Language and Class in Minority Education

The effect of linguistic and cultural diversity on the educational achievement of working‐class and minority students remains a question of great interest and controversy. This article addresses that question by reappraising the deficit/difference controversy of the 1960s and 1970s and examining how class and politics shape both cultural‐linguistic difference and school‐based assumptions about language and literacy. A case study of early literacy is presented which illustrates the general points by combining microanalysis of discourse and macroanalysis of institutional practice.