Illegals, Borders, and Barbarians: Addressing the Razor Wire in Citizenship Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: Education in a Postcolonial World

Abstract

Citizenship is constructed based on the West’s problematic legacy of colonization (Cesaire, 2000). Eurocentrism in media, literature and discourse (Hall, 1996; McLintock 1995) orientalize those deemed “foreigners” as a pathology of contemporary modern American society (Said, 1979; Fanon, 2008). This essay examines US American ideology, policy, reporting of civic rights and how these ideas may be critically examined in the classroom. Further, we discuss re-valuing the idea of citizen and what this means in a white Eurocentric society (Freire, 2000; Sleeter & McLaren, 1995). Critical multiculturalism and border pedagogy inform our conceptual framework and modes of analysis (McLaren & Giroux, 1996; Giroux, 1991) for challenging the traditional discourse of citizenship in education (Purpel & Shapiro, 1995).

Authors

• Arturo Rodriguez, Boise State University

• Peter L. McLaren, Chapman University

• Kevin Russel Magill, University of Texas, Austin