Language, Nation, and Identity in the Classroom: Legacies of Modernity and Colonialism in Schooling (Counterpoints)

Description

Language, Nation, and Identity in the Classroom critiques the normalizing aspects of schooling and the taken-for-granted assumptions in education about culture, identity, language, and learning. The text applies theories of postmodernism, postcolonialism, and other critical cultural theories from disciplines often overlooked in the field of education. The authors illustrate the potential of these theories for educators, offering a nuanced critical analysis of the role schools play in nationalistic enterprises and colonial projects. The book fills the current gap between simplified, ahistorical applications of multiculturalism and critical theory texts with only narrow applicability in the field. This clearly written alternative offers both an entry point to rigorous primary theoretical sources and broad applications of the scholarship to everyday practice in a range of PreK–12 classrooms and adult education settings globally. The text is designed for educators and advanced undergraduate or graduate students in the growing number of courses that address issues of cultural diversity, equity in education, multiculturalism, social and cultural foundations of education, literary studies, and educational policy. Cover Table of Contents 1 Narratives of Progress and the Colonial Origins of Schooling The Invention of Childhood and “Developmentally Appropriate” Curriculum The Spread of Formal Education Nation-Building, Ideology, and Hegemony in the Classroom Cultural Invisibility, Cultural Capital, & White Privilege Case in Point: “Universal” Educational Truths: Class Size and Class-room Management Practices Orientalism and the “Othering” of Non-Western Cultures Schooling and Colonial Logic 2 Deconstructing Modernity Enlightenment Origins Postmodern Critiques Scientism and “Research-based” Practices Paradigm Shifts and Ethnosciences The Illusion of Objectivity Western Knowledge Hierarchies & Popular Culture Case in Point: PSP, Hot Cheetos, and Bobby Jack: Consumption and Students’ Narrative Displays 3 Multiculturalism and the Domestication of Difference The Invention of Race A History of Multicultural Education Essentialism, Reification, and Other Pitfalls of Multiculturalism Case in Point: Race-Bending Hybridity and the Third Space 4 Globalization, Transnationality, and Citizen-Consumers Time–Space Compression and Global Networks Myths of Globalization Diasporas, Borderlands, and Elastic Communities Case in Point: US-Mexico Transnational Migrant Circuits Flexible Citizenship Globalized Marketplaces and Youth Identities 5 Social Cognition The Measurement of Intelligence & Test Bias Cultural Transmission, Tools, and Schemas Case in Point: The Codification of Storytelling in Elementary Class-rooms “Cognitive Styles” Research Decontextualization of Knowledge and Situated Learning 6 Commodification of Language and Literacy Modernist Theories of Language Acquisition Dialects, Creoles, & Language Varieties Case in Point: Language in the Inner City Conceptual Metaphors Literacy Instruction Policy Debates Multiliteracies 7 Discourse and Discipline Power/Knowledge, Discourse, and Governmentality Normalization Case in Point: Normalizing Puberty through Corporate- and State-Sponsored Curricula Technologies of the Self and Self-regulation Surveillance Commodification of Knowledge References Index