Against a perspective of shame that would see it as something paralyzing, negative and destructive, I draw out a different account of the politics of shame in intercultural education. I explore the openings that are created for a productive politics of shame in the context of discussions surrounding intercultural education via tracing how different kinds of shame are evoked or rejected in collective imagination--both in politics and in education. My goal is to show that a rehabilitation of the political and ethical value of shame challenges the opposition between self and other, and that this act can be beneficial, particularly in educational settings. An effort to transcend the usual dichotomies around the pride/shame debate both in political and in educational discourses will tackle the cultural, political and educational uses of shame and help educators gain a deeper understanding of the meaning and implications of shame in intercultural education. (Contains 2 notes.)