NEGOTIATING THE MEANING OF DIFFERENCE

The move from theorizing difference to dealing with difference in an i ntercultural collaboration creates generative conflicts for educators and students. This article tracks the conflicting discourses, alternat ive representations, and political consequences the construct ''Black English'' had for Black and White mentors, teenage writers, and instru ctors in a Community Literacy Center collaboration. Comparing the acco unts offered by resistance, conversation, and negotiation theory it ex amines the dilemma-driven process of constructing a new negotiated mea ning in the face of conflicting forces, voices, and representations. D ealing with difference in such collaboration means not only interpreti ng diverse verbal and nonverbal signifying systems based on values, ex perience, and competing discourses but constructing a new negotiated r epresentation in the face of conflict that offers an (at least provisi onal) ground for action.