Reflections on McCarty

Teresa L. McCarty[1] (2005) Language, literacy and power in schooling

Language, literacy and power in schooling includes a collection of articles from both novel (at the time) and renowned scholars in the field of educational research. The book is based on a symposium held by the American Anthropological Association ten years ago, but the texts in it bear an air of freshness and novelty. The volume is divided in three parts, and all the parts have a similar structure with a short introduction written by McCarty in the beginning, a core of chapters presenting educational ethnographic research from different angles in the middle and finally a commentary chapter, written by prominent scholars such as Jim Cummins, Luis C. Moll and Ray McDermott at the end of each part. I found this structure functional as the parts formed intelligible entities and the meta-commentaries added another dimension to the research presented. The structure also facilitated the process of reading.

The three parts have all different kinds of focus, even though the connections between them are easily seen. Part I with the title “Taking hold” of local literacies examines “the tensions between the local and the general (literacies), the margins and the center and the spaces in between” (p. xi). It presents research conducted mainly among indigenous peoples such as Maya people of Chiapas in Mexico, Hopi and other Native American peoples in the US, Alaskan Natives, Australian Aboriginals, and an in-depth ethnographic study where only one Mexican-American woman is in focus. The studies in part 1 highlight the complexity and meaning of literacy in local level, in communities, for individuals and their institutions.

Part II is titled Literacy practices in diverse classroom contexts and has a different kind of focus. The texts in part II are focused on examining face-to-face interactions around literacy in classrooms that have great diversity both ethnically and linguistically, therefore reinforcing the role of culture and language in learning. Themes presented include early literacy in multiethnic classrooms where the concept of race is – or is not – being discussed, argumentation for the coexistence of different varieties in multilingual classrooms, mathematics in bilingual-bicultural classrooms and local power construction through discourse in a multilingual classroom with socially marginalized students.

Part III, in its turn, positions literacy practices and politics in a larger context, namely that of globalization, seeing social, political and economic forces as interweaved with literacy education. All chapters present research with an ethnographic approach. A key question is deeply connected with power, wondering “what kind of and whose literacies and knowledges will predominate in an era of global capitalism” (p. 221). Possible answers are discussed from three different points of view in the chapters, ranging from a critical approach to current educational policies from the point of view of the “new capitalism” that demands a new set of principles in order to give more people a chance to succeed, to a critical examination of adult literacy education in the US-Mexico-border and to a discussion about education reform, followed by a “literacy crisis” in California.

In the book, literacy is presented as socially and historically situated, fluid, multiple and deeply connected with power. The access that certain type of literacy skills often grant to key intellectual, social, economic and political resources and rights are highlighted in all of the chapters from different points of view. One of the most interesting contributions in the book is Ray McDermott’s commentary on part 1. In a daring manner McDermott challenges our conceptions of the role of literacy in the society, making visible the contradictions, hierarchies, changes, settlements in societal structures and knowledge creation attached to it. Quoting and rewriting Marx, McDermott concludes “whatever a person learns takes its value from what others can make of it; whatever a person learns is taken from its maker and used to fulfill the intentions of others” (p.120), making it clear that literacy is and never has been a private issue, a skill that a person possesses without any social connections. McDermott’s commentary is at times very provocating but also refreshing. He points out that all actors (meaning all of us) in the “literacy market” are part of the problem and that if there is something we have succeeded in it is institutionalizing what he calls “crazy” ideas about language, education and their possible relations. Supported by the research presented in part I, McDermott pleads for a more consenting attitude towards different types of literacy.

In a commentary to part II, Luis C. Moll discusses language in a changing social context in the light of the previous chapters in the same section. Making a connection to the school arenas presented here, Moll concludes that the “presence of diversity in schools is being treated with alarm, suppression and attempts to impose uniformity on teaching and learning”, sending a clear message of who is in power and who is not to both students and their parents, but also to school personnel and decision-makers. Moll discusses also academic failure, turning the tables around when demanding the reader to reflect on whether failing in literacy (or in school in general) is something children do or something that is done to them.

Jim Cummins’ commentary to part III takes also a confronting point of view, asking whether it is possible through schools and literacy education to challenge the existing and evolving power relations in our globalizing world, and is complemented with a concluding afterword by the editor. A central theme for the book, as McCarty describes it, is “the richness and promise of multiple literacies and the pedagogies that nurture them”, but the reader never gets a chance to get too carried away as s/he is soon reminded of a different reality that still exists and dominates the views on language, culture and literacy in many societies. By extending a hand and inviting readers to join in critical literacy research, McCarty however succeeds in leaving us with a hopeful tone.