Reflections on States, Schools, and National Literacies

Abstract

In this chapter, Stanford professor emeritus David Labaree contemplates on the main themes and topics running through this book. Using the various arguments discussed in the book’s 14 chapters as a starting point, Labaree extends the historical framework of these studies up to the present, by looking at how national literacies have adapted to the contemporary world well beyond the context of nation formation in which they first arose.

Nationality, Labaree argues, is tied up with personal identity. Your nation is not just where you live; it’s who you are. You’re Swiss, French, Swedish, or American. And these identities are formed in national systems of schooling, where students learn the language of membership in a civic community, a language that is deeply imbued with the values and norms of that community. In sum, Labaree concludes, the recent history of state and school has demonstrated that they need each other more than ever but that their once untroubled relationship has become increasingly fraught. They can’t live with each other and can’t live without each other.