Sudanese Australian Young Women Talk Education
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Anne Harris - Cross-Marked: Title Page CROSS-MARKED: SUDANESE AUSTRALIAN YOUNG WOMEN TALK EDUCATION An exegesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy As a scholar of education I have often observed how some of the most compelling insights I have encountered concerning pedagogy come from those individuals living and operating outside the boundaries of educational scholarship. Sometimes such individuals are not formal scholars at all but individuals who have suffered at the hands of educational institutions. (Kincheloe, 2009:26) Anne Harris, student # 3771195 School of Education Faculty of Arts, Education and Human Development Victoria University March 2010 Anne Harris - Cross Marked: Declaration of Authorship Declaration of Authorship This thesis contains no material which has been submitted for examination in any other course or accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text. Anne Harris March 2010 1 Anne Harris - Cross Marked: Acknowledgements and Dedication ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My deepest gratitude is extended first and foremost to those guiding lights of reason and creative passion, my supervisors: Associate Professor Tarquam McKenna, Dr. Enza Gandolfo, and Associate Professor Michele Grossman, who – put simply – have inspired me. They each in their own way showed me how research could be, should be, and will be with the kind of pedagogical dedication, rigour and warmth that they have all shown to me. They have demonstrated through their scholarship as well as their academic modelling that good research is compatible with creativity and human relationship, something I could not quite believe when I started this project. Additional thanks go to those mentors, technical wizards, and unseen heroes who have toiled on behalf of this project, usually pro bono, and to whom I am forever indebted: Dr. Mark Vicars, Stuart Mannion, Paola Bilbrough, Curtis Moyes, Antonia Goodfellow, Tamsin Sharp, Maria Vella, Rita and Ray, Kelley Doyle, Nik Tan and all at SAIL, Kathy Cooney, Gillian Kerr and all at Foundation House, Bronwyn Mason and the staff of Western English Language School, Caitlin Nunn, Tim Molesworth, Leslie Birch, Helen Borland and all at the Office of Postgraduate Research at Victoria University. All thanks for emerging with any shred of sanity from the past years’ work is due in large part to the calm and good sense of Ruth Redden’s presence in my life. Her technical expertise has come in handy on more than one occasion, and her generosity of spirit, sense of humour and love get me through most things, including this PhD. DEDICATION The film series Cross-Marked would obviously not have been possible without the willingness and generosity of all co-participants. What is perhaps not so obvious are the delicious meals, belly-laughs, and deep kindnesses shown to me by so many who were strangers at first but not for long. I thank you all and hope you will see that these films are making a difference, at least one teacher at a time. This project belongs to: Nyankir (Margaret) Ajak Jalab and Joseph Beet Achol Baroch and Loaner Geng Amani Deng Lina Deng Akur Deng and the Deng Family Noura and Duniya Douka Diana Dyagai Eli Angelina Aluel Kuol Sarah Kut Rebecca Long and Bronson and Anna Maria Borlace Grace Mabor Arillette and Jaclyn Murekezi Nyadol Nyuon Nyayany and Sarah Thong Lizzie and Rihanna Tung-Marua Naomi Wei 2 Anne Harris - Cross Marked: Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................... 2 ABSTRACT ............................................................................................. 4 VIEWING/READING PROCESS: ........................................................... 5 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 1: SLOWLY BY SLOWLY: Ethnocinema, Media and Women of the Sudanese Diaspora. .......................................................... 36 CHAPTER 2: “TOO DARK, TOO TALL, TOO SOMETHING”: Refugeity and the New Racism in Australian Schools ............................. 62 CHAPTER 3: “NEIR RIEL”: Transgression and Fugitive Spaces .......... 78 CHAPTER 4: SINGING INTO LANGUAGE: Creating a Public Pedagogy ................................................................................................ 99 CHAPTER 5: THE ART OF BEING SEEN: Sexuality and Gender Performance in Sudanese-Australia ....................................................... 124 CHAPTER 6: THE INTERCHANGE: Source of Creative Understanding ...................................................................................... 152 CONCLUSION: Minding the Gap ........................................................ 167 AFTERWORD: Marked Crossings ....................................................... 181 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................ 182 FILMOGRAPHY ................................................................................. 194 3 Anne Harris - Cross Marked: Abstract ABSTRACT Cross-Marked: Sudanese-Australian Young Women Talk Education draws upon the various knowledges of Sudanese students from refugee backgrounds, and upon the principles of critical pedagogy. The project suggests ways forward for those who wish to engage in more critically conscious, socially just research and educational practices. In so doing, this research further develops and critiques the principles and practices of ethnocinema, which prioritise relationship and mutuality in intercultural collaborations over aesthetics or outcomes. It explores the notion of refugeity as a state of being across cultures, in relation to educator, student and researcher relationships. Cross-Marked critiques current educational practices which marginalise, exclude and objectify those who are emerging from refugee pasts; seeks to re-frame refugeity as a state of being rather than a fixed identity; and foregrounds ways in which all ethnographic and pedagogical collaborators can share in an evolving criticality, using multiple and creative methodologies and contexts. The researcher uses her own status as insider/outsider – as immigrant gay educator – to contextualise her reflections on and relationships with these Sudanese-Australian co-participants. The seven films (six co-participant films and my own reflexive film) and exegesis which comprise Cross- Marked comment on the complexities of the performance of identity for both the researcher and her co-participants. Gender, age, race, class and ethnicity intersect as a range of intercultural encounters in this study. Taken together, the films and the exegesis seek to offer new methods and an evocative depiction of how to move further toward an engagement with 21st century intercultural collaboration, both inside and outside of the classroom. 4 Anne Harris - Cross Marked: Viewing/Reading Process VIEWING/READING PROCESS: My preference is for the films to be viewed alongside the exegesis. The films inform the written text, and the text contextualises the films, in an evolving and interconnecting manner. Ideally, the reader will become also the viewer; will read the Introduction and then watch the first film, Slowly By Slowly, before proceeding to read Chapter One, which is intended to complement this film. The process should be continued – first film and then corresponding chapter – through to the last film, EthnocineMe, which forms the Afterword. DVD INSERTED HERE 5 Anne Harris - Cross Marked: Introduction INTRODUCTION October 10, 2008 Today, after a few failed attempts and false starts, I am waiting at the Sunshine train station in the western suburbs of Melbourne. It is an unusually hot spring day beneath a crisp blue sky. I am meeting Nyadol Nyuon, a Nuer young woman from South Sudan, a new participant for my short film project. I am sitting on a cement wall near the exit of the train station, writing on my Mac laptop, smiling over-hard at every Sudanese young woman who mills about or emerges from the train tunnel, in case they may be Nyadol, but really looking like a weirdo. I get some strange looks, which is understandable. I am an outsider here. I am nervous. It’s always nerve-wracking meeting a new participant. I’m asking them for something, and I’m aware that much has been asked of them already. I’m a stranger, with seemingly little to offer, and my expectancy and dis- ease feel as visible and enveloping as my too-heavy green skivvy and blue jeans, all of which make me sweat with discomfort. My phone buzzes on the hot concrete next to me, and I answer. It’s Nyadol – not cancelling – just running a few minutes late. I go back to my computer and stop harassing with my too-earnest smile the women who walk past… (Process Journal) …Ten minutes later, when a willowy dark-skinned young woman throws a shadow over my computer screen, it is obvious before she speaks that this is finally Nyadol. She is beaming a giant smile, hand extended for shaking, confident, yet apologetic for her lateness. I’m just grateful she’s come. We cross the steaming road which feeds the transport hub and sit outside at a café, where I order a cool drink but Nyadol declines. I have brought previous films of mine to show her; to illustrate the idea of this film project; to situate myself as outsider/American but insider/educationalist.