In the World Library of Educationalists series, international scholars themselves compile career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces - extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, major theoretical and/or practical contributions - so the world can read them in a single manageable volume. Readers will be able to follow the themes and strands of their work and see their contribution to the development of a field, as well as the development of the field itself.
Allan Luke's work on critical literacy, schooling, and equity has influenced the fields of literacy education, teacher education, educational sociology, and policy for over three decades. This volume brings together Allan Luke's key writings on literacy and schooling. Chapters cover a range of topics and theories, including the development and application of a social and cultural analysis of literacy education and schooling; a primer on literacy as a social construction; classroom-based case studies of literacy teaching and learning; major theoretical and philosophic essays; practical programmatic work on school reform and enabling curriculum policies; and classroom approaches to teaching critical literacy and multiliteracies.
"Allan Luke's work has been a guiding light that will continue to provide insight and inspiration for generations to come."
--Hilary Janks, Emerita Professor, School of Education, Wits University, South Africa
"This collection will make a profound and unique contribution to education from one of the world's truly great and generous scholars. Allan Luke's work has changed the ways in which generations of teachers and researchers understand the politics of literacy, schooling and pedagogy showing us how educational injustice is produced and how we might actively work against it. Across decades of research Allan Luke has demonstrated how literacy classrooms typically privilege the powerful. Through his analyses of the ways in which texts and other discursive practices work to exclude and marginalise children in relation to their gender, race and class, he has troubled the easy assumptions about the empowering properties of literacy education and forced us to think beyond our comfort zones. His sharp critique is coupled with an alternative vision for how education might be more positive and productive. This volume will be a wonderful gift to future generations of educators and educational researchers alike."
--Barbara Comber, Research Professor, Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
