Reading Multiculturally

In my reviews, I often comment on the assumptions of class, race, or gender that are present in a book.

Multiple times, commenters have noted that these are non-issues for a text, or that the book wasn't attempting to comment about racial, economic, gender or political issues.

Ah, but my few but dear readers, all texts are always commenting about these things in some ways and we must situate them accordingly.

Scholars Glazier & Seo, and Cai have commented about the need to always read from a multicultural stance.  Here's an excerpt of Glazier & Seo using Cai to make this point:

"'The multicultural stance provides the reader with an instrument, a magnifier if you will, to expose assumptions about race, class, and gender hidden in a story' (Cai, 1998, p. 321).  If students can explore these assumptions in a text, perhaps they can do the same in their own lives and the world in which they live." (2005, p. 698)

And so too must teachers explore these assumptions.

Just thought I'd share that quotation.

As you were.