"This may be part Jerry Springer, part Oprah and part confessional, so do bear with me," Irving Epstein, Ph.D., of Illinois Wesleyan University began his talk Monday, March 26, 2007, in the Water Tower campus's 25 E. Pearson building, which was titled "Whiteness, Postcolonial Theory and Comparative Education: Prospects for Expanding the Field."
The talk focused on the current state of and future of "whiteness" and the pervasiveness of Western culture in the field of comparative education, was informal, friendly and opened up for questions and discussion at the end. Epstein spoke on the international effects of postcolonial theory and globalization as well, sharing anecdotes from his own career that demonstrated what he termed the "infusion of whiteness."
From Australia, where Aborigine children were expected to complete a "white" European education in order to become civilized; to China, where students ranked themselves and one another by the status of the American graduate schools that had accepted them, to Chile; where Epstein's own wife borrowed songs from The Beatles to sing with her sisters, examples of the infusion of Western culture and power could be found.
Whiteness, Epstein argued, has become a comparative ideal, such that white becomes conceptually the absence of color and that any race that is not white becomes the "other." This idea was pertinent to Epstein in the context of power in a post-colonial world where globalization has allowed "whiteness" to become a power that puts many people at a disadvantage, specifically in the area of education.
"In order to really challenge and expand the ways educators make policies and evaluate practices we have to look at the influences of power on children and people's lives on a day-to-day basis," Epstein said. "I'm arguing that power changes. It's not about white over black or rich over poor. People are in relationships and there are contradictions in those relationships. When you see those contradictions you can change those relationships."
The talk was attended primarily by graduate students in the comparative or international education fields who seemed interested in the arguments and theories of a well respected professional in their field. Epstein, a 28-year veteran of the field of comparative education with a Ph.D., is also the author of the book "Recapturing the Personal," which expands on the theories and arguments covered in the lecture. In the end, Epstein asked the future comparative educators to do a "better job of understanding people's lives. When we apply our own lens or biases on the way other people act or what they need, we get into trouble. But there is need for further exploration of these questions. I look to you to meet that challenge."
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