Literacies of Power
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Literacies of Power illustrates the many ways American schools, media, and other social institutions perpetuate ignorance. In this new, expanded edition, Donaldo Macedo shows why so-called common culture literacy is a form of dominant cultural reproduction that undermines independent thought and goes against the best interests of our students. Offering a wide-ranging counterargument, Macedo shows why cultural literacy cannot be restricted to the acquisition of Western heritage values, which sustain an ideology that systematically negates the cultural experiences of many members of society—not only minorities but also anyone who is poor or disenfranchised. Macedo calls on his own experience as a Cape Verdean immigrant from West Africa who had to surmount the barriers imposed by the world’s most entrenched monolingual system of higher education. His eloquence in this book is testimony to the very idea that critical thinking and good education are not and must not be culturally or linguistically bounded. A new concluding chapter by the author critically challenges the crucial role of schools in “the manufacture of consent” for the war in Iraq and the Patriot Act, and the “charitable racism” that is too often evident in the field of ESL. In essays new to this edition, well-known and respected educators Joe Kincheloe, Peter McLaren, and Shirley Steinberg share their insights on Macedo’s message, complementing Paulo Freire’s foreword to the original edition.
Donaldo Macedo is Professor of English and Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Education at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He is a leading authority in language studies and has published extensively in the areas of Creole languages, critical literacy, biligualism, and multiculturalism. His publications include Literacy: Reading the Word and the Word (with Paulo Freire, 1987), Dancing with Bigotry: Beyond the Politics of Tolerance (with Lilia Bartolome, 1999), Howard Zinn on Democratic Education (with Howard Zinn, 2005) and Globalization of Racism (edited with Panayota Gounari, 2005). He is a collabourator with Noam Chomsky on the recently published book, Chomsky On Miseducation. His published work has been translated into several languages.