RES 5530: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (Spring 2009)

Black students and other students of color are often denied the right to learn about their own cultures from critical or their own informed perspectives (Joseph, 1988

I remember in school learning about slavery, the black students were rarely given the opportunity to discuss their feeling of the issue. I remember feeling like the teachers tried to speed through instruction of that point in history, and I felt like the pace of the lecture was to limit conversation of the issues. The author continues to explain the perspective of a Junior High school teacher who feels ignoring the students and issues they are facing, whether it is in a historical perspective or current issues, leaves them voiceless. I feel anytime we limit the opportunity to discuss an issue, if we are the student or the teacher, we are limiting the amount of growth a person can have. The teacher continues by stating: “When I use the term voice, I am thinking of a strong sense of identity within an individual, an ability to express a personal point of view, and a sense of personal well-being that allows a student to respond to and become engaged with the material being studied by the other students in the classroom, and the teacher.” Doesn’t that mean if we limit their opportunity we are weakening their voice, and based on what the article says in order for students to feel important they must feel a sense of pride when they discuss the issues in a coherent way.

I think there are several ways to group students who need more instruction in reading in writing. We have learned about black students through this article and many other articles, who have not received fair education because of their home language. In this article, the author expands on the notion of black students who are being limited because of the judgments in the school systems, and talks specifically about female black students and the problems they are experiencing with literature. At the beginning of the article Henry state that her feelings and values came from a black feminist perception, and there is one point in the article where I disagree with a point she makes. She includes a statement from a study of 11th grade minority girls: “they need opportunities to read, discuss, write, and express themselves in safe, private contexts. Boys may not outnumber girls, but their concerns frequently override those of young girls.” She continues by stating that girls betray their voices, when I read this I immediately think of all of the male adolescents who are betraying their voices. I understand that she wrote the paper because she was working with adolescent black female students, but I disagree with the comments that were made in the study because I recently read about the struggles young adolescent males face when reading and writing. Like I said there are several ways to divide a classroom based on strengths and the levels the students are on, and I feel that too often we focus too much on that. Yes, you need to find the instructional levels for your students, and teachers should be aware of what each student brings to the table based on their gender and race. But sometimes I feel that people are very focused on identify a group that needs more help than others, instead of finding a way to help. I do not mean to make anyone feel that I am saying that it is not important to be aware of the race and gender issues, because I have enjoyed learning more about them. Instead I am identifying important characteristic in qualitative research, we are now getting suggestions for the problems, which we were not always getting through The Skin that We Speak.

Although I disagreed with one point the author made, I find her patience and ability to focus only on the positive aspects in the students writing inspirational. I think her effort to truly except the ability level of the students, led to their success. I think it is really hard for teachers to accept the best students do, because there are times their best falls below the standards. I thought about Kay today as I visited the school where I student taught last semester. While I student taught I worked with students in grades K-5 who had disabilities, most were learning disabilities. I think there is so much pressure for teachers to move the students to a certain point, a goal that is set by someone in the system, that it is too hard to truly accept the student’s present level of performance and base instruction from there. I feel that we are setting students up for some kind of failure when we force them on certain levels of instruction, when they are not there. Henry allowed Kay to make any kind of mistake she needed to make in order to get her point across. Instead of the student making all of the effort, Henry made the effort to dissect what the student wrote about OJ Simpson, in a way that Henry could understand it. She accepted the level Kay was on, and based instruction/interaction from there.

I also admire the way Henry summarized the personal information that she gained through the research. At the end she questioned how to address the political and ethical questions that arise through the research, I feel that she respected the students by disclosing certain information, but not all.

Elizabeth Griffin