Based on the thesis that language, writing, and the symbolic order are crucial considerations for understanding curriculum and schooling, this book addresses the issues of what kinds of literacy are appropriate for life and work in the late 20th century and what historically is the relationship between curriculum and literacy. After an introduction by the editor, the book is divided into the following chapters: (1) "Literacy, Orality, and the Functions of Curriculum" (William A. Reid); (2) "Technologies of Learning and Alphabetic Culture: The History of Writing as the History of Education" (Keith Hoskin); (3) "Texts, Literacy and Schooling" (David Hamilton); (4) "Lessons from the Literacy before Schooling 1800-1850" (John Willinsky); (5) "The 'Received Tradition' of English Teaching: The Decline of Rhetoric and the Corruption of Grammar" (Frances Christie); (6) "Returning History: Literacy, Difference, and English Teaching in the Post-War Period" (Tony Burgess); (7) "Literacy and the Limits of Democracy" (James Donald); (8) "Stories of Social Regulation: The Micropolitics of Clasroom Narrative" (Allan Luke); (9) "Curriculum as Literacy: Reading and Writing in 'New Times'" (Colin Lanshear); (10) "Television Curriculum and Popular Literacy: Feminine Identity Politics and Family Discourse" (Carmen Luke); and (11) "Literacy Studies and Curriculum Theorizing; or, The Insistence of the Letter" (Bill Green). (NKA)