Reading Study Guide: McLaren
Reading Study Guides for Peter McLaren (2003)(4th.ed.) "Life in School"
Critical Pedagogy
McLaren Chs. 4 & 5
Q.1 What are the objectives of the Critical Theorists?
Q.2 C T’s see schooling as a form of cultural politics.
Be prepared to explain this phenomenon?
Q.3 C T’s believe that schools serve the interests of the
wealthy and powerful. Are they correct in this assessment?
Q.4 “C T’s question the very basis of school funding”
(p.190). What is the basis for their criticism of current funding policies?
Q.5 “Curriculum . . . . is a battleground where different
versions of authority, history, the present, and the future struggle
to prevail” (p. 191). Would you agree with this assessment
of current curriculum practices?
Q.6 What is the “social construction of knowledge”
(p. 196) as interpreted by McLaren?
Q.7 McLaren makes use of the terms:
+ dominant culture (p. 201)
+ hegemony (p.202)
Explain his usage of these terms.
Q.8 “Literacy becomes a weapon that can be used against
those groups that are culturally illiterate” (p. 206). Explain
McLaren’s interpretation on the connection between literacy and
socioeconomic status.
Q.9 How does Foucault explain the power/knowledge relationship
(p.209)?
Q.10 Define these terms as they are used by McLaren:
+ social reproduction (p.215)
+ cultural capital (p.218)
Race, Class & Gender
McLaren Chs. 6, 7 & 8
Q.1 John Ogbu (pp. 227) claims that black students have evolved
their own system of “making it” through the school system
with a particular “cultural capital” that emphasizes survival
rather than academic pursuits. Explain.
Q. 2 Paul Willis in his book Learning to Labor (p. 229) seeks
an explanation for the oppositional culture to be found among working
class youth in English high schools. What were his findings?
Q. 3 According to McLaren, “girls fatalistically accept
their position in society as members of a subordinate class and gender
grouping . . . [they] were primarily concerned with popularity and physical
attractiveness” (p. 232). Comment.
Q 4. “So pervasive and intransigent is the myth of equal
opportunity that many working class girls (or boys) come to believe
that their school failure is their own fault, that they must be stupid
or something” (p. 235). How does this situation come about?
Q. 5 On page 236 McLaren writes of the “deficit model of
student failure” and the all too common practice of “blaming
the victim.” As teachers we need to be wary of this practice.
Explain.
Q. 6 What is described by McLaren on p. 238 amounts to the “factory
model of education” and “Taylorizing teachers.” Be
prepared too explain these processes.
Q. 7 According to McLaren (p. 239) the myth of equal opportunity
masks an ugly truth. What is this truth?
Q. 8 In “Primacy of Voice” (pp. 245) McLaren reminds
us that the dominant school culture generally represents the privileged
voices of the white middle and upper middle classes. How can we incorporate
the voices of unrepresented students and minorities?
Q. 9 What is critical pedagogy? (p. 248)
Q. 10 What is the importance of the process of NAMING as described
on
page 249?
Q. 11 McLaren makes the claim (bottom p. 250) that "Duke
is undeniably wise . . . .but . . . ." Why Is he wise? What Is
the but?
Unthinking Whiteness
McLaren,
Ch. 10
Note: You will note that there are no questions in this section of the reading guide, rather you are given a set of quotes from the McLaren text. You need to read the designated parts of the text and prepare notes so that you are able to add to the class discussion of these quotes when called upon.
1. “The specific struggle that I wish to address is that
of choosing against whiteness . . . precisely because whiteness is so
pervasive it remains difficult to identify.” p. 264
2. When we talk of a colorblind society (p. 270) are we saying
that we will not judge by the color of our skin OR that we will judge
all persons as if they were white?
3. Why? Because whiteness has become almost invisible. White
is the norm. It is so pervasive that it has become the standard against
which all others are judged p. 271-72
4. McLaren quotes from Gomez-Pena “The United States is
no longer a fictional extension of Europe . . . it is rapidly become
a huge border zone, a hybrid society” (p. 272-73)
5. McLaren repeatedly makes the point that “whiteness”
(or racism) is a capitalist creation. He quotes Marx on p. 279 to the
effect that racism promotes competition among workers. By maintaining
such divisions capitalists hope to depress wages and wage claims.
6. On page 281 “Witness signifies the production and consumption
of commodities under capitalism.” The minority populations strive
to reach the production and consumption levels of whites as if this,
somehow, signified equality.
Q. What is ‘whiteness’ ?
I. It is a form of consciousness (p. 282)
II. It is a refusal to acknowledge how white people are implicated
in certain social relations of privilege and relations of domination
and subordination. ‘Whites’ don’t have to answer for
their treatment of minorities (p. 282).
III. Whiteness in the US can be understood largely through its
social consequences:
+ Whites are less likely to go to prison
+ they are less likely to be in special ed.
+ they dominate corporate board rooms
+ they live longer
+ they are more likely to graduate from college
+ they are less likely to be on welfare
whereas
+ Minorities fill our prisons,
+ they are the lower achievers in our classrooms
+ they are absent from the board rooms of corporations
+ they have significantly shorter life spans
+ they are more likely to come from single parent families
+ they are more likely to be on welfare
7. It is noteworthy that the first boat load of African slaves
arrived in Virginia in 1609. Irish emigration began in earnest in 1830.
Note the social position of each group in US society today. One is forced
to ask if time is a factor in the process of social acceptance or .
. .
8. McLaren (p. 283) says that whiteness represents a regime of
difference that looks on non-whiteness as a signifier of deviance. It
functions to exclude certain groups from social arenas.
9. He also claims that language is white. If you don’t
speak white you will not be heard (p. 284)
10. Finally, “Those of us who are “white” can
only become part of the solution if we recognize the degree to which
we are part of the problem” (p.287).
11. Maybe, McLaren is ‘a bit much’ but you have to
admit that he gives us reason to pause and think about important issues.
Biography, EDU 210: Foundations of US Education, EDU 555: Education
and Society, EDU 545: Curriculum Development and Evaluation, EDU 570:
Capstone
Reading Study Guide:Tozer et.al
EDU 210: Foundations of US Education
EDU 555: Education and Society
EDU 545: Curriculum Development and Evaluation
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