Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (Summer 2011)

Candy Kee
There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks,
and perceive differently than one sees is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all. ~ Michel Foucault

This quote mean to me that one’s perception is also their reality and rarely changes even with deep reflection. A person’s perception seems to be formed by what they think they know about a certain race or gender and then they group all in this category instead of looking at individual traits, talents, character and personalities. They stay tunnel visioned in this and seldom change their perceptions so why should they reflect at all. I feel us as teachers do this with our students all the time. Through my readings in this course I have reflected deeply on how I see and treat my students. They are Black, Hispanic, disabled, poor, middle classed, disabled, non-disabled and come in many sizes. I have been guilty of associating last names with ability level as well instead of actually seeing what the individual can do. I really enjoyed Hicks and especially when she put literacy in perspective for me. She wrote, “This is a myth that children approach literacy practices as autonomous reasoners who then individually construct knowledge about literacy practices.” I had to read this several times to really grasp the meaning. I used to think that students learned how to read by teacher instruction when beginning school. This could not be farther from the truth. I guess I had the same mindset that Hicks enlightened me about through a quote, “The idea that literacies are cultural and material practices shaped by histories, localities, and the persons within them that give form and meaning to children’s lives has been resisted in part because of psychology’s strong hold on educational theory and practice” (Walkerdine, 1988). I have found that literacy is not “school based” but a combination of social and cultural discourse of individuals from birth. We must take these individual experiences and build on them through reading and writing and discussions. Differences in people or children do not reflect disability. We are all created equally; however, we as humans create the tension and assign disability when it comes to diversity. This reminds me of the “Noll” article and the accounts of Zonnie and Daniel. They had so much talent and rich history to bring to the classroom but were shunned perhaps not intentionally but the teacher had already categorized them based on their differences. I don’t mean that it should have been all about them but they should have gotten equal chance to share their interests, talents and culture. These interests and discourses should have been the foundation for building their literacy.
This account and study of Daniel and Zonnie should be read by all teachers and used as a lesson for self and others.
I really never entertained diversity as much as I have during this class. In the past when I thought of diversity, my mind raced down the differences in color path. This is obvious diversity but there again I was seeing a cover and not content. Diversity, I have found during the readings comes in all shapes, colors and sizes and ability level. Diversity is color of course but its also gender, religion, education, background, jobs, grades, health, wealth, hair color, height, sports related, vernacular, location, likes, dislikes, age, ability, talent, skills and the list goes on. We are all different in many ways. All people of a certain group tend to cling together in a clique. They influence each other in many ways to be close minded and tight knit and not accept others. We as teachers must break into this way of thinking through our students. We must be examples and treat each culture or background as precious and rich. We must be not only aware of differences but why and what they are with our students.
I am also reminded about a situation in a small country community I live close to. The plight of Zonnie and Daniel brought this to mind. In this community we have a couple of service stations with a grill inside. For the past 25 years, Jerry's Mini Mart has been the most popular and people meet and eat there everyday. This is a clique and is predominately white. The customers are farmers, builders, retirees, hunters and such. The food is down home and delicious and business booms. Jerry decided suddenly after 25 years that he wanted to sell the place and do something different. To everyone's disgruntled dismay, he sold the place to what is commonly referred to as a "Blue Dot Indian". Oh know!!! Everyone’s little world crashed. They cannot perceive or think outside their little community box. They boycotted this place and it no longer is the place to meet and eat. One could cut the tension in the community with a knife. Many of the regulars no longer speak to Jerry. This man moved his family to this hillbilly country as well. He was brave in doing this and enrolled his children in the nearest school. The other students are children of the families that quit going to Jerry’s. I wonder how the teachers are going to embrace this diversity and how they will provide literacy building blocks for these children.

Critique is understood as an interrogation of the terms by which life is constrained in order to open up the possibility of different modes of living; in other words, not to celebrate difference as such but to establish more inclusive conditions for sheltering and maintaining life that resist models of assimilation. ~Judith Butler

I believe Judith Butler meant that in order for a person to think differently and understand that differences occur among people and situations, one has to first question himself. This interrogating act is not done to celebrate the differences and cultures between people, but to realize how to better include these individuals instead of expecting them to assimilate to what is accepted as the standard. Instead, both perspectives need to be open and willing to transform a little in order to proactively move toward a society that understands the cause-and-effect relationship between a person’s hybrid identity (Hicks, 2002) and education.

There’s no question that educators are aware of the diversity of their students. We understand that they are each different in their own right, but we often fail to question how they are different in order to understand how their differences affect their learning. Hicks’ (2002) own self-reflections and studies of Laurie and Jake’s interactions with school provides clarity in my own understanding of how class and gender affect a child’s literacy learning, especially when these identities conflict with the models found among education. The role of males and females are seen differently among classes, causing frustration for some students who are trying to balance the literacies between home and school. Hicks’ studies demonstrates that the early grades can be the hardest for many students because they are adjusting differences from home literacies to school literacies. They are realizing that things are not like those at home, and thus begins their journey of molding in hybrid identities that involves some difficulties along the way.

In regards to race, this course has allowed me to see that though different races may not always be accepted among standard English that is taught within a white middle class educational system, these races face struggles within their own groups when they begin to assimilate to the standards of this system. In a sense, Delpit and Dowdy shared how they or their loved ones faced ostracism because they were taking the avenue of what society deemed as the only road to success. In my opinion, teachers should strive to make their students reach success and forcing them to assimilate to a perceived standard by imposing our own cultural identities and backgrounds is not the way. What kind of message is this sending to our students? – Society isn’t going to accept you like you are and neither are we?! This is not the approach education should take. Is it not the role of education to inform society and culture them into upstanding citizens? If so, why can’t we inform them that cultural backgrounds help form literacies and expecting a person to assume the standard brings conflict and frustration that inhibits intellectual growth as students try to form their identity? By teaching that standard English is the only way to success, we are forcing our children to either conform and forget what has molded them into who they are or continue to taste failure and rejection among those who say they know best. Instead, we should be encouraging them to use their cultural identities to empower them among literacy learning so they are able to reflect and decide the directions they desire. By doing this, we are still molding them into upstanding citizens who become proactive in challenging the accepted standards as the only means of achieving success. Proposing that there is only one way to reaching the standard is denying our students from exploring who they are and how this can be used to help them achieve success.

As Noll suggested, teachers to need step up in their influential roles and discover what interests and backgrounds their students have. By appealing to their interests and home identities, we are able to help them as they establish their hybrid selves. This also portrays to our students that they ways of thinking are not wrong, and we are beginning to model to them that you have to reflect upon different perspectives in order to gain a deeper understanding of the world around us. Using literacy – reading and writing – is a way of enabling our students to reflect and see similar perspectives so they can express themselves without feeling different. This is what Henry and Staples enabled me to understand when they referred to giving our students a voice within the classroom. They need to be able to share and an inviting environment. The Carey video only confirmed that such school literacies gives our students a means of gaining power and equality within the classroom and communities. Education plays an important role in the lives of our students. It is crucial for teachers to know their students, welcome who they are, be sensitive to their needs, and help them find ways to develop within the confines of school without forcing just one model. By doing this speaks volumes, students are able to hear loud and clear that they are accepted and cared for within the classroom.

Melissa Riley

“Critique is understood as an interrogation of the terms by which life is constrained
in order to open up the possibility of different modes of living;
in other words, not to celebrate differences as such
but to establish more inclusive conditions
for sheltering and maintaining life that resist models of assimilation.”
Judith Butler

I feel the quote by Judith Butler best describes how I now feel about ways the issues of race, class, and gender should be approached and addressed in the classroom. Throughout this course I have found myself evaluating and analyzing not only the situations in the research we have read but also those of my classroom as well as the bigger scheme of society in general. I agree with Butler, we should not just simply “celebrate” each others and our students’ differences but develop stronger habits to help preserve and incorporate those things that make us the individuals we are into daily life as well as our classrooms. However, I do feel some amount and degree of “assimilation” is necessary both for life in and out of the classroom. These adjustments should take place in order to make connections, form bonds, and build the avenues necessary to be able to work together and move forward with learning and life. There is a delicate balance of the exact level of integration of new ideas into someone’s thinking that should take place. This should ever merely be done or presented by asking them to forget the old and strictly conform to the new.

The way by which individuals seem to automatically adjust to different situations and yet still maintain the connection with their own personal practices was first clearly evident to me by the research of Dowdy and Delpit. Michelle Obama also quite plainly wrapped it all up by speaking frankly with students about her childhood struggles of blurring the lines between “sounding white,” becoming successful in school and life, as well as being accepted socially in her discourse. Delpit used “code switching” to name and describe the ability to easily change how we communicate within different groups. Dowdy told her story and struggle to find the balance of successfully maintaining her roots in Trinidad while being pushed to conform and use “Queen’s English.” All three of these examples opened my eyes to the realities that minority girls face within the classroom and also in their social community. I found myself reflecting and analyzing not only my students’ use but my own as well as of “code switching.” Although I had seen it happening in my classroom automatically for some children, others needed more practice or examples in order to successfully “switch” or change between home and school communication patterns. I hope now with my new awareness and understanding of the importance and relevance of not only “code switching” but preserving and maintaining a variety of communication patterns/literacies for my students, I can do a better job of affirming and encouraging them. I am also excited about the ways in which I can utilize this knowledge in instruction, to make adjustments to instruction, and hopefully make my entire class feel included.

I found Elisabeth Noll’s research to be especially interesting. The American Indian culture has not had a great presence in my classroom. I have had one student who I can recall that was American Indian. His mother volunteered and spent one afternoon visiting each of our five kindergarten classrooms sharing stories, songs, music, instruments, and dances from her tribe. It was wonderful to see all the students, from various backgrounds, participate and discover some of the practices of a new culture for them. It also helped Arron’s peers to better understand where he was coming from and how they were different and alike at the same time. Is there a better time or age to learn to accept others? If only it continued to be as easy not to judge as it seems to be for my kindergarteners? In Noll’s study, Daniel and Zonnie both had the support of their families and early experiences with traditional literacy. It’s too bad that neither of them seemed to really receive the same support in the school setting. Their teachers did not show much interest and lacked the understanding of their complex “multiple literacies.” It is my hope that I can do a better job of getting to know my students, their families, and gain a true understanding of their culture in order to enrich their overall learning experience while they are in my class. From the research I have read, this could potentially have a lasting positive effect on them and remain with them throughout their time in school. Who doesn’t want to be accepted and validated?

Jeanine M. Staples and Annette Henry both used writing to empower black males and females find and even “re-author” their own “voice.” Again I began to recall situations in my own life and reflect on many students that have in my classroom. I found myself scrutinizing over particular situations and individual students, asking myself did I handle that the right way or what could I have done differently. In kindergarten writing is such a challenge for most of the children that I do try to make it as fun and unintimidating as possible. I had never before thought of it as an opportunity to aid students in acquiring their own voices. But I am a firm believer in the earlier the better, at this age kids are like sponges and can obtain more than we would ever think possible. However, because it is the first experience with formal writing for many students there is the need to provide a large amount of examples, especially in the beginning of the year. This is not to say that we don’t learn by dong and that goes for our students as well. So I plan to incorporate and provide a more varied range of examples with writings, journals, literature, and poetry for my students and draw particular attention to the author’s background/culture. I think this will present my students to opportunity to make better connections with authors and see themselves and their own potential as writers.

Lamont Carey’s poem put into words the blame game that I think happens all too often. Not only should we be celebrating and identifying the different backgrounds and styles of learners we have in our classrooms, we need to also be developing and implementing more efficient ways to help them be successful. I’m not suggesting that they give up everything they have already learned at home to learn the way things are done in school, but there has to be a balance and open communication that goes both ways. Everyone needs to be able to read because like Carey asked without that ability, “what are my options?” It is our job as teachers to strive to do what is right for every student. This starts by getting to know each one as a real and whole person, then devising a plan to help move them towards the goals.

In Deborah Hicks’ research, this process of really getting to know your students is brought to the forefront as a vital component for ensuring their success in school. The boys and girls situations she describes really challenged me to critically look at my own practices. I know like the teachers in her book, I too have made mistakes by assuming that I have all the information needed when making major decisions concerning my students. However, now that I have had this course, read her book, and other research regarding the issues of race, class, and gender influence I have a great appreciation and understanding for what I need to be doing differently. At the very beginning of next school year I would like to get more information from parents beside the basic/standard medical history. I plan to create a form that they can complete to include family and cultural background (not just boxes to check) as well as other information they would be willing to offer specifically related to their child. I would then like to meet with each family and discuss more in depth the information they provided as a means of beginning the open communication between home and school. This would also serve as an opportunity for me to review initial assessments and present goals. Then ideally I would include them and welcome their suggestions as we generate ideas for working together to help their child reach their potential during the year. I realize what a great undertaking this will be but recognize the potential benefits it could have of helping to break stereotypes and/or being to mend the fences of previously bad experiences. It is my ultimate goal to help students and their parents feel accepted, confident, and accomplished when they leave my class and I feel the understanding I now have of the impact of race, class, and gender on students’ experiences in school will help make that goal a reality!

Ruth Ann Timmons

There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all.
Michael Foucault

Just last week I turned to my husband and said, “All I could think about during dinner was how different their discourse was growing up than mine.” He looked at me oddly and I explained myself…
Let me explain to you… My husband is a Rabbi. I grew up Jewish but in a very secular home, which means we did not highly emphasize religious practices on a daily basis. It was a quite a surprise when I brought a Rabbi home to introduce my latest crush to my parents. Now, for obvious reasons, our family is involved in a lot of religious activities. I often find myself asking my husband “what does that mean?” Or “what am I supposed to do now?” Having been in this new world for about 3 years, I am continually learning new things and expanding my personal discourse to adjust to my life as a Rabbi’s wife. We were at dinner with a group of 4 different Jewish leaders that had all had religious lifestyles growing up and it seemed as though they were speaking a different language as they were referring to things I had never heard of before. As I sat there dumbfounded, I thought about how much I need to learn to be a part of this world, and understand it. Michael Foucault’s quote resonates with me because of where I come from, what I have learned, and what I plan to do with it.

Where do I come from?
This semester I gave great thought to who I am and how my personal experience has prepared me for what I’m doing now. It also taught me how to interpret people. I have thought about the people in my life who have influenced me and helped me understand the students that I teach. I have reflected on past students that have demonstrated similar qualities to those we have read about and how I wish I had taken this course before meeting those students as I might have interpreted their actions differently! I am aware now of how it is necessary to understand where someone else is coming from to best understand who they are and how they learn best.
I am fortunate to be able to say that I have not had to change who I am, or learn to act a certain way to be able to succeed in life, much like Delpit and Dowdy described in their articles. I understand now that for some, it is a necessary means to earn the respect of people around them. Yet I am somewhat a hybrid of two discourses in that my parents came from two different worlds. My father came from upper class society whereas my mother’s family was working class. I know how to communicate and situate myself appropriately with both classes, which has proven helpful in both my teaching and situational aspects of my husband’s line of work as well.
I am a storyteller like Francis, Ezra, and Chol. I have had many worldly experiences in my life from student teaching in Australia to traveling Europe and working with Serbian and Kosovo refugees, to teaching in the inner city of Chicago. Just like Perry encouraged with her students, I will share these stories from my life so others can learn from them. In the same respect, I will invite my students to share their stories, because it is important to have a voice and be heard.

What have I learned?
As shown in my story above, our readings have provided me with a frame of mind where I make note of new things now that I wasn’t aware of previously. For example, I was talking to my principal on the last day of school when some other co-workers joined in the conversation. They were all black and I’m white. As soon as they joined the conversation, my principal began to code-switch and speak differently than she had with just me. The readings gave me this insight and honestly it made me feel valued that my principal felt comfortable to speak like that with me involved. As Foucault points out, I find myself looking and reflecting at the happenings around me with a closer eye.
In our readings, one repeated issue I had was the assumption that students have literacy deficiencies (ex. Daniel and Zonnie) when in fact, the teachers and students often have difficulty understanding each other. The teachers, because of their hierarchical role, judge the students to be lacking in ability when really miscommunication is the primary concern. Looking at it from an outsider’s perspective rather than being the teacher involved, I realize the importance for a teacher to look at her students and reflect about what the real problem is. If I have a whole class that does poorly on an assignment, was it the students, or was it my teaching and clarity as to the expectations of the assignment? I think many teachers blame the students for their lack of achievement when oftentimes the teacher needs to reflect on changes they could make themselves.
Miscommunication is not the only problem we focused on. Lack of getting to KNOW your students kept coming up in the readings (ex. Laurie and Jake). There are many positives to paying attention to who your students are. First, the students will be grateful that you want to learn about them and will probably be willing to work harder for a teacher they know cares. Second, if you seek out what interests them, they will be more motivated to learn because you choose subjects they take an active interest in. A good teacher makes things relevant to what is happening in their students’ lives. As Iris Murdoch states, “I can only choose within the world I can see…” (p. 151). As I am stressing the point that I need to see beyond my own world to grasp my students’ perspective, I cannot yet expect them to do that yet. As Hicks stated, “like other things in his family life, reading had to make good sense to be something of value to Jake” (p. 120). I need to find what my students value, and then I will likely make a stronger connection with them and provide them opportunities to be more successful. Third, you will have a better idea of what obstacles the student really has, and how best to work around those obstacles. Finally, when you get to KNOW your students, you form relationships with them that involve trust, as Henry and Staples alluded to in their articles. For some students, they don’t find that trust in their home life, and you become someone they depend on and look to for guidance and support.

What do I plan to do with it?
Looking forward, I am about to step out of my comfort zone and expand my discourse yet another notch. I am accustomed to teaching little kids. Next year, I have just taken a challenge to teach 5th grade. I also am going to work in a mostly white school when I’m used to teaching in the inner city. This is going to be a culture shock yet I chose this because I am looking forward to working with a unique team that I can collaborate with and learn from, an experience I was not getting at my former school. As I am challenging myself, I will also challenge my students. Since I am teaching predominately white students from rural North Carolina, they will need me to tell stories, and share about different cultures. Hopefully they will share a piece of themselves with me I will offer them a curriculum that “embraces listening, watching, feeling, and understanding” (p.13) as Hicks encourages. Most importantly, I will continue to look and reflect with an open eye, to what my students needs are and try to meet their needs on a level playing field.

-- Carrie Brown

“There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting all.” Michel Foucault

I teach in a school located in the middle of the public housing projects and one of the hardest things to do is to see beyond the circumstances and not make excuses for where they come from. In the reflection of my school and students the expectations for the students have always been high. Being consistent and firm, but at the same time I still perceive the circumstances of the students’ lives to be somewhat the same as my own growing up in small rural Midwest. Finding that my own values, beliefs and ideals were different from my students, this class helped to shed light into different approaches and views for my own classroom. Over the years I have had to change and learn how to relate to the families and children I serve without, but I will definitely be able to take knowledge from this course and apply many strategies to build even stronger relationships with my students and families.

Hick’s book “Reading Lives Working-Class Children and Literacy Learning” spoke to me as an educator. I now have a richer understanding of the importance of building relationships with the family and bringing experience to life for children in order to better grow in their literacy journey. In chapter two Hicks states “The idea that literacies are cultural and material practices shaped by histories, localities, and the persons within them that give form and meaning to children’s lives has been resisted in part because of psychology strong hold on educational theory and practice.” (p. 16) This has helped to me see as a teacher that children come with a literacy base already, but the base may not be what is need for school but rather home. Before reading Hicks book and the article about code switching, I thought that it was something that should come natural for children. Learning that code switching wasn’t natural put things into perspective and how I view my children.

An area I feel that I can definitely build upon and do better with is independent reading. I have always provided basket of books for children to read independently and on their level, but now after this course I find how important it is to search a little deeper and find books of interest. Reading can be boring for many of my students who struggle and they often become inattentive during the self-selected reading block, but providing students with books that incorporates all of their interest will increase their time on task and interest in books. Through a grant this year I was able to purchase graphic novels which were a hit among my boys, but I need to purchase more books to target my boys like Jake.

This course will has given me the knowledge to look at my students through a different lens. I will do a better job of getting to know my families and relating to my students. We may come from different sides of the track, but we do have a common interest already and that is their child. Looking at the beliefs and values of the families will help me to understand where they are coming from when it comes to their child.

One thing that really reached to me was the story of Laurie. Over the study it was stated that she had learned to be the “good child”. Reading about her struggles will help me to pay closer to my students in my class who are using the same defense. I will now be on “watch” to look for those students and spend some extra time in my remediation block attending to their needs. I don’t want any child to go unnoticed.

In closing I will approach this new school year differently. I will bring a new look an approach to my education practices which I hope will inspire my children to be lifelong readers and learners. Before beginning this class I was apprehensive about what I would learn or gain from an online course. I thought there was no way I would gain the knowledge I have, with not having a professor present. I now have an understanding about the different discourses that they bring to my classroom and how I can help to change the way I previously looked at my students.

Kara S

There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all.
~Michel Foucault

I believe that Foucault is speaking to the fact that reflection cannot take place without the possibility of change- whether it be in thought or action. Otherwise, reflection would serve no purpose; you would simply keep moving in the same direction.

In “reflection” of this class, I can honestly say that I have begun to really give the outside world a lot of thought. Until now, I thought I understood what it meant to support diverse learners. However, I now realize there is really no way of delivering sufficient instruction without adequate and thoughtful research of the whole student. Generalizations of a single culture will not provide the information necessary in meeting an individual student’s needs.

In hindsight, I believe cultural invitations are not only important but necessary to academic development. By this, I mean that mere acceptance is not enough. We as teachers need to welcome cultures into the classroom and foster an environment of cultural exploration. When we provide a safe place in which to share all cultures, students will develop a willingness to share. It is crucial that all students value literacy. When students are able to make personal connections with literacy, they will value its purpose in their world. The Sudanese refugees valued storytelling. It was their way of preserving their heritage. From the older generations, the Sudanese learned their history and the art of storytelling. When they came to America, writing provided an avenue through which they could inform the world about their mother country. They not only wanted to raise awareness, but they wanted to “call others to act.” Literacy for the Sudanese had a clear purpose. In the future, I plan to invite different cultures to share their life stories with us through storytelling and writing. After all, we are always encouraging students to use their own voices.

Through further reflection, I have decided that I need to give all students opportunities to use their dialects in the classroom. Writing would provide a great avenue for self expression. By allowing students to use their own dialects in writing, I believe it would free up their minds and allow them to write more fluidly. So often, the thought process is interrupted by grammar rules. All children need to be given a safe atmosphere in which to write. By incorporating this attitude into my classroom, I will open up a door for educating ourselves about other cultures. As I stated in an earlier post regarding the African Carribean girls, “messages may be altered or even lost when they are ‘avoiding their mother tongues and dialects.’ Til now, I believe we as Americans have just expected everyone to immediately conform to our language and literacy practices. Let us not forget what it is like to learn something for the first time; we all must take baby steps at first.
An area in which I feel that I did improve this year was independent reading. During self-selected reading time, I encouraged all students to read on their own levels. To ensure that students were following this guideline, I periodically checked their book levels and compared it to my recorded levels. Students showed improvement in fluency this year. In addition, I think they actually enjoyed reading more because they did not become frustrated, and they were more attentive to the text. No matter the grade level, it is absolutely necessary that students read text that is appropriate for their individual needs. Students like Laurie and Jake need text on their level in order to grow. When students already feel inferior for reasons other than school, they especially need to be given opportunities in which they can feel successful.

Along with making greater efforts in preserving native languages, providing opportunities for independent reading, and welcoming cultural education, I also need to meet with parents more often. I need to stay abreast of any home life changes which may impact my students’ performance. It’s difficult to know how to help someone if you cannot identify the problem. Hicks seemed to have a good relationship with Laurie’s family. This relationship provided an additional window into her life. Anytime a child’s behavior changes drastically, there is a reason for it. With continuous parent communication, I can identify the cause much more quickly and perhaps resolve it much more quickly.

Laurie’s story will certainly inspire me to pay close attention to those “good” students. While many students exhibit good behavior on a regular basis, I need to make sure that they are not using good behavior as a means of masking deficits. Although I do need to acknowledge “good” behavior and encourage it, I do not want to overlook academic challenges because of it. Looking the other way will not benefit Laurie and students like her in the long run. In fact, allowing her to slide by because of her “good” behavior would be a huge disservice to her. I owe it to my students to be more attentive to their student needs.

Since I began teaching, I have heard about the importance of making learning real for the students. In other words, how does education pertain to their lives? Jake’s story really hit home for me. So many struggling students give up very early in their school career because they have determined that they are not performing as their peers. Their parents usually seem surprised. Because of their positive reading experiences at home, parents naturally assume that their children are performing on the same level in the classroom. In reflecting on my own experiences, I realize that I need to make a greater effort to gather books of interest for the child and plan projects which will interest and motivate the child. While this practice may be difficult to incorporate every day, I can certainly take steps toward making it more common. I would much rather they read and write about topics of choice than not at all. They will still learn and maybe they will gain some confidence along the way which is crucial for success.

Words cannot express the effect this class has had on me as an educator. It has shed some new light on the term “diverse”. Within each classroom, there is an entire class of diverse learners. Whether it be language, dialect, socioeconomic background, or unique family situations, each child is bringing their own discourse into the classroom. They are bringing us the best they have; therefore, we must give them the best we can to ensure that they learn.

Holly Lawson

“There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all.” - Michel Foucault

This quote certainly reflects my feelings about what I have learned during this course. The world of education is constantly changing and if we, as teachers, cannot adapt and change our thinking with it, we will not be as effective as we can be. Being able to take on other points of view to see the view from the other side is crucial for teachers, since we have so many different different views in each of our classrooms each year. If we continue to only see our own way of thinking as the right way of thinking and hold on to our biases and preconceived notions of race, class and gender, we will never achieve our goal of reaching every child.

One of the most important concepts that I took away from this course has to deal with the concept that our students don’t come to us as blank slates ready to be filled with information, as discussed in the Reading Lives chapters. Since the day they entered the world, every experience and interaction they’ve had has begun the process of shaping them as learners and it is crucial for me as a teacher to figure out how to use that to my advantage when teaching them instead of viewing it as a hinderance. Just as Laurie and Jake’s home lives influenced their outlooks on and the outcomes of learning, so will my future students. From this course, I now realize the high priority I must give to getting to know my students and their families both inside the classroom as well as out.

The concept of children having “hybrid” identities also opened my eyes to a lot of new ideas and notions about the two different lives that children lead both in and out of school. Delpit discusses the concept of “code switching” which I was aware of in the past, but had never been able to give a formal name. It made me think a lot deeper about how much children do switch “codes” between friends and adults, school and home, etc. Hicks spoke about “hybrid identities” that children develop to exist both inside the classroom and inside their homes. We saw how sometimes these identities need assistance from the teacher to help develop channels between the two, especially with Jake. If one of his first or second grade teachers had picked up on his love of NASCAR or his interest in construction/heating and air conditioning repair because of his father’s interest in it, and how much more he was engaged in learning when information was presented in those formats, he may have been much more attentive and successful in school. Once again, getting to know the whole student can make a huge difference in how we teach and the outcomes we achieve for them.
hybrid identity, code switching

I also learned a lot about what it’s like to grow up as a girl in the south. From reading about Hicks’ experiences as a young girl as well as others’ discussions in their posts, I gathered a lot of new information about southern culture that I didn’t possess before now. Growing up in upstate New York in a nonreligious family, I did not have nearly the experiences and I think learning this new information is helpful because although I’m sure things have changed some, the basic concepts are still the same and to understand that is just one step to further understand where my future students are coming from.

Giving work that has a purpose, for a real audience, is another concept that I took away from this class. Not that I didn’t know that was important before, but during this course I was really able to think deeper about exactly why it is that kids need to understand the purpose for what they are doing. Also, it’s not good enough to just tell them “you’ll need this later on in life.” A lot of students have to actually see the use for it or they will become disengaged. This was seen in Perry’s study, when Chol wanted to publish his autobiography in a magazine. If we as teachers can pick up on those kinds of things and find authentic, real, live audiences for our students’ work, we can give them a real purpose for doing the work, instead of just for a grade.

Though I have not had my own classroom yet, and cannot use the knowledge I’ve gained to reflect on past experiences outside of tutoring, I can certainly use it for my future classrooms. The tools I have gained from this class helped me to understand how truly important it is to get to know your students-the whole student, not just what you see in the classroom, but their families, values, cultures, pasts, presents and futures as well. As we can clearly see through the readings for this course, learning this information will help us greatly in the work to reach each and every student and help them succeed in school and in life.

Kim Strzelecki

Written by Karin Scott

“There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all.”

Michel Foucault

I think that this quotation from Michel Foucault sums up the lesson I will take from Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research. I think Foucault is telling us that, if I am going to reflect on my practices, in my case, my teaching, then I need to try to see those practices from the point of view, or perspective, of discourses other than my own. It is only when I am able to reflect on my teaching from the perspectives of my students and their parents that I will be able to build the relationships which will allow for the most advantageous learning environment for my students.

This lesson was brought home time and time again as I read for this course. Beginning with Noll’s case study of two American Indian youths, Daniel and Zonnie, I realized the importance of learning about the perspectives of the students. Daniel and Zonnie were clearly intelligent young people. They were also clearly uninterested and uninspired by their schooling, feeling disconnected and unappreciated, both by their teachers and by their classmates. They seemed to feel comfortable with themselves only when they were functioning in their own tribal discourse, which they did regularly and successfully. Even with parents who were supportive of their educational endeavors, Daniel and Zonnie were not the strong students they could have been, had the teachers taken the time and made the effort to understand and appreciate their cultural background. Learning about their cultural was only the beginning, though, as Noll made it clear. She wanted us to “capture the meaning that they confer on what they (do) and on the way other people react to what they (do).” She reported on THEIR perception of what they did and the reactions of others, rather than on her own perceptions, which might have been totally different from theirs. As I noted in my blog, I think that, too often, we become so caught up in what we THINK our students are saying that we miss what they are really communicating to us...in other words, we superimpose the ideologies of our own discourses on our understandings of what our students are communicating to us.

Allowing our students to express themselves through the many different kinds of literacy is significant too, as it was to the African Caribbean girls, researched in Henry’s article Speaking Out, and Staples research article Hustle and Flow. Their research affirmed the importance of making connections with our students which go beyond our school relationships. Staples and Henry both found that it is vital for us to, not only understand the various discourses from which our students come, but to also use that knowledge to help us support our students learning with texts which are relevant within their discourses and allow them to use their different learning styles, cultural expressions, or intelligences to express themselves. We must respect their native languages or dialects, accepting their communications as legitimate methods of expression, even as we work to teach our students how to communicate in Standard English. I agree fully with Delpit’s statement that “To speak out against the language that children bring to school means that we are speaking out against their mother, that their mother are not good enough to be a part of the school world.” Although the use of Standard English is important as we prepare our children for future successes in the working world, we need to support and encourage their efforts with literacy in whatever language, rather than disparaging those efforts as inadequate. It seems that it is only when we develop these supportive, trusting relationships with our students that they are able to “buy into” the relevance and importance of the literacies we are sharing with them.

Previous to these readings, I had not thought of all of us – teachers and students alike – as storytellers. Now, as I reflect on the Hicks text and the articles we read, I realize that all of the students who participated in the research had stories of their own to tell. Indeed, some have stories of persecution, such as the Lost Boys of the Sudan. Some have stories that help them pass along traditional stories of their cultures and preserve their heritage, such as those of the American Indians, or the African Caribbean girls. Yet others have more commonplace stories of events and experiences in their own communities, like Laurie and Jake. Through their stories, we, as teachers, develop a better understanding of our students and “where they come from.”

Understanding the discourses from which our students come to us is vital if we are to plan appropriate learning experiences for them. For example, understanding Jake’s and Laurie’s home life and their experiences with literacy at home would help a resourceful teacher know better how to approach them in a school situation. Perhaps connecting to current events from the American Indian community would have promoted the interest necessary to engage Daniel and Zonnie in their class work. If relevant materials were used with the students involved in Staples’ and Henry’s research – song lyrics, or plays, or even current events that directly affected these students’ lives, for example - maybe they would have felt more empowered in their connection with their own education.

I think that, although providing a rich library of multicultural literature is a good beginning point for creating understanding of different cultures, Michel Foucault would have us dig a little deeper than just reading about them. He would ask us to examine and try to understand our students’ perceptions of their experiences from their own points of view. He would ask us to try to keep our understandings from being colored by our own discourses, and to be open to the feelings, experiences, and cultures of the children in our classes. By doing so, we enrich our own lives as well as the lives of our students, and we create the bonds and connections which enable us to provide rich instructional environments in our classrooms. We, as educators, must open our eyes to the lives of our students, and, as the saying goes, “Walk a mile in their shoes.” Only then can we be the effective, “highly qualified” teachers we aspire to be.

Marlee Wright

There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all.
Michael Foucault

From the first article I read in this class, Delpit’s “No Kinda Sense,” I have been questioning the way I look at the world. I had never thought of myself as someone who discriminates on race, class, or gender, but articles we read in this class made me question how I accommodate the diverse population of children in my classroom. I have critiqued Zonnie’s reading teacher who could not even identify the types of literature Zonnie enjoyed and Jake’s first grade teacher who did not allow him to develop at his own pace. While critiquing others, however, I often felt that I must also turn the mirror on myself and examine my own teaching practices. Reflection is essential in order to be an effective teacher, and I am grateful that this course has granted me this opportunity to reflect on the way I perceive and interact with my students and their home communities.

The initial quote that got me thinking about my treatment of diverse discourses in the classroom was from Delpit’s article “No Kinda Sense”: “To speak out against the language that children bring to school means that we are speaking out against their mothers, that their mothers are not good enough to be a part of the school world.” When correcting students’ grammar in the classroom to be Standard English, I have always attempted to be discreet and felt that by correcting their grammar I was helping them to become better students. Reading this line from Delpit’s article, however, made me realize that what I thought of as assistance in speaking “correctly” was probably being interpreted by my students as a criticism of not just their speaking but also the culture in which they grew up. I want my classroom to be a safe haven for my students, so this feeling of rejection is not one I want to foster, and Delpit’s article helped me to see how my words may be being differently from how they were intended.

As I read about Daniel in Noll’s article, I began to question how much of the history and social studies I taught in my classroom was considered to be “white man’s stuff” by my mostly Hispanic classes. I’ve always explored different traditions and cultures from throughout the world when we had “Holidays Around the World” in December or celebrated “Culture Week” in the spring, but now it seems so obvious that this was not enough. Reading children’s literature with culturally diverse characters does not count as helping students to connect to the material. I need to consciously integrate a variety of historical and current events from multiple cultures into my curriculum. By providing students with the true history of their cultures in the academic setting, they will realize that their culture is not only accepted by the classroom, it is embraced as another topic of learning and discovery.

Reading Staples’s article about re-authoring made me think back on how often I have unconsciously labeled a child because he or she did not act or perform the way I expected my students to. For example, how often have I said a child is lazy because he or she does not do the work assigned? Perhaps that child is not doing the work because he does not understand the purpose behind it or he feels disconnected to what is being studied. Instead of labeling that child, I should be attempting to rework the curriculum to better to suit his interests and needs. This article helped to change my perception and made me realize that I want to make my classroom a place where students do not need to re-author themselves, because they are already accepted and supported for who they are. Given the middle-class focus of most curriculums, this is not something that will happen without effort. In addition to making myself more open to the various students I have in my classroom, I hope to follow the examples of critical literacies presented in Hicks’ book (p.31) by looking closely at texts read in class to make sure they raise up the students’ individuality instead of oppressing it.

Finally, in Hicks’ book, Jake’s lack of motivation to do work because it seemed pointless and “stupid” helped to change my perception of how classwork is viewed by students. I realized I so often give students assignments without helping them to build a connection to it or helping them to understand the purpose behind it. Often they complete their work because they have been trained that that is what they are supposed to do at school…work without questioning authority. This lack of connection to what they are doing, however, will lead to frustration with school which may later manifest itself through dropping out or no longer trying. Just like I want my students to feel a connection to what they are learning in the classroom, I also want them to feel a connection with what they are doing in the classroom.
This course has made me reflect on how I interact with my students, the material I teach my students, and the activities I require of my students. This reflection of my own teaching has not left me feeling that I am a poor teacher, unworthy of the profession. Instead, I am taking my own reflections as constructive criticism in an effort to becoming the most effective teacher I can be. Through the readings in this course I have explored how to improve myself as an educator by embracing the home and school lives of my students.

Andrea Schlobohm