I found these two chapters quite difficult to read. It has taken me several re-readings of them to grasp what I think they are trying to say. I applaude what Hicks is trying to study, how children use language to negotiate identities and knowledge in the cultural worlds in which they come to be and know. So often we forget what all the child brings with them to school (emotional and psychological experiences and thoughts) and try to judge them one-dimensionally. I often get caught up and forget that perhaps a child is stuggling due to an unforseen circumstance at home. Or, perhaps behaviors and values of education are defined by what community and family our students are a part of. Sometimes this is hard to accept as a teacher. Many of my students don't know how to dream, and all they see is what seems like the grim reality in front of them. I sometimes feel that a student's home life is my (and the student's) opponet in an endless battle to educate them.
I also appreciate Hicks's research because often I feel we focus on race and ethnicity, and she takes interest in both gender and class. I am interested to see how Hicks answers the question she poses, "How do our attachments to others form the basis for knowledge?" It is obvious that each of us are a product of our enviornment, but it is fascinating to think how much our enviornment defines who we are and who we believe ourselves to be. Additionaly, as Hicks touches on, it is important to consider how our enviornment influences how we view, treat, and react in classroom discourse.
I love the lines in Chapter 2 which speak of "moments of living" and how they have a lot to do with how children later engage with school literacies. How true this is! Teaching becomes difficult when the "knowings" and "becomings" of students do not "mesh with school literacy practices." Chapter 2 also notes that Heath helped teachers construct "culturally hybrid" classrooms where students " could begin to move between cultural discourses without giving up the richness of their community expereinces and language practices". Isn't this the question we have been discussing and pondering how to solve? If we are examining the mother tongue languages of any culture and their values, isn't this our challenge in the classroom, to "move between cultural discourses" without losing the cultural individuality of the students? I found myself asking, okay if she did it, please tell me and the rest of us how!
Sarah McMillan
Comments (3)
Sarah,
You raise a good point that educators need to be mindful of the emotional and psychological experiences that students bring with them. To know who a child is and where they come from can sometimes prevent misreadings of why the students are struggling in our classrooms. Is it because of a religious belief, a language barrier they can't break through, or something they have experienced that makes classroom learning a struggle for them? Learning about who our students are helps us to better understand these questions.
I like the point you made on how you appreciate how Hicks research also takes into account gender and class. You are so right, just a focus on ethnicity and race leaves open doors and vaccant spots to the whole picture as to what affects a child's literacy learning. I never really thought about how much our environment and experiences affect who we are and how this affects our learning, but it does make a lot of sense.
I too thought about how a student's home life doesn't always mesh with school literacy practices after reading chapter two. Yes, the question is how do we create literacy experieces without losing the cultures and identites of our students. I agree with you , I am excited to read the others chapters in the book to find out what Hicks proposes we do to solve this problem.
Great post Sarah!
Linda Younts
Posted by Linda Younts | June 6, 2007 1:35 AM
Posted on June 6, 2007 01:35
Sarah,
I too found these chapters difficult to read. I agree that our environment does define who we are;therefore, it does have an effect on how we as teachers view, treat and react in classroom discourse. It is true that some students have an unforseen circumstance at home and sometimes we as teachers don't take this into consideration. I have the same question. How do we move between cultural discourses?
Posted by Dawn Thomas | June 6, 2007 7:50 PM
Posted on June 6, 2007 19:50
Sarah,
This is an engaging post. You have made some excellent interpretations and connections here -- especially between our two texts. I do believe that the two texts explore the idea of cultural discourses and the disconnect that students experience in their school lives. What I like about Hicks is that she uses literacy practices to bridge this gap.
Alecia
Posted by Prof. Alecia Jackson | June 10, 2007 9:05 PM
Posted on June 10, 2007 21:05