Within an education system that has flawed policies that are
used to exploit marginalized groups, creating a disproportionate opportunity
and level of education for career or college to such groups, there is a
responsibility of educators to practice a literacy pedagogy of access and
dissent, as the article discusses. Marginalized groups have limited access to
higher education, access to rewarding employment, and access to civic life, and
it is essential that our pedagogy lead these groups to greater access. “It is
irresponsible on our part to imagine literacy pedagogies that do not increase
the access of the populations we care about. While creating access is
imperative, so that all groups outside of the majority including but not
limited to women, minorities, refugees, those in poverty, can be prepared,
equally as the majority, for either further education or career––it is also
imperative that such access, and literacy education among these groups, empower
them to institutional reform in schools. We cannot allow blind access without a
form of dissent, and with dissent reform. “Blind access can come at great
costs, including the loss of self, or alienation from one’s culture, one’s
language, and one’s values.” As it stand, this access that is so important, alone,
can cause severe alienation among marginalized groups, and that is because as
it stands it is a system built by the majority, for the majority. The need is
for these groups of people to access knowledge and gain literacy to the level
of preparation for personal future goals as well as collective reform and
institutional change. “In a pedagogy of dissent, however, students can acquire
the skills they need to “succeed” while also developing a powerful language of
critique of systems of social reproduction. This type of pedagogy is necessary
so that all students can achieve literacy to be active members of their
society.
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