Alumni

Making Race Visible: Literacy Research for Cultural Understanding

The fact that Teachers College of Columbia University Press, the most influential publisher in education research, has seen fit to publish Making Race Visible, co-edited by Lake Forest faculty member Dawn Abt-Perkins, is indication enough of its importance.  The content of the volume underscores this fact.  We have all observed that, in most cases, schools where students perform well in reading, writing, and literacy tasks tend to be located in white, middle- and upper-class areas, while schools with students of low-income, non-white backgrounds experience less success in these areas.  This book focuses on literacy in schools, and thus, the subject's very nature dictates that the book must somehow confront the issue of race.

The authors of ten essays in this volume go a step further, however, by asserting, albeit in differing ways, that racism also must be confronted by the researcher—that the researcher must address both her or his own (perhaps latent) racism as well as the racism that underlies American society.

So, for example, when studying a particular school or classroom, the researcher should ask if racism is playing a role in the situation at hand or in her or his interpretation of what is occurring.  This point of view stands in contrast to the traditional insistence on objectivity that is standard in social science scholarship, which assumes an unbiased stance on the part of the investigator.  The approach in this volume is qualitative rather than quantitative and is in many cases told through stories, most of which involve the particular author's research experience in a classroom setting.

One of the central themes of the book is that, in the course of studying the literacy acquisitions of African-American and Latino students, scholars have much to learn from the very subjects of their research.  Another is that writing is an important tool in helping students from these groups develop their personal identities and gain their academic footings.  One need not agree with the assumptions or conclusions of the various writers to find value in this book.  In fact, anyone interested in public education will discover much to ponder in these provocative essays.

Edited by Stuart Greene and Associate Professor of Education Dawn Abt-Perkins
New York: Teachers College Press, 2003
Review by Professor of Mathematics Steve Galovich