Transcript Building Ideology About “A Reading Crisis:”

Building Ideology
About
“A Reading Crisis”:
Taking a Closer Look
At the
NCLB Website
No Child Left Behind
 We have a genuine
national crisis. More
and more, we are
divided into two
nations. One that
reads, and one that
doesn’t. One that
dreams, and one that
doesn’t.
 Too many of our children
cannot read. Reading is
the building block, and it
must be the foundation,
for education reform.
 The federal government
must be wise enough to
give states and school
districts more authority and
freedom. And it must be
strong enough to require
proven performance in
return.
Ideology
 “The ideological work of media language
includes particular ways of representing
the world, particular constructions of social
identities and particular constructions of
social relations” (Fairclough, 1995, p. 12)
Ideology
 “A social theory which involves
generalizations (beliefs, claims) about the
way(s) in which goods are distributed in
society” (Gee, 1996, p. 21).
Critical Discourse Analysis
 Concerned with texts, discourse practices
and sociocultural practices
 Analysis of Text
 Discourse Practice or Text Consumption
 Sociocultural Practice (economic, political,
and cultural)
Participants
 20 people
 Ages: 19-76 years
 Same number of men and women
 All but one from Iowa
 5 said they had no knowledge
 5 said they had a lot of knowledge – all
had strong ties to education
Data Analysis
 Bloome & Carter (2001) Analysis of Lists
in reading education reform
 Pronouns
 Images
 Icons
Findings
 The patriotic theme was mentioned by
every participant.
 Only two participants identified Rod Paige.
 Teachers feel like outsiders when visiting
this webpage.
Notable Quotes
 Where are the teachers’ voices?
 Don’t you think every child should be able




to read by third grade?
Is this some kind of test?
Looks like propaganda to me.
It’s so “Americana.” I like that.
I think this is a way to keep people in low
paying jobs.
Educational Implications
 Studying the NCLB website can help people see
social, political, and cultural stances that are
privileged in the NCLB Act.
 This type of analysis helps in the articulation of
why NCLB is harmful for education.
 The study of policy documents can give
educators more powerful voices in negotiations
about literacy instruction in schools.
How does discourse move through
the world?
 Urban (2001) suggests movement occurs
with transubstantiation (the conversion of
meaning into a “thing” in the world)
The government (A) produces the NCLB Act (A1) and a webpage (A2)
about the NCLB Act for parents (B1) and teachers (B2).
Movement occurs when parents (B1) use artifacts from the webpage
(A2) and teachers (B2) change the way reading is taught and test
children every year.
Transubstantiation occurs when A gets B to do something that is not
quite what B would have done anyway.
We want you…