Changing the Discourse in Schools.

Abstract

In this chapter, we are going to discuss two very simple ideas. First, if American schooling is to be transformed, its participation in the reproduction of long-term unequal social arrangements must be eliminated. Second, the current dominant discourse in schools (how people talk about, think about and plan the work of schools and the questions that get asked regarding reform or change) is a hegemonic cultural discourse. The consequence of this discourse is to maintain existing schooling practices and results. We call this hegemonic discourse, Discourse I. If the announced purpose of school reform, to educate everyone well, is taken seriously, then a different, more critical discourse (which we call Discourse II) must precede and guide reform (Aronowitz, 1994; Fullan, 1988; Kilmann et aI., 1985). It must prepare a cultural ground for change. The most serious question facing substantive school reform is how to create Discourse II in school cultures. Schools are a major part of society's institutional processes for maintaining a relatively stable system of inequality. They contribute to these results by active acceptance and utilization of a dominant set of values, norms and beliefs, which, while appearing to offer opportunities to all, actually support the success of a privileged minority and hinder the efforts and visions of a majority. Some social scientists call this condition and its sustaining process hegemony, i.e., when a cultural set promulgated by an elite or dominant class comes to be pervasive and taken for granted in a society even when its practice is not in the interests of many others. Because of strong elements of social