ABSTRACT
A curriculum that seeks “equity of engagement in common and diverse cultural conversations” has set for itself an educationally critical but politically challenging agenda. Embedded within these few words are powerful conceptual binaries that have animated some of the most significant educational discussions of the last quarter century. While frequently deconstructed in the theoretical literature, these binaries have remained stubbornly resistant to resolution in the worlds of curricular and teaching practice. In what follows, we will describe three of these binaries, placing them briefly in their historical and political contexts, explaining the challenges they represent, and arguing for their importance within a comprehensive literacy curriculum for the middle-years.
