Literacy and Racial Justice: The Politics of Learning after Brown v. Board of Education - Softcover

Prendergast, Catherine Jean

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080932525X ISBN 13: 9780809325252

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press, 2003

Synopsis

In anticipation of the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, Catherine Prendergast draws on a combination of insights from legal studies and literacy studies to interrogate contemporary multicultural literacy initiatives, thus providing a sound historical basis that informs current debates over affirmative action, school vouchers, reparations, and high-stakes standardized testing.

As a result of Brown and subsequent crucial civil rights court cases, literacy and racial justice are firmly enmeshed in the American imagination—so much so that it is difficult to discuss one without referencing the other. Breaking with the accepted wisdom that the Brown decision was an unambiguous victory for the betterment of race relations, Literacy and Racial Justice: The Politics of Learning after Brown v. Board of Education finds that the ruling reinforced traditional conceptions of literacy as primarily white property to be controlled and disseminated by an empowered majority. Prendergast examines civil rights era Supreme Court rulings and immigration cases spanning a century of racial injustice to challenge the myth of assimilation through literacy. Advancing from Ways with Words, Shirley Brice Heath’s landmark study of desegregated communities, Prendergast argues that it is a shared understanding of literacy as white property which continues to impact problematic classroom dynamics and education practices.

To offer a positive model for reimagining literacy instruction that is truly in the service of racial justice, Prendergast presents a naturalistic study of an alternative public secondary school. Outlining new directions and priorities for inclusive literacy scholarship in America, Literacy and Racial Justice concludes that a literate citizen is one who can engage rather than overlook longstanding legacies of racial strife.

About this title

About the Author

Catherine Prendergast is an associate professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her articles have appeared in Harvard Educational Review, Written Communication, CCC, and JAC; and she is the recipient of the 1999 CCCC Richard Braddock Award for her article, “Race: The Absent Presence in Composition Studies.”

Edition details

• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080932525X
• ISBN 13: 9780809325252
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224