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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 397 420 CS 215 360 AUTHOR Dyson, Anne Haas, Ed. TITLE Diversity and Literacy Development in the Early Years--What Difference Does Difference Make?: Teacher Perspectives on Diversity, Literacy, and the Urban Primary School. Final Report. INSTITUTION National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy, Berkeley, CA.; National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy, Pittsburgh, PA. SPONS AGENCY Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC. PUB DATE Dec 95 CONTRACT R117G30036 NOTE 212p. PUB TYPE Reports Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC09 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Classroom Environment; Discourse Analysi; Interpersonal Relationship; Learning Processes; *Literacy; Primary Education; Program Descriptions; *Teacher Attitudes; *Urban Education; Writing Instruction IDENTIFIERS California (Berkeley); California (Oakland); *Diversity (Student); *Teaching Perspectives ABSTRACT Focusing on teachers' perspectives, this report examines sociocultural diversity and teaching by reconstructing the talk of a group of 10 teachers from the Oakland and Berkeley, California areas who met weekly for a school year. The curricular focus of the group was the teaching of writing, but over time the discussions of difference and child literacy broadened. A framework for teacher reflection, a framework grounded in teachers' reflections on classroom experiences, is outlined. Chaptersin the report are: (1) Introduction: Teaching in City Schools;(2) Relationships in and Out of the Classroom: "Who Am I to Them?";(3) Building Classroom Communities: "I'm from Texas; What Are You?";(4) Negotiating Permeable Activities: "At First I Didn't Understand";(5) Portraits of Children Learning: "What Did You Think of Me?"; and(6) Extending the Conversation: "It's Not about Telling You What to Do." A coda (The Permanence of Change and the Power of Reflection) concludes the report. Contains 67 references. (RS) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** c:) NATIONAL CENTER FOR THE STUDY OFWRITING AND LITERACY ,r- School of EducationUniversity of CaliforniaBerk.ley CA 94720-1670 r--- e-mail: [email protected] cnc telephone: (510) 643-7022 C) http://www-gse.berkeley.edu/research/NCSWL/csw.homepage.html LL1 FINAL REPORT DIVERSITY AND LITERACYDEVELOPMENT IN THE EARLY YEARS What Difference Does DifferenceMake?: Teacher Perspectives on Diversity,Literacy, and the Urban Primary School Anne Haas Dyson, Editor University ot California at Berkeley December, 1995 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Once of Educatonar Flitsoarco ono tmormemsnt EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER(ERIC) t(This document has been reproduced as receiveo from the person or organization originating it 0 Minor changes have been made to co) improve reproduction quality. .9 Points of view or opinions stated in this Project Director: Anne Haas Dyson document do not necessarsy represent official OERI positron or policy -6 under the Educational Research andDevelopment NOTE: The research reported herein was supported administered by the Center Program (R117G10036 for the NationalCenter for the Study of Writing) as The findings and Office of Educational Research andImprovement, U.S. Department of Education. opinions expressed in this report do not reflectthe position or policies of rl-e Officeof Educational Research and Improvement or the U.S. Departmentof Education. BEST COPY AVAILABLE What Difference Does DifferenceMake?: Teacher Perspectiveson Diversity, Literacy, and the Urban PrimarySchool Anne Haas Dyson, Editor University of California,Berkeley Participants Andrea Bennett, OaklandUnified School District Wanda Brooks, Universityof California, Berkeley jildi Garcia,Oakland Unified SchoolDistrict Carolyn Howard-McBride,Oakland Unified SchoolDistrict Judy Malekzadeh, OaklandUnified School District Carol Pancho, OaklandUnified School District Linda Rogers, OaklandUnified School District Louise-Rosenkrantz, BerkeleyUnified School District Elizabeth Scarboro, University of California,Berkeley Kristin Stringfield, Berkeley Unified SchoolDistrict Jill Walker, Oakland Unified SchoolDistrict Elise Yee, OaklandUnified School District Address: Anne Haas Dyson, School of Education,5647 Tolman Hall, University of California,Berkeley 94720-1670, FAX (510) 642-4799. (510) 642-0746; Preface Preface First graders Roman (whowas born in Germany) and Aaron (who was born in the USA) are sitting side-by-sidecoloring their maps of Mexico, a regular study topic inthis once-Mexican land of California. As they work on their flags' eagles, they confirm each other's colorchoices: blue eyes?black feathers? a white streak maybe?Amidst their talk of color and country, it is not surprising,perhaps, that the conversation turns to theirown colors and countries: Roman: Aaron, are you African American? Aaron:--Yeah--NO! Roman: What are you?American American? Aaron: I'm a nice,young, man. (with definiteness) That's what I am. And then, after apause: Aaron: WHAT ARE YOU, psycH? I'ma African American. What are you? (with irritation) Roman: I'm a German American. Aaron: Oh. But I wasn't born inAfrica. Roman and Aaron are, inone sense, very American kids. "In America," says the actorand playwright AnnieDeveare Smith, "identity is always beingnegotiated" (1993, xxxiii).Our very Americanness, she suggests, isfound in our struggle tofind words to name the I, theyou, the mg. Our one nation ilia," to add Geneva Smitherman's words, "a land of many voices;it ia a nation of many cultures" (Smitherman, 1990, p. 111). Our Preface vi national identity is rooted insymbols like the Statue of Liberty, with its invitationto the many, and the constitution, with its promised pluralism. Nonetheless, as both Smith andSmitherman note--and Roman and Aaron illustrate--it jahard to talk about difference. There are tensions between our valued symbolsand our historical record. These tensions provide complexovertones to any talk about difference, makingsuch talk hard to interpret,even for the very young. "What are you, psych?" Aaron asks. Areyou blind, confused, curious? Do you take me for a fool? I am, and I am not, what you say and you see. And, by the way, whatare you? In the midst of their efforts to make their coloringexactly alike, Aaron and Romanventure into the complexitiesof color, culture, and nation state. In so doing, the boysare themselves a symbol for what Celia Genishi (this volume) calls the"yin- yang" of teaching: "the capacityto hold in mind apparently opposing ideas to forma workable whole," to understandhow difference "makes all thedifference' at times and'not much difference at all' at othertimes." Like the boys, thelanguage arts teacherswhose voices appear herein are not blindto the differences thatare so salient in our national life, especially differencesof race, ethnicity, culture, language, and socioeconomic status.These differences, they know,influence both children'sand adults' sense of social belonging and personhood, theirsense of social possibility and constraint, and, moreover, the natureof their Preface vii experiential and language resources. Thus, they gathered together to talk about the yin-yang ofteaching, about the difference difference made in theireveryday lives with young children. The group's talk, reconstructedherein, is intended to stimulate, provoke, and inviteothers' talk in other places. After all, phenomenaas complex os negotiating differences and the yin-yang of teachingare not easily captured in static words. They have to be experienced in thevery struggle to find the right words. That is the Americanway, suggests Smith (1993, xii); the American character,she writes, is found, "not inwhat has been fully articulated,but in what is in theprocess of being articulated... in our struggle to be together in our differences" (another yin-yangresponse). As teachers, our groupwas not, I hasten to add, naive. During the evening meetingin which we brainstormeddiscussion questions that might deepenreaders' responses,one of us asked where this hoped-for talkwould go on. I thought,perhaps, a faculty meeting. "Have you been to a facultymeeting in [my school district] lately?" another of us asked. And everyone laughed. Making opportunities forprofessional reflection and collaborative growth a normal part of teachers' liveswill, as we know, require widespread changes of institutionalstructure, professional vision, and publicwill. In the interest of such Preface viii changes, we offer this illustration of professional reflectionby teachers working in, for, and toward an American democracy. We offer our words. May they inspire many more. Acknowledgments As group instigator, I gained thecompany of teacher colleagues with the assistance of Alice Kawazoe, Directorof Staff Development and Curriculum for Oakland UnifiedSchool District, and with the encouragement ofother colleagues and friends, especially Elizabeth Simons,Mary K. Healy, and Celia Genishi. Patricia Lambert Stock, editor of EnglishEducation, provided much appreciated enthusiasmand much needed editorial expertise; with her help, a first versionof our dialogues appeared in that journal in May 1995. A project involving so many teachers, schools,and children would not have been possible without thefinancial assistance of the Spencer Foundation. Additional support was provided bythe Educational Research .,Lnd DevelopmentCenter Program (grant