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| Critical Issues: Forging Conceptual Unum in the Literacy Field of Pluribus: An Agenda-Analytic Perspective | ||
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| Peter B. Mosenthal Syracuse University | The paper explores two alternative agendas that define educational and literacy practices and policies in the United States. The first is the unum agenda, which focuses on developing readers who are good citizens and effective workers. The second is the pluribus agenda, which serves to promote appreciation of diversity, empowerment of disadvantaged groups, and enhanced reader sense of self-esteem. The article argues that deciding questions of “what should be” in practice and policy cannot be determined by neutral appeal to research. Rather, how “good” research, practice, and policy are determined depends, in large measure, on the agenda that one selects to promote education and literacy in the first place. It is noted that, to date, researchers, teachers, and politicians (as well as other educational consumer groups) have tended to advocate for their favorite agenda while dismissing others. The result has been the promulgation of contradiction and confusion. To lend some rationality to the current situation, a method for dealing with competing agendas (as dilemmas) is proposed. | |
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| JLR v. 31 no. 2 1999 pp. 213–254 |
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