Reinventing The University - Literacies and legitimacy in the postmodern academy

by Christopher Schroeder

Schroeder (Writing Across the Curriculum program, Long Island U.-C.W. Post campus) critiques the current "crisis in literacy" as reflecting cultural issues more than deficits in literacy skills. He dissects the context of conventional academic literacies in US higher education via an analysis of English studies' textbooks; and presents students' and colleagues' narratives on his constructed literacies approach. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

276 pages, Paperback

First published January 3, 1802

Reviews

[Cynthia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Schroeder purports to present this radical change in writing instruction-this idea of constructing literacies, but I'm not buying it. He is critical of Berlin (inaccurately calling him a "neo-marxist") because he says Berlin has a political agenda in his classroom. Schroeder writes that Berlin's agenda sets students up to be successful if they agree with the agenda and unsuccessful if they do not, though he offers no evidence of a lack of success in Berlin's classroom. And, Schroeder's critique of Berlin's "agenda" is mute given that Schroeder himself is proposing an agenda, his own agenda, throughout this entire book. We (teachers) all have agendas. We cannot help but have agendas. To think otherwise is to fool ourselves and do a disservice to our students. There is nothing wrong with agendas, in and of themselves. What matters regarding agendas in how they're put to use, whether they are concealed or revealed up front.