final blog post

I wanted to write about something interesting I thought about while writing my paper. I wrote about literacy and race, and how minorities do not have the same access to educational resources as European Americans have. In the readings that I wrote about, particularly Duncan-Andrade's and Ogbu's, I realized how big of a role teachers play in the success of the student. Both readings touch on how students have a disadvantage, whether they are first taught with "false hope" or whether they are involuntary minorities that refuse to conform to the "white"ways. Both Duncan-Andrade and Ogbu give strategies that help reduce these disadvantages and try to guide the minority students down a smoother path. These authors explain how important the teachers willingness to be effective is for the student. They need to learn how to connect the material to the students' lives and make it simpler for them to understand the vigorous curriculum. Being a role model for their students and also have more parent/community involvement is beneficial. While most people believe that students are responsible for achieving educational success, the teacher plays a huge role as well, and can provide a lot of assistance to minorities.

the final paper is due July 1st, by 11:59pm.

I will not be on campus today.

Per the subject line, I wont be on campus today. Instead, I will be available via both phone and email.

There will be no presentations tomorrow; instead, we will spend the majority of our class time working on final papers.

For tomorrow

For tomorrow, please bring in (either on your computer or a hard copy):

• Your introductory paragraph complete with your thesis, which should be both bolded and underlined..
• Also, bring in a list of the three articles that you plan to take up/analyze in your paper, with a brief rationale as to why you chose the specific texts that you did.

Questions, questions, questions...

Morrell & Duncan-Andrade

•              Morrell and Duncan-Andrade argue that students benefit from culturally relevant instruction, yet there has been (and continues to be) ardent resistance insofar as rethinking or recapitulation the “canon” is concerned. Why do you feel that there has been continued resistance to the incorporation of this kind of pedagogy?
•      The authors cite Ferdman (1990) who argues that cultural valuation leads to higher levels of literacy acquisition; why do you believe this is the case? More specifically, do you feel that cultural valuation (i.e., valuing a student's culture) in fact leads to higher levels of literacy acquisition?
•      Why is it important for students to be taught in their own “native” tongues; and, what kind of transformational experiences do the authors attribute to this kind of instruction?

Anzaldua

• ·        Anzaldua writes that the "home" tongues are the languages spoken among family and friends; according to Gee, what type of discourse is this? Please provide an example of the differences between your particular "home" tongue and the tongue you most frequently adopt when not at "home".
• ·        Anzaldua argues that language is, essentially, twin-skin to culture; that is to say, that language both instantiates and carries culture. Please discuss what it is that she means by this; and, argue for why you agree or disagree with this argument?
• ·        How can linguistic suppression, or worse oppression lead to negative mis-identification? More specifically, how can linguistic oppression lead to the internalization of pejorative associations for linguistically marginalized groups?

Rose, I just wanna be…

• ·        Based on his experiences with Vocational education, it seems as though Rose invokes his buoyancy metaphor, (students will float...), pejoratively; is there way in which it can be viewed positively? (Please explain)
• ·        Rose described the “Voc Ed” track as a “dumping ground for the disaffected”; first of all, what does he mean by this? And, secondly, do you feel that remedial tracks still represent a “dumping ground” of sorts? Why or why not?
• ·        What does it mean to be “groomed for the classroom”? On page 37 of the reading (the last full paragraph), Rose describes his subjective experience with literacy: which of Scribner’s three metaphors best encapsulates the relationship that Rose depicts?

 Rodriguez: Hunger for memory

• ·        Many readers find Rodriguez problematic: Do you agree? How do you think other academics might respond to Rodriguez's stance in relation to cultural heritage and language? If you're familiar with Gloria Anzaldua's work, how do you think she would respond to Rodriguez's perspectives on culture, education, and assimilation?

     Howard: We can't teach what we don't know

• Sociologically, race is classified as a social construction (i.e., not an irrefutable biological reality); that is, it is defined as an abstract notion, so to speak. Is this designation problematic for Howard; and, do you see any potential problems with this classification? Please explain.
• What are “legitimizing myths”; and, what purpose do they serve (according to Howard)?
•   Why does Howard consider the notion of meritocracy, as delineated in our distinctly Westernized, Eurocentric National ethos, to be mythical (pp. 37 of original text)? Please explain.
•   Also on page 37 of the original text, Howard discusses what he terms “social arrangements of dominance”: please provide examples of said social arrangements, and, explain just how they fit into the definition that Howard provides.

 Fredrick Douglass, Narrative life of Fredrick Douglass, An American Slave

• ·       On page 53 of the original text, Douglass recounts the vicissitudes of his own literate awakening. What does his account speak to regarding the internalization of negative, oppressive reinforcement?
• ·        What caused Douglass’ aversion to thinking? Why did it quickly become the bane of his existence?

L.S. Vygotsky: Mind in Society

• ·        Beginning on Page 80 of the reading, three theoretical positions, regarding the relationship between learning and development, are posited, which of the the theoretical postulations seems most plausible? And contiguously, which of the three positions (re-conceptualizations) would be most efficacious with regard to pedagogy?
• ·        How does the Zone of Proximal Development represent a paradigmatic shift in the way in which the relationship between learning and development is conceptualized?
• ·        Vygotsky argues that “writing must be relevant to life (pp. 118 of reading)”, what does he mean by this? Is this argument consistent with conceptualizations of culturally relevant pedagogy?
• ·        According to Vygotsky what is the difference between (merely) teaching written letters and  actually teaching written language?

 Scribner: Literacy in three metaphors

•  Why would there be proponents of bounded literacy, i.e., why would there be supporters of a conception of literacy that has fixed boundaries?
• Would it be fair to argue that the quest to offer a universal definition of literacy can be explained, at least in part, by an over-reliance on classification or scientism that (arguably) pervades western intellectual thought? Why or why not?
• Do you agree with Scribner that definitions of literacy can only be arrived at synchronically, i.e., at a particular moment as opposed to diachronically (over time)? Why or why not?
• How is literacy a social justice issue? To this question, how has literacy been used as a "hegemonic tool"; and, how can the obverse be made true, that is, how can literacy be used as a tactical, subversive tool? Offer an example.

 Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

• In Freire’s critique of the banking model of education, he argues that students are posited as receptacles or depositories (pp.72 of original text). For Freire this is problematic because he considers the banking model inherently oppressive. Do you see a way or ways in which this metaphor can be appropriated and/or re-envisioned as something positive and or generative?
• Why is it in the best interest of the oppressor to “change the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation that oppresses them (pp.74)”?
• Freire argues that the inherent contradictions, which he feels are constitutive of the banking model of education, will eventually lead the oppressed to “turn against their domestication and […] attempt to domesticate reality (pp. 74 of original).” What are the inherent contradictions that he is referring to? And, what would an attempt to domesticate reality look like?

 Freire & Macedo, Literacy: reading the word and the world.

• On page 98 of the original text, Freire argues that: “…the notion that literacy is [only reducible to] learning the standard [i.e., dominant] language still informs the vast majority of literacy programs…” Freire clearly has a problem with this; why?

·        On page 99 of the original text (fourth full paragraph), Freire appropriates Althuasser’s (1971) conception of the ideological state apparatus (i.e., ISAs, which we discussed briefly in class) to describe the educational atmosphere in former colonies. Is the analysis of the situation that he describes limited to former colonies or can it also be applied to contemporary local and National contexts? Please explain.

·        In this chapter, Freire lists four approaches to literacy: the academic approach, the utilitarian approach, the cognitive development approach, and the romantic approach. Do you see parallels between Freire’s approaches and Scribner’s metaphors? Please explain. 

Freire argues for a problem posing pedagogy in order to subvert and counteract the damage caused by the banking model of education: what are the primary differences within these educational paradigms (pp.79)?

Lam

• Why does Lam feel that it is problematic, when engaging discourses, to focus on binary oppositions? And, do you feel that her concern is warranted?
• What does Lam mean by “transnational social fields (pp.83 of source text)” and how are they potentially counter-hegemonic (according to Lam)? Please explain.
• According to Lam, the development of intercultural voices and perspectives are vitally important for youth, especially immigrant youth. According to Lam, what do these two terms denote; and, do you agree with her regarding their intrinsic significance?

Steele and Aronson, Stereotype Threat

Steele and Aronson, Stereotype Threat

Steele and Aronson:

•           In this essay the authors discuss the ill effects of stereotype cues and stereotype threat both psychologically, and to a lesser degree, psychosomatically. Do you believe that stereotype threat has the propensity to physically affect, when activated, negatively stereotyped students?
•       The authors write: "From hundreds of interviews that I've conducted with black college students, it's clear that many believe that the stereotype places them in situations freighted with unnerving expectations. Some report feeling a sense of unfairness, that there will be less patience for their mistakes than for white students' mistakes, and that their failure will be seen as evidence of an unalterable limitation rather than as the result of a bad day." How has this thinking been engender/proliferated, and by whom? Please explain.