Research Catalog

Title

Literacies of power : what Americans are not allowed to know / Donaldo Macedo ; foreword by Paulo Freire.

Author

Macedo, Donaldo P. (Donaldo Pereira), 1950-

Publication

Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, ©2006.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xxii, 246 pages; 23 cm

Summary

"Literacies of Power illustrates the many ways American schools, media, and other social institutions perpetuate ignorance. In this new, expanded edition, Donaldo Macedo shows why so-called common culture literacy is a form of dominant cultural reproduction that undermines independent thought and goes against the best interests of our students. Offering a wide-ranging counterargument, Macedo shows why cultural literacy cannot be restricted to the acquisition of Western heritage values, which sustain an ideology that systematically negates the cultural experiences of many members of society-not only minorities but also anyone who is poor or disenfranchised. Macedo calls on his own experience as a Cape Verdean immigrant from West Africa who had to surmount the barriers imposed by the world's most entrenched monolingual system of higher education. His eloquence in this book is testimony to the very idea that critical thinking and good education are not and must not be culturally or linguistically bounded.A new concluding chapter by the author critically challenges the crucial role of schools in ?the manufacture of consent? for the war in Iraq and the Patriot Act, and the ?charitable racism? that is too often evident in the field of ESL. In essays new to this edition, well-known and respected educators Joe Kincheloe, Peter McLaren, and Shirley Steinberg share their insights on Macedo's message, complementing Paulo Freire's Foreword to the original edition"--Back cover.

Alternative Title

What Americans are not allowed to know

Subject

• Critical pedagogy > United States
• Literacy > Political aspects > United States
• Discrimination in education > United States
• Minorities > Education > United States
• Educational change > United States
• Critical pedagogy
• Discrimination in education
• Educational change
• Literacy > Political aspects
• Minorities > Education
• Englischunterricht
• Höheres Bildungswesen
• Kritisches Denken
• Unterdrückung
• United States
• USA

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-235) and index.

Contents

Literacy for Stupidification : The Pedagogy of Big Lies. The instrumental approach to literacy -- The barbarism of specialization, or the specialization of barbarism -- The illiteracy of literacy of the Gulf War -- Our Common Culture : A Poisonous Pedagogy. Western heritage verus multiculturalism -- What all Americans need to know -- Our Uncommon Culture : The Politics of Race, Class, Gender, and Language -- English Only : The Tongue-Tying of America. The role of language in the education of linguistic-minority students -- A democratics and liberatory education for linguistic-minority students -- Educational Reform : Literacy and Poverty Pimps. Educational reforms that deform -- The choiceless choice -- The method : fetish of reform -- Charitable Racism : Imposing Democracy Undemocratically. The naturalization of mass deception -- Liberals' dance of hypocrisy -- Afterword: That which was true yesterday is even more true today / Shirley Steinberg.

ISBN

• 9780813343389
• 0813343380

LCCN

9780813343389

OCLC

• ocm64176571
• 64176571
• SCSB-8908729

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library