Sixteen chapters discuss the relationship among literacy, culture, and difference in education; restructuring school curricula to meet the needs of those traditionally excluded from education's dominant discourse; the social and cultural context of literacy; and literacy's highly political nature. After "Series Introduction: Literacy, Difference, and the Politics of Border Crossing" and "Preface" (C. Mitchell), the following chapters are provided: (1) "What Is Literacy?" (J. P. Gee); (2) "Discourses of Power, the Dialectics of Understanding, the Power of Literacy" (A. T. Bennett); (3) "The Struggle for Voice: Narrative, Literacy, and Consciousness in an East Harlem School" (M. Sola and A. T. Bennett); (4) "Gimme Room: School Resistance, Attitude, and Access to Literacy" (P. Gilmore); (5) "The Narrativization of Experience in the Oral Style" (J. P. Gee); (6) "Hearing the Connections in Children's Oral and Written Discourse" (S. Michaels); (7) "Discourse Systems and Aspirin Bottles: On Literacy" (J. P. Gee); (8) "The Importance of the Act of Reading" (P. Freire, translated by L. Slover); (9) "The Politics of an Emancipatory Literacy in Cape Verde" (D. Macedo); (10) "Tropics of Literacy" (L. Brodkey); (11) "The Construction of School Knowledge: A Case Study" (J. Nespor); (12) "Benjamin's Story" (J. Kozol); (13) "Petra: Learning To Read at 45" (P. Rigg); (14) "How Illiteracy Became a Problem (and Literacy Stopped Being One" (J. Donald); (15) "Hegemonic Practice: Literacy and Standard Language in Public Education" (J. Collins); and (16) "Popular Literacy and the Roots of the New Writing" (J. Willinsky). (SLD)