"Schools have never been neutral places. For centuries schools have been places where some people's children learn to be subordinate to other people's children."
- Madeleine R. Grumet
- Madeleine R. Grumet
As a human, thinker, teacher, researcher and writer I daily think of the current institutions that shape society and the issues that challenge these institutions and are often oppressed by these institutions. Welcome to a space where a collection of semimonthly thoughts will be posted questioning, examining and reflecting on issues of language and immigration in education. We hope posts reflect a critical analysis of key issues that examine the current U.S. educational system, the impact of immigration and the role language, culture and other aspects play in these issues. We urge all readers to question and contribute their own thoughts through the comment board and hope to begin critical dialogue about immigration, education, language and much more.
First post coming soon...
ReplyDeleteI am presently teaching Heath's Ways With Words in a senior Languages seminar. Really a complicated task because I feel as though I am having to build a structure for talking about systemic inequality while we talk about systemic inequality.
ReplyDeleteThis ethnography, in its interdisciplinary beauty, never ceases to amaze me in its scope and insight. However, I often wonder how generally provincial, white, middle class students can grasp the depth and complexity of race, SES, resulting "values," and the implications for systemic education. I often wonder how I would have received this text as a rather traditional college student who hadn't begun problematizing his space.
I think one of the challenges is the art of exploring institutions in our society. Students aren't often challenged to do this in k-12 and university settings, and they often confuse systemic challenge with reductive and nonproductive finger-pointing and blame. In other words, addressing disproportionate school failure for African Americans (and Chican@s) at the systemic level is abstract and less manageable for many.
Today we talked about the physical space of Trackton and its relationship between the physical layout, structures, and proximity and the impact on the language children from this community bring to school. It was really amazing to watch the connection unfold: that operating in a "State of open talk" characterized further by localism would result in African American kids bringing the "wrong" kind of language to the classroom.
How many other TESL/Applied Languages program fold Ways With Words into their undergraduate programs? Good idea? Bad? Too much? I am never sure as I complete a text. However, as long as I feel that reading and discussing this text is on some level contributing to countering common logic that uses deficit theorizing to explain such failure, I think there is some value.