ABSTRACT
One part of a qualitative study I conducted on the reading and writing of children in a Grade 5 inner-city classroom involved an examination of girls ‘continually reading the world’ (Freire and Macedo, 1987, p. 35). I was startled by the extent to which features of the girls’ social milieu constrained their ability to speak publicly about their experiences with social conflict and oppression. It has been argued by critical theorists (Freire, 1968; Giroux, 1992; McLaren, 1989) and by others in this book (Epp; Tite; MacDonald; Wason-Ellam) that there is a need for a pedagogy in which students can speak critically about their experiences and their relationships with others. This form of pedagogy is more difficult to arrange than one would expect. The school in which this study took place had many of the features common to other ‘urban poor schools’ (Maynes, 1990, p. 5) including the following: a multiethnic population; a substantial number of children who were living in poverty and/ or experiencing problems in the home; a high turnover rate among the students; and student violence which was reported by the staff to be more prevalent and problematic than they had encountered in other areas. Another feature of the school’s innercity status was the use of the playground by prostitutes and their customers after school hours, with the result that the caretaker had to clear the grounds of used condoms and needles every morning.
