Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality: A Brief History of the Education of Dominated Cultures in the United States » (6th Edition)

Joel Spring received his Ph.D. in educational policy studies from the University of Wisconsin. He is currently a Professor at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His great-great-grandfather was the first Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory and his grandfather, Joel S. Spring, was a local district chief at the time Indian Territory became Oklahoma. He currently teaches at Queens College of the City University of New York.

His major research interests are history of education, multicultural education, Native American culture, the politics of education, global education, and human rights education. He is the author of over twenty books and the most recent are How Educational Ideologies are Shaping Global Society; Education and the Rise of the Global Economy; The Universal Right to Education: Justification, Definition, and Guidelines; Globalization and Educational Rights; and Educating the Consumer Citizen: A History of the Marriage of Schools, Advertising, and Media.

This text is a concise history of Anglo American racism and school policies affecting dominated groups in the United States. It focuses on the educational, legal, and social construction of race and racism, and on educational practices related to deculturalization, segregation, and the civil rights movement. Spring emphasizes issues of power and control in schools and shows how the dominant Anglo class has stripped away the culture of minority peoples in the U.S. and replaced it with the dominant culture. In the process, he gives voice to the often-overlooked perspectives of African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, and Native Americans. An understanding of these historical perspectives and how they impact current conditions and policies is critical to teachers’ success or failure in today’s diverse classrooms.

Very brief and affordable, Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality is an ideal supplement for Introduction/Foundations of Education, Multicultural Education, or any course that seeks to expand student notions of what U.S. education has been and can be.