A Recognition of Scholarship: Professor Joins Intellectual Greats

By Melissa Fassel

What do Albert Einstein, John Dewey, Margaret Mead, Jean Piaget, and UMass Boston Distinguished Professor Donaldo Macedo have in common? They are all recipients of one of the most prestigious awards in education--selection for membership in the Laureate Chapter of the Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society in Education.

Kappa Delta Pi is a community of diverse scholars dedicated to recognizing scholarship and excellence in education, promoting the development and dissemination of educational ideas and practices, enhancing the continuous professional growth and leadership of its membership, fostering inquiry and reflection on significant educational issues, and maintaining a high degree of professional fellowship.

This international award recognizes the Applied Linguistics Graduate Program Director's long list of scholarly contributions and the influence of his work in the United States and around the world. Macedo's work has been published not only in English but Cape Verdean, Greek, Portuguese, and Spanish. He has co-written a number of books and articles with influential world-renowned thinkers like Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Paolo Freire. Macedo is known as the leading Freirean scholar.

"I am honored to be the recipient of such an important award, especially since it will serve as an additional opportunity of reaching out to educators about the importance of critical literacy and education for social justice," says Macedo.
According to Macedo, contrary to popular belief and dominant ideology, schools do not always serve the best interests of their students. Combined with media and other social institutions, he believes educational institutions often stifle critical thinking by creating a pretext of equality and perpetuating ignorance through what Macedo refers to as a process of "stupidification" or forced submission of the mind.

Joe Kincheloe, author of the soon-to-be-released Critical Pedagogy Primer, describes Macedo as a key founder in the study of critical literacy: "a central figure in critical pedagogy who has played a principal role in constructing a literacy of power for use in critical pedagogy."

Macedo recently co-edited a book with Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, to be published late this summer, which examines what the editors consider to be the present-day educator's dilemma of teaching the virtues of democracy within a society that they term a "hypocrisy that enables the manufacturing of consent for unjust and illegal actions in today's world."

Never an "easy A" professor, Macedo's students regard him with a mix of respect and veneration. Practicing what he preaches, Macedo empowers his students with an emancipatory literacy, teaching them to make sense of their position in society while learning to deal with other ways of seeing and being that are not their own. It is his hope that they will recognize the power of literacy, acknowledging it in their own educational and social practices.

Macedo holds a B.A. in Spanish from UMass Boston, an M.A. in Spanish Literature from New York University, an Ed.D. in Applied Psycholinguistics from Boston University, and a Ph.D. in Language Behavior from Boston University. In addition to his work at UMass Boston, he has taught at Cornell University, Boston University, Rhode Island College, Eastern Nazarene College, and Harvard University.

Image: Donaldo Macedo, graduate program director of the Applied Linguistics Program and distinguished professor of liberal arts, has been recognized for his scholarship on critical literacy and education. (Photo by Harry Brett)

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