Building Ideology About “A Reading Crisis”: Taking a Closer Look At the NCLB Website

No Child Left Behind  We have a genuine national crisis. More and more, we are divided into two nations. One that reads, and one that doesn’t. One that dreams, and one that doesn’t.  The federal government must be wise enough to give states and school districts more authority and freedom. And it must be strong enough to require proven performance in return.  Too many of our children cannot read. Reading is the building block, and it must be the foundation, for education reform.

Ideology  “The ideological work of media language includes particular ways of representing the world, particular constructions of social identities and particular constructions of social relations” (Fairclough, 1995, p. 12)

Ideology  “A social theory which involves generalizations (beliefs, claims) about the way(s) in which goods are distributed in society” (Gee, 1996, p. 21).

Critical Discourse Analysis  Concerned with texts, discourse practices and sociocultural practices  Analysis of Text  Discourse Practice or Text Consumption  Sociocultural Practice (economic, political, and cultural)

Participants  20 people  Ages: years  Same number of men and women  All but one from Iowa  5 said they had no knowledge  5 said they had a lot of knowledge – all had strong ties to education

Data Analysis  Bloome & Carter (2001) Analysis of Lists in reading education reform  Pronouns  Images  Icons

Findings  The patriotic theme was mentioned by every participant.  Only two participants identified Rod Paige.  Teachers feel like outsiders when visiting this webpage.

Notable Quotes  Where are the teachers’ voices?  Don’t you think every child should be able to read by third grade?  Is this some kind of test?  Looks like propaganda to me.  It’s so “Americana.” I like that.  I think this is a way to keep people in low paying jobs.

Educational Implications  Studying the NCLB website can help people see social, political, and cultural stances that are privileged in the NCLB Act.  This type of analysis helps in the articulation of why NCLB is harmful for education.  The study of policy documents can give educators more powerful voices in negotiations about literacy instruction in schools.

How does discourse move through the world?  Urban (2001) suggests movement occurs with transubstantiation (the conversion of meaning into a “thing” in the world) The government (A) produces the NCLB Act (A1) and a webpage (A2) about the NCLB Act for parents (B1) and teachers (B2). Movement occurs when parents (B1) use artifacts from the webpage (A2) and teachers (B2) change the way reading is taught and test children every year. Transubstantiation occurs when A gets B to do something that is not quite what B would have done anyway.

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