ABSTRACT
Regardless of the reality of vast school inequalities, hegemonic ideologies circulate the message that equal opportunity exists in education and that subordinates are at fault for lesser outcomes. Although such deceptive ideas may be deliberately developed and spread by those who think they gain from inequitable schools, my studies indicate that discourses about Others’ nature and needs are so socialized into middle-class people’s thinking that they speak and live them without being conscious of the flaws in their perceptions or the damaging consequences of their words and actions (Brantlinger, 2004). For example, although middle-class people have little direct contact with lowincome people, they glibly narrate stories about their deficiencies in intellect and work ethic. Without access to evidence to the contrary, they know in their gut that the playing field is level and that their version of Others is accurate. They find reasons to blame working-class and low-income people for class discrepancies and hold themselves up as models to emulate. Indeed, because such distorted views and current school advantages for the middle class are so entrenched, it is essential to ask whether elites can change. A pessimistic prediction is that dominant classes will always pursue self-interest in managing public life. Marxists have long noted that, even in supposed democracies, social institutions always serve the interests of dominant classes (Althusser, 1971; Ball, 1998; Freire, 1985, 2004). Gramsci (1971) warns that ruling classes never willingly give up advantage, therefore it is up to the working class to struggle to transform society.
