From the culmination of my research for my capstone course in International Training and Education and my wanderings in critical literacy, things seem to really be fitting together. I have mostly been focusing on marginalized groups in formal education systems in different countries. This includes many different groups of people including indigenous populations in post-colonial countries, ethnic/linguistic minorities living within a dominant societies, rural and urban poor (often child laborers) . To make a long story short I found a central issue to be not only the inclusion of all learners cultures, values, experiences into the curriculum and classroom, but using them as another classroom discourse. This is where critical literacy comes in, and where I found Hilary Janks' work and her interrelated model especially pertinent. Her example of using an interview project where students gather information from their families and communities and then bring it back to the classroom for exploration and dialogue is a way of not only bringing in, but validating the varying perspectives and experiences. Another valuable and I feel, crucial part of allowing a receptive space for all students' experience is that it helps the educator learn about his/her students and who they are. Teachers will inevitably have different cultural/societal backgrounds than at least some of the students in their class, they must build in ways to learn about their students, their perspectives, discourses of meaning and the way they learn. In this way I see Critical Literacy as a process of group learning in which the educator is learning as well.
As our discussion (in class) went further on the topic of marginalized groups in formal education some of my classmates mentioned the different registers of English used by their students. They discussed how other educators that they had worked with or had classes with at AU, saw other registers of English besides what we would call standard American English simply as incorrect and not only admonished students for using it in school but told the students that it was wrong altogether. The results were disastrous as these teachers failed to relate to their students and thus had serious issues gaining their respect and managing the classoom. Some others brought up the resistance in students to use "standard English" at all, even though they show respect for students home and out-of-school language (be it another register of english or another language altogether). Students saw that type of English as "trying to be white" or as "being too academic or nerdy" . I thought immediately of Vivian Vasquez' article on using critical incidences to construct critical literacy curriculum and activities. I thought of perhaps playing some audio selections of different types of English, or having students bring in texts or audio (could be recordings or TV, music, or whatever) that display different types of English and use them as the basis for a discussion on what the differences in language mean to them. In what situations and contexts do they see the different types of language used? How does power come into play? They could even take it a step further and examine the structure of some different selections of English, how the words are used, omitted or abbreviated. I think this would be a great to for students to focus on the different types of English that they hear and use, and examine how different language usages may be chosen explicitly to affect the opinions of the audience.
Yes, things are really coming together...and I can see how critical literacy is in some way a micro-level tool to address macro-level issues that education systems all over the world are facing.
Erin
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5 comments:
A very powerful post Erin. What a thoughtful reflection on how critical literacy has taken a place of importance in your theoretical toolkit. Your post clearly shows how you have ,throughout the semester ,sorted out ,and made sense, across courses, of salient points in the fields of critical literarcy and multicultural ed. This is no easy task!
I hope you keep blogging so I can keep reading!
Thanks
vivian
You made an interesting point about students thinking proper English is too 'academic' or 'nerdy'. I've encountered this as well and used it as a time to discuss voice -- it can be a great way to relate to students if handled the right way.
Something I've done in my class was to have the students fill out charts, coming up with catch phrases and expressions they use regularly -- then they write how they would say that same phrase to their parents and to their teachers. This type of exercise helps students understand the different ways of understanding verbal communication, which can help with the various other types of literacies.
teaching in the situation akin to the one that you describe in your post is difficult; the educational framework/system within which we teach is simply not constructed to ensure that marginalized groups receive a quality education. it may be debatable whether or not the form of the system purposefully does this, but it can certainly be said that, by and large, it is set up for mainstream users. as such, we (educators) are fighting a fight not just for keeping our marginalized students interested in the educational process, but also it is a fight to bend (or break, hopefully) the system to be more inclusive and mirror our current societal composition and its goals.
erin, your post winds into a curricular corner from which i've sometimes found it hard to reverse course. it's great to turn the cheesy, obtuse standards into relevant material via investigation and analysis of the students' experiences and thoughts. however, no matter how many ways and how many times i seem to (attempt to) explain, it is trying to describe why their experiences are relevant and valued in the classroom and why most of the outside world will devalue and discount marginalized student-opinions and thoughts. i think that my students are glimpsing part of this iceberg, but your post renews my energy to reveal more! thanks ~ brandon
I found your comment on "standard English" very interesting. The question of how to respond to non-standard english is important in a school like the one where I work. I want my students to express their thoughts, which they will do best when they are using the English they are comfortable with. However, knowing "standard English" will be necessary for a student to be successful in so many aspects of society.
I like your idea of bringing in audio and discussing the context where each would be appropriate. In my class, I've had similar discussions with students and noticed some students making an effort to think about how they were speaking in different situations.
I really like how you can think about these ideas from different perspectives to figure out how different places teach these critical literacy at varying levels and how English plays such an important role in this.
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