The Structures of American Education

Teaching becomes transformative when educators learn to recognize culture, power, and difference—and practice intellectual solidarity by working with students to expand possibility, agency, and meaning in the classroom.

In this book, Kevin Magill and Arturo Rodriguez examine ideas about culture, cultural resonance, and difference that teachers often miss when working with students. The authors argue that teachers often enact excellent work with students but do not always see or understand various power dynamics, ideologies, and realities that situate teaching and learning. The book begins with a broad overview of the educational ecology and the authors identify several elements that obscure how teachers perceive students' realities. Next, they discuss how common historical interpretations ensure narrowly defined perceptions of culture, educational experience, and possibility. Then, Magill and Rodriguez provide specific classroom examples which result from these often-narrow interpretations, identifying several issues that limit educational exchange. These examples illustrate and complexify some of the challenges teachers face when mediating frustrating schooling experiences. The authors help readers tangibly reconsider these interactions and understand how different forms of power affect classrooms. Next, they present certain educational tools that can be used to promote creativity and acceptance of culture and agency while also supporting formal and disciplinary learning. Lastly, Magill and Rodriguez argue for understanding teaching as intellectual solidarity. To them this means working with and for students to cultivate the relationships and interpretation needed to apply the ideas, experiences, and exchanges presented in this book.