Permitanme Hablar: Allow Me to Speak
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
LA_Nov2005.qxd 9/21/05 8:15 AM Page 118 Permitanme Hablar: Allow Me to Speak 118 Allow Me to Speak A first grader uses her critical literacies to intervene against Nadjwa Effat Laila Norton inequitable teaching practices and affirm her cultures. He puts his hands up She also reminds me I am a Black struggling-class educa- Not willing to continue to have me be That I too am dying tor who has incorporated reflection The water And she throws me a life jacket around issues of (in)equity as one of That rises over others’ heads I stretch my arms to catch the most integral components of my Providing them the scary sensation And it is just out of my reach Of dying-drowning-cannot breathe But neither he, she, nor I teaching practices. I have come to In the sea of choking words Have lost the energy or given up the fight realize that reflecting upon the com- I fight against the water that I am munities in which I participate and upon my educational practices “I can’t get dirty,” he says. I wrote this poem to reveal the dis- sustains how I advocate for diversity “My mom will beat me if I get paint on my clothes.” “I am going to get in trouble!” parities between what I wanted to and equity issues. Reflection has also “Will you tell my mom you made me get dirty?” be doing, thought I was doing, and helped me to see that we as educators “I am not sitting on the floor!” was actually doing in the classroom. are often part of perpetuating the Language Arts, Vol. 83 No. 2, November 2005 LA_Nov2005.qxd 9/21/05 8:15 AM Page 119 same systems that we seek to and/or challenge class, age, and sta- practices, representations, and power dismantle. tus inequities. First, I present an (Lankshear & McLaren, 1993). These Throughout my teaching career, I overview of two theoretical efforts illuminate the critical have worked to make poor and constructs that are grounded within reflections involved in literacy and working-class children’s experiences this work—critical literacies and the struggles people engage with visible, redistribute resources more around texts. Recent understandings equitably, and provide a diverse of critical literacies situate texts not range of social class representations I encourage educators just as print-based but as all things within literature. Whether through to reflect on how their with meaning. Thus, texts can be 119 staff development, grant writing, or audio, visual, gestural, spatial, and providing food for students, my teaching practices body, in addition to print (Short & Allow Me to Speak teaching practices have fought impact how poor Kaufman, 2000). Within this article, reading is defined as making meaning inequitable school structures that children experience ignore poor and working-class chil- of texts, and writing is defined as act- dren. But I have also been a teacher school. ing upon and changing texts (Freire & who disregarded poor and working- Macedo, 1987). In light of these class children’s experiences by hav- understandings, I demonstrate how ing them do literature projects on Pam situates educators as texts to be filthy floors. I remember not priori- culturally responsive pedagogies. Sec- read and reads and writes herself as a tizing children’s tensions and negoti- ond, I highlight the narrative context valued text. I also evidence how I ations around art projects with from which this article arises. Third, I read Pam and Mr. Williams as texts unwashable paint and no smocks. provide three examples in which and how Mr. Williams reads Pam, the Although I did not implement such Pam, a Dominican first-grade poor educators, and himself as texts. inequitable practices often, reflection female, utilizes her critical literacies Most work on critical literacies places makes visible how I valued the chil- around inequitable school incidents. these abilities in the hands of academ- dren’s academic learning experiences With each example, I illustrate how ics, critical pedagogues, and adults above their other circumstances. Pam reads these incidents from a crit- (Dixon, 2002). In the few studies in Despite the fact that I too had been a ical literacies perspective by detailing which educators and researchers focus poor child, I still managed as a both her interventions against on the critical literacies of young chil- teacher to privilege inequitable class inequitable teaching practices and her dren, the context of this research is structures by negating poor and affirmations of her cultures. Then I located in a critical literacy classroom working-classed identities. It is sig- discuss what constitutes a more tradi- (Vasquez, 2004). Within these critical nificant to note that I did not always tional view of this interaction. In two literacy classrooms, greater attention successfully negotiate my teacher cases, I include data from a conversa- is often paid to how educators shape identity with my classed identities tion with Mr. Williams, Pam’s teacher, curriculum and provide children with and the classed identities of many of about his teaching practices critical literacies. This view positions my students. surrounding the incidents Pam students, especially young children, as describes. Finally, I posit implications It is in light of past, present, and beings without knowledge and critical for educators to reflect on culturally future reflection as a researcher, edu- pedagogues as those who are able to responsive practices that can affirm cator, teacher educator, and scholar fill the vacancies. This focus denies children’s age and class identities. who experienced schooling as a poor the knowledge and agencies that child and who continues to identify young children bring with them to CRITICAL LITERACIES as a “struggling-classed” individual negotiate their classrooms. that I encourage educators to reflect There is an expanding cadre of In contrast to understandings of crit- on how their teaching practices researchers and educators who are ical literacies that leave out the per- impact how poor children experience exploring the definitions of critical spectives of young children, I call school. This article is intended to sup- literacies and how critical literacies attention to how children use their port educators—most of whom iden- are implemented inside and outside agencies to make sense of and act tify as middle-class individuals and of the classroom (Dixon, 2002; Kelly, upon their worlds as well as to make all of whom identify as adults who 1997). For many scholars, critical lit- decisions about their futures (Norton, desire to reflect upon how their eracies involve analyzing the 2004). Like Thornton (1999), I define teaching practices both perpetuate connections between words, social agencies as purposeful actions to LA_Nov2005.qxd 9/21/05 8:15 AM Page 120 change the conditions of people’s for all children, this work has been nos, Blacks, and children, in order to lives. By highlighting Pam’s limited by conceptualizations of cul- include their voices in the theorizing agencies, we see how children ture as race and ethnicity. Culture is that occurs about the practices that utilize critical literacies with or defined here in a more expansive inevitably impact their lives. I situated without the support of teachers. way that includes but is not limited storytelling as a political practice that Critical literacies is defined here as to total ways of being around race, served to create more equitable enacted agencies of intervention class, age, ethnicity, citizenship, abil- societies and educational institutions and affirmation (Knight, Dixon, ity, and spirituality (De Gaetano, (Brant, 1994; Minh-ha, 1989). Together, 120 Norton, & Bentley, in press). I Williams, & Volk, 1998). Attending the participants and I engaged in criti- recount examples of how Pam, a to class is significant because poor cal reflection about how identities and Allow Me to Speak Dominican female child, employs and working-class children are power manifest themselves within critical literacies as interventions to increasingly represented in public teacher–student relationships and name, critique, and challenge how school systems (Hicks, 2002). As knowledge processes (Solorzano & she is inequitably impacted by these demographics continue to Yosso, 2001). Our reflections focused teachers’ practices in ways that change, many multicultural, critical, on how race, class, age, gender, sexual- marginalize her class, age, gender, and feminist scholars assert that ity, ability, and spirituality impact how race, and ethnicity. As affirmations, teacher practices, in particular those and when one sees and challenges she uses critical literacies to work of middle- and upper-class teachers, (in)equities (Anzaldua, 1990). against these positionings and to devalue and marginalize the cultures This research began with purposeful (re)position herself in more of poor and working-class children sampling of a Black male teacher, Mr. equitable, self-affirming ways. Pam by discounting their knowledges and Williams, who was willing to create reads and writes her body as a text experiences (Oesterreich, 2003). They more culturally responsive curriculum affirming her identities that are question the ways that the student in his classroom through collaborative developed in her experiences (The population is often homogenized work with myself and three children Latina Feminist Group, 2001). within research and educational co-researchers (Bogdan & Biklen, CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE Pam, a Dominican female child, employs critical PEDAGOGIES literacies as interventions to name, critique, and Another theoretical construct essential to this article is the notion of cultur- challenge how she is inequitably impacted by ally responsive pedagogy. Culturally teachers’ practices in ways that marginalize her class, responsive pedagogies are defined as pedagogies that use cultures and lived age, gender, race, and ethnicity. experiences to enhance, support, and further learning processes (Gay, 2000). As ideologies shift, researchers from practices because homogenization 1998). Gabe, a Puerto-Rican/Black multicultural, feminist, and/or critical ignores the cultural variation that male, Kevin, a Black male, and Pam, a perspectives push for teachers and exists among children’s age, class, Dominican female, together with Mr.