This book presents a feminist pedagogy of multiculturalism developed from Paulo Freire's theories on the politics of literacy. Freire has argued that literacy is the precondition for not only forms of social and political agency, but also social transformation and emancipation. In his view, teachers and students must refuse to be either experts or simply learners. Teachers must learn how to listen to their students, be self-reflective, and allow students the opportunity to speak with responsibility for their own actions but without fear. Students need an environment in which they are willing to take chances and can learn to use and legitimate their own experiences without fear of ridicule. Developing successful multicultural educational environments requires respect for the diversity of students' experience. America 2000 and Goals 2000 are examined to provide an exemplary model of the dominant discourse on educational reform and to employ elements of a critical theory and feminist cultural criticism in order to reveal its view of literacy as a discourse implicated in the construction of a particular form of citizenry. The book is organized into the following chapters: (1) Critical Literacy as a Pedagogy of Empowerment; (2) Rethinking Literacy and Pedagogy; (3) The Politics of Difference; (4) A New Generation of American Schools; and (5) A Feminist Pedagogy of Multiculturalism. (JLS)