Stuart Greene & Dawn Abt-Perkins (eds.), Making race
visible: Literacy research for cultural understanding. New York &
London: Teachers College Press, 2003. Pp. xi, 220. Hb $52.00, Pb
$24.95.
Making race visible: Literacy research for cultural
understanding (2003) reveals that racialized ways of thinking,
relating, and teaching continue to be integral aspects of our society and
our schools. An important task for researchers and practitioners concerned
with social justice is the examination of race and racism, and this is the
primary undertaking of the authors who contributed to this volume. It
presents research conducted both by university-based scholars and by
practitioners (teachers who are doing research), providing rich insights
from a variety of perspectives. In examining issues of race and racism in
literacy instruction, the authors included have four main objectives: to
study local literacy practices through long-term commitments to
communities; to acknowledge and theorize their own racialized positions as
literacy researchers; to examine the ethics of their research agendas; and
finally, to use literacy research for positive social change.