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Carlson, Dennis and Apple, Michael W. (Eds.) (1998).
Power/Knowledge/Pedagogy: The Meaning of Democratic
Education in Unsettling Times. Boulder, CO: Westview
Press.
356 pp + ix
$60 (Cloth) ISBN 0-8133-9026-5
Reviewed by Catherine H. Glascock
Ohio University
October 14, 1998
Carlson and
Apple are the editors of a collection of
essays on democratic themes in education. According to the
editors, these themes are "emergent, contested, and
consequently always in the process of being constructed and
reconstructed as a historical production" (p. 1). The book
explores these themes, which concern democratic renewal of
culture and education, by construing them as various types
of critical theory. Ultimately, the aim of the book is to
relate these theories to policy and practice. This
theoretical discourse, which is positioned historically to
address a transformational time of crisis in education and
society, is part of The Edge: Critical Studies in
Educational Theory. The series examines progressive
educational theory by offering a variety of discussions
about theory and practice during an era of perceived
radical paradigm shifts in education.
Introduction
Carlson and
Apple introduce their text as a discussion
partially of the stress that exists within and among neo-
Marxist/neo-Gramscian and postmodern/poststructural
theories. The authors believe that the discussion must be
set in the cultural and historical context of present day
conflicts between neo-liberals desiring privatization of
public education and neo-conservatives desiring more
traditional curricula that ignore multicultural issues.
Carlson and Apple view this frame as appropriate since two
of the major crises of the time are the neo-liberal call
for privatization of public education resulting ostensibly
from the failure of urban schools to serve inner-city
children and the attempt by neo-conservatives to wage a
"cultural war" against multicultural and student-centered
approaches to education (p. 2).
A new approach
to research on educational issues is
vetted as well. The recognition that qualitative research
narratives are partial at best and may be contradicted by
other and subsequent narratives is presented as a reason
why researchers ought to adopt a modest stance, which
acknowledges the democratic culture in education.
Interestingly,
Carlson and Apple state that it is
important to blur the lines between modern and post-modern
theory. This blurring of the lines allows the theoretical
discussion to revisit older practices in light of new
theories. Carlson and Apple believe that post-modern
theory dismisses "older practices" too quickly because many
of the post-modern concepts are derived from existing
culture and are therefore linked to existing practices.
Further Carlson and Apple believe the language of
postmodernism needs to become more inclusive and tied to
the real world structures of every day life.
Another concern
of the authors is the behavior of some
"post-" theorists who appear to negate the possibility that
more traditional approaches have value. The arrogance
implied by such theorists' self-presentation of having the
"right answers" to educational crises worries Carlson and
Apple.
Part One: State Educational Policy and Curriculum Reform
in Unsettling Times
Chapters 2, 3, 4
This section
deals with issues related to the state
and its role in educational reform. In Chapter 2 Henry
Giroux targets higher education as the center of the
conflict between neo-conservatives and progressives. The
clash, in his view, concerns cultural definition: which
culture will be presented in schools? Will there be more
than one culture accepted as the "norm"?
Jane Kenway
examines the way that new technologies are
transforming communication in the global community. Who is
making the decisions? How are these communication networks
being designed? What are the ethical ramifications of the
choices being made? Are democratic processes being
utilized in these decisions? These issues deal with the
state's practice of instituting educational reforms from
the top down to schools without discussion of the cultural
implications of the purported improvements.
In Chapter 4,
Geoff Whitty discusses the rhetoric of
schools construed as businesses. Framed according to this
rhetoric, schools compete for students and in so doing
create new divisions among students based on their social
circumstances. Claiming that the economic aims of
schooling have become preeminent, Whitty calls for a
balance in the use of schools to promote democratic and
economic citizenship.
In a summary
of the section Madeleine Arnot offers a
discussion of the three authors' work, particularly as it
relates to contextual issues of global import. Arnot
believes that the major contribution of the three authors
is their analysis of the social significance of the
dominance of particular interest groups in participative
democracy. Arnot elaborates on the points made by the
authors when she addresses the impact of political,
technological, and cultural forces on the educational
system. Further, she considers the even greater impact of
these cultural forces on democratic social structures in
general (p. 110-119).
Part Two: Education, Identity, and the Other
Chapters 5, 6, 7
This section of the
book provides three views of how
students' identity formation has been approached by
different constituencies or through different lenses.
Chapter 5 presents Michael Apple and Anita Oliver’s view of
the traditional character of the Christian Right by
analyzing an example case. In this analysis the authors
offer a more complex picture of the Right-wing stance
toward education than is typically acknowledged by liberal
and Left-wing critics. The authors believe that it is
important to understand the complexities of the
conservative stance, first, because of the impact
conservatives have had recently on curricula in the schools
and, second, because progressives need to work with rather
than place themselves in opposition to the Right.
Further, Apple
and Oliver offer a new avenue for
collaboration rather than conflict between neo-Gramscian
and postmodern/poststructural theories. By combining the
neo-Gramscian focus on the dominant groups' practice of
exercising leadership in society through the state or
"hegemonic blocs" and the poststructural focus on the
local, formation of subjectivity and identity, Apple and
Oliver believe illumination of critical issues in the
politics of education will be achieved. This lens will
allow for a more complex understanding of the Christian
Right and its multiple purposes within the education arena.
Following Apple
and Oliver's treatment of identity as
defined on the traditional Right and on the
reconceptualized Left, Michele Fine, Lois Weis, and Judi
Addelston examine feminist views of identity formation. In
particular, they focus on the formation of gender identity
within the white working class especially during times of
economic upheaval. Women are often grouped with "others"
(African Americans, gays and other minorities) at these
times to function as the "cause" of the difficulties. At
the same time white working class males view the new
political arena as inimical to their interests by promoting
pluralism in ways that makes it difficult simply to blame
the "other" for the economic woes of the era. Fine, Weis
and Addelston posit that it is the responsibility of
educators, researchers and others committed to a democratic
society to be proactive when signs of scapegoating appear.
They further alert educators that excluded and oppressed
peoples are not the only ones whose concerns need to be
addressed. Rather, educators should offer critique and
analysis of identity formation more generally so that
restructured identities and reconstituted alliances among
different groups can be established.
In the final chapter
of this section Philip Wexler
offers a less traditional approach to educational research.
Wexler rejects postmodernism and presents an argument for
viewing self through a spiritual lens. Jewish mysticism is
put forward as that lens, offering three unorthodox
approaches: (1) creation is used as the lens with which to
view "contemporary self/education dynamics;" (2) revelation
is used to evaluate emergent self processes and education
change; and (3) redemption is used as a process for
speculations about the self and education in the future (p.
175).
Carlson concludes
this section with a summary
discussion of the views expressed. According to his
analysis, the underlying distinction revealed in the
chapters is between progressives, who view education as the
process by which individuals shape themselves, and
traditionalists, who view education as the transmission of
knowledge that forms individuals. Carlson further sees a
division in the progressive approach between one group that
focuses on politics of the self and another group that
focuses on identity politics.
Part Three: Reading Curriculum Texts
Chapters 8, 9, 10
This section of the
book deals with influences on
contemporary curricula. These influences include
traditional textbooks as well as the popular media such as
television, movies, newspapers, and novels.
In chapter 8, Cameron
McCarthy, Alicia Rodriquez,
Stephen David, Shuaib Meecham, Heriberto Godina, K. E.
Supriya, and Carrie Wilson-Brown present a discussion of
the link between widely read cultural material and the way
that race issues are presented in multicultural settings.
Further the relationship between the popular media (i.e.,
television, movies, magazines) and commonly held beliefs
about race identity and traits is discussed.
Linda K.
Christian-Smith presents a similar argument
for female gender identity by examining how the popular
media portray "femaleness." She argues that the popular
press and advertisers offer females an image of what being
female is and prescribe what should be part of any female's
possessions and attitudes.
Focusing on the
identity formation that results from
children's interactions with text, Patrick Shannon and
Patricia Crawford discuss the cultural imperatives embodied
in basal reading series. They call for an examination of
the "old beliefs" promoted in basal texts and discuss the
need to move beyond beliefs rooted in the dominant culture
to beliefs that reflect cultural pluralism. The authors
make a convincing argument that basal readers were first
designed for white males only and that little has changed
with regard to the premises of those texts.
William Tierney
provides a summary discussion of the
themes presented in this section, and he offers critical
commentary on each of the chapters. Tierney believes that
McCarthy and associates are too sweeping in their
interpretation of the media's monolithic depiction of
racial identifiers. In Tierney's view, the audience is not
nearly so passive and accepting as McCarthy and associates
portray it to be.
According to Tierney,
Christian-Smith provides a
compelling discussion of how text and the reading of text
change over time. The example that a "Nancy Drew" mystery
will be received differently by a young girl of the 1990's
than it was by a young girl of the 1940's made sense to
Tierney. He suggests that educators ought to make use of
this insight when they think about the future.
Tierney takes
Shannon and Crawford to task for their
dismissal of the small improvements that have taken place
in the content and context of basal readers. Whereas
Tierney agrees with the authors' main point, he is
concerned by their failure to acknowledge the good
intentions of the publishers of contemporary basal series.
Part Four: Pedagogy and Empowerment
Chapters 11, 12, 13
This section of
the text deals with the connection
between pedagogy and power relationships. Pedagogy is
viewed through three lenses: feminist, African-American,
and political-economic. How pedagogy can empower or defeat
students in a variety of ways and how that pedagogy can
change over time are the continuing themes throughout the
three chapters.
In chapter 11,
Jennifer Gore opens with a discussion
about the evolution of critical and feminist pedagogies
over the past decade. Her argument is that whereas these
alternative pedagogies have strong theoretical bases, they
are weak with respect to their presentation of specific
instructional guidelines. If these alternatives are to
have an influence on mainstream pedagogy, then they must be
presented in more detailed and accessible ways.
In contrast to Gore,
Gloria Ladson-Billings argues
that teaching techniques are not the key issue. More
important, in Ladson-Billing's view, are teachers'
underlying assumptions about the "educability" of every
student. She believes that teachers' assumptions about the
low levels of educability of African-American students and
students from other oppressed minorities function to deny
such students access to a challenging education.
Peter McLaren and
Kris Gutierrez provide a study of
Los Angeles' schools that examines critical pedagogy within
the context of a particular political-economic environment.
Their discussion considers the ways that power is deployed
to support the status quo: Who holds power over education
in a particular locale and who determines the opportunities
that are provided and denied? Recognizing schools as sites
of conflict, McLaren and Gutierrez' case studies offer
anecdotal evidence of ways that students and teachers
challenge the existing system of power in schools.
Kathleen Weiler
provides the summary discussion of the
last part of the text. Weiler views the chapters in this
section as theoretical in nature, tying pedagogical
practices to historical and social determinants of power
relationships in schools and classrooms. She characterizes
McLaren and Gutierrez 's case study as an attempt to
explain the global culture in terms of "exploited" and
"exploiter" (p. 335). According to Weiler, Ladson-
Billings, as an African-American in the American
educational system, writes from the perspective of nurturer
and nurtured. Weiler believes that Ladson-Billings wants
pedagogy to be a vehicle for sustaining African-American
cultural identity in the present and into the future.
Critique
This edited
volume provides a complex set of
theoretical premises and practical approaches for
challenging the status quo in the education arena with
regard to social and cultural issues. The audience
intended for this book is an academic one familiar with the
latest Left-wing jargon. Indeed, one problem with the book
is its tendency to "preach to the choir."
A countervailing
strength, however, is the use of
summary discussions, which synthesize and evaluate the
ideas presented in each section of the book. It is
refreshing to have immediate critique available to assist
the reader in placing strong arguments within an
ideological context. By providing these critiques the
editors offer a more balance view of the topics under
discussion.
Despite this
balance, the book construes its audience
quite narrowly, rather than making the effort to reach an
extended audience. Clearly the text invites discussion
among academicians with similar points of view. Whereas
such discussion does and probably ought to occur on a
regular basis, it is not sufficient to provoke serious
dialog about how schools should be transformed. The
extended audience, however, properly includes teachers in
the field who have daily interactions with children,
parents, and administrators. These are the people who will
take action--who will be responsible for putting theory
into practice. An important foundation for teachers'
action can be theoretical discourse, of course. But for
discourse to function in this way it must be understandable
to the broader audience and palatably presented as well.
In the introduction to the book, the editors provide a
brief discussion of this issue. Their discussion, perhaps,
is as appropriately directed to the authors of the chapters
as it is to the academicians who are likely to read the
book.
Another weakness
of the book is the tendency of some
of its authors to regard research as a direct extension of
political commitments. These authors call for research
that examines educational issues on the basis of
preconceived ideological premises. From the perspective of
this reviewer, research should not be approached in a
deliberately biased manner. Rather it should be approached
openly, allowing for the possibility that the findings will
confirm or disconfirm its original premises. The proper
place for interpretation--for the inclusion of a
subjective voice--is at the completion of research, not
in advance of it. Given these concerns, the editors’ call
for more modesty in educational research is well-taken.
Researchers are properly cautioned to remember the dynamics
--including the limitations--of their research designs.
For example, one
ought not to draw conclusions about
the ways that teachers in general are challenging existing
power relationships in schools on the basis of qualitative
data from selected schools in only one district.
Overgeneralizing in this way ignores the influence of
specific features of context such as urbanicity or
rurality, characteristics of the student population, the
dynamics between management and labor within the district,
the intrusiveness of state education agencies, and so
forth. The caution to be modest in one's claims applies to
all researchers, but it is particularly germane to
qualitative researchers. Providing in-depth analysis
resulting from serious and prolonged study of a single
site, such researchers are prone to overemphasize certain
dynamics--resistance to the status quo, for example--
and underemphasize others--compliance to authority, for
instance. If care is not exercised, these patterns of
emphasis are likely to conform to the researchers' pre-
existing ideological commitments.
Many important
social and cultural issues are
addressed in this collection, and the editors have provided
a balanced forum for the discussions. The editors, in
fact, have developed a format that encourages participation
by an audience broader than an academic in-crowd. The
chapter authors, many of whom appear to be writing for
themselves and their friends only, would be well advised to
adopt formats similar to the one modeled by the editors.
About the Reviewer
Catherine H. Glascock is an Assistant Professor of
Educational Administration in the College of Education at
Ohio University. Dr. Glascock received her Ph.D. from
Louisiana State University in 1996. Dr. Glascock's areas
of interest are organizational behavior, leadership, and
school finance. She is specifically interested in rural,
Appalachian schools.
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