Date of Award
Spring 5-16-1990
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Education (MEd)
First Advisor
Nilda Bayron Resnick
Abstract
For the general public, education is the portal to the American Dream. At face value, education is not seen as a complex matter: teachers teach and students learn. In reality however, education is a closely regulated, political institution where literacy is dispensed to select populations who are part of the dominant society.
Although it is the responsibility of educational institutions to foster literacy, they are just as likely to produce illiteracy. As a reflection of the dominant culture, literacy functions as a mechanism by which individuals are educated and absorbed into mainstream society. Those who fail to be thus processed are labeled as illiterate .
Contrary to popular opinion, illiteracy does not signal a weakness in American education, but a successful means by which undesirables are prevented from competing with the mainstream. This paper examines the components of education that serve to maintain the status quo and to exclude peoples who do not fit the mold. Included in this study ·is a consideration of: literacy characteristics; attitudes which serve to limit equal access to literacy and to maintain the myth of "lower class" illiteracy; attitudes capable of challenging the status quo of education.
Recommended Citation
Kamienski, M. (1990). Literacy and Illiteracy: The Apartheid of American Education. New York : Bank Street College of Education. https://educate.bankstreet.edu/independent-studies/417