In this article, the author examines the ways in which the claim to subaltern status has led to a partial withdrawal from state-run institutions and to a practice of schooling that is meant to equip the children of authoritarian populist parents both with an armor to defend what these groups believe is their threatened culture and with a set of…

Argues that textbooks legitimate selective forms of knowledge underlying supposedly democratic reforms heavily influenced by conservative economic/political forces and eclipsing the historical experiences and cultural expression of the less powerful. Views textbooks as part of social construction of reality. Calls for politicized, multiple…