt from my paper:

On a personal level, I still struggle with the label “multicultural education” – no matter what it encompasses or how great it is. The term “multicultural” in many circles naturally breeds opposition and irritation. The term has been overused, affiliated with too many bad workshops, and devalued. That quick side note aside, I recognize this truth Vavrus suggests, “Transformative multicultural education encourages teachers to reach out beyond their usual comfort zones to oppressed people and to incorporate those histories and contemporary experiences into a critical pedagogical knowledge base” (p. 123). As a person not too commonly outside her comfort zone, this becomes a challenge. I get even less anxious to leave my comfort zone to reach out to the oppressed when reminded this, “Teachers can lend a public voice to democracy while being mindful that negative responses may be elicited when economically privileged groups are challenged by democratic involvement of the public” (p. 121). Teaching with democracy in mind, outside of my comfort zone, only to meet with resistance from wealthy capitalists who are reinforced by the actions of the military…this does not excite me. It frankly seems a little ludicrous and overwhelming at times. This is my initial reaction – while aware that the situation is not as clear-cut or as truly monumental as it seems.