“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