and then this morning, it was back to Teaching in the Contact Zone... With so much to think about and write now, does anyone else feel like they are living in the Contact Zone, "where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other...?" (p. 9) I'm writing a paper today about mentoring toward equity and social justice and, while brushing up on my Freire, I find that I can't stop thinking about Gaughan. So I'm giving up and blogging, grappling...
"Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world." (Paulo Freire)It strikes me that this is just the sort of thing Gaughan is doing by "reinventing English" as a place to tackle important social issues through critical discussion around topics like race, gender, and sexuality. I love how this fits in to our semester-long discussion of English as quality conversation, appreciating differences, and listening with empathy to other voices in a democracy, creating space for thoughtful citizenship with the potential for social transformation.
I think Gaughan does a nice job of integrating classroom vignettes with practical teaching strategies - just the sort of thing we might hope to put in the hands of preservice teachers who are striving to envision a classroom that embraces healthy conflict.
Thinking toward the syllabus for LA methods, I'm wondering about the possibilities and problems of arranging the course thematically like Gaughan does (and as our students might inside of their own classrooms) around one or more issues that the class could explore in depth over the semester. I'm remembering the first day of my undergraduate "Children's Literature" course with poet Lucille Clifton, in which she said told us all matter-of-factly that this course would be a critical conversation about race and, yes, we'd look at some children's literature, too. Brilliant.
I wonder if I would choose one issue (or a couple) to frame my methods class around. Would it be possible to "cover" what I need to in terms of English methods within a larger conversation framed around one theme of issue? And which issue(s) would I choose? Or ask students to choose and explore in literature circles or small groups? I fear spreading it too thin by trying to take on too much. Would it be better to go deeply in to one issue and draw arrows from there? Anyone else thinking along these lines? Write me...
Gotta run. Seriously, the fish is ready, browned in the buttery pan, smells so deeeelicious...
3 comments:
I think Gaughn had the opportunity to go deeply into many critical areas b/c he met with his kids daily for a whole year. When you have 13-15 sessions, you have to make choices and ask questions, just like you did in your blog. What will be most valuable to this particular group of inquirers? What do they bring to the table and where will we go? How will I structure the course so that we all have a chance to air out our assumptions and still feel prepared to go into the classroom, lots to think about, I agree!
around topics like race, genre, and sexuality
I don't think that counts as a Freudian slip, maybe a Freirian slip? Or an end of the semester, too many thoughts in your head slip?
Or it is a really brilliant positioning of genre as a focus of discussion with implications as wide ranging as those of race, gender, and sexuality.
;)
oops! no brilliant positioning of genre intended (although I am writing about that right now, too)... brain is, um, mushy
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