The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Education SHARING MULTICULTURAL POETRY WITH ELEMENTARY EDUCATION STUDENTS: A TEACHER INQUIRY INTO DEVELOPING CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS A Thesis in Curriculum and Instruction by Elisa Hopkins © 2007 Elisa Hopkins Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2007 The thesis of Elisa Hopkins was reviewed and approved* by the following: Daniel D. Hade Associate Professor of Education Thesis Advisor Chair of Committee Miryam Espinosa-Dulanto Assistant Professor of Education Steven Herb Head, Education and Behavioral Sciences Library Madhu Suri Prakash Professor of Education Patrick Shannon Professor of Education Coordinator of Graduate Programs in Curriculum and Instruction *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. Abstract This is the story of my teaching and learning about multicultural poetry with elementary education students taking Teaching Children’s Literature, a required course for elementary education majors, at The Pennsylvania State University’s University Park Campus during the fall of 2005 and the spring of 2006. My purpose as a researcher was to investigate the students’ cognitive and affective interpretations and reinterpretations of multicultural poetry in a learning environment supportive of each person’s awareness of himself/herself as a maker of meaning (Berthoff, 1990). Conscious awareness of oneself as a maker of meaning in a social context is integral to the development of critical consciousness, which encourages human agency. In my teaching as inquiry into developing critical consciousness, I share my philosophy of education informing my agency as a teacher and researcher. I discuss interpretation of language, curricula and culture, connections through poetry in curricula, pedagogical approaches for developing critical consciousness and agency, and evaluative approaches for growth in terms of multicultural poetry for children as essential to education for shaping the mind and nourishing the spirit. I also discuss my philosophy of poetry focusing on multicultural poetry as political and potentially transformational. I believe reading and hearing multicultural poetry can help nurture students’ aesthetic readings, raise social and environmental awareness, develop critical consciousness, and encourage human agency. iii As I share the students’ and my dialectical writings making meanings of multicultural poems, I explore our revisiting of uses of rhyme and rhythm—often associated with humor and playful narrative poetry—in contexts of poetry and verse as voices for social justice. I also relate our responses to selected multicultural poems as we surface and extend perceptions through moments of connection, questioning, struggle, and imagination. Multicultural poetry is essential for young people’s education for a pluralistic, democratic society as it shapes the mind, nourishes the spirit, and encourages agency for a more humane, peaceful, and just world. iv Table of Contents Foreword . viii Acknowledgements . xiii Chapter 1 Multicultural Poetry in Education: Changing the Cycle of a Marginalized Necessity . 1 Background . 1 Purpose of the Study . 3 Guiding Questions . 4 Description of the Students . 6 Overview of the Course . 11 Theoretical Framework . 14 Research Strategies . 16 Research Design . 17 Beliefs and Ideologies . 25 Overview of Remaining Chapters . 32 Chapter 2 Education and Multicultural Poetry for Children: Shaping the Mind and Nourishing the Spirit . 35 Interpreting Language . 43 Curricula and Culture . 45 Poetry in Curricula: Making Connections . 50 Pedagogical Approaches for Developing Critical Consciousness and Agency . 53 Evaluative Approaches for Growth . 58 Chapter 3 Multicultural Poetry as Political and Potentially Transformational . 62 Literacy Education Is Political . 63 Poetry and Multicultural Poetry: Politics, Art, and Critical Consciousness . 69 Opening Spaces for Transformations . 72 A Journey of Growth and Compassion . 75 “My Memories of the Nicaraguan Revolution” . 83 Chapter 4 Revisiting Familiar Forms, Lessons, and Poets . 89 “Hard-Hitting” Mother Goose Rhymes from The Inner City Mother Goose by Eve Merriam . 89 “Jack Be Nimble Jack Be Quick” . 90 “Take-a-Tour, Take-a-Tour, Congressman” . 91 v “Little Jack Horner” . 92 “Taxi Man” . 95 The Story of Harriet Tubman: More Memorable Than Facts . 97 “Harriet Tubman” by Eloise Greenfield . 98 “Harriet Tubman Speaks” by J. Patrick Lewis . 101 Interpreting Selected Poems by Langston Hughes . 103 “Mother to Son” . 104 “Dinner Guest: Me” . 106 “Dreams” . 109 “Reasons Why” . 112 “Children’s Rhymes” . 114 Interpreting Selected Poems by Maya Angelou . 117 “Caged Bird” . 118 “Still I Rise” . 121 “Alone” . 124 “Woman Work” . 126 “Africa” . 128 Engaging with Multicultural Poems: “An Act of Consciousness” . 130 Chapter 5 Surfacing and Extending Perceptions through Interpreting Multicultural Poetry: Moments of Connection, Questioning, Struggle, and Imagination. 133 “Out of Africa” by Grace Nichols . 133 “Learning English” by Luis Alberto Ambroggio . 137 “Translating Grandfather’s House” by Ed Vega . 141 “A Puerto Rican Girl’s Sentimental Education” by Johanna Vega . 144 “The Changeling” by Judith Ortíz Cofer . 146 “Solidarity” by Amado Nervo . 150 “Growing Up in the Ghetto” by Taisha Lewis . 153 “Prosperity” by Fred Voss . 155 “Speak Up” by Janet Wong . 156 “Money Order” by Janet Wong . 158 “Joyce’s Beauty Salon” by Janet Wong . 161 “Ode to Family Photographs” by Gary Soto . 163 “Family Portrait” by Eka Budianta . 166 “Blood” by Naomi Shihab Nye . 168 “Mary Ann Robinson, 30” by Walter Dean Myers . 170 “The Artist” by Ashley Bryan . 173 “and sometimes i hear this song in my head” by Harriet Jacobs . 176 “Rock Drawings” by Nancy Wood . 178 “Knoxville, Tennessee” by Nikki Giovanni . 181 The Desert Is Theirs by Byrd Baylor . 184 “Solitude” by Nancy Wood . 186 Engaging with Multicultural Poems: “Powers of Critical Consciousness” . 191 vi Chapter 6 Learning and Teaching for the Future . 195 “Common Dust” by Georgia Douglas Johnson . 195 “Our Children” by Nancy Wood . 197 Transformations: A Journey of Growth and Compassion Revisited . 198 Concluding Reflections . 199 Bibliography . 204 Bibliography of Poetry Books . 215 vii Foreword Because of complexities associated with obtaining reprint permissions from publishers and copyright holders for poetry, I am providing a list of poems with bibliographical information below rather than reprinting poems discussed in this dissertation. As poems sometimes appear in more than one publication, the bibliographical citations for these poems are not comprehensive. Chapter 2 Education and Multicultural Poetry for Children: Shaping the Mind and Nourishing the Spirit “Chemistry 101” by Marilyn Nelson Nelson, M. (2001). Carver: A Life in Poems. Asheville, NC: Front Street, 37. Chapter 3 Multicultural Poetry as Political and Potentially Transformational “Little Tom Tucker” by Eve Merriam Merriam, E. (1996). The Inner City Mother Goose. Illus. David Diaz. Intro. Nikki Giovanni. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 51. “Lunch in Nablus City Park” by Naomi Shihab Nye Nye, N. S. (2002). 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East. New York: Greenwillow Books, 35-37. “The Guest House” by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks Rumi (1207-1273). (2003). Rumi: The Book of Love. Trans. and Commentary by Coleman Barks. New York: HarperCollins, 179-180. “My Grandmother in the Stars” by Naomi Shihab Nye Nye, N. S. (2002). 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East. New York: Greenwillow Books, 69. “My Memories of the Nicaraguan Revolution” by Eugenio Alberto Cano Correa Carlson, Lori, ed. (1994). Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing Up Latino in the United States. Intro. Oscar Hijuelos. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 38. viii Chapter 4 Revisiting Familiar Forms, Lessons, and Poets “Jack Be Nimble Jack Be Quick” by Eve Merriam Merriam, E. (1996). The Inner City Mother Goose. Illus. David Diaz. Intro. Nikki Giovanni. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 21. “Take-a-Tour, Take-a-Tour, Congressman” by Eve Merriam Merriam, E. (1996). The Inner City Mother Goose. Illus. David Diaz. Intro. Nikki Giovanni. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 22. “Little Jack Horner” by Eve Merriam Merriam, E. (1996). The Inner City Mother Goose. Illus. David Diaz. Intro. Nikki Giovanni. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 51. “Taxi Man” by Eve Merriam Merriam, E. (1996). The Inner City Mother Goose. Illus. David Diaz. Intro. Nikki Giovanni. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. “Harriet Tubman” by Eloise Greenfield Greenfield, E. (1978). Honey, I Love and Other Love Poems. New York: Harper & Row, np. “Harriet Tubman Speaks” by J. Patrick Lewis Lewis, J. P. (2000). Freedom Like Sunlight: Praisesongs for Black Americans. Illus. John Thompson. Mankato, MN: Creative Editions, 8. “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes Hughes, L. (1994). The Dream Keeper and Other Poems. Illus. Brian Pinkney. Intro. Lee Bennett Hopkins. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 64. Hall, D., ed. (1999). The Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children’s Poems. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 56. “Dinner Guest: Me” by Langston Hughes Hughes, L. (1902-1967). (1994). The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. Arnold Rampersad, Ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 547-548. “Dreams” by Langston Hughes Hughes, L. (1994). The Dream Keeper and Other Poems. Illus. Brian Pinkney. Intro. Lee