Transcript PPT 9
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Chapter Nine Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Literacy as a Social Construction
• Past and present literacy rates affected by differences in class, race, gender, region, and social need • Less need and less expectation of widespread literacy in 18 th and 19 th centuries • Socioeconomic marginality of illiteracy a 20 th century phenomenon
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Hegemony Theory
Why, in the face of massive inequalities, does rebellion not occur in a democracy?
Hegemony theory posits that: 1.
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Institutional elites control U.S. political and economic institutions.
They share a common ideology that justifies their position.
Public is socialized into accepting these views through schooling, mass media, workplace.
Ideology serves to limit discussion/debate and promote acceptance of status quo.
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Mass Media and Cultural Hegemony
• Corporate chains control significant numbers of newspapers and magazines; television, publishing and films • Concentration of ownership equals restriction of range of viewpoints • Media criticisms of American institutions stay within acceptable bounds • What will happen with computers and the Internet?
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Schooling and Cultural Hegemony
• Hierarchical distribution of power in schools fosters compliance • Nature of students’ work promotes competition; failure is personal, not linked to a structure that needs winners and losers • Social stratification within the school culture encourages differences rather than commonalities • Capitalist democracy lauded; instillation of compliance in students encouraged • America’s social history selectively presented in textbooks
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Schooling and Cultural Hegemony
• American society educates in contradictory ways Taught that this is a democratic society Daily experiences reinforce non-participation The option of questioning this dichotomy is not presented • Citizens are prevented from participating in democratic processes Ultimately, is this really a democracy if the populace cannot participate?
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Four Contemporary Perspectives on Literacy
• Conventional literacy • Functional literacy • Cultural literacy • Critical literacy Each expresses different understandings of schooling, political economy, and ideology.
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Conventional Literacy
• 1980 U.S. Census found 99.5% of adults literate— “the ability to read and write a simple message in any language” • Issues with these findings: Were data collection methods appropriate?
What level of literacy is reflected in the data?
Could respondents read and write in English?
• Conventional perspective useful to support claims of progress and to mask need for adult education programs
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Functional Literacy
• “Functional literacy” first used by Army during WWII to mean literacy that would accommodate military demands • A literacy that measures ability to perform tasks requiring literacy skills or to “function effectively” • Social class and literacy acquisition go hand in hand; race and ethnicity matter
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Functional Literacy
• Limitations of functional literacy perspective Seems to imply minimum competence as a goal Tends to lay blame on the illiterate themselves, rather than social inequalities Overemphasis on mechanical skills of reading and writing; less on understanding and critical thinking
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Cultural Literacy
• E. D. Hirsch’s argument that literacy includes a basic knowledge foundation that gives meaning to what is read • “Intellectual baggage” that supports a familiarity with the events and ideas that have shaped American culture • Historical names and events, authors and works of literature, geographical places, phrases, scientific terms, etc.
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Cultural Literacy
• Limitations of functional literacy perspective “Trivial pursuit” approach?
Adds meaning, but falls short of advancing democratic understanding Emphasizes recognition rather than critical thinking, and is very testable Reinforces Eurocentric bias; overlooks global society
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Critical Literacy
• Literacy may enable some parts of society to control others • Critical literacy draws attention to power relations in society by focusing on racial, ethnic, gender, and class oppression • Critical literacy attends to how knowledge and power are interrelated • Literacy is the capacity to
think and act reflectively
—to understand the world and act to change social relations of oppression
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Critical Literacy Method
• Highlights connection between knowledge and power • Freire's pedagogy of “dialogue” and mutual learning • Reading and writing as tools to understand, express, and change social relations • Balancing criticism of the dominant culture and learning its “linguistic code”
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Usefulness/Drawbacks of Perspectives
• Conventional evidence of success of U.S. educational system; obscures the way illiteracy is distributed • Functional measurement of ability to function at minimum level in society; settles for minimal view of literacy • Cultural familiarity with the traditional knowledge base of our culture; promotes passive absorption of random knowledge • Critical emphasis on relationship between literacy and empowerment • Each of these supports a different
educational aim
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Concluding Remarks
• The concept of literacy is embedded in social contexts and is relative to particular societies and their conditions • Education is no guarantee of freedom when participatory self-government is not fostered by schools and media • Critical literacy key to challenging this state of affairs
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School & Society: Chapter 9 Liberty and Literacy Today: Contemporary Perspectives
Developing Your Professional Vocabulary
• conventional literacy • critical literacy • cultural literacy • cultural or ideological hegemony • Paulo Freire • functional literacy • hidden curriculum • the “information marketplace” vs. a marketplace of ideas • literacy as a social construction • mass media • NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Programs)
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e