Difference Matters: Embodiment of and Discourse on Difference at an Urban Public High School

Abstract

This article examines how students and teachers at an urban public high school embodied and understood various social categories of difference. Although ascriptions and experiences of racial and gender identities varied, these identities were often viewed as biological in origin and static in nature. The complexities and contradictions evident in the everyday conversations about difference at the school might serve as effective starting points for discussions about the social construction of difference. [race and gender, everyday discourse about difference, high school, race as a biological category]