Full Description
Advocates for a greater cultural understanding of minority beliefs in literacy education and a more critical examination of mainstream instructional practices.
Winner of the 2006 Edward Fry Book Award presented by the National Reading Conference
The voices of teachers, parents, and students create a compelling ethnographic study that examines the debate between traditional and progressive pedagogies in literacy education and the mismatch of cross-cultural discourses between mainstream schools and Asian families. This book focuses on a Vancouver suburb where the Chinese population has surpassed the white community numerically and socioeconomically, but not politically, and where the author uncovers disturbing cultural conflicts, educational dissensions, and "silent" power struggles between school and home. What Guofang Li reveals illustrates the challenges of teaching and learning in an increasingly complex educational landscape in which literacy, culture, race, and social class intertwine. Advocating for a greater cultural understanding of minority beliefs in literacy education and a more critical examination of mainstream instructional practices, Li offers a new theoretical framework and critical recommendations for teachers, schools, and parents.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Foreword
Lee Gunderson
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Literacy Learning and Teaching in a New Socioeconomic Context
1. Literacy Instruction and Cross-cultural Discourses
2. The City, the School, and the Families
3. Literacy and Culture Battles: Teacher Beliefs and Parent Perspectives
4. Beginning Forays in the Battles: Sandy, Anthony, Kevin, and Alana
5. Living through the Battles: Billy, Andy, Jake, and Tina
6. Understanding the Battles of Literacy and Culture: Conflicts and Complexities
7. Learning from the Battles: Toward a Pedagogy of Cultural Reciprocity
References
Index
