Stanley Rothstein – författare

This work introduces the concept of the Voice of the Other and the intersubjective world it creates for humans. The unconscious processes of speech and language are deeply identified with the ego. In the movement from nature to civilization, the newborn is mastered by language and becomes part of the social world of his parents. The child's thought is now structured by parental language and speech as well as by memories stored in the unconscious. What is real for the individual is composed only of the images and words that define them. Even family and school relationships are structured in language and the social formations that language created in the past. The imaginary and symbolic functions of the mind form ideologies that bind people together and help them to make sense of their world. In schools this leads to submissive students and constant teacher-student conflict.The author uses the works of Freud, Lacan, and Marx to situate schooling in capitalist society. He employs psychoanalytic, linguistic, and anthropological perspectives in an attempt to discover how we think and communicate with one another using unconscious processes.

Rothstein argues that schools in capitalist societies, and in all societies, inculcate students with understandings of themselves and their economic systems. Using a Freudo-Marxian approach, he shows how educational systems reproduce themselves and the social systems which fund them. Grounded in studies of American and European capitalist societies, this text traces the formation of the public and private identities, and illustrates how individuals are indoctrinated with capitalist ideology through linguistic and cultural transmissions. Rothstein concludes that education must be liberated from ideological effects by focusing learning on the processes which create them, thus giving students deeper insight into their own identities and roles in the social system.The book begins with an overview of sociocultural theories of schooling, in which the author demonstrates that schools reproduce social structures and values through the use of arbitrary ideological understandings and values. Rothstein then suggests that the State intervenes and regulates education in order to propagate politically and economically correct learnings and behavior. This inculcation of values and world views is an act of symbolic violence in which those in authority gain ideological mastery of their students from one generation to the next. This education of the individual also takes place in the worlds of the family and, later, at work, where the student or worker becomes a commodity who can be bought and sold. He or she exists as a cost of production. Rothstein concludes that to free the individual from the shackles of ideological and economic domination, families and schools must be liberated from their arbitrary practices and links with the labor market. Educators will find Rothstein's use of ideology and language valuable and provocative as they struggle to reform educational systems today.

American schools in urban areas have received much attention. This reference offers a comprehensive look at the issues and controversies at the heart of urban American education. The volume is divided into several parts devoted to historical, political, and social dimensions of urban schooling. The chapters in each part are authored by expert contributors, and each offers a fresh perspective on historical and contemporary concerns. The volume considers the place of schools in urban society and analyzes their mission and how they have changed, or failed to change, to meet modern needs. Much of the work is devoted to the problems of particular populations, such as minorities and special-needs students, while other chapters examine broad pedagogical issues and the societal problems that confront students of all backgrounds and abilities. Each chapter closes with a list of works for further reading, and the volume concludes with a bibliography.

Class, culture, and race have influenced the educational experiences of children for centuries. As a new wave of Latin American and Asian peoples enters the United States, public schools are faced with the challenge of educating children from a culture of poverty, and who have varying racial and cultural backgrounds. This reference work employs historical, anthropological, sociological, and theoretical perspectives to overview current information on class, culture, and race in U.S. schools.The volume is organized systematically, with broad sections on class, culture, race, and prospects for the future. Each section begins with an introductory chapter that defines the theme of the section and places it within a larger context. The chapters that follow then examine the impact of class, culture, or race on schooling, with special regard to particular groups. The volume focuses primarily on Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians, as they struggle to survive and prosper in the United States. Because of its approach, the book is also a guide to the effects of poverty, language, and race on the educational experiences of children.