The current climate of high-stakes testing and scripted curricula makes Pat Shannon’s premise more timely than ever. The essays included here provide strong measures of theory, strategy, and hope for all of us who struggle to support literacies that liberate rather than limit.
—Gloria Pipkin, Coauthor of At the Schoolhouse Gate
Shannon’s work is a rare combination of rigorous thinking, lucid writing, and political savvy. Becoming Political, Too is a must read for anyone wishing to understand the past, present, and likely future of literacy education.
—Jeff McQuillian, Author of The Literacy Crisis
"Unless, like Rip Van Winkle, you have been asleep for the last decade, you are aware that literacy education is political." So wrote Patrick Shannon more than a decade ago in the introduction of Becoming Political. At that time, Shannon was worried about teachers' political naiveté. Now, at every level, from preschool to postsecondary, the explicit signs of the politics of literacy education are all too clear.
With Becoming Political, Too, a follow-up to Becoming Political, Shannon presents twenty more articles on topics of vital importance to today's literacy educators. The contributors all begin by asking questions: Why are the dominating sides of literacy, teaching, and schooling practiced more often than the liberating sides? Why do participants in literacy education have so little voice in matters of consequence in their teaching? Who is served by the current organization of schools and the popular representations of school reform?
