Transcript The Teacher’s Role in Mediating Discourses of Race and

Responding to Multicultural
Literature
Rick Beach, CI5441, 9/22
Blatant bigotry: Rush
Limbaugh
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Referring to an incident in which a white
student was beaten by black students on a
bus, Limbaugh said: “I think the guy’s wrong. I
think not only it was racism, it was justifiable
racism. I mean, that’s the lesson we’re being
taught here today. Kid shouldn’t have been
on the bus anyway. We need segregated
buses — it was invading space and stuff. This
is Obama’s America.”
Robbinsdale: 281 CARE
(Citizens Acting for
Responsible Education)
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$9,000 in advertising on a billboard, lawn
signs and professional services
"district problems are brought in with
nonresident students.”
"all problems come from open enrollment"
"$5.5 million could be saved by throwing out
1,000 students”
Jason Lewis "Freedom Dogs" interview
Institutional racism: Housing
policies: Segregation
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Sheryll Cashin,The Failures of Integration: How
Race and Class Are Undermining the American
Dream
Racist real estate policies: “desirable
neighborhoods”: higher housing prices
Segregation and schooling: Higher property tax
support for suburban schools: advantage for
suburban students
Institutional racism: Health
care
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In Maryland, African American babies
die at a 2.5 times higher rate than white
babies.
African Americans' life expectancy is six
years shorter than whites at birth.
Institutional racism:
Advertising and obesity
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CDC: 36% of black Americans, 29% of Hispanics,
and 24% of whites are obese.
Medical costs of obesity could have risen to $147
billion per year by 2008.
Children see 7600 food commercials a year; 35%
and 45% of commercials are for food. Almost all
advertised food is unhealthy.
“African Americans are consistently exposed to food
promotion and distribution patterns with relatively
greater potential adverse health effects than are
Whites.” American Journal of Public Health
Institutional racism: Media
representations of race
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Power of white hegemony in film/media
 Predominating control/portrayal of
whites
 People of color not shown as
subservient and not engaging in
“human”/complex practices
Identity construction as
mediated
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Cultural models
 Reflects “common sense” assumptions
 Evident in perceptions of hierarchies and
discussion of what one values
Discourses: ways of knowing/thinking
 Uses of language: “accountability” =
business discourse; “respect flag” =
patriotism
McDermott: Meaning of white
identity: context dependent
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Observations: white/black interactions in
convenience stores in similar working-class
neighborhoods: different histories
Atlanta: no sense of working-class/ethnic
solidarity
 Whites perceived as “failures”
Boston: privileged as working-class whites
 Strong positive identification with
neighborhood
White privilege
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White students in homogeneous, largely
white high school (Perry, 2001)
 Less aware of racial identity
 Perceive Whiteness as norm
Students in diverse high school
 More aware of racial identity
 Race as the “principle of social
organization”
My research: Different schools
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Suburban school: discourse of
individualism
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“We just need need to get along better”
“Underneath, we’re all alike”
Urban school: “Diversity Club”
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Aware of the benefits of diversity
More aware of institutional racism
Arguments
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Need to focus on institutional critiques
of forces shaping race, class, and
gender differences
Employ a pedagogy of discomfort/hope
based on grappling with dialogic
tensions and perspective-taking
Racism as “Racialized Social
Systems”
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Placement of people in social categories
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Creation of hierarchies
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Attaching meaning to groups
Top group--economic, social, political power
Conflict: maintain vs. challenge hierarchy
Application of racial ideology to explain and
justify hierarchy
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“Blacks as lacking motivation to work”
Racial Ideologies as
“Interpretive Repertoires”
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Common frames
 Fear of the other; Token inclusionism
“Racetalk”
 Avoid being seen as “racist”/Archer Bunker
Storylines used to justify hierarchy
 “the past is part”/”my friend lost out on a job”
Categorizing: whiteness as normalizing
 “White lives” isolated in schools/suburbs/peer
group
 Whites as “racial tourists”-- “others defined by
what whiteness is not”
Issue: Multicultural literature
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Token “add on” to high school canon
(largely white male authors)
Authors perceived primarily in terms of
race, class, or gender identity
Multicultural literature: Role in
a pedagogy of discomfort
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Not simply “exposure” to “the other” or
diversity just “in” the text
Tensions due to institutional racism,
class conflict, and sexism
Value lies in mixture of texts, teacher
activities/challenges, and student
discussions of dialogic tensions
Students’ responses to
multicultural literature
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Study: change in
high school students
responses due to
experiences with
dialogic tensions in
class discussions of
multicultural
literature.
Study: “Urban High School”
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14 students obtaining college credit in a
multicultural literature course
 8 Whites, 3 Asian-American, 1 Hispanic, 1
African descent
Instruction in critical lenses
 Focus on issues of “whiteness,” class,
gender
 Application of feminist, neo-Marxist, critical
race theory perspectives
Texts read in the course
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House on Mango Street
Bless me Ultima
Kindred
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Obason
Woman Warrior
Love Medicine
Bastard Out of Carolina
Yellow Raft in Blue Water
Co-construction of lived and
text worlds
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Lived worlds
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Identities/.roles
Objects/purposes
Norms
Beliefs
Traditions/history
Dialogic tensions
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Text worlds
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Characters
Objects/purposes
Norms
Beliefs
Traditions/history
Dialogic tensions
Characters’ hybrid identities
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Readers experience imaginative performances of
alternatives to their own fixed notions of identities.
Kindred: African-American female main character,
Dana, moves between the contemporary world and
the world of slavery
Dialogic tensions in her conflict allegiances to these
different worlds
Heritage of slavery has a profound influence on her
current identity as a contemporary African
American
Shift from first-person to thirdperson reflection
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Perceiving a character as “subject” operating in
systems
Perceiving a character as an “object” constructed
by status-quo systems
Nora: The Doll’s House
 “Subject:” subservient, childlike identity as
wife
 “Object” of the patriarchic system
Questions
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What were the dialogic tensions in the class
associated with allegiances to competing
discourses in lived and text worlds?
In what ways did students change in voicing
discourses?
Do students begin to reflect on institutional
forces?
What were reasons for these changes or lack
of change?
School culture
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School in a changing working-class
neighborhood
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“Winter-Fest” celebration
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Increasingly diverse populations
Challenges to status-quo traditions
Discourse of “order/control”
Sports traditions
Racial segregation
Tensions: School versus
Classroom Cultures
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School culture
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Discourse of
control/order
Lack of discussion in
other courses
Male status/power:
sports
Hierarchical racial
segregation
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Classroom culture
 Dialogic exchange
and tensions
 Focus on discussion
 Challenges to male
status/power
 Discussion about
issues of race
Teaching methods
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Critical lenses (Appleman): Feminist,
Marxist, reader-response, psychological
Discussion starters: quotes from
journals
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“White people as a group enjoy an easier
life than anybody else in this country.”
Monologues: character voices:
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“You think you know me, but you don’t.”
Institutional racism and class:
Savage Inequalities
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Parks: example of $2,000 home in East
St. Louis
Reasons for low value of housing
related to racism and housing policies
Students who adhered to status
quo discourses
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Corey: white male
 allegiances to a discourse of
masculinity/individualism
 competition and “hard work” being selfassured, authoritative, and “in control”
Michelle: white female
 content with allegiances to expected roles in her
family, marriage and work in a fast-food
restaurant: familiar roles
Student attitudes towards
affirmative action
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Student opposition to affirmative action
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job hiring practices and college admissions framed in terms of race
rather than class
conservative discourse
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individual as a “free” agent not constricted by institutional or
governmental forces
pits Whites against people of color
Corey: job hiring
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I want to be a police officer, but supposedly now a day it is not easy
to be a cop if you are white. If you are white and you are better than
the person next to you and he is black, the white person might not get
that job. Just because that person is a different color. It is also that
way for college, white people get no help at all because they think
every white person is rich. Minorities get enrichment programs to get
help with their scholarships, when most white people don’t get help
with any money for college.
Students who interrogated status
quo discourses
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Kayla: white female
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operating in a future world of college
perceived high school and community cultures
as limited
not concerned about the social consequences of
challenging peers
Adopted feminist perspectives in n challenging
some of the males
Students who interrogated
status quo discourses
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Devin: white male
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Involvement in youth church trips to Mexico
and Native American reservations.
Classroom identity as provocateur and the
“successful student”
Vacillated between progressive and traditional
discourses
Devin: Response to McIntosh,
“White Privilege”
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We just don’t see it because we have
unearned advantages of being white. We
don’t see that because we are brought up
this way…notice there isn’t a whole lot on
how poorly we treated others. In a way we
are dictators of other cultures. I say this
because we enclaves a race for almost 200+
years.
Devin: Response to Savage
Inequalities
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But what values lie in a city like this? The
school can hardly be considered an institute
of learning. The sewage is backed up so
bad it squishes underneath the one piece of
decent land they have, they are poorly fed,
and the crime rate is unbelievable.
Devin: Response to Yellow
Raft in Blue Water
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We thought that life on a reservation itself
automatically puts you in a lower
class…how being born into certain
situations or lifestyles put you closer or
further from the goal line in the game of
success. Being born into life on a
reservation puts you down at the bottom a
ways.
Devin’s development
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Others’ worlds are different from his own
Characters’ identities are shaped by worlds
that limit them
Shift from model of individualism to one of
institutional critique
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They said if you work hard for it, you get what you
deserve, and that’s not necessarily true, because the
racism in society is really strong when you try to get a
job.”
Blog role-play and wiki writing:
Montana 1948
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Montana 1948
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Blog: Roleplay: "Fighting Sioux" mascot
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http://missboeser.googlepages.com/montana1948
http://roleplaymascots.blogspot.com/
Wiki site
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http://jhscollegewritingmontana.pbwiki.com/
Dan Snidyr, owner of the
Washington Redskins
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I believe that we should not change it. The
name the "Redskins" is not meant to affend
anyone of any race. "It means wonderful
things. It means success, it means pride, it
means integrity, honor and winning tradition.
All of those great things, plus many more, are
what the Redskins are all about for
Washington and all of the Washington Redkin
fans throughout the nation."
http://web.syr.edu/~ajhill/dan.html
Winona Yepa
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As a Native American women, I am also very
offended by the name "redskins". Perhaps
your name should be changed to Washington
”Whitetrash" then perhaps you could see why
I feel the way I do about the name. We are
native American's, not redskins. I find it to be
a very offensive name. At least NDSU has
enough respect for Native americans to
address us properly as "Sioux" the fighting
part is debatable but they don't refer to us as
"redskins". we have names.
Student: perspective-taking
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At first I was indifferent and wanted the NCAA
to leave them alone so the pinion of my
character was the opposite. Felicia wanted it
to be changed. After this role-play I think the
Sioux should be the ones to decide if the
mascot should stay of not. I feel that since I
am more educated on the subject and look at
the issue through another person’s point-ofview I can see more reason to have the
mascot changed that to have it stay.
Summary
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Dialogic tensions serve to challenge statusquo discourses
Temporary “trying on” of alternative
discourses when presented with hypothetical
situation
Shifts in perspectives
 possible to challenge the hegemonic
discourses constituting the students’
identities
Carol Lee (Culture, Literacy, &
Learning): Cultural modeling
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Textbooks: little on knowing how to interpret
literature
Model how-to interpretive strategies:
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Rules of Notice: Titles, key events, ending
Rules of signification: What’s significant: violation of
social norms in stories-- “point of a story”
Draw on students’ “funds of knowledge”
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Cultural “data sets”: rap/signifying --> understanding
symbolic language use
Uses of mapping in studying
identity construction
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Recognition of institutional forces shaping
events and spaces
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Discourses of race, class, and gender
Visually portray performances according to
three units of analysis:
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Events
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Spaces
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Social worlds/systems
Teaching strategies
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Concrete examples and issues grounded in
their everyday experiences
 East St. Louis
 Affirmative Action
Recognize white students’ subjective
defensiveness related to race
Avoid tokenism: “As an X minority, what has
been your experience?”
Teaching strategies
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define the different social worlds/systems
operating in a text.
infer how characters switch from first to third
person perspectives to perceive themselves as
shaped/limited by these worlds/systems
determine how characters are supporting or
resisting status quo practices/norms .
identify tensions and contradictions reflected in
characters’ competing perspectives and discourses
Coping with own
tensions/contradictions
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identify issues/challenges related to status-quo
discourse or practices in their school.
infer how these practices reflect competing
institutional agendas.
draw on beliefs about teaching to determine the
limitations of status-quo practices.
devise alternative, counter-narratives, curriculum
and strategies to address these limitations.
Importance your own beliefs
or theories about teaching
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document the value of employing this
curriculum/strategies in terms of student
engagement and learning.
gain agency through being a change-agent;
resist pressure to conform to the status-quo.
continually revise one’s beliefs about the
nature of English and uses of literacy tools.
Preservice Teachers:
Contradictions
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“Student teaching”--Who’s the “student”
versus who’s the “teacher”
Schooling: teacher basic skills/prepare
for test versus students’ active uses of
digital literacies
Adopt the status-quo curriculum but be
innovative
Emily: 1st
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the school in located is a traditionally white,
working-class community that in recent years
(about the last 10 years) has been more and
more populated by students of color (mostly
Latino, but also some black kids). All of these
things converge to make my school a
somewhat tense building. Never have I
experienced that tension more than when I first
arrived.
Emily: Student engagement in
a wiki project
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My students said that they would rather do
a wiki project, even though it was more
difficult, because they enjoyed writing for
an audience besides myself. I also found
that I got better quality of work and better
engagement in the project from my students
on the wiki projects than on the essays that I
forced them to write
Emily: Criticism from
colleagues
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I was also developing a reputation at my school.
Before people even really knew my name I was the
"wiki teacher" who booked up all of the computer
labs. While most teachers were admiring in their
comments, I almost got the sense that there was a bit
of jealousy or "Who does she think she is? She
should be teaching in the classroom instead of
futzing with the computers".
Emily: Tensions
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I felt the disconnect between what I had
been taught to do and what got me the
approval of my peers, which, like it or not,
is actually important when you teach in a
school. When one decides to be an agent of
change in his or her building, one is going
to encounter not just professional pressure,
but also social pressure.
Emily: Motivation for change
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I have pushed my media literacy agenda
perhaps to the detriment of my own
personal/professional life because it is
simply more fun to be a classroom full of
kids who are really engaged than it is to
fight them.
Emily: Need to take a stand
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If we are going to be agents of change, if we are
going to teach media literacy and defend it using
scholastic, theoretical arguments, we will be doing
so in an actual school, with actual teachers whose
last education credit was received years ago, and
who aren't as interested in what works for the
students as they are in what works for them as
teachers. We have to be ready to face that social
opposition and figure out how to respond in such a
way that we don't compromise ourselves as teachers
and professionals or as social beings who need a
relatively pleasant place to work.