Chapter I

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The Concept of Resistance

The concept of resistance is pivotal to this study. As I searched for theoretical positions that made sense of the lives of the learners in the adult literacy program that I studied, the concept of resistance emerged. It is used by critical education theorists and by post structuralists to explain, and to shape, opposition to the dominant status quo.

I use the concept of resistance in two ways, both as it has been used in resistance theories proposed by critical theorists such as Henri Giroux, and as it is used in poststructuralists' discussions of opposition to dominant discourses. Although my use of the concept of resistance derives from both critical education and post structuralist theory, I have not privileged one over the other. I operate within both theoretical traditions as each sense of resistance applies. Patti Lather encourages critical researchers to move theoretically among the three theoretical positions she views as most useful: critical theory, post structuralist theory, and feminist theory. In this study I primarily use critical theory (in the specific form of resistance theory) and poststructuralist theory, both of which will be elaborated. I use feminist theory as an underlying and guiding position rather than as an overt theoretical framework.

There are several reasons for choosing the concept of resistance to inform this study. Primarily, the issue of cultural conflicts and differences between school culture and student cultural backgrounds lends itself to resistance theory. As Henri Giroux expresses it: Culture is both the subject and object of resistance; and the driving force of culture is contained not only in how it functions to dominate subordinate groups, but also in the ways in which oppressed groups draw from their own cultural capital and set of experiences to develop an oppositional logic (Giroux, 1983, p. 281-282)