Institutional and cultural political resistance: Necessary conditions for the transformative intellectual

This naturalistic case study of a group of eighth grade middle school teachers depicts them asresistant in two areas: institutional politics and cultural politics. These resistances are first described and then analyzed. Resistance is then connected to what counts as the transformative intellectual. The conclusion suggests that both types of resistances may lead to a teacher commitment in acting to counter ideological barriers. Counterhegemonic possibilities, then, becomes a real potentiality.     

The politics of similarity within difference: A pedagogy for the other

The cultural political struggles of five female teachers in a heavily populated minority urban school in Southern California depicts bothsimilarity anddifference. Similarly, each teacher struggles to help overcome her own and students' oppression, subordination, and alienation. Through understandingsimilarity, different teacher and student voices make understanding the other easier. It is argued that understanding similarity within difference opens space for a democratic imaginary, that, while not clearly articulated at any one moment, acts to variously challenge the oppressive forces existing within and outside of schools.