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What I learned from debating the Science of Reading more than 20 years ago is still true | Leigh Patel

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These principles are fairly obvious to anyone who has a grasp of the political economy of education in a racial capitalist society. I have three stories that I hope are of help in all the noise of “scientific reading” now becoming policy, with teacher education programs scrambling to be in compliance with freshly minted state laws. Story One: Reading happens in specific places and contexts One of the best and most challenging professional experiences I ever had was working with a young person, an 8th grader  whose school file had the word ‘illiterate’ in many documents. When I was first paired with Brandon in the university-run reading clinic, I was, frankly, terrified of failing at the task, further harming a person whom school had already harmed. At the time, I was teaching 7th grade while also taking classes at a university because I had lots of questions about patterns of oppression and exclusion I witnessed but nowhere in my school day or community to talk about them. Even though

What I learned then that is still true: Binaries kill nuance. Research is never neutral. Everything is political and cultural. No singular reading approach will save us from racial capitalism let alone help us build freedom. These principles are fairly obvious to anyone who has a grasp of the political economy of education in a racial capitalist society. I have three stories that I hope are of help in all the noise of “scientific reading” now becoming policy, with teacher education programs scrambling to be in compliance with freshly minted state laws. Story One: Reading happens in specific pl

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