Teachers' Texts in Culturally Responsive Teaching

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responsive practices and critical literacy theory. ... mother requested the opportunity to create their own representation of their family. .... In email exchanges (October 21, 2009), Magda explained how devastating the family tree assignment was.
Teachers’ Texts in Culturally Responsive Teaching

Teachers’ Texts

Ted Kesler

As I checked through the homework, I saw the sealed envelope from Natasha’s mother. The letter inside said that Natasha was unable to complete the family tree assignment because the family tree did not provide any way for Natasha to represent her family. Instead, Natasha’s mother requested the opportunity to create their own representation of their family.

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illuminate these connections, I draw on culturally responsive practices and critical literacy theory. I show how critical literacy might inform culturally responsive practices to construct more inclusive teaching for all students.

he study of immigration and communities around the world is mandated by the New York City third-grade social studies’ curriculum. The family tree is a particular assignment suggested in the curriculum guide provided by the state and city departments of education and other teacher resources. I viewed the assignment as an opportunity to explore the immigrant history of my diverse class and, consequently, our deep personal connections to communities around the world. This was my eighth year teaching third grade, yet the first time that a family openly expressed concerns about the family tree assignment. It had never before occurred to me that this assignment might marginalize or exclude some students from integral curriculum work. In her letter, Natasha’s mother’s explained that Natasha was adopted from an orphanage in Russia by a single mother. This explanation jolted me into the realization that, if Natasha was indeed going to participate in our social studies curriculum, we needed to generate a text that enabled her to be represented. Further, if Natasha’s family felt marginalized, what other forms of alienation and discrimination might exist in the texts I assigned that I had not recognized or examined? Just how much were these texts functioning from dominant cultural norms? Whose stories were left out of my classroom by these texts, and how was that affecting my students as learners? Finally, by using these texts, what messages was I sending to students about the legitimacy of diverse family structures? In this article, I present three stories about the texts we use with our students, how their inherent biases inevitably construct particular subjects that, in turn, center and validate some students, but if left unchallenged, marginalize and invalidate others. All three stories focus on students’ cultures, familial relationships, and identity formation. To

Culturally Responsive Teaching

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Culturally responsive teaching is based on the premise that students learn best when academic skills and content are situated within the students’ frames of reference and lived experiences (Gay, 2000). Culturally responsive teaching strives to align the curriculum with ethnically and racially diverse students’ cultural and experiential perspectives for more effective teaching. Lisa Delpit (1995) states, “education, at its best, hones and develops the knowledge and skills each student already possesses, while at the same time adding new knowledge and skills to that base” (p. 67). To achieve this level of teaching, Delpit articulates a balance between knowing what to teach our students and learning from them so we might better teach them. Some scholars have established frameworks for culturally responsive teaching. In her framework, Ladson-Billings (1995) asserts three criteria that constitute culturally relevant pedagogy: a) academic success, which includes guiding students toward competence in “literacy, numeracy, technology, and social and political skills in order to be active participants in a democracy” (p. 160); b) cultural competence, which includes utilizing students’ knowledge and experiences to bridge their school learning; and c) critical or sociopolitical consciousness, which includes challenging issues of power and openly confronting racial and social injustices. Frameworks from other scholars include such criteria as: knowing about the lives of our students, having affirming views of 419

Copyright © 2011 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved.

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students from diverse backgrounds, demonstrating cultural caring and building a learning community, establishing communication across cultures in the classroom, promoting equity and inclusiveness among students, promoting students’ active construction of knowledge, and designing instruction that builds on what our students already know while stretching them beyond the familiar (Gay, 2000; Villegas & Lucas, 2002). All these frameworks call for an infusion of these practices throughout the curricula. In this article, all three stories show students benefitting from culturally responsive teaching practices; however, this teaching also envisioned a more expansive view of texts within a critical literacy framework.

intended to communicate. Short (1992) states: “[A] text, therefore, is any chunk of meaning that has unity and can be shared with others” (p. 315), which might include a song, a dance, a poem, an oral story, a mathematical equation, or a sculpture. My third-grade study of immigration included a trip to Ellis Island. For me, Ellis Island is a museum that is comprised of multiple texts, but the museum as a whole could also be interpreted as a multimodal text. So for this article, I define teachers’ texts as any texts that teachers actively use in the service of their curriculum, whether self-generated or ready-made.

Critical Literacy Theory

Critical literacy theory asserts that all texts are inherently political and, thus, contested sites of power (Freire & Macedo, 1987; Freebody & In this article, I use a construct of text based Luke, 1990; Luke, 1995). All texts represent and in social semiotic theory (Kress, 2003). Kress construct subjects in the social and natural world defines texts as the products of social action. His and position and construct a model reader. Readdefinition foregrounds authorship and the social ing always occurs in specific contexts in which context in which a text was produced. He asserts the reader and the text engage in a social relathat for every text, we must consider “who acts, tionship that privileges and empowers some readwith what purposes, and around what issues” ers and marginalizes and disempowers others. To (p. 84). Most texts use the written mode, but Freire and Macedo (1987), literacy entails readmany texts are also multimodal, especially if they ing both the word and the world to signify the are on electronic screens: in addition to writing, inherent social, political, and they might include other symThe traditional family tree presents cultural ideology that all text bol systems, drawings, charts or graphs, animations, film, certain assumptions about families. conveys. Thus, they assert: soundtracks. Even the choice Its rigid hierarchy privileges children “[L]iteracy cannot be viewed of font, the use of colors, spewho have siblings, biological links to as simply the development of cial print, and layout convey both parents, and unbroken family skills aimed at acquiring the important meaning in the overlineage to grandparents and great- dominant standard language” (p. 142). Luke (1995) states: all coherence of the text. For grandparents. “[T]exts are not timeless aesexample, the family tree as a thetic objects or neutral receptacles of infortext showed apples next to blank boxes for names mation. Rather they are important sites for the arranged in a hierarchical grid inside the outline cross-generational reproduction of discourses and of an apple tree with leafy branches. The headideology, identity and power” (p. 103) within paring at the top of the tree was “My Family Tree,” ticular interpretive communities. followed by directions to fill in the names in your family tree as completely as possible, including In this example, the traditional family tree birthdates and birthplaces. Thus, the worksheet presents certain assumptions about families. Its combined various symbol systems, drawings, rigid hierarchy privileges children who have font, and layout to construct a multimodal text siblings, biological links to both parents, and that is part of a well-known form, and the authors unbroken family lineage to grandparents and closely adhered to what they understood the reagreat-grandparents. It is fair to say that the famsons for the conventions of this form to be (p. 86). ily tree structure implies an idealized social order (Freebody & Luke, 1990). Conversely, this docSocial semiotics expands the definition of ument marginalizes children who might not live text to encompass non-written texts—texts that with their parents, who have one parent, who are based in other modes of expression. A text do not know or do not wish to represent their becomes any meaningful configuration of signs

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Defining Text

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biological ancestry, or who wish to represent their biological ancestry alongside the ancestry of the parent(s) who is (are) raising them. Therefore, if teaching reading includes recognizing and challenging the inherent ideology in all texts, critical literacy theory suggests that teachers bring this level of critical awareness to the curriculum and guide their students to perceive the ideologies inherent in texts like this family tree. Here, I present a blending of culturally responsive teaching with critical literacy by providing three stories of texts that were contested within my curriculum enactment. I first continue Natasha’s story. In the second story, I discuss the work of another one of my third-grade students, Jackie, in the same immigration/communities around the world study. In the final story, I discuss recent work with my graduate students to show how even when I carefully construct the texts we will use, uncertainty and conflict will arise in any interpretive community. In each story, I discuss my attempts to alleviate the text’s authority and re-position students to be able to participate in the curriculum. Based on these stories, I then discuss how a critical literacy perspective informs culturally responsive practice.

Figure 1. Natasha’s original “Family Flower” display

from Russia, Poland, or Hungary. On a prominent leaf on the stem of the flower, Natasha wrote her birthmother, Lyubov, which means love in RusTwo days after Natasha’s mother sent her letsian, and drew a heart. (Her birthfather was not ter, Natasha came to school with a poster board named on the birth certificate and was not repredisplay titled “My Family Flower” (see Fig. 1). sented.) Placing her birthmother in the leaf was We tacked it up on a classroom bulletin board. both a physical and metaphorical act that gave the Other students gathered around to admire it. Natabirthmother a status of her own. Natasha was the sha’s picture was in the middle. Surrounding her center of her flower, and her were three rings of petals with birthmother was closest to the If teaching reading includes the names, relationships, and roots—the giver of life who recognizing and challenging the birthplaces of important peoinherent ideology in all texts, critical anchored her to the ground. ple in Natasha’s life. Natasha literacy theory suggests that teachers She wrote her godmother’s explained that each ring represented the degree of closebring this level of critical awareness name inside one of the bees who were taking nectar from ness to her. The closest ring to the curriculum and guide their included her adopted mother, students to perceive the ideologies the flower. Natasha proudly Magda, Magda’s relatives, and inherent in texts like this family tree. stated, “These are the people who surround me with love.” the Russian family who proThus, Natasha and Magda crevided child care for Natasha. That family had ated a text that built a powerful symbolic bridge recently emigrated to the US from Leningrad, between Natasha’s Russian origins and her life in Natasha’s birthplace, spoke Russian to Natasha, America. and were, Natasha proudly stated, “like family.” The outer rings of petals identified Magda’s JewHow was this family flower created? In email ish ancestors, as if they were welcoming Natasha exchanges (October 21, 2009), Magda explained into her adopted family. She used three symhow devastating the family tree assignment was bols to indicate which ancestors were immigrants for Natasha: “a harmful text . . . that excluded her.”

Natasha’s Family Flower

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After all, it’s not as if [Natasha] asked to have a whole room of classmates pay sudden scrutiny to her home life. I remember feeling this [family tree assignment] was so important to respond to in some innovative way that I decided to keep her home for a day to do it justice, and to protect her. I didn’t think I could just write you a letter and ask for an exemption, or tell her to just write any old thing and try not to think about it. Natasha may not remember this, but we spent hours together talking about families and how she saw herself, using the tree as a point of departure. The idea of the flower was hers, and emerged from our long talk. She came up with the idea of a center with petals, and once that happened, it was clear all the names would need more space than could fit on a normal piece of paper. . . . To do the flower was an act of defiance and involved a degree of calculated risk. I was upset and angry with the school, and with you, though I chose to find what I hoped would be a positive way of expressing that. I didn’t know that a flower would bloom in place of the tree.

Figure 2a. Natasha’s detailed display for the exhibit

This display is about me, Natasha Bogin. I was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburgh), Russia. I was born on February 15th, 1992. This is the story of how I got adopted. My mom wanted a baby very badly. One day, there was a call from Russia. They said that there was a beautiful baby for you. My mom flew on a plane to Russia and saw me. She cried of happiness. That’s how I got adopted. I was adopted in 1993. My mom brought me to New York. I became a citizen of the United States of America on September 24th, 1993, when I was one and a half years old.

Further, Magda noted, the fact that these actions required her to take off from work and keep Natasha home from school is something many parents are unable to do. Natasha’s counter text “was also the result of one parent acting swiftly to offset the effects of a rigid, standard curriculum” (October 21, 2009). This story of the process of creating Natasha’s family flower is an integral part of this counter text. Natasha’s family flower opened up possibilities that the family tree worksheet prevented. First was its size. The family tree worksheet was reprinted on standard 8 × by 11" paper that all looked alike on a bulletin board. Natasha’s poster was distinctive and attracted attention. Second, it redefined what constitutes family and who decides that composition. Who said family had to be whichever names fit neatly in the boxes of a family tree? Couldn’t family be, as Natasha stated, the people who surround us with love? Certainly Natasha’s representation met our purposes of connecting our families to communities around the world in ways that the rigid family tree worksheet might gloss over or omit. Natasha’s representation now gave her a way into our curriculum and opened up space in our classroom for alternative family structures that could be part of our community of learners. As

Figure 2b: Natasha shares information about herself in an introduction to the exhibit.

we moved into the research portion of our study, Natasha now felt safe enough to tell her own story that connected her to communities around the world and that she would feature for her display in our exhibit. Natasha created an explanatory display and then wrote an introduction to it (see Figs. 2a & 2b) to help readers understand her history and context. (I typed all students’ writing exactly as they wrote it, including their invented spellings, punctuation, and grammar.) Natasha’s display included a picture of her mother holding baby Natasha in Russia, both bundled up against the cold; her adoption certificate from Russia; and a Russian doll. Captions explained the significance of these artifacts to Natasha’s life. Her display clearly impacted her classmates’ knowledge of geography and the 422

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Jackie and the Great Migration For Jackie, our study of communities around the world, with its emphasis on immigration, was also problematic. Like Natasha, Jackie was adopted by a single mother. For Jackie, our field trip to Ellis Island represented the contested text. A text exerts power, and it positions readers as strongly by its omissions as by what it states. While Ellis Island as a text both privileged and empowered the European Americans in my class, it marginalized my other students. Several lamented that the site displayed few images or stories of people who looked like them. Yes, Ellis Island reinforced immigrant stories, but for African Americans, like Jackie, immigrant stories in their ancestry included forced migration into slavery. Both Jackie and I struggled to find an entry point for her from the personal to the global. She was uninterested in telling her adoption story or the stories of those near and dear to her who may have had connections with other parts of the world. The magnitude of the story of forced migration discouraged and overwhelmed both of us. I was especially concerned because Jackie was a reluctant writer who labored painfully to organize her thinking, get her thoughts down on paper, and keep track of her work. I worried that we would run out of time for her to accomplish this major component of our social studies curriculum. As we were about to enter the research phase of our study, Jackie missed three days of school to attend her grandfather’s funeral in Chicago. When she returned, she proudly showed me the funeral program. It had a recent picture of her grandfather on the cover and a picture of him as a young man

Teachers’ Texts

on the back. The inside pages had a eulogy and the order of the service. I noticed on the program that he was born in Macon, Georgia, and moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois, in 1923. As I read his eulogy, I connected his story to a picturebook in our classroom, The Great Migration, by Jacob Lawrence (1995). I showed the book to Jackie, who had never seen it before. “Your grandfather’s story fits with the story that Jacob Lawrence is telling in this book,” I said. Jackie pored over the book and signed it out of our lending library. She returned the next day determined to tell her grandfather’s story for our communities around the world project. It had never occurred to either one of us that a story of migration would be just as valid as other students’ stories of immigration. By opening up space in the classroom for Jackie’s story, I was able to re-position her for full participation in the curriculum. In fact, Jackie ended up writing more for her project than she ever wrote for any piece of writing before and carefully kept track of all the parts of her display, which proudly featured her grandfather’s funeral program (see Fig. 3). On one

historical formation of countries. For example, in their reflections after our exhibit, one group of students wrote the following question: “How come Lennongrad of USSR chage to Saint Petersberg of Russia?” Natasha’s small group also used their displays as springboards for more discussions about their families. They wrote the following discovery: “We discovered that you don’t have to be famous to be part of a difference in the world. For example my great-grandfather, Natasha’s grandpa and Maggie’s grandpa and dad all fought in a war.” By opening up the space for Natasha to reformulate a key text in our study, our class community was able to integrate her story and enrich our curriculum.

Figure 3. Jackie’s display represents her greatest class effort. 423

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World War II My grandpa proudly served his country. He received an honorable discharge from the united stated army on november 27, 1945. Figure 4a. Jackie’s caption for the photo of her grandfather in uniform exudes pride.

The Great Migration My grandpa moved with his famaly from Macon, Georgia, to chicago, Illinois in 1923. He was part of a mass movement of africen amaricans from the farms in the south to the cities in the nourth during this time.

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Figure 4b. Jackie offers history and context to her grandfather’s migration story.

family photo, Jackie sits on the carpet in a flowerprint dress. Behind her are her aunts and uncles and her mom. In the back row stand her grandfather and grandmother, whom Jackie circled in red. One photo shows her grandfather in his army uniform (see Jackie’s caption in Fig. 4a). Also featured on the display is a color copy of the cover of The Great Migration that, in the display, literally bridges the powerful history of the great migration with her grandfather’s story (see Jackie’s caption in Fig. 4b). Jackie’s introduction (see Fig. 5) expresses detailed understandings of the African American migration to northern cities. For example, she defines a migrant and explains the effects of World War II on the sharecroppers and the realities of racism in the South. She describes Chicago as one of the hubs of the great migration and the dangerous conditions that African Americans faced there. Jackie concludes her introduction with a statement that bridges the common purpose evident in both The Great Migration and Ellis Island—people trying to make better lives. This was a connection that Ellis Island as a text by itself did not enable Jackie to see. Jackie’s exploration of her grandfather also had a strong influence on her classmates. One group of boys focused all their post-exhibit reflection comments on Jackie’s story. Mistaking Jackie’s birth grandmother’s American Indian origins as coming from the West Indies, they wrote: “We didn’t know about Jackie being an immigrant. It made us a bit less nervous about asking her about

Figure 5. Introduction to Jackie’s migration story

Jada [Jackie’s adopted younger sister] & her father.” Some important questions that the boys now had were: “Where is Jada from & is she an immigrant? Who are Jackie’s birth parents & who is Toni’s [Jackie’s mother] husband? What happened to him? Is Jada adopted or not?” Further, all four of the boys had some family connections to World War II and knew that Jackie’s grandfather did, too. So they asked the following questions: “What happened during World War II? How did the war start in Germany? How did it spread to a Word War? What was China’s envolvment in world war II?” These kinds of statements and questions suggest that Jackie’s project opened up new possibilities and expanded our curriculum in ways that went way beyond any mandated curriculum. What was also remarkable about the boys’ comments was that they had been in Jackie’s class since 424

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but as I was constructing the chart, I realized that writing husband assumed heterosexual marriage. Then I decided to add columns for partner (to accommodate a homosexual relationship or a boyfriend) and a roommate. In the end, I used the following categories: parent(s), child/children, grandparent(s), pet(s), aunt(s)/uncle(s), cousin(s), husband, roommate/friend/partner. When I constructed the chart, I felt all participants would feel included and be able to participate. However, despite my careful planning, as participants filled out the charts, some still were marginalGraduate Students’ Response ized. One student felt embarrassed to include her to Survey Charts name, since she lived alone and had no columns A final story of texts as contested sources to check. Another student felt that neither this occurred recently with my graduate students. The chart nor any of the charts taken collectively repstory shows how the enacted resented her reality as the priWhen I constructed the chart, I felt mary caretaker of her elderly curriculum still generated all participants would feel included and infirm father who lived uncertainty and unfolded in and be able to participate. However, upstairs from her. Another stuunanticipated ways. I teach a cohort of students in a preserdespite my careful planning, as dent pointed out that I omitvice master’s degree program participants filled out the charts, some ted siblings as a column. I, too, who take the same sequence of still were marginalized. was marginalized, since I only courses and have the same stuconsidered the women particdent teaching schedule. I was guided by critical ipants and never included a column for wife. We literacy theory as I chose which texts we would decided to change the word husband to spouse. use. On the first day of class, I displayed 13 surI tried accommodating all students on each vey charts around the classroom. Each chart asked chart by providing space for comments. For for a particular piece of information. The students example, on the chart “Did you have another were to respond to each chart by using a checkcareer?” students responded with a tally mark mark or writing their names. I had two purposes under the categories yes or no. Then, on a side for the use of these teacher-generated texts. One panel, I invited elaboration: “Feel free to tell us was for all of us (the 24 students and me) to get more.” These elaborations were always an invito know each other as an emerging community of tation, not a requirement. Even the choice of learners by noticing some of our commonalities whether to write their names or use a tally was and differences. The second was to gather a broad intended to protect their safety in this community, swath of information to facilitate the development considering possible ways that each chart might of connections between their life histories and position certain students. For example, for the their beliefs and practices concerning literacy. chart about careers, I considered the possibility Yet, as I constructed each chart, I kept encounthat some students might not be particularly proud tering problems: how could I construct each chart or willing to share some of the ways they earned to be inclusive of the entire group and yet simple money in the past. enough for students to see patterns of commonalAfter filling out the charts and gathering data, ity and difference? Consider the chart “Who lives we discussed other dilemmas in the inherent with you?” I decided to represent this information assumptions of the charts. For the chart, “How with a column for their name and then multiple do you get to [our college]?” the categories were columns for different categories that they could public transportation, walk, car. A few students check (or insert a tally mark), as appropriate. noted that they carpool to school. I also noted that I considered what categories to include, but each I never put down bicycle or motorcycle as catcategory made assumptions that might marginegories, even though these and other modes of alize some students. For example, the cohort of transportation did not arise. The term parent(s) graduate students happened to be all women, also caused dilemmas similar to the family tree kindergarten. Third grade was now their fourth year together! By opening up space in the classroom for Jackie to challenge our curriculum texts and produce new texts that positioned her in more powerful ways, our community made new discoveries about family, and our classroom became a safer place to broach difficult topics. Jackie was now free to choose whether to answer their questions and was in control of how much information she wanted to share.

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The contentiousness of these teacher-generated worksheet I used with my third graders. One stutexts gave me far more nuanced ways to invite my dent had to distinguish birthparents from the pargraduate students into the curriculum and opened ents who raised her. The question “How many up the opportunity for us to reconstitute these years since college?” posed problems for two texts to better represent this particular interpretive students in the class who were both over 40 and community. working moms: yes, they completed college recently, but the chart did not accommodate the fact that one of them attended various community Lessons Learned and senior colleges off and on for 20 years and the From these three stories, I draw three conclusions. other returned to college only after her three boys First, as teachers, we need to recognize the inhergrew up. The students noted that for this chart, I ent political, social, and cultural undercurrents in checked the category one to five years. I explained all texts that constitute our curthat this was the number of As teachers, we need to recognize ricula. These ideologies have a years since I was last a stupowerful influence on our stuthe inherent political, social, and dent—as a doctoral student. cultural undercurrents in all texts that dents’ participation in the curThe students had made the riculum. Second, as teachers, assumption that these words constitute our curricula. we need to accommodate all implied since their undergraduthe ways that these texts will inevitably marginalate degree. We challenged what the meaning was ize and disempower some students in our classes. for the words completed college. For example, I contend that by making these accommodations, how would students who were switching careers we actually strengthen the enacted curriculum for fill this out? all students. Third, while there is strong scholFor the chart “Will you have a job this year? arship about culturally responsive teaching, this How many hours per week?” the student who article presents the argument for coupling it with a was the full-time caretaker of her elderly and critical literacy perspective. I will discuss each of infirm father (in addition to being a single mom) these points separately, then conclude with some again felt marginalized. She maintained that these implications for practice. responsibilities constitute a full-time job. One of the youngest students in the class then responded Texts as Sources of Contention that those responsibilities do not constitute “a real Each of the three stories shows texts as sources job.” An argument ensued about what constitutes a of contention. Freebody and Luke (1990) explain real job. Some students contended a real job takes that all texts produce subject positions in an inherplace outside of the house and that you have to ently ideological framework generated by authors earn money. Other students argued that plenty of that subsequently position readers in inclusive people work from home. Regarding wages, other and empowered or marginalized and disempowstudents raised issues of volunteer work, slave ered ways. In all three stories, leaving the texts labor, and family obligations. The discussion was uncontested would have had the devastating effect heated and unresolved because it represented their of shutting certain people out of the curriculum. lives—the kind of discussion I wanted if they Conversely, challenging the texts in ways that were going to grow into a community of learners lead to reformulations and counter texts accomaround literacy teaching and learning. modates all students and provides powerful entry These students were recognizing, some of points into full participation. Indeed, critical litthem for the first time, the inherent ideology in all eracy theorists remind us that challenging the texts. We were exploring “the issue of who is tryinherent ideology of texts is an integral part of ing to do what, to whom, with and through the teaching reading (Freebody & Luke, 1990; Freire text” (Luke, 1995, p. 103), which is precisely the & Macedo, 1987; Luke, 1995). model of reading that Freebody and Luke (1990) Furthermore, I was never able to fully anticcall for. Freire and Macedo (1987) state: “Tryipate the social, political, and cultural implicaing to deny these tensions ends up negating the tions of each text, since all texts derive meaning very role of subjectivity. The negation of tension within particular interpretive communities (Freire amounts to the illusion of overcoming these ten& Macedo, 1987; Freebody & Luke, 1990). sions when they are really just hidden” (p. 49). 426

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as a powerful participant in our curriculum, Jackie also opened up the space for her peers to become aware of and ask her about her experience as an adopted girl, and to challenge their assumptions about family, thus creating a more inclusive community. Likewise, the survey information pushed issues to the fore that challenged my graduate students’ identities, beliefs, and practices in our emerging curriculum.

Natasha and her mother’s contestation of the family tree worksheet took me by surprise and made me aware of its inherent problems. I also did not realize that Jackie would feel marginalized by the immigrant texts that we studied, such as our trip to Ellis Island, and that it would bring to the fore the painful stories of forced migration for African Americans, which were not stories that Jackie, as a third grader, wanted to explore. The responses of my graduate students highlight the unanticipated ways that the survey information positioned them as a community in sometimes awkward and uncomfortable ways, even as I tried so deliberately to accommodate their complete inclusion in each chart.

Culturally Responsive Teaching

In all three stories, once I perceived the inherent dilemmas in the texts, I was able to apply culturally responsive teaching. I responded to all my students “as learners who already know a great deal and who have experiences, concepts, and lanAccommodations guages that can be built on and expanded to help them learn even more” (Villegas & Lucas, 2002, In each story, I embraced the inherent dilemmas p. 22). I saw my role “as adding to rather than that arose in the texts we used and accommodated replacing what students bring to learning,” and the students. Accommodation was not easy: I had I was “convinced that all stuto recognize the inherent ideoldents, not just those from the ogies of the texts and how they I had to recognize the inherent dominant group, are capable subsequently positioned readideologies of the texts and how learners who bring a wealth of ers. I had to relinquish control they subsequently positioned and enter uncharted waters in readers. I had to relinquish control knowledge and experiences to school” (p. 22). My practices the unfolding curriculum. I had and enter uncharted waters in the included “involving all students to accept reformulations and unfolding curriculum. I had to accept in the construction of knowlcounter texts to the texts that I reformulations and counter texts to edge, building on students’ perprovided. I had to allow conthe texts that I provided. sonal and cultural strengths, flict and unresolved issues that helping students examine the challenged difficult and unexcurriculum from multiple perspectives, using varamined topics. For example, Jackie’s project chalied assessment practices that promote learning, lenged my third-grade boys’ assumptions that if and making the culture of the classroom incluthere is a mother, there must also be a father; the sive of all students” (p. 27). In sum, my students survey question about jobs challenged assumpexperienced Ladson-Billings’s (1995) three critetions among my graduate students that a job ria of academic success, cultural competence, and means earning a wage outside the home. sociopolitical consciousness. In all three stories, the entire community of Moreover, a critical literacy framework—the learners was rewarded for embracing and accomrealization that all texts are embedded in political, modating the challenges to our curricular texts. social, and historical contexts, with ideological Natasha’s family flower opened up new possibilsuppositions—illuminated culturally responsive ities for how to represent family and challenged teaching. Critical literacy highlighted issues of what constitutes a family. Her family strucstudent identity and agency. In each example, a ture now had a place in our community, which critical literacy lens showed both how students enabled her to tell her immigrant story in a way were marginalized and shut out of the curricuthat influenced all of us. Jackie’s counter text conlum and, consequently, how imperative it was that nected the powerful history of the great migraI respond in order to enable their full participation of African Americans from the rural South to tion. Magda stated (October 21, 2009): “Doing the urban north with our communities around the the flower was a watershed experience in Nataworld work in ways that the mandated curriculum sha’s education for both of us—and a tremendous never remotely imagined. By repositioning herself 427

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Teachers’ Texts Language Arts  ●  Vol. 88  ●  No. 6  ●  July 2011

liberation . . . maybe even life-changing.” Third, a critical literacy lens showed that, even within culturally responsive teaching models, curricular texts will always raise dilemmas in unanticipated ways because specific communities interpret them. Culturally responsive teaching demands acknowledging and embracing the uncertainties that arise. Freire and Macedo (1987) assert: “[Schools] should stimulate the certainty of never being too certain, a method vital to critical pedagogy” (p. 57). Thus, culturally responsive teaching becomes stronger when coupled with a critical literacy lens.

must enter uncharted territory, while embracing opportunities for students to reformulate texts and create counter texts, with the possibility of transforming their learning experience. The stories in this article also show that this work is imperative. The full participation of all our students in today’s diverse classrooms is at stake.

Implications

Delpit, L. (1995). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The New Press.

The examples that I present in this article raise some intriguing implications for teachers and culturally responsive teaching. One implication is how we teachers recognize the critical literacy dimensions in the texts that constitute our curricula and, based in culturally responsive pedagogy, anticipate the many ways these texts might situate students and their families. Too often, these texts are imposed on students and their families. Instead, we might invite and include the issues that they raise, involve them in the creation of more accommodating texts, and make solutions the concern of the entire community. Second, we must learn to become responsive in unanticipated situations during curriculum enactment, when texts inevitably marginalize some students and shut them out of the curriculum. Freire and Macedo (1987) state: “A pedagogy will be that much more critical and radical the more investigative and less certain of ‘certainties’ it is. The more ‘unquiet’ a pedagogy, the more critical it will become” (p. 54). As the stories show, we

Freebody, P., & Luke, A. (1990). “Literacies” programs: Debates and demands in cultural contexts. Prospect: The Australian Journal of TESOL, 5(3), 7–16.

Author’s Note The author wishes to thank the editors and the anonymous reviewers who saw the possibilities of and gave such insightful feedback on this manuscript.

References

Freire, P., & Macedo, D. (1987). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey. Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. New York: Teachers College Press. Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. London: Routledge. Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But that’s just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy. Theory Into Practice, 34,159–165. Lawrence, J. (1995). The great migration: An American story. New York: HarperTrophy. Luke, A. (1995). When basic skills and information processing just aren’t enough: Rethinking reading in new times. Teachers College Record, 97, 95–115. Short, K. G. (1992). Researching intertextuality within collaborative classroom learning environments. Linguistics and Education, 4, 313–333. Villegas, A. M., & Lucas, T. (2002). Preparing culturally responsive teachers: Rethinking the curriculum. Journal of Teacher Education, 53, 20–32. Ted Kesler is an assistant professor at Queens College, CUNY. He can be reached at [email protected].

2011 CALL for CEL Award for Exemplary Leadership This award is given annually to an NCTE member who is an outstanding English language arts educator and leader. Please nominate an exceptional leader who has had an impact on the profession through one or more of the following: (1) work that has focused on exceptional teaching and/or leadership practices (e.g., building an effective department, grade level, or building team; developing curricula or processes for practicing English language arts educators; or mentoring); (2) contributions to the profession through involvement at both the local and national levels; (3) publications that have had a major impact. Your award nominee submission must include a nomination letter, the nominee’s curriculum vitae, and no more than three additional letters of support from various colleagues. Send by February 1, 2012, to: Wanda Porter, 47 Puukani Place, Kailua, HI 96734; [email protected] (Subject: CEL Exemplary Leader).

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