Becoming Political

by Patrick Shannon

Literacy education is political. Decisions about goals, instruction, and assessment are actually negotiations to determine whose values, interests, and beliefs will be validated at school. Becoming Political provides critiques on how race, social class, gender, and language play prominent roles in these negotiations, affirming or marginalizing different groups of students, and involving or alienating teachers from their work. Patrick Shannon details explicit plans of action to make literacy education more equitable, with the hope that students and teachers might engage passionately in discussions on how they wish to live together, both in and out of school.

304 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1992