Full Description
The Struggle for Identity in Today's Schools examines cultural recognition and the struggle for identity in America's schools. In particular, the contributing authors focus on the recognition and misrecognition as antagonistic cultural forces that work to shape, and at times distort identity. What surfaces throughout the chapters are two lessons to be learned in relation to identity. The first lesson is that identities and the acts attributed to them are always forming and re-forming in relation to historically specific contexts, and these contexts are political in nature, i.e., defined by issues of diversity such as race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, gender, and economics. The second lesson presented by the authors is that identity forms in and across intimate and social contexts, over long periods of time. The historical timing of identity formation cannot simply be dictated by discourse. The identities posited by any particular discourse become important and a part of everyday life based on the intersection of social histories and social actors. Importantly, the social-cultural use of identities leads to another way of conceptualizing histories, personhoods, cultures, and their distributions over social and political groups.
Contents
Part 1 Cultural Identity—Discovering Authentic Voice
Part 2 Introduction: Cultural Identity and the Struggle for Recognition
Chapter 3 Affirming Diversity, Politics of Recognition, and the Cultural Work of Schools
Chapter 4 Dialoguing Toward a Racialized Identity: A Necessary First Step in a Politics of Recognition
Chapter 5 Misrecognition Compounded
Part 6 Struggle for Recognition—Embracing Cultural Politics
Chapter 7 Recognition, Identity Politics, and English Language Learners
Chapter 8 Identity Formation and Recognition in Asian-American Students
Chapter 9 Curriculum and Recognition
Chapter 10 Extracurricular Activities and Student Identity
Chapter 11 Recognition, Identity Politics, and the Special Needs Student
Chapter 12 Athletes, Recognition, and the Formation of Identity
Chapter 13 Administrator to Parent Recognition: Treat Me with Respect
Chapter 14 Recognition and Parent Involvement
Chapter 15 Student Identity and Cultural Communication
Chapter 16 Value-Added Community: Recognition, Induction-Year Teacher Diversity and the Shaping of Identity
Chapter 17 Coda: Recognition, Difference, and the Future of America's Schools
