ABSTRACT
Critical pedagogy analyzes schooling in historical context and in light of the social and political dynamics that shape the dominant culture. Basal readers have long attempted to control the perception of students, basing their activities on the assumption that learning is not a self-directed process but one determined by experts. Block articulates the notion that this neo-progressive pedagogy attempts to make sense of the world, discerning patterns within it, and developing new cognitive processes that might provide insights necessary in the attempt to change the world. Traditional empirically grounded perspectives are both unwilling and unable to connect patterns of language use in the community to the reading performance of students. Reading is an act of creation, a social activity that involves the production of self.
