Landscapes of Learning, West Virginia's Textbook Controversy, and the Culture Wars

Autor/in	Watras, Joseph
Titel	Landscapes of Learning, West Virginia's Textbook Controversy, and the Culture Wars
Quelle	In: American Educational History Journal, 41 (2014) 1, S.183-198 (16 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1535-0584
Schlagwörter	Textbook Content; Language Arts; Controversial Issues (Course Content); Politics of Education; Culture Conflict; Parent Rights; Academic Freedom; Educational Change; Resistance to Change; Educational History; United States History; Standard Spoken Usage; Educational Attitudes; Social Attitudes; Activism; West Virginia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Lehrbuchtext; Sprachkultur; Controversial issues; Kontroverse; Educational policy; Bildungspolitik; Kulturkonflikt; Elternrecht; Akademische Freiheit; Bildungsreform; History of education; Bildungsgeschichte; Gesprochene Sprache; Umgangssprache; Educational attitude; Bildungsverhalten; Erziehungseinstellung; Social attidude; Soziale Einstellung; Aktivismus; Politischer Protest
Abstract	Over thirty ago, Maxine Greene published a collection of essays with the title, "Landscapes of Learning," more than thirty years earlier. In that text, she argued that the title illuminated the ways people formed perspectives that shaped their attitudes and behaviors. In her text, Greene described how people had to be grounded in their own histories if they wanted to seek new understandings and to improve society. She suggested that one way they could perceive things differently was to look upon events through the eyes of other people. She called the ability to see things in different patterns being wide awake. This implied that people with such senses could imagine different possibilities than those suggested by the conditions that surrounded them. This practice could lead to critical consciousness and personal liberation (Greene 1978, 1-4). This essay will apply Greene's ideas to an explanation of a disturbance that began in Kanawha County, West Virginia when schools opened on September 3, 1974. The focus of the controversy was on the language arts textbooks the Kanawha County school board had selected. Protestors complained the books made slang appear as acceptable as Standard English and portrayed traditional values as foolish (National Education Association 1975, 20-22). The point for this essay is that Greene's notion of landscapes of learning suggests how the controversy spun out of control, preceded the conservative backlash of the 1980s, and predicted the culture wars of the 1990s. In Kanawha County, the pattern of the controversy was one in which members of each side held closely to a particular landscape, projected equally narrow views on members of opposing groups, and refused to consider other alternatives. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	IAP - Information Age Publishing, Inc. P.O. Box 79049, Charlotte, NC 28271-7047. Tel: 704-752-9125; Fax: 704-752-9113; e-mail: infoage@infoagepub.com; Web site: http://www.infoagepub.com/american-educational-history-journal.html
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01