Cutting Class

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

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.