Cutting Class

Joe L. Kincheloe is the Canada Research Chair of Critical Pedagogy at McGill University.Shirley R. Steinberg is Professor of Cultural and Youth Studies in Education at McGill University.

In the tradition of George S. Counts but generally without his optimism, Kincheloe and Steinberg have assembled a critique of American schooling. Their title, Cutting Class, is a double entendre reflecting their charge that an educational structure that once made class differences a critical element in understanding students' progress has been dismantled. They argue that this structure was a victim of educational accountability generally, and No Child Left Behind particularly. Considerations of social class, they maintain, have been largely displaced by a focus on ethnic and gender differences, and the result is a system that misses the most important variable to understanding educational progress. Not surprisingly, the material in the chapters reflects the contributors' preference for a qualitative, often ethnographic analysis. There are the obligatory swipes at Murray and Herrnstein, but the result is at least provocative. Philip Anderson's chapter on curriculum and social class is particularly good.

• Chapter 1 Cutting Class in a Dangerous Era: A Critical Pedagogy of Class AwarenessChapter 2 Exploring Critical Theory and Critical Ethnography in the Context of the Production and Reproduction of Social ClassChapter 3 Class, Race, Space and Unequal Educational Outcomes in the US: Beyond DichotomiesChapter 4 Corporate Consciousness and the Failure of Higher EducationChapter 5 Social Class and Curriculum: Theoretical-Political Possibilities and Practical MattersChapter 6 Issues of Class in Urban Science EducationChapter 7 The Challenge of Equitable Access to Arts and Museum Experiences for LowIncome New York City SchoolchildrenChapter 8 My Daughter, Myself: Class Reflections through the Parent-Race-Gender LensChapter 9 Readin' Class: Droppin' OutChapter 10 July 12, 1977: The Journey to Class Consciousness Begins-A Rural White South Carolina StoryChapter 11 Poverty of Mind, Poverty of Spirit: Breaking the Shackles that BindChapter 12 Afterword: It's a Class Act