2. Literacy education in the United States magnifies and
reproduces inequalities already inherent in society.
1 in 4 children in America grow up illiterate. In 1992
and 2003, National Assessment of Adult Literacy
(NAAL) was used to assess literacy scores. Adults were
scored on three types of literacy: prose, document, and
quantitative. Literacy here is defined as “using printed
and written information to function in society, to
achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge
and potential." The assessment revealed that
minorities scored lower on all three types.
3. Illiteracy has many wide-reaching affects.
Being illiterate makes it hard to gain employment,
apply for loans, housing, etc., and affects people’s
access to adequate medical care.
People who are illiterate are also more likely to be
imprisoned or forced to rely on welfare.
Two-thirds of students who can’t read efficiently at the
end of 4th grade will end up imprisoned or on welfare.
Some states even base their projection of how many
beds a prison will require in the future on how well
elementary school students perform on tests.
4. Illiteracy also contributes to student dropout rates.
Children who do not read proficiently by 4th grade are
four time mores likely to drop out of school.
Dropout rates also display a racial bias, with African
American students dropping out at twice the rate of
white students. Dropout rates for Hispanic students
are even higher.
5. Poverty is also a factor in high school dropout rates.
Students who come from low-income families drop out
at 5 times the rate of students from high-income
families.
Schools with a graduation rate of less than 60% are
sometimes referred to as “dropout factories”. These
schools are located mainly in poverty-stricken areas.
Again, this disproportionately affects students of color.
Over 60% of African American students attend schools
where more than half of the school population lives in
poverty in comparison to only 18% of white students.
6.
7. Critical Pedagogy Approach
In a critical pedagogic approach, students would have
some degree of control over their curriculum.
The reading list would be open to change and focus
would be placed on selecting literature that was
applicable to students’ lives and experience.
8. Accommodating
Literature would be inclusive of different societal
groups.
The learning process would be adaptable, tailored to
individual students to help ensure that students,
including those with learning disabilities, do not slip
through the cracks of the system.
9. Transformative
Through selected literature, students would examine
ways to transform society.
Dialogue between students and teachers would be
central to the learning experience.
Students would be taught, not just to memorize and
regurgitate information, but to understand the value
of their knowledge and the reason behind learning it.
10. Oppressed Learner Approach
Curriculum would be rigid, with little room for
variance.
Curriculum would be provided by and for dominant
groups in society, with little concern for representation
of other groups.
11. Certain literature would be held over others as the
golden ideal.
Literature by non-dominant groups would be
considered “fringe” literature.
Books and curriculum that were considered to
encourage student questioning of dominant power
structures, including capitalism and democracy, would
be banned.
12. Banking Model would be used. Knowledge would be
deposited into the students with no room for dialogue.
The teacher has absolute authority.
Education would not be adaptable to individual
student needs.
Those who do not perform are left behind.
13. Teachers contributing to
oppression
In some cases, teachers may unknowingly hold biases that affect
their teaching.
Many studies indicate that male students talk more than female
students in class.
However, some teachers perceive girls to do the majority of the
talking. By analyzing videotapes of classroom interactions, Myra
and David Sadker found that although boys talked three times
more than girls, teachers perceived the girls to have done the
bulk of the talking and were unable to see the bias until it was
explicitly pointed out to them.
This may be because of gender roles that reward girls for being
quiet and docile, and boys for being assertive. In contrast,
assertiveness in young girls may seen as “bossiness”, typically
considered an undesirable trait.
14. Sources
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/tat/pdfs/gender.pdf
The Moral Parameters of Good Talk: A Feminist Analysis By Maryann Ayim
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/genderbias.html
https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-literacy-america
http://www.worldliteracyfoundation.org/The_Economic_&_Social_Cost_of_Illi
teracy.pdf
http://www.americaspromise.org/dropout-crisis-facts
http://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/school-dropout-prevention.aspx
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/10/hsdo-a10.html
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012006.pdf
http://billmoyers.com/2014/03/24/14-disturbing-stats-about-racial-inequality-
in-american-public-schools/
http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=69
http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/the-link-between-reading-
level-and-dropout-rates/?_r=1
