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Common Schools/Uncommon Identities

National Unity and Cultural Difference

Walter Feinberg author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Yale University Press

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Common Schools/Uncommon Identities cover

One of the most hotly debated issues in contemporary education concerns the tension between the demands of such groups as blacks, Latinos, gays, women, and the handicapped for a curriculum that recognizes their particular identity—and the competing position that the role of public education is to infuse children with a common American identity. In this book, a distinguished philosopher of education takes on that debate, indicating the underlying ethical issues on each side and showing how schools can promote both national and cultural identities.

Walter Feinberg develops a theory of education that is twofold: it is sensitive to the concerns of parents and community members who want the public schools to reinforce their particular values and group identity, and it also maintains a commitment to the "principled reasons" for public education—the general ideals that public education shares with a liberal political philosophy, particularly equality of educational opportunity, freedom of association, and individual development. Feinberg develops an understanding of basic principles that schools should use in addressing cultural differences, tests these and shows how liberalism is indeed compatible with cultural recognition.

"Many people have come to believe that respect for diverse cultural identities and the formation of a shared sense of nationhood for all Americans can never be reconciled. Walter Feinberg shows why that belief is badly wrong, and he outlines a powerful and alluring vision of how common schools might serve an increasingly multicultural nation. Feinberg's essay addresses the most urgent questions about the future of American education, and everyone who cares about that future should read it." Eamonn Callan, Stanford University "One of the very best general discussions of multiculturalism, and especially of multicultural education, of which I am aware. Feinberg provides original and insightful discussions of central concerns in the field." Lawrence Blum, Teachers College, Columbia University "Feinberg's arguments are sound and should be given thoughtful consideration." Library Journal

ISBN: 9780300082920

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 304g

278 pages