Timely considerations of power discourses in bicultural education

Clarisse Halpern
2019 Journal of ethnic and cultural studies  
Darder's (2016) Culture and power in the classroom celebrated the 20th anniversary of its original publication bringing crucial considerations about bicultural students in the United States education system. By revisiting the roots of the country's issues of social justice, democracy, and humanity, Darder illuminated the educational practices that systematically silenced, marginalized, and excluded voices of underrepresented cultural groups, such as Asians, African Americans, Latinos, Native
more » ... ricans, and Muslim students. Darder primarily rested on a critical pedagogy perspective that sought emancipation by engaging students in reflection, critical thinking about society, and action to transform their lives and their communities (Freire, 1970; Vossoughi & Gutiérrez, 2017) . Thus, in the next paragraphs, the reader will find a summary of the book's chapters, followed by a review section. In chapter one, The problem with traditional American pedagogy and practice, Darder discussed the reasons for bicultural students' underachievement according to the lens of conservative and liberal educational discourses. Embedded in positivist ideology, the former blamed individuals' nature and deficit genetic traits as biological predictors of their academic failures, while the latter deems the individuals' environment responsible for their destinies seeking solutions that will equip bicultural students to compete in an unequal system. Thus, Darder explained how factors such as meritocracy, intelligence, teacher expectation, and tracking function as social Darwinism, feeding one another in a vicious cycle that sort and exclude bicultural students in every aspect of their schooling experience. For instance, the myth of meritocracy sells the fallacious idea that the education system is fair and democratic, employing supposedly neutral instruments such as intelligence tests to determine the students' schooling fate objectively. Impacted by test results and tracking, teachers developed negative expectations that inadvertently contributed to bicultural students' negative self-concepts and attitudes, internalizing their "inadequacies" and experiences from school to college and the job market. In chapter two, The link between culture and power, Darder assertively demonstrated the importance of educators understanding power relations and discourses of truth, ideology, and hegemony based on theories of Foucault, Gramsci, Giroux, and Marx. In line with these theoretical frameworks, she stated that educators must become aware of the mechanisms used by "political power, cultural ideology, and pedagogy [that] result in the domination of subordinate groups" (p. 32), by questioning social practices in schools and supporting bicultural students' needs. By weaving the concepts of power, ideology, and hegemony, Darder explained how truth and knowledge are produced and sustained by a system of power that manifests in schooling discourses, practices, and policies that result in our understanding of the world. In chapter three, A critical theory of cultural democracy, Darder proposed a liberatory form of education that considers student voices and empowers them to become active social agents in their schooling experiences, in their communities, society, and daily lives. Supported by scholars like Valentine, Rashid, and Solis, who proposed bicultural models and theories on biculturalism, Darder argued for the need for a philosophy of cultural democracy that works for "the right of each individual to be educated in her or his language and learning style... encourag [ing] institutions to develop learning milieus, curriculum materials, and teaching strategies that are sensitive to the child's cultural orientation" (p. 56). In this sense, Darder stressed that educators need to be trained to identify the ideological roots that shape the contradictions and tensions experienced by bicultural students in their efforts to survive various forms of oppression in educational institutions and practices. As a result, educators would be able to work for true cultural democracy in the classroom and school system (Dewey, 1916) .
doi:10.29333/ejecs/304 fatcat:bjahbhvmzvakbneirm6hui2ca4