"What's my name?": A politics of literacy in the latter half of the 20th century in America

MARGINALIZED GROUPS' struggles for recognition have driven much of the worl d's politics during the last 50 years. With the importance of schooling and literacy education as public spaces in the United States, marginalized gro ups in America have attempted to translate their social agendas for recogni tion to classroom contexts. These attempts sought and seek to change polici es, structures, and practices of literacy teaching and learning, striking a t the traditional values, texts, and rationales for schooling. Because thes e efforts intended to redistribute access to and benefits from literacy edu cation, they form a central part of the politics of literacy during this ti me. This article explores reactions to these struggles among advocates of f ive distinct political ideologies with specific attention directed toward h ow these reactions offer us different futures in and outside American schoo ls.