Intersectional perspective in intercultural pedagogy

A meeting with the Other is related to the attitude of interest, dialogue, cooperation and understanding. However, negative reactions to otherness may give rise to different attitudes as well. These include discrimination and exclusion. In this article, the problem of multiple discrimination is addressed and intersectionality is presented as both an important method in intercultural research and an idea worth raising and developing in the practice of intercultural education. Multiple discrimination pertains to people who experience two or more forms of oppression at the same time (due to gender and disability; due to disability and residence place; due to ethnic origin, gender and place of residence, etc.). Intersectionality introduces a new quality to intercultural studies. As a research paradigm, it enables a critical analysis of these areas of exclusion and discrimination which have so far been shown mainly from the perspective of the needs and views of majority groups. Intersectional analysis can also become useful in educational practice: in preparing individualized assistance programs for people affected by discrimination, as well as in creating preventive projects to keep stigmatization and discrimination away.

The phenomenon of exclusion, marginalization and disadvantage is experienced by many social groups, especially the – culturally, nationally or religiously – Others. The article is a continuation of an earlier text published in the journal Edukacja Międzykulturowa [Intercultural Education], which concerned the theoretical foundations of multiple discrimination and a review of the research conducted in the intersectional paradigm. In this text, the focus is primarily on the analysis of research on multiple discrimination against mothers of children with disabilities. The research was aimed at learning about their experiences and answering the question: Do the surveyed women feel discrimination? And if so, does this unfair differentiation affect them because they belong to more than one group? To obtain an answer to thess research questions, in 2023 I conducted six narrative interviews with mothers of children with profound disabilities. The analysis of their narratives made it possible to conclude that they experience differentiation by others due to more than one criterion. In their case, the first factor of discrimination is gender – the female one, which intersects with another (or others): woman – a mother of a child with disability; woman – a person who does not work. The narrators share their experience of being stigmatized due to their appearance (too well-groomed, and therefore not sufficiently devoted to the child), educational and caring competences (responsible for the child’s behaviour that is inconsistent with social norms) and due to the abandonment or limitation of their professional career.