The Cultural Production of the Educated Person: Critical Ethnographies of Schooling and Local Practice - Paperback

by Bradley a. Levinson (Editor), Douglas E. Foley (Editor), Dorothy C. Holland (Editor)

Examines the ways in which cultural practices and knowledges are produced in and out of schools around the world.

Eleven historical-ethnographic case studies examine the social and cultural projects of modern schools, and the contestations, dramatic and not, that emerge in and around and against them. These case studies, ranging from Taiwan to South Texas, build upon an original joining of anthropology, critical education theory, and cultural studies. The studies advance the concept of cultural production as a way of understanding the dynamics of power and identity formation underlying different forms of "education." Using the concept of the "educated person" as a culture-specific construct, the authors examine conflicts and points of convergence between cultural practices and knowledges that are produced in and out of schools.

Back Jacket

Eleven historical-ethnographic case studies examine the social and cultural projects of modern schools, and the contestations, dramatic and not, that emerge in and around and against them. These case studies, ranging from Taiwan to South Texas, build upon an original joining of anthropology, critical education theory, and cultural studies. The studies advance the concept of cultural production as a way of understanding the dynamics of power and identity formation underlying different forms of "education". Using the concept of the "educated person" as a culture-specific construct, the authors examine conflicts and points of convergence between cultural practices and knowledges that are produced in and out of schools.

Author Biography

Bradley A. Levinson is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Augustana College. Douglas E. Foley is Professor of Education and of Anthropology at the University of Texas-Austin. He is the author of From Peones to Politics; Learning Capitalist Culture; and The Heartland Chronicles: A Tale of Mesquaki-White Relations. Dorothy C. Holland is J. Ross Macdonald Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is coeditor of Cultural Models in Language and Educated in Romance: Women, Achievement, and College Culture.