Julie A. Gorlewski / Julie AGorlewski
A volume in Critical Constructions: Studies on Education and SocietySeries Editor: Curry Stephenson Malott, Queens College/CUNYStudents in public schools serving poor and working-class students are inundated by the effects ofhigh-stakes examinations. Teachers are demoralized and students suffer substandard curricular andpedagogical experiences. These effects are articulated by students and teachers in the high schoolthat provided the setting for the critical ethnography on which this text is based. Teachers resentbeing judged on the basis of students’ performance on standardized assessments. They aredeprofessionalized as their roles are oriented toward working-class norms. Students feel alienatedby content that is meaningless and test-based pedagogies that are disempowering.While these findings are disturbing, critical theory provides a foundation for seeking hope. By incorporating inquiry and dialogue, thistheoretical framework opens a space where resistance can be revealed and examined. In this case, the study exposed glimmers ofresistance, spaces in the structure of schooling where students and teachers critique the system and suggest ways of subverting thenegative effects of the neoliberal reforms through dialogic, empowering, culturally responsive pedagogies.Collective resistance, achieved through dialogic pedagogies that build on understandings of resistance and power, can cultivatetheoretical and material spaces where a cycle of praxis can enhance possibilities for social justice. To that end, the conclusion isdevoted to the implementation of critical, dialogic approaches to literacies, approaches intended to interrupt the hegemonic influencesthat perpetuate social reproduction by capitalizing on the potential for solidarity andcollective agency among the students and teachers who populate and educate the workingclasses. This book would interest teacher educators, teachers, and school administrators.
