TO CITE THIS ARTICLE PLEASE INCLUDE ALL OF THE FOLLOWING DETAILS: Prud’homme, Marc-Alexandre. (2012). Reading Education’s Front Covers and Margins. Transnational Curriculum Inquiry 9 (1) http://nitinat.library.ubc.ca/ojs/index.php/tci Reading Education’s Front Covers and Margins Marc-Alexandre Prud’homme 1 Doctoral student at the University of Ottawa, Canada Opening There is an old saying that says that an image is worth a thousand words. I remember that, when I was young, to choose what book to buy or what movie to rent, the majority of my decisions rested on the front covers that appealed to me. Needless to say, I have been disappointed on more than one occasion with some of these decisions. Publishing companies and film producers, aware of this phenomenon, often hire teams of graphic designers to showcase their products. Most ministries of education are no exception to this. In the context of high-stake competitions between schools and between school boards, many ministries of education across the world are posting images as focal points on their websites to express various messages about their activities and about that of their schools. They design these images for parents, students and other stakeholders in education such as teachers, administrators, researchers, but also for members of the community. These images provide a glance into the world of school systems. They represent pieces of information to ponder in order to take informed decisions about education. With this in mind and Freire’s (1970) idea of reading one’s wor(l)d, in this paper, I will deconstruct and reconstruct images used by three Western ministries of education, those of Ontario, Oklahoma and France. Having attended a school in Oklahoma, studying in Ontario and being a francophone, I chose these ministries so that my familiarity with these regions could benefit my analysis. My goal in this process is to help everyone involved in the world of education in reading the messages sent by these images about three different school systems, keeping in mind that educational systems cannot be reduced to a single picture. To achieve this, I will draw on tools of discourse analysis and on some ideas associated to post-colonialism, post-structuralism, antiracism and queer theory. Methodology: discourse analysis The first principle that I will use to complete my analysis suggests that the meaning that a picture has is not inherent to that picture in isolation from the world (Watt, 2011). The meaning of a picture arises from the interaction between a viewer, this person’s history, the picture and the context in which it is seen. In line with this, the meaning that I will ascribe to each image in my analysis will have emerged from my interactions as a graduate student in education with these images as seen on websites in July 2011. The other principles that I will follow in my analysis represent a set of questions that I will ask in relation to each picture. The first question implies that the message articulated by a speaker (in this case, ministries of education) corresponds to what is said plus what the speaker assumes the listener (here, the person looking at the picture) already knows (Gee, 2011). Indeed, when most people are talking, they are trying to keep a balance between the speed and the clarity of their ideas so that their listeners understand what is said without getting bored by a long speech. To do this, most people leave Prud’homme. Reading Education’s Front Covers and Margins 55 Transnational Curriculum Inquiry 9 (1) 2012 http://nitinat.library.ubc.ca/ojs/index.php/tci out of their speech what they think listeners already know. The same principle applies to pictures where people creating an image try to keep a balance between the space of the picture and the quantity of ideas on that image. Thus, when analysing each picture, I will ask what the ministries of education are assuming that their audience already knows. The third question that will guide my inquiry stems from the idea that speakers construct different meanings by choosing certain words and sentences and by putting these words and sentences in specific orders (Gee, 2011). In the case of pictures, this entails that speakers lay out colors, foregrounds, backgrounds and images in particular ways in a picture in order to create pre-determined meanings. For instance, environmentalists often use the color green in the foreground of their logos to elicit the idea of nature and to put emphasis on this idea. For my analysis, this will imply asking how ministries of education have constructed their messages with the various elements that are part of the picture, the arrangement of these elements and the different colors used. Another question that I will ask is in line with the idea that, when speakers are speaking they are not just saying, they are also doing (Gee, 2011). For example, if I say “I had trouble parking my Mercedes”, I am not doing the same thing as if I say “I had trouble parking my car.” Indeed, in the first situation, I am not just saying these words. In addition to complaining, I am constructing the identity of a wealthy person. Hence, when talking, speakers can build or destroy connections, relationships with others, significance for certain things, identities for themselves, promote certain discourses or ideas, or carry out actions such as criticizing, complimenting, questioning, thanking... In my analysis, I will try to determine what the three ministries of education are doing with their images. Deconstructing the front covers The first picture (Image 1) that I will read can be found on the Ontario Ministry of Education’s (OME) website (OME, 2011). While the OME aimed at depicting their activities, they did not show a picture of their building, of a school, of a classroom or of children studying or taking an exam. They assumed that most viewers were already familiar with these activities. They designed an image that comprises a written component and a picture of students. The part “Reach Every Student” appears in green over a shape coloured in various pale tones of green and grey that suggests tranquility. This shape takes the form of an ascending path when read from left to right. This way, the OME is associating their educational activities to an idea of a linear process of improvement. In addition, this path is slightly curbed. This characteristic links the OME’s schools to flexibility. With the words “Reach Every Student”, the OME is stating that they are engaging every student indiscriminately. In the foreground of the picture, there are eight adolescents, four boys and four girls. All of them look healthy. They are also smiling. As such, the viewer can read that the OME built a Prud’homme. Reading Education’s Front Covers and Margins 56 Transnational Curriculum Inquiry 9 (1) 2012 http://nitinat.library.ubc.ca/ojs/index.php/tci connection between school, happiness and health. Moreover, each student is well-dressed and is wearing clothes of different design and colors, some are even wearing jewellery. In this fashion, the OME is associating school to wealth and is welcoming diversity. Additionally, the students are standing up, even though, in most school, children spend the bulk of their days sitting down. In the picture, they are also very close physically to one another and most are hugging each other. This suggests that the schools are not only welcoming once again, but that students are united in these educational environments. Each student is also looking in the direction of the viewer. Hence, when examining this picture, one can feel invited to join their world like I did. Finally, every student in the picture appears to belong to a different ethnic group. Given the demographic situation in Ontario, the presence of members of a multitude of ethnic groups is representative of the general population of Ontario. This presence in the picture enabled the OME to make a connection between its schools and diversity. On top of that, this diversity of people fulfills the function of building a stronger relationship with each ethnic community, which include European, African, Asian and Indigenous Canadians, as well as valorizing and encouraging multiculturalism and open-mindedness. In the background of the picture, a beige bricked wall stands. This wall reminds common sights in schools. As well, the color of the wall strengthens the peaceful atmosphere of the image. A bookshelf filled with books is lying against that wall. The presence of the books reaffirms to the viewer that the picture is about education. It also further associates books to education while valorizing books in learning processes. Additionally, it indicates to everyone involved in the OME’s schools that books are part of the students’ progression in schools. Most of all, while the students are smiling, laughing and hugging in this context, the OME is again creating a relation between pleasure and unity to education. Lastly, the general colours that are part of the picture are pale, contributing to the serenity of the message sent by the OME. Overall, in many ways, the picture is constructing a message where schools, education, happiness, union, openness, diversity and union are connected. In this fashion, the OME is promoting a discourse that considers schools as fun and healthy where multiculturalism thrives. The picture is not just illustrating what is happening within the OME, it is also selling the educational activities lead by the OME to the viewer. The picture that plays the role of front cover of the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) introduces to the reader many patterns similar to those on the image posted on the OME website (see Image 2, below). Prud’homme. Reading Education’s Front Covers and Margins 57 Transnational Curriculum Inquiry 9 (1) 2012 http://nitinat.library.ubc.ca/ojs/index.php/tci In this picture, images of buildings where the OSDE evolves, of schools, of classrooms and of children reading books seated at desks are missing. This suggests that the OSDE is also assuming that the viewer has, for the most part, an accurate idea of the activities taking place in the OSDE. Hence, one of the purposes of the picture is to associate specific meanings to these activities. The foreground comprises five shapes, three squares and two circles. These shapes are joined together in a way similar to the rings on the Olympic flag. This setup elicits that the ideas represented by each of the shape are united. Each shape corresponds to a group of people involved in the education in Oklahoma: administrators, parents, teachers, the community and students. Once again, each shape is curbed and comprises subtle reflections and shadows that are also curbed. The form of each shape contributes to creating an identity that entails some flexibility for the OSDE. In the first shape on the left, there are three people who represent administrators. Two of them are women, while the person in the middle is a man. They are all white, young and smiling. The viewer can read that the OSDE insinuates that the administrators working in this department enjoys their job and are energetic. The administrators’ smiles are making another connection between schools and pleasure. These people are also dressed in clean black suits. These clothes facilitate the association between schools and wealth and also evoke that the administrator take their job seriously. In the first circle to the left, two adults, a man and a woman, are each holding by one hand a child. They represent the parents. They are all European Americans and well dressed. This creates an idea that implies that the parents are involved in their child’s life, united and wealthy. Through this layout, the reader can interpret that the OSDE values a conception of family as heterosexual, devoted and united. Moreover, the family in the picture is jumping in the air. This reinforces a connection between families, pleasure and energy. All of this is taking place in a grassed area in front of a blue sky. In this fashion, the OSDE is giving the impression that its activities are taking place in a healthy environment. A women’s white smile is the focal point of the second square. She epitomizes the teachers working for the department. She is also white and appears healthy. She has an expensive haircut, which consolidate the relation between education, health and wealth. She is holding a pen against her chin. This gesture indicates that she is thinking. This brings to mind the devotion of the teachers of the department. The OSDE labelled the second circle community. In this circle, there is an image of four hands grabbing one another in the form of a square. As such, the OSDE is expressing to the viewer the idea of unity and collaboration suggesting that there is a strong collaboration between the community and the school system. By the same token, it is giving a great significance to unity and collaboration as values. All the hands in the image are white. They appear in front of blue sky. The choice of this background reiterates the relation between the OSDE and peacefulness. The last shape is entitled students. In this shape, three young white girls are smiling lying down on the floor staring in the direction of the viewer. Through these graphic devices, the department remains congruent with a message that connects youth, pleasure and openness with education. The girls look healthy and are also well-dressed, reaffirming the link between the school system with health and wealth. The colors of their clothes convey ideas of youth and life. The absence of African American, Hispanics, Native American and Asian American is incongruent with Oklahoma’s demography as these people represent a quarter of the population of this state (Infoplease, 2011). Using various graphic mechanisms, the OSDE is not only making connections between its activities and youth, health, wealth, happiness, unity and collaboration, it is also building an identity for itself and promoting these values as well as education as a positive process. In doing so, it is also portraying its activities and trying to make its operations enticing. Indeed, it is attempting to sell education in Oklahoma as involving serious, but pleasant and energetic work in collaboration with Prud’homme. Reading Education’s Front Covers and Margins 58 Transnational Curriculum Inquiry 9 (1) 2012 http://nitinat.library.ubc.ca/ojs/index.php/tci many social actors. The picture plays another role. The association of each image to a social group (e.g. students and teachers) enables the website to direct visitors to information in function of who they are since each of the labels underneath each shape corresponds to a link to another webpage. Image 3 (see below) involves a greater number of graphic resources and, as such, articulates a more complex message to a certain extent. Nonetheless, many ideas expressed in the first two images can also be read in this image. Produced by Le Minisère de l’Éducation nationale (MEN), the picture starts from the top with a title that reads, “Tout savoir sur la scolarité de la MATERNELLE au LYCÉE” (MEN, 2010). Translated in English, those words are saying, “To know everything about education from KINDERGARDEN to HIGH SCHOOL.” Through this title, the MEN is claiming that all the information about education can be found on the website. Having articulated the relation between kindergarten and high school by using the words from and to, it is also reducing to a linear path the evolution through the different school levels. By capitalizing the words kindergarten and high school, the title is trying to draw the viewer’s attention to these two ideas. Each letter of the word kindergarten is in a different color while, as opposed to the black letters in the rest of the phrase, the word high school is spelled in green. As such, the color creates a contrast between these two words and the other words in the phrase. The various colors appearing in the word kindergarten are constructing a connection between this school level and pleasure while the green in high school is achieving the same result to a smaller extent. The subtitles of the picture – école Prud’homme. Reading Education’s Front Covers and Margins 59 Transnational Curriculum Inquiry 9 (1) 2012 http://nitinat.library.ubc.ca/ojs/index.php/tci MATERNELLE, école ÉLÉMENTAIRE, COLLEGE and LYCÉE- are written in way that replicates some of the mechanisms employed in the main title. These subtitles mean in their order of appearance KINDERGARTEN, ELEMENTARY school, MIDDLE SCHOOL and HIGH SCHOOL. In capitalizing these words, the MEN is again trying to direct the attention of the viewer on these ideas. The various colors used in the words kindergarten and elementary and the single colors that spell the other two terms are strengthening the relation between pleasure and education. Their presence also hints that the OME assumes the viewer is familiar with differences between these school levels. In contrast with Image 1 and 2, Image 3 comprises a depiction of a school and of children carrying book bags. Hence, the picture suggests that the MEN is assuming that visitors to the website are aware of what happens in the school building, that is classes, studying, exams... In the foreground of the picture, four tabs appear. Their curbed shape enabled the MEN to link its activities with flexibility. Each one is associated to one of the school levels starting from kindergarten and linearly progressing towards high school. Together, the four tabs form a consistent representation of a school viewed from the front. One student is present in each tab. In this fashion, the MEN is asking visitor to pay heed to these students and is stating that the focus of the ministry is on students. The transition between each student from left to right is congruent with a production chain. The first child is standing looking in the direction of the viewer’s right. The next two students are not only standing, but they are walking towards the high school tab where the last and tallest student is standing facing the viewer as the final product. In this image, every student appears on the same crossing lane reinforcing the idea of a linear process. Furthermore, they are guided in the background by an adult holding a stop sign. The presence of this character can reassure the reader that the students’ linear progression occurs under the supervision of the adult’s eyes. The first child is a girl like the last one. The other two are boys, being consistent with demographics. They are all white while the third student is African French. All of the students are smiling except the African Frenchman whose head is bowed. When reading the picture, I saw a reiteration of associations of school with pleasure, a promotion of school as a positive experience, though the African Frenchman’s posture brought to my mind past feelings of alienation, obedience and sadness in schools. All of the students are wearing different styles of cloths suggesting the idea of openness and wealth. Furthermore, they all appear healthy. As such, the MEN is associating health with its schools. The background of the picture is composed of hand-made pale drawings to keep the emphasis on the students in the foreground. The drawings depict a fenced school, its playground and its fenced windows. When noticing the prevalence of fences, I was reminded of commonalities between school buildings and prisons, and I thought of a study that compared the level of coercion to which students and in-mates are subjected (Epstein, 2007). On the other hand, through this mechanism, the MEN is eliciting a feeling of security in relation to schools. On the sidewalk that leads to the school, several persons are present. They are of different age and ethnic groups. Most of them are parents with their child holding hands or handing out bags. Such images associate families to unity and help while valorizing such vision of a family. Like in all the other pictures, everyone on the sidewalk is wearing nice clothes and seems healthy. Once again, such characteristics entail associating schools to health and wealth as well as promoting these aspects. Lastly, two big trees are standing in the front yard of the school. Through this graphic device, the MEN is reminding a connection between the natural environment and education while promoting the environment to some degree. In addition to all the connections that it makes, the picture fulfills many functions. Like Image 2, it guides visitors of the webpage on the website in function of the different levels of schools. By having children of different ages associated to each school level, it distinguishes those levels. It Prud’homme. Reading Education’s Front Covers and Margins 60 Transnational Curriculum Inquiry 9 (1) 2012 http://nitinat.library.ubc.ca/ojs/index.php/tci portrays the education system and tries to sell it as lively, flexible, open to diversity, healthy, environmentally friendly and pleasant for the most part. In a way, it values multiculturalism and education in general despite one student’s head bowed. Un(cover)ing the front covers To discuss what the messages ex/pressed through Image 1, 2 and 3 mean, I will frame my arguments within some ideas inherent to post-structuralism, post-colonialism, antiracism and queer theory. According to Davis (2004), post-structuralists claim that individuals and groups construct systems of beliefs, of knowledge, of relationships... During that construction, these individuals and groups valorize certain ideas and behaviours while leaving out others in the margins (e.g. valorizing Christian beliefs at the expense of others). To accomplish this, they employ various mechanisms, for example, institutions and privileging policies to keep their system in power. In this context, post- structuralists are interested in what is left out in the margins and what mechanisms enable such imbalances. Here, I will try to determine what the three images included as part of their system and what they left out by drawing on personal experiences. Moreover, while doing this and keeping in mind Aoki’s (1990) distinction between the intended curriculum and the curriculum as experienced by students, I will look at differences between the pictures and what students experience in schools in the three chosen contexts. To achieve this, in order to un/cover the realities behind education’s front covers, I will continue to use the metaphor of the reading of a book by making references to these hidden realities as footnotes in a book. First Footnote: The Place of Ethnicity With respect to ethnicity, the OME included students from various ethnic backgrounds. On the other hand, the OSDE created an image of school that excluded everyone who was not a European American. In the case of the MEN’s picture, although people of colour were present, the main character who is an African Frenchman was the only one without a smile on his face. I am concerned about what message can be read from the assignment of this role to this student as opposed to one of the other white models. Reflecting on the prevalence of white people in all three pictures and the lack of space granted to indigenous people, to give a purpose to my analysis, I started to think about the words of Smith (2005) when she said: The decolonization project in research engages in multiple layers of struggle across multiple sites. It involves the unmasking and deconstruction of imperialism, and its aspect of colonialism, in its old and new formations alongside a search for sovereignty; for reclamation of knowledge, language, and culture; and for the social transformation of the colonial relations between the native and the settler. (p.88) When deconstructing all three images, I am frustrated to see images of constructions of what has emerged from colonialism. For instance, in the case of the OME and of the OSDE, I remained troubled when noticing that on their images there are few traces of indigenous people while indigenous people used to hold sovereignty over the land 2 on which both the OME and the OSDE operate. More paradoxical, the OME and the OSDE, each bears an indigenous expression in their acronyms. In the OME’s case, this expression is Ontario, which is derived from a Iroquoian language and means beautiful water (Mithun, 2000), whereas in the OSDE’s case, it is the word Oklahoma, which means red people in Choctaw and was suggested to name the territory now known as Prud’homme. Reading Education’s Front Covers and Margins 61 Transnational Curriculum Inquiry 9 (1) 2012 http://nitinat.library.ubc.ca/ojs/index.php/tci Oklahoma today by a Choctaw chief (Wright, 1936). However, no red people appears on the OSDE’s front cover. Even though an aboriginal girl is present on the OME’s picture, her smile does not represent every indigenous student’s experience of schools in Ontario. For example, in the aboriginal community of Attawapiskat in Ontario, the local school was built on a site contaminated up until now for three decades by diesel fumes making the school unsafe for both teachers and students (Attawapiskat School, 2012). A state of emergency was called in April 2009, yet, to this day, a new school remains to be built. Second Footnote: The Representation of Schooling In this second footnote, I want to critically dissect the representation of education that the three images construct with various graphic resources. Before doing this, I want to remind readers of Dewey’s (2008) distinction between schooling and education. Dewey claimed that only a small part of a child’s education happened in school. Here, the idea of schooling is encompassed by that of education and refers strictly to the education happening in school. Each image analyzed here was created by the organizations of each respective state and province that officially represent education in these countries. Each of the pictures, in one form or another, associates the message that it wants to convey to a representation of elements of schooling, whether these representations be some books on a shelf (OME), the presence of administrators (OSDE) or a school building (MEN).In this context, each of the official institution is communicating that education is what happens in schools. In this process, they relegated to the side traditional and alternative forms of education such as those taking place at home and in the community. Furthermore, schooling as experienced by students is highly structured around standardized curricula and tests, and around the epistemologies and methodologies that underpin these curricula and tests. Under these circumstances, multiple epistemologies remain missing in classrooms. Two elements recurrent in all three pictures can illustrate this absence. First, in all three pictures, I saw images of wealth linked to schools through the appearance of jewellery the prevalence of clean and fashionable clothes and of expensive haircuts. I am concerned that, through such images, the three ministries are encouraging some forms of lifestyles that entail a certain socioeconomic level that many parents cannot afford. After analyzing the pictures, I became uncomfortable for individuals like those who are part of the growing number of homeless children in the US and who are in contact in their daily school experiences with such messages. More importantly as far as epistemologies are concerns, through the appearance of fashionable clothes and jewellery, each image is valuing and promoting the consumerism at the root of the capitalist model that guides most of the world today. Such forms of consumerism are incoherent with principles inherent to, for instance, ecopedagogies or holistic education. As a second example, when analyzing how families were portrayed, I did not find images to which divorced families, homosexual families and single-parent families, which comprise a significant part of the population, could relate. I can understand that many families involved in schools are those composed of two heterosexual parents. Nonetheless, other types of families participate in education. I am worried that the absence of queerness in the pictures is symbolic of the place granted to elements of queer theories in schools. Third Footnote: Mechanisms of Colonization In this third footnote, I want to draw on Chambers (2003) when she claimed that post- colonialism does not mean that aspects of colonialism are not in motion anymore. To illustrate this, Prud’homme. Reading Education’s Front Covers and Margins 62 Transnational Curriculum Inquiry 9 (1) 2012 http://nitinat.library.ubc.ca/ojs/index.php/tci she raised the question as to whether Western countries are colonizing in some ways new immigrants. Bhabha (2007) formulated a similar concern when he wrote: A just measure of global progress requires that we first evaluate how globalising nations deal with “the difference within” – the problems of cultural diversity and redistribution, and the rights and representations of minorities. What is the status of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, or the Muslims in India in the midst of the transformational myths and realities of global connectivity? (p.9) Here, I want to join Bhabha () in asking what the place of new immigrants’ sets of beliefs, cultural traditions and language is in Western schools. I have already hinted at the promotion in the three pictures of consumerism, a lifestyle incongruent with many new immigrant families’ cultural traditions. As well, I have shared my concern for the valorization of schooling over other forms of education through the three pictures. Here, I would like to explore the expressed happiness of the new Canadians in the OME’s picture from another angle. I remain worried that the expressed happiness hides certain dimensions of colonialism. Indeed, to some extent, the new Canadians’ smiles do not speak to the experienced reality of every new immigrant in schools. Many of them are legally obliged to learn in a language that is not theirs in schools, whether it be English or French in the case of these three pictures. Here, I am not asking government to start offering school in every language, though I am calling for the right of new immigrants not to learn an imposed language and to a greater space so that these children can have the opportunity to learn in a language of their choice, whether it be through homeschooling or other alternative forms of education. Fourth Footnote: Students’ General Experiences of Schools In this fourth footnote, I want to contrast students’ physical and emotional representations in the pictures with their experiences of schools. In relation to health, I interpreted that every participant in the pictures seemed physically healthy. Every one of them seemed to be at their healthy weight. None of them were underweight or overweight. Even though I can appreciate that, as such, the three ministries are promoting healthy lifestyles to a certain degree, I am uncomfortable that people who do not fall into that conception of health might feel outcast from the three educational systems. Moreover, none of the students posing in any of the three pictures appears to have some sort of disability. With regard to health from a mental perspective, while everyone in the pictures is smiling except for one student, I am worried about the feeling of exclusion that many students like the one that I used to be who did not enjoy compulsory education might experience when seeing one of these pictures and not recognizing their sadness about attending schools. Authors like Freire (1970) have deplored that mechanisms of oppression in schools that might give rise to such sadness often represent forms of undemocratic authority in some classrooms. In line with this, Neuberger (2007) considered the absence of freedoms such as those of speech, assembly and conscience as forms of oppression while Gatto (1992) stated that, in the US, from a legal perspective, students are not entitled to freedom of speech in schools unless when granted by teachers. In that context, according to a report, the US ranks second to last amongst countries members of the OECD in relation to the happiness and well- being of children (Wolk, 2009). In addition I read that the images promoted involvement in education as positive to teachers, administrators, the community, students and parents. Indeed, the prevalence of positive facial expression in all three images told me that everyone appreciated such involvement and that the opposite was untypical. When I was first thinking about how I was going to write this section, I Prud’homme. Reading Education’s Front Covers and Margins 63 Transnational Curriculum Inquiry 9 (1) 2012 http://nitinat.library.ubc.ca/ojs/index.php/tci considered using the title “Where are the drugs, the frustration, the dropouts and the bullying?” as all of these aspects had been a very significant part of my life in schools as a student and a teacher. Indeed, none of the pictures alludes to any of these aspects, even though, for instance, in the US, half a million adolescent try to commit suicide each year and 125 000 prescriptions for Ritalin were made in 1994 in Ontario alone, number that is continuously growing (Hennessy, 2006). On another note, the MEN and the OME portrayed education as a linear process. Complexivist thinkers like Davis and Sumara (2006) claimed that education is more complex than a linear path. Is a child’s evolution in education a continual steady growth? Can an elementary student skip a grade, repeat one or study a topic deemed to belong to the high school level? Does a line include such students’ learning experiences? On the other hand, I also construed that the MEN and the ODSE esteemed family as a value. In addition, the OME with images of students hugging and holding one another, and the OSDE with a picture of four people grabbing each other’s hands valorized unity as well as collaboration between members of the community, stakeholders, students and family members. The same applies to the MEN’s depiction of parents accompanying their children to school. Even though I am glad that the message coded as such in the pictures gave significance to the aforementioned values and that it shows evidence that the ministries are taking strides to encourage the adoption of such values, I remain worried that many students are not experiencing unity in diversity when remembering my own experiences, for example, when eating lunch at the cafeteria in a public high school in Oklahoma noticing that, for the most part, girls sat with one another, so did boys, and that African Americans and European Americans were rarely seen at the same table, hence, that the schooling experiences of many is missing from the three pictures. Conclusion In order to assist people involved in education in the reading of their world, I analyzed front covers of three ministries of education’s website using tools of discourse analysis. In the process, I interpreted that the three ministries depicted for the most part connections between their operations and values like unity, health, wealth, collaboration, family, diversity and education. Through their messages, they were also promoting these values while trying to sell their products. To determine what these images meant, I addressed what I called four footnotes associated to the analyzed front covers to contend that these ministries, while forefronting these values, are also to some extent leaving in the margins various educational epistemologies, indigenous people, individuals having negative experiences in schools, those inflicted with disabilities and those who live in family who are struggling to make ends meet, among other people. In addition, I highlighted that these ministries kept in place mechanisms that can contribute to the colonization of new immigrants. While Edwards (2010) argued that many have deplored that post-structuralism often criticize such forms of alienation without offering any suggestion, when trying to come up with a solution to the issues that I discussed I thought about arguing that the ministries who produced the three analyzed pictures could use graphic resources to value other epistemologies or that they could add a student who has a physical disability or a girl wearing a Hijab. I was thinking that this could help democratizing or hybridizing the ministries’ front covers, though I became uncomfortable at the idea that such changes would still misrepresent the experiences of most in schools. For that reason, I opted for encouraging these ministries to, at least, use collage of pictures of schooling as it happens in its natural settings as opposed to artificial ones like those employed in the three images. As such, it is my hope that a shift from artificial to natural could provide every stakeholder in education with a reading that would be Prud’homme. Reading Education’s Front Covers and Margins 64 Transnational Curriculum Inquiry 9 (1) 2012 http://nitinat.library.ubc.ca/ojs/index.php/tci more coherent with students’ experiences and that, in the process, the messages consigned to footnotes could emerge from the margins. Acknowledgment I would like to thank Dr. Patricia Palulis for her words of advice. Notes 1 mprud15@gmail.com 2 I want to clarify that, here, I am only referring to the anthropocentric meaning of the notion of sovereignty. References Aoki, T. (1990). Inspiring the curriculum. The ATA Magazine, 37-42. Attawapiskat school, (2012). Education is a right. Retrieved January 12, 2012, from the Attawapiskat School website: http://www.attawapiskat-school.com/Information.html Bhabha, H. (2007). Ethics and aesthetics of globalism: A postcolonial perspective. In A. P. Ribeiro (Ed.), The urgency of theory (pp. 1–20). Manchester, UK: Carcanet/Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Chambers, C. (2003). “As Canadian as possibleunder the circumstances”: A view of contemporary curriculum discourse in Canada. In International Handbook of Curriculum Research edited by W. F. Pinar, 221-252. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Davis, B. (2004). Inventions of teaching: A genealogy. Mahwah, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum, Associates. Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2006). Complexity and education. Inquiries into learning, teaching and research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Dewey, J. (2008). Democracy and education. New York: Seven Treasures Publications. Edwards, D. Jr. (2010). Critical pedagogy and democratic education: Possibilities for cross- pollination. Urban Review: Issues and Ideas in Public Education, 42(3), 221-242. Epstein, R. (2007). The case against adolescence: Rediscovering the adult in every teen. Sanger, CA: Quill Driver Books/World Dancer Press, Inc. 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Retrieved July 31, 2007, from Oklahoma State University: http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v014/v014p156.html Submitted: May, 5 th , 2012 Approved: September, 18 th , 2012 http://www.education.gouv.fr/pid24345/portail-parents-eleves-2010.html http://sde.state.ok.us/ http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/ http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v014/v014p156.html http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v014/v014p156.html