Education Landscapes in the 21st Century : Cross-cultural Challenges and Multi-disciplinary Perspectives [1 ed.] 9781443808873, 9781847185761

Citation preview

Education Landscapes in the 21st Century

Education Landscapes in the 21st Century: Cross-Cultural Challenges and Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives

Edited by

Iris Guske and Bruce C. Swaffield

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Education Landscapes in the 21st Century: Cross-Cultural Challenges and Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives, Edited by Iris Guske and Bruce C. Swaffield This book was first published in 2008 by Cambridge Scholars Publishing 15 Angerton Gardens, Newcastle, NE5 2JA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2008 by Iris Guske & Bruce C. Swaffield and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-84718-576-2, ISBN (13): 9781847185761

Our sincere thanks to everyone who shares our compassion for education—especially our families and friends. We are grateful for the patience and encouragement you have shown us during the last year. It is to you that we dedicate this book. Thank you for keeping us focused and for reminding us, more than once, why we began this project in the first place: to make a difference in the world of education.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword ................................................................................................... xi Preface ...................................................................................................... xv Acknowledgment.................................................................................... xvii Chapter One: Time out for Huckleberry Finn—Embracing Diversity With Open Arms and Closed Fists: How the Press Teaches Canadians What to Think about Aboriginals Mark Cronlund Anderson........................................................................... 2 Race, Ethnicity & the News: Sensitizing Young Journalists to Representations of Differences Frank Harris III......................................................................................... 20 Time out for Huckleberry Finn Sharon E. Rush ......................................................................................... 35 The Role of Contemporary Multi-Ethnic Literature in Developing Strategies for Teaching Appreciation of Other Cultures to Children and Adults Kuldip Kaur Kuwahara............................................................................. 43 Teaching Writing across Cultures Ginger Jones ............................................................................................. 51 Embracing Diversity: Teaching and Modeling Appreciation for Other Cultures Mary Ann Clark........................................................................................ 56 The Politics of Culture: New Perspectives for the Study and Practice of Multicultural and Global Relationships in the Public and Private Spheres Lorna Bell-Shaw....................................................................................... 65

viii

Table of Contents

Chapter Two: Language Policies to Overcome Language Provincialism in the Age of Globalization Advancing an Integrative Theoretical Framework for Second Language Motivation Research Mingyue Gu.............................................................................................. 82 Language Policy and Language Provincialism: Barriers to Globalization in Public Schooling in the United States Judith Lessow Hurley ............................................................................. 101 Dual Language Programs: What are They and Why Should We Use Them? Some Points and Recommendations for Educators, Parents, and Administrators Lucia Buttaro .......................................................................................... 106 Educational Opportunities for Bilingual High School Students: Factors in the Success of One Small School Sandra Liliana Pucci, Jesús Castellón and Gregory Cramer................... 134 English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education: Human and Pedagogical Impacts Nikki Ashcraft ........................................................................................ 149 New Horizons for Language Learning in China: Developing a Positive Classroom Culture Yingchun Li............................................................................................ 162 Possibilities and Justifications for Communicating Cultural Issues in Teaching English for Science and Technology Nadežda Stojkoviü.................................................................................. 179 Chapter Three: Diverse Ethnic, Socio-Economic, and Cultural Learning Communities VBU: The First e-Learning Project Focused on the Developing Entrepreneurial Spirit in Romania Mihaela Alexandra Ionescu and ùtefan Stanciu .................................... 188

Education Landscapes in the 21st Century

ix

Expanding the Profession: Industry Placement for Teachers Annamarie Schuller and Roberto Bergami............................................. 196 The Impact of International Study Tours on Students' Intercultural Competencies Declan McCrohan, Richard Mapstone and Roberto Bergami ................ 206 Helping International Students Adjust to Living and Studying in an Arabic and Islamic Environment Dale Taylor............................................................................................. 219 Reshaping the Chinese Diaspora: International Education and Foreign Students from the People’s Republic of China Frank H. Shih ......................................................................................... 232 Utilization of Cultural Elders in Modes of Non-Traditional Education Verona Mitchell-Agbemadi.................................................................... 251 Fighting for “Deep Change” in the Quest for Diversity: Iowa State University’s Multicultural Learning Community Jane Davis and Anne Richards ............................................................... 259 Chapter Four: Teaching and Learning across Borders in the New Millennium The Internet & the Innernet: A Philosophy of Education in the Age of Technology Louis Silverstein..................................................................................... 284 The Seven Laws of Teaching: New Methods from an Old Paradigm Bruce Swaffield ...................................................................................... 288 Cognitive Style and Global Learning: Teaching for Transfer and Understanding Ann Whitaker ......................................................................................... 300 Interactive Technologies, Information Landscapes, and Constructivist Learning Environments Iris Guske ............................................................................................... 306

x

Table of Contents

Early Childhood Education Programs that Develop Multicultural Capacities through Technology and Empathic Field Experiences Elizabeth Landerholm and Cynthia Gehrie .......................................... ..327 Universities in Dialogue in a World without Distance Maria Amata Garito................................................................................. 340 Leading across Borders: Preparing the Next Generation of Higher Education Leaders Gwen Lee-Thomas and J.L. Kemp .......................................................... 354 The Social Justice Imagination: A Better World as Possibility Michael Ernest Sweet .............................................................................. 375 Teacher Education: Preparing 21st Century Culturally Proficient Global Teachers for their Roles as Peace and Character Educators Reyes Quezada and Edward DeRoche .................................................... 385 Teaching and Learning Democracy in the Wake of September 11 Elisabeth Jorgensen ................................................................................. 407 Contributors........................................................................................... 429

FOREWORD THE POLICY PARADOX ROSE LEE HAYDEN1

It would be both presumptuous and futile to attempt to provide a foreword for a volume crafted by so many talented voices focusing on so many different topics. Therefore, assuming that we all agree that each and every paper contained in this volume deals in some way or other with multicultural challenges and multidisciplinary perspectives, let’s cut to the chase, avoid academic jargon, and put it right out there—the policy paradox: At this point in our collective professional lifetimes, while sectarian, ethnic and regional conflicts and terrorist tactics have never been so widespread and murderous worldwide, let alone relentlessly present thanks to global media coverage that brings Darfur into our dining rooms, international/intercultural expertise, research and experience has had little to zero impact on policy-makers or the general public. Obviously, this “dog won’t hunt” as things now stand. International or multicultural education is even seen as a threat to the body public, to the nation state, to your average Joe Citizen. And when international/ multicultural education is tolerated, it remains marginal, under-funded, and adopted only on a piecemeal and ephemeral basis thanks to the heroic efforts of a few dedicated “believers.” In a word, we have had no cumulative effect whatsoever. Neither politicians nor citizens seem to appreciate, let alone utilize what it is we 1 Dr. Lee Hayden served as Director of the Division of International Education Relations of the American Council on Education, Washington, D.C., and was the Deputy Director for the Peace Corps for the Latin American and Caribbean Region. She moved from New York to outside Rome in the wake of 9/11, where she continues to write and teach.

xii

Foreword

provide in terms of expertise. As a result, nothing we have collectively accomplished has made us, or more to the point, our leadership, more capable of coping with ongoing crises that have their roots in ethnic, sectarian, nationalistic and regional hatreds often nurtured over the centuries. Perhaps our species possesses a genetic marker that predisposes us to such murderous behavior. No one ever said that getting our knowledge applied in real-life settings would be easy. Having dedicated a lifetime to lobbying in some fashion or other for improvements in foreign language, international and intercultural education in the United States, and speaking only of my own professional experiences, it is my firm but sad belief that we Americans have experienced real setbacks since World War II when the Marshall Plan, the Fulbright Program, and later, thanks to Sputnik, Title VI provided a sense of national purpose with respect to promoting and funding competence in world affairs. Indeed, multicultural education, global education, bilingual education and their brethren have seen somewhat better days in terms of overall policy and individual impact. Back in the “bad old days” of the Cold War, Americans and their leadership at all levels, even business tycoons, could be persuaded that it was important for our citizens to be more internationally competent in order to survive, prosper, and have more options thanks to knowing more about other peoples and cultures. This is not to ignore the real progress that has been made. In fact, if anything, globalization has brought home this message thanks to outsourcing and relentless economic competition. It has also provoked even more bitter reactions to immigration as well as widespread fear that the next (and supposedly inevitable terrorist attacks) will be either biological, chemical or nuclear. Part of the fault lies with us, thanks to our excessive academic tribalism. Perhaps “multidisciplinary” education is an oxymoron. Your basic ESL instructor teaching Juan how to speak, read and write the mainstream language (and now the global one) hardly ever interacts and/or exchanges useful teaching strategies with your basic Spanish instructor busily figuring out ways to teach Spanish to those hapless students who must pass a foreign language requirement. This is true at the schools level as well where foreign language, multicultural and social studies educators can be ships passing in the night. What’s wrong with this picture? Juan must learn English, Johnny must learn Spanish, and so it goes. Despite decades of effort, and official university propaganda declaring the opposite, your average American college or university student can graduate from even our most elite institutions without ever having taken

Education Landscapes in the 21st Century

xiii

an international or intercultural course. Many cannot find Iraq on a map. Goodness knows, this might mean taking one less “business” course, thus damaging your prospects out there in the job market where incentives for hiring people with multilingual and multicultural competence vs. those with that one extra business course are shamefully few and far between, despite corporate claims to the contrary. How many recruiters come to YOUR campus to hire the multilingual/multicultural graduates who have also completed all the basic business education requirements? I rest my case, and with no visible incentives out there in the world of work, plus reinforcement of suspicions and fears of “the other” on the home (and sadly the national) front these days, the well is well and truly poisoned. What to do? Who knows, but at least we can try to make our work readable and accessible, or even policy relevant by taking a more active role in implementing it. Academic-speak, that solipsistic “eduspeak” jargon is a real turn-off, even for those of us who understand what it is you are trying to say. Organizing real interdisciplinary educational options for students of all ages would also help to solidify experience and diffuse it. Such “brainstorming” is critical, but can only take place when one is able to listen to what others have to say outside their own insular academic tribe. It may be that the so-called “American Dream” is no longer. It worked for my immigrant parents, but today who knows? Back in my youth, your average middle class family could have a car, a home, a life, and also afford to send their children to college, albeit with sacrifice and hard work on the part of everyone. The working poor had a real chance to improve their socio-economic prospects, and despite racism and linguistic discrimination, hard work paid off. Upward mobility was not just an unattainable fantasy. The “American Dream” seems more elusive these days when many are losing their homes and others are constructing McMansions. Today, in the United States, 1% of our population receives 43% of our GDP, compared with the end of FDR’s presidency when that figure was 22%. If anything, the working poor and a lot of the so-called middle class are downwardly mobile thanks to shifts in the overall economy, and the inevitable impact of global competition. It is not my intention to cast a negative cloud over what has been achieved by all of us, or to view the future with terrible foreboding. Perhaps I exaggerate in order to get your attention. In any case, I do urge us all to continue our important work, to reach out and get involved in the politics of our schools, universities and communities, to provide policyrelevant, readable, and just as important, exciting multicultural/

xiv

Foreword

multidisciplinary incentives. This is not to say that many of you are not already doing this to some degree, as is evident here in this volume. In fact, participants in the Worldwide Forum on Education and Culture over the years are the exception to the rule. You are, in general, far less prone to overly academic and policy-irrelevant blathering. Yet given the challenges of our times, I think you would all agree that much more is needed and that we must all become far more strategically adept if we wish to succeed. And while I am still on this soapbox, let me add that we had better practice what we preach. All too often, we multiculturalists are intolerant of other points of view. We succumb to a tendency to believe that the “melting pot” is all bad; things are either all black or white, good or evil. You are either with us, or you are not. How can we “convert” anyone if we ourselves are “true believers” to such a degree that we become "academic fundamentalists?" Beware of this tendency as there are essentially only two kinds of people in the world—those who dichotomize and those who don’t! It is up to us whether our response to current events and challenges represents “an open moment” or “an insurmountable opportunity.” We must address that policy paradox—that in times of greatest need, we seem to be rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. This need not be so.

PREFACE

When the Worldwide Forum on Education and Culture began at the beginning of the new millennium, hosting its first conference at John Cabot University in Rome, little did anyone know that within five years the papers given by an academic community—one extremely eager to share up-to-date research results and practical findings—would add up to such a cutting-edge collection as the one presented herewith. With contributions from scholars and practitioners in the fields of education, literacy, literature, media, communication and cultural studies from all five continents, the present volume focuses on themes of pressing importance in today's globalized world. These presentations will introduce the most varied of educational settings to the reader, e.g. an integrative creative writing course, a collaborative school partnership involving parents and community organizations, and a professional development course offering industry placements for teachers. By giving voice to international educators committed to excellence in teaching from primary school to university, the book will introduce the reader to a plurality of approaches to, and applications of, up-to-date theories in the fields of cognition, language acquisition, intercultural communication and technology-based distance education, to name but a few. Since teaching paradigms are strongly culture-bound and influenced by national policies as much as international politics, the present volume attempts to represent a maximum of diversity by including philosophical texts, hands-on research results or classroom observations, and a wide range of articles in the critical discourse tradition, which reflect a number of contentious issues, ranging from the pros and cons of dual-language classrooms to potentially racist literature curricula and the intersection of politics and pedagogy in a post-September 11 world. Though situated in a concrete educational context—be it a Chinese EFL-classroom in transition, a progressive online MBA-course offered in post-Communist Romania, or a Midwestern university utilizing community elders as a pedagogical tool—each paper was selected on the universal value of its findings, which educators facing the challenges of 21st century pedagogy will find readily applicable in classrooms all over the world.

xvi

Preface

We hope that this compilation of topical articles will give rise to the same stimulating interdisciplinary and cross-cultural discussions that have, in the meantime, attracted some 300 scholars and practitioners from more than 30 nations and a variety of academic and/or professional, ethnic, religious, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds to the renowned conferences hosted by the Worldwide Forum on Education and Culture. These conferences, as well as the present book, are meant to highlight the growing need for culturally-sensitive education that draws on the strengths of both traditional teaching methods and technology-rich forms of instruction. This crucial element has come to be seen as an important prerequisite of imparting knowledge and fostering skills in our students, which will enable them to negotiate their personal and professional lives in a world where physical distances are no longer barriers to communicative interchanges, but where perceived and real rifts between different cultures are also coming alarmingly close to preventing meaningful communication from bringing about true understanding at the individual, community and societal level. The ontogenesis of the Worldwide Forum on Education and Culture is seen here clearly in the perspectives and presentations of diverse professionals who are dedicated to teaching and learning as a help, as Matthew Arnold said in Literature and Science, “to knowing ourselves and the world.” Iris Guske and Bruce C. Swaffield

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A work of this tremendous magnitude and scope would not have been possible without the effort of many hands and minds during the past several years. The Worldwide Forum on Education and Culture would like to thank all those scholars and participants who have attended the annual congress in Rome, Italy, as well as the following individuals and institutions: Joan Colin Carpenter, DeMishea Charleston, Giovanni Conso, James Creagan, L. Chris Curry, Gian Carlo D’Ascenzi, Pilar Davis, Peter Ganslmayr (for special editorial assistance), Maria Amata Garito, D. Brent Hardt, Rose Lee Hayden, Josselyn Kennedy, Stephanie Longo, Francesca Monteporzio, R. James Nicholson, Franco Pavoncello, Markus Pfeiffer, Francis Rooney, Mark Smith, Jeannine Swaffield, Gaddi H. Vasquez, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, John Cabot University, Centro Studi Americani, NETTUNO: Network per l’Università Ovunque, Regent University, U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, U.S. Embassy Rome and U.S. Mission to the United Nations Agencies.

CHAPTER ONE TIME OUT FOR HUCKLEBERRY FINN— EMBRACING DIVERSITY

WITH OPEN ARMS AND CLOSED FISTS: HOW THE PRESS TEACHES CANADIANS WHAT TO THINK ABOUT ABORIGINALS MARK CRONLUND ANDERSON

Introduction Canada is home to 600-plus indigenous nations. Yet the country’s most pervasive, persistent and influential history teacher, the printed press (Cortes, 2000; McCombs, 2004), has tended to conflate all these people into one heavily stereotyped monolith. Pernicious and deeply rooted, this collective Canadian imaginary has remained remarkably unchanged and unchallenged in the press since the country was created in 1867. Not surprisingly, the shadings of the attendant imagery abound in Canadian culture (Francis, 1992), yet are seldom if ever discussed publicly (Henry & Tator, 2002). This informal yet highly persuasive curriculum substitutes colonial bias and racial prejudice for fact, the imagined for the real, including broad allegations citing inherent native weakness, backwardness, and absence of religious faith. The first of these includes charges of intemperance (especially drunkenness), licentiousness, dishonesty, criminality, laziness and affection of gratuitous violence. The second incorporates the ideas that natives are unprogressive, lost in time, moribund and wild creatures of nature. The third charge cites aboriginal irreligiousness as central to the “Indian problem,” inasmuch as it defined, for the newspapers, a people unhinged from and untouched by civilization.1 1

The newspapers analyzed in this paper used the term “Indian” where today the terms “aboriginal,” “indigenous,” and “native” (which I employ as synonyms in this paper) are more common in Canada; common usage in the United States continues to employ the earlier term. By the same token, the Métis in western Canada were commonly referred to as “half-breeds,” “breeds,” or sometimes simply as “French,” where given the context it was understood that the term meant French-Indian “half-breed.” While the press inconsistently made a distinction between and among Métis and aboriginals, this paper does not because its focus

How the Press Teaches Canadians What to Think about Aboriginals

3

As teacher the press has attributed aboriginal behavior and character inconsistently to alleged racial and/or cultural inadequacies. Further complicating this very public curriculum, it has presumed for Canadians a teleological view of human history as “evolutionary,” the gist of which held that natives were doomed to die off in the face of expansive white civilization. While press depictions frequently contradict themselves when considering whether natives are redeemable human beings or even human beings at all, the press has tended to present the allegations as objective, just the “facts.” Remarkably, these historical media portrayals have gone largely unnoticed by scholars. In effect, this has created a situation in which the most popular and compelling teacher in Canadian history has never undergone course evaluation, a standard classroom practice.

Framings The press framing of aboriginal peoples has served as a form of historical amnesia, for not only are the allegations wrong-headed, but they are demonstrably, almost deliberately, inaccurate. From a pedagogical viewpoint, however, the results are important for at least two reasons. First, the formidable power of the mass media to instruct audiences and teach readers has been well established (Cortés, 2000; Nesbitt-Larking, 2001). In particular, agenda-setting research shows that the press has the power not merely to instruct an audience what to think about but even what to think (McCombs, 2004). The mechanism by which this occurs is simple. To begin with, because it frequently provides the major or the only source of information and opinion on a topic (e.g., how do you know what you know about global warming?), press content can and will influence readers, as proudly claimed by the Montreal Gazette, one of Canada’s leading dailies, in 1873: Newspapers are getting to be much more than mere transcripts of the news and gossip of the day. They are pioneers in learned explorations; they are foremost in geographical and historical discovery; they are the teachers of social science (...). The reporter of today is the adventurer who penetrates the desert and the jungle, the scholar who researches for relics of the forgotten past, the courier who bears the news of victory (...) across a wilderness and through hostile armies (...) we can hardly doubt that it is destined in a very short time to be the foremost of all the secular

engages the general construction of press Indian-ness, irrespective of European admixing.

4

Mark Cronlund Anderson professions—the most powerful in its operations, the most brilliant in its rewards, and the most useful to mankind.2

Further with respect to natives, press content in North America overwhelmingly has reinforced mainstream norms (Coward, 1999; Weston, 1996). Consequently, insofar as the content of the press imagery derives from the larger culture in which the press and its readers participate, one might reasonably expect a consonance between press content and preexisting reader bias (Berkhofer, 1979). The result is that the news qua curriculum emerges organically, naturalized, as if nothing were more normal. In short, as curriculum the images do not present new material so much as they reinforce the status quo. Second, Canada’s birth as a colonial entity fashioned by Great Britain, which in turn has given rise to a colonial state in its own right, has contributed both to the paucity of study (i.e., because colonial societies tend strongly toward non-reflexive thinking) as well as the tone and content of the imagery (Bird, 1996; Hall, 1997; Lambertus, 2004). In this way, colonialism and agenda-setting team up to fashion a sort of informal imperial primer, unstuck from empirical reality insofar as the images are predictably and consistently mistaken yet reflective of, and in a sense true to, mainstream Canadian racialized colonial norms (Furniss, 2000; Hall, 1997; Said, 1979). This helps explain why those few Canadians who have had direct contact with natives tend to share reports closely similar to those who have had little or no contact with aboriginals—again, irrespective of evidence that easily refutes the central allegations. In and for the United States scholars have examined in some detail how the press has imagined indigenous peoples (Coward, 1999; Weston, 1996)—yet how Canada’s aboriginals have been imagined historically by the mainstream press has received no close reading.

Three cases To explore this topic and assess the two basic assertions articulated above, this paper summarizes and analyzes press research conducted for three distinct historical cases and then positions it with respect to other recent research. The first case is Canada’s purchase and subsequent absorption of Rupert’s Land in 1869. Located in the west, this territory, which doubled the size of the country, was sold to Canada by the Hudson’s Bay Company. In a sense, the people living there were sold 2

Montreal Gazette, reprinted from the New York Tribune, 04 September 1873.

How the Press Teaches Canadians What to Think about Aboriginals

5

along with it, having had no say in the matter. Mostly these were aboriginals or Métis (usually of indigenous-French or, to a lesser extent, indigenous-Scotch or indigenous-English heritage). The second, and closely linked, historical case involves the 1873 signing of Treaty Three, in which the federal government usurped some 12.5 million hectares in central Canada from the aboriginals living there. The 1905 creation of Saskatchewan as a western province offers a third case. While it is not my contention that such a modest sampling can establish firmly a pattern for all press coverage curricula in Canada insofar as press representations relate to larger cultural visions (that is, Canadian colonialism), or teach the value of maintaining the prevailing social and political order, remarkable similarities in treatment are readily discernible and strongly support the contention that the press has aided and abetted Canada’s colonial project (Furniss, 2000; Harding, 2006; Anderson & Robertson, 2007). A close historical reading of popular images of Indians in the United States has identified virtually no substantive change in two centuries (Berkhofer, 1979). This offers a key starting point because scholars have demonstrated an almost uncanny congruence between Canadian and American Indian policies (Nichols, 1998), despite popular notions to the contrary (Francis, 1992).

Points westward The sale of Rupert’s Land elicited much comment from Canada’s two leading English-language daily newspapers in 1869, the Toronto Globe and the Montreal Gazette. The Globe referred to it as “the path of empire and the garden of the world,”3 the “most fertile land in the world,”4 “exceedingly fertile,”5 and “inconceivably rich.”6 The Gazette agreed, calling it “the greatest place for game, ever,”7 “great—inexhaustible— inconceivably rich.”8 Four years later in 1873, just six years after Canada had been granted nominal independence from Great Britain, these deeply partisan publications, the Globe politically Liberal and the Gazette Conservative in orientation, battled tenaciously in all matters political in the emerging nation state. However, given both political parties’ intense 3

Globe 28 May 1869. Globe 16 January 1869. 5 Globe 21 May 1869. 6 Globe 01 January 1869. 7 Gazette 05 January 1869. 8 Gazette 07 January 1869. 4

6

Mark Cronlund Anderson

desire to settle the territory west of the Great Lakes with white Protestants, the most pressing political issue of the day, after the initial land purchase, was the “Indian Problem” or “Indian Question”9 as it was known in the press. That is, the settling of the west was predicated on successfully garnering coveted lands hitherto occupied by aboriginals. The “problem” was what to with and about natives. On this issue the papers spoke as if with one colonial voice. That is, the contours of aboriginal identity, as depicted by the Globe and the Gazette, bore close similitude during and immediately after the sale of Rupert’s Land and the year in which Treaty Three, third of the 11 numbered treaties, reaching from northwestern Ontario into the province of Manitoba, was struck. The images averred that natives were backward, dangerously savage, inept, dishonest, and doomed to die off in the near future. Such imagery served to justify the purchase and the subsequent treaty that cemented indefinite white hegemony. Closely similar images emerge from a reading of the five most widely distributed newspapers published in Saskatchewan (which is primarily Treaty Four country, an agreement struck in 1874) some 30 years later. The year 1905 is significant because Saskatchewan was formally carved out of the Northwest Territory (formerly known as Rupert’s Land) and created as a province. Basically, the territory had been until that time sparsely populated by whites, but in 1905 the federal government decided that a sufficient population had been established to create new provinces in the west, Saskatchewan among them. So while the Canadian west only technically came into existence in 1869 and was only just opening up to settlement in 1873, by 1905 it was deemed, at least for the purposes of political representation on a national scale, to have become sufficiently full of Canadians (read: whites; aboriginals were not effectively enfranchised until the 1960s) to govern itself. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the numbered treaties, which for practical purposes took virtually all of the province’s territory from aboriginals. The creation of a national railway that reached all the way to the Pacific Ocean in the 1880s had been central both to settlement and subsequent political enfranchisement, hence one reason to remove or relocate natives. Other reasons included maximizing the land available for white cultivation as well as reducing the likelihood of indigenous resistance by distributing the natives widely on to small reservations and then keeping their mobility severely restricted. In short, aboriginal people 9

See, for example: Globe 9 July 1869.

How the Press Teaches Canadians What to Think about Aboriginals

7

stood in the way physically and, to the extent that they inhibited the progressive march of history, teleologically. In the early days the west was viewed very much in the press as the “wilds”10 (yet simultaneously, as noted, also a fabulously rich potential garden11)—and inhabited, not surprisingly then, by wild peoples, savages, the uncivilized “red skin.”12 This western territory, according to press reports—was coveted too for geopolitical reasons (i.e., to foreclose American annexation of the territory), but also as a source of wealth—a principle fount of which was expected to be rich agricultural lands.13

For their own good The premise upon which colonization of the west rested asserted that natives occupied but did not own the land. Evidence of ownership, reflecting centuries-old English common law, would have required the construction of fences, bridges, and permanent buildings, plus the recognition that such construction conferred proper and legal ownership (Seed, 1995). Admix this culturally-bound prejudice with espied indigenous paganism and one gains a ready formula for Canadian-style colonialism—or, to put it in a North American context, Canadian-style Manifest Destiny (Horsman, 1981; Furniss, 2000; Kulchyski, 2005). And so the 1869 and 1873 Globe and Gazette frequently asked the question, how could peoples for whom senseless wandering served as a way of life possibly make good use of the land?14 They could not, the papers stressed, which served as a primary justification for whites usurping it in the first place.15 The notion that aboriginals were childlike lent weight to this conclusion. The sale of Rupert’s Land was the key news story of 1869 and frequently therefore dominated coverage. The Globe especially, because it was an opposition newspaper when Sir John A. McDonald, a Conservative, was prime minister, expostulated almost daily on the need to secure the territory, but to do it in such a way that might endorse the Globe’s Liberal bent. The Globe summed it up succinctly: “The all10

See, for example: Globe, 12 April 1869. See, for example: Globe 01 January 1869. 12 The term served as a ready signifier of Indian-ness. It was employed ubiquitously. See, for example: Globe 01 January 1869. 13 See: Globe 02 July 1873; Globe 09 July 1873; Globe 01 October 1873; Globe 30 December 1873. 14 Globe 02 July 1873. 15 Globe 03 July 1873. Also see: Globe 04 July 1873; Globe 07 July 1873. 11

8

Mark Cronlund Anderson

important thing is to get the territory as soon as possible.”16 The Gazette offered significantly less coverage of the sale, and it tended to cast the purchase in a favorable light where the Globe took issue with everything from the asking price to the style of government that would follow the purchase. In short, while the two papers agreed on the inestimable need and value of the land, they squabbled over the details. Agreed in principle, once the land was secured, the tone and nature of the politics would grow more vitriolic by 1873. Notably, however, the two organs spoke from a single monolithic cultural center when depicting natives. For example, in 1869 allegations of native weakness, backwardness, and irreligiousness could be found almost in every issue of the Globe. Drunkenness and a love of drink typified coverage, from “half-breeds playing billiards and drinking” and “drinking fire-water”17 to allegations such as, “You all know he [the native] drinks too much,” in the Gazette.18 Laziness dovetailed neatly with the claim that Indians were intemperate in their thirst for alcoholic beverages. Both the Globe and Gazette noted indigenous laziness as evidenced by an unwillingness to farm. In fact, “half-breeds” were so opposed to engaging in the principal economic activity of the colonial settlement that they would choose starvation before taking up the plow.19 This led to a situation in which they were “all dependent on the charity of the world for their daily bread.” And even when they prepared their meals they produced “cookery [that was] simple and inferior,” according to the Globe.20 Another feature of alleged native backwardness lay in the espied inability to rise above the intemperate demands of the flesh, as illustrated by love of drink, laziness and also the devotion to atavistic outbursts such as the war dance.21 This might lead directly to “demoniacal orgies through the influences of the fire water upon the savage nature of the Indian,” reported the Globe.22 In another example, an article detailed the practice of “squaw kissing” when oversexed “Indian and half-breed women go about kissing every one of the opposite sex whom they meet.”23 It would have 16

Globe 15 April 1869. Globe 01 January 1869. Also see: Globe 15 July 1869. 18 Gazette 14 August 1869. 19 Globe 01 January 1869. Also see: Globe January 22 1869; Gazette 05 January 1869; Gazette 07 January 1869. 20 Globe 16 February 1869; Globe 23 March 1869. 21 Globe 06 January 1869. 22 Globe 22 January 1869. 23 Globe 09 February 1869. 17

How the Press Teaches Canadians What to Think about Aboriginals

9

been unsurprising then for Globe readers to learn that “Polygamy is practiced in the tribes (…). A man may have as many wives as he can keep, but he must buy them. The universal price of a wife is a pony (...). A squaw once purchased becomes the immediate property of the purchaser, but he must catch her.”24 In particular, the Globe and Gazette drew upon reports emanating from the United States that stressed raw Indian savagery. On the less extreme end of this reportage Indians were portrayed as merely “hostile.”25 On the other hand, and more typically, Indians were portrayed as unmitigated savages who would commit any manner of atrocity simply because it was in their nature to do so (and not because they were fighting a defensive war against white encroachment on lands they had called their own for thousands of years). The latter were common, usually brief notices on the front pages about depredations committed by American tribes and, often, the US martial response.26 For example, in January 1869 the Globe reported that in the American west “a body of a white was found, perfectly naked and covered with arrows and bullet holes. The head presented the appearance of having been beaten with a war club. The top of the skull was broken into a number of pieces.”27 With less embellishment, though more common, shorter notes simply noted outrages such as when “The Indians in the Colorado territory in September last killed and scalped Nicholas Ocamb”28 or how American troops fought bravely “against the marauding and murderous savages of the frontier.”29 The Gazette related a frightening tale about native “barbarities” in which “savages” seized a school house, raped the teacher, and nailed all the children to the walls before torturing them to death. Then “they roamed indeed over the country like so many demons.”30 Savage aboriginal behavior was, of course, not limited to the United States, coverage illustrates. As the Globe warned readers in March, “The 24

Globe 31 March, 1869. Also see: Globe 25 August 1869. Globe 01 January 1869. 26 Globe 09 January 1869; Globe 10 April 1869; Globe 14 May 1869; Globe 1 July 1869. 27 Globe January 11 1869. 28 Globe 16 January 1869. Also see: Globe 27 January 1869; Globe 03 March 1869; Globe 09 March 1869; Globe 22 March 1869; Globe 17 May 1869; Globe 24 May 1869; Globe 1 June 1869; Globe 2 June 1869; Globe 10 June 1869; Globe 14 June 1869; Globe 03 July 1869; Globe 27 Jul, 1869; Globe 02 August, 1869; Globe 16 August 1869; Gazette 27 January 1869; Gazette 23 February 1869; Gazette 20 March 1869; Gazette 22 June 1869. 29 Globe 20 May 1869. 30 Gazette 23 February 1869. 25

10

Mark Cronlund Anderson

Indians of the Plains are very different from their docile brethren in [eastern] Canada—they are constantly on the war path.”31 A week after this dispatch the Globe reported “that the Indians of the Plains are again on the warpath.”32 In late May it again reminded readers that “They are very different from the timid and cringing creatures who are now the sole representatives of the Indian race in the back settlements of [eastern] Canada.”33 The natives to the near east of Rupert’s Land were also “numerous and warlike”34 whereas in the west the Blackfoot were “the really wild Indians.”35 The Gazette agreed almost verbatim, noting that the western natives were “constantly on the war path.”36 Curiously, despite their espied savage nature, the press also noted that aboriginals “are easily dealt with and easily controlled.”37 Despite a proclivity for warring, another article explained, “Qualified [Indian] agents could easily settle” them down.38 Thus, the savage also earned status as a lowly and slightly pathetic creature, as the Globe had it, “the poor Indians.”39 Citing comments made in Parliament the Globe even suggested that under select conditions some natives might become modestly “civilized.”40 Finally, other reports claimed that “There is no fear of violent molestations from the Indians (…) [because] They are consummate beggars.”41 Ultimately, these sorts of characterizations led to the infantilization of natives, “who are to be taken care of as little children.”42 The Globe reported, “Of all savages those that live by fishing (…) are the most degraded. I was surprised at the thoroughly Mongolian type, with broad, flat faces and oblique eyes, or pure breeds. The older women were horribly withered, bleared and smoke dried, extremely suggestive of the witches in Macbeth.”43 News of the signing of Treaty Three proved barely to register in the press in 1873. The Globe passed the signing off with 56 words—among them the gross exaggeration that “the terms are very liberal towards the 31

Globe 23 March 1869. Globe 31 March 1869. Also see: Globe 21 May 1869; Globe 22 May 1869. 33 Globe 25 May 1869. 34 Globe 25 May, 1869. 35 Globe 17 August 1869. 36 Gazette 10 April 1869. 37 Globe 16 February 1869. Also see: Globe 27 February 1869. 38 Globe 23 March 1869. 39 Globe 13 April 1869. 40 Globe 28 April 1869. 41 Globe 30 April 1869. Also see: Globe 17 August 1869. 42 Globe 20 May 1869. Also see: Globe 16 June 1869. 43 Globe 02 August 1869. 32

How the Press Teaches Canadians What to Think about Aboriginals

11

Indians”44 whereas the Gazette failed to mention it at all. Subsequently, the Globe printed excerpts of the treaty, advising readers that the shiftless natives might now be effectively “quieted” by white Canada.45 That said, natives did not escape substantive notice in either paper during that year. In fact, both papers had much to say about them— ultimately leading one to conclude that the lack of interest in the treaty as news reflected the sense that the treaties constituted minor incidents in the larger narrative of triumphal Anglo conquest, as sketched in these two daily newspapers and as hinted at by the 1869 news reports. The earlier sale of Rupert’s Land evinced no substantive difference in treatment. While the sale was framed as of great consequence, overall aboriginals received little direct attention. Moreover, the coverage itself varied little, typically repeating the same tired clichés. The real story lay in tales of the re-dawning of civilization, the vanquishing of savagery, heroic tales of the white man’s burden, as it were, and so on. So while the signing of Treaty Three per se elicited scant news interest, on other occasions treaties were discussed by the papers, and this discourse begins to shed some light on the more general news framing of the Canada’s aboriginal peoples in 1873 in these two publications. Canada’s Plains Indians sought treaties, the Globe explained. Natives invited the protection of the white community that the treaties allegedly granted at the same time as this gesture demonstrated an acknowledged (by the paper) inability to govern their own affairs. In short, at some level, the argument ran, sensible Indians endorsed colonialism—and treaties—as good for them.46 In this way, then, natives typically were portrayed as desiring treaties, explicitly for their own good. Moreover, such assertions were presented as givens, assertions of simple common sense—never quoting or, for that matter, attributing such statements to any specific person or persons—and were couched with a caution that for any such treaties to be successfully negotiated the Canadian government must make strong show of “force,” because Indians tended to be mercurial and potentially dangerous.47 The key remained that this “prairie land” was highly desirable, but it had lamentably been turned into little more than a “desert” through aboriginal misuse, according to the Gazette.48

44

Globe 08 October 1873. Globe 28 October 1873. 46 See, for example: Globe 31 July 1873. 47 Globe 31 July 1873. 48 Gazette 04 June 1873. Also see: Gazette 18 June 1874. 45

12

Mark Cronlund Anderson

Civilization and its malcontents Natives, then, in part because of the ways in which they were cast as non-owners of the lands that had otherwise been theirs for thousands of years, were characterized as barbarians while mainstream white Canada was draped in the finery of all things civilized. This held true both in 1873 and 1905 depictions. In both cases, to begin with, it meant that aboriginals were portrayed as not properly Christian—in particular, because the papers also expressed a certain disdain for Roman Catholicism, this meant Protestant Christianity—which, the 1873 Gazette assured readers, Indians preferred. Catholics were guilty of “religious persecution.”49 In fact, the Catholic Church behaved in altogether un-Christianlike ways in its dealings with aboriginals, the paper warned. That the various Canadian churches, Protestant as well as Catholic, aided and abetted the disenfranchisement of natives from their lands and, indeed, culture, the papers lauded because it was “to their advantage,”50 reducing an espied aboriginal predisposition to thievery51 and by improving hygiene, introducing women’s rights (in part, because of the practice of concubinage52) and education all round for, in the Globe’s words, the “dirty, miserable (...) degraded pagans.”53 As the Gazette put it on another occasion, “let us bless God that he has brought a vine into this wilderness; that he has cast out the heathen.”54 Further, the Globe charged, even when converted to any variety of Christianity, Indians were probably just faking it, either because they were a) not trustworthy; b) because they just did not comprehend the precepts of organized religion; or, c) perhaps most charitably, yet implying dulled intelligence, they needed more time to figure it out.55 The papers denied the existence of indigenous religious traditions. It was a mistake to identify indigenous belief systems as religions at all because their first premises were the promotion of aggressive violence,56 patricide,57 polygamy and infanticide.58 Meanwhile, according to the 49

Gazette 10 January 1873. Gazette 23 January 1873. 51 Globe 07 July 1873. 52 Globe 04 August 1873. 53 Globe 03 July 1873. Also see: Globe 17 July 1873; Globe 04 August 1873. 54 Gazette 15 February 1873. Also see: Globe 23 June 1873. 55 Globe 23 June 1873. Also see: Globe 03 July 1873. 56 Gazette 04 June 1873. 57 Globe 23 June 1873. 58 Globe 03 July 1873. Also see: Globe 04 August 1873. 50

How the Press Teaches Canadians What to Think about Aboriginals

13

Globe, sweat lodges, for example, which remain central to Plains culture in the 21st century, served no religious function, but instead provided a means by which the “miserable, starved-looking,” superstitious, “invalids,” “idlers,” could and did plot mischief and criminal activities in “great Indian natural luxury,” the equivalent of Russian baths taken to an extreme, a long article in the Globe related.59 In particular, according to the Globe, the attendant medicine man used gatherings in the “sweating booths” to plot vengeance upon personal enemies, employing other hapless natives as so many transfixed pawns to aid and abet criminal activity.60 Yet on other occasions Indian religion was merely derided as silly, childish and not only pointless but counterproductive.61 According to the Saskatchewan press in 1905 natives might have been disappearing, but they were not yet gone entirely. Those who remained personified barbaric behavioral traits, the press averred. The Saskatchewan Herald made it clear that Indians remained heathen, childlike, dangerous, violent, crazy, volatile, stupid and on occasion given to cannibalism. The first two attributes called for sturdy and uncompromising Christian charity as well as hands-on government direction if natives were to be redeemed.62 To wit, beating an education into them, if necessary, was acceptable, even desirable. The Herald, in an attempt at humor, for example, narrated under the heading of “GREAT MEDICINE,” how a hook-handed FrenchCanadian pioneer found it both necessary and useful to apply corporal punishment with the hook in order to teach Indians.63 The Saskatoon Phenix called the process, “making good Indians.”64 Savages the world over—as well as women in general—simply had smaller brains than white males, the paper reported, which partially explained such behavior.65 It took no leap of faith, then, than to read and accept that aboriginals also engaged in cannibalism, typified in a case where a man allegedly devoured his wife and their six children in mid-winter.66 Elsewhere, violence59

Globe 07 July 1873. Globe 07 July 1873. 61 Globe 06 October 1873. 62 See, for example, Saskatchewan Herald, 18 January 1905; Saskatchewan Herald 8 February 1905; Saskatchewan Herald 08 March 1905; Saskatchewan Herald 15 March 1905; Saskatchewan Herald 28 April 1905; Saskatchewan Herald 12 July 1905; Saskatchewan Herald 15 November 1905; Saskatchewan Herald 20 December 1905; Leader 4 January 1905; Leader 26 April 1905. 63 Saskatchewan Herald 04 January 1905. 64 Phenix 04 August 1905. 65 Saskatchewan Herald 11 January 1905. 66 Saskatchewan Herald 08 February 1905. 60

14

Mark Cronlund Anderson

inclined Indian people were “murderous,”67 “killed (...) without discrimination.”68

The only good Indian In no instance did newspapers advocate physical genocide. It was unnecessary because in the three historical cases discussed herein the publications examined for this paper boldly asserted that native culture— not cultures, in keeping with the stereotype—would shortly fade away and die out. Indians as a whole on the North American continent were believed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to be moribund, in a state of moral decay and demographic disappearance, “dying out before the white man,” as the Globe put it in 1873,69 on one of many occasions.70 The 1905 Regina Leader concurred, “The race is one which is liable to disappear. It was not apparently made for the conditions under which we live in this modern world, and fades away more or less under the influence of modern civilization.” And whatever might remain of them, that is, those fit enough to survive, would assimilate—in other words culturally evaporate, if not actually disappear in body, the paper opined.71 The construction of the Indian as moribund took several forms. The most obvious was that as a group natives were doomed because of backward culture and the typical assertion, often simply implied but here stated boldly, that they were racially so weak as to be waning in an evolving world. The Phenix therefore espied “extinction in the near

67

Saskatchewan Herald 3 May 1905. Also see Saskatchewan Herald 10 May 1905; Saskatchewan Herald 31 May 1905; Saskatchewan Herald 8 November 1905; Moose Jaw Times 4 August 1905; Phenix 28 July 1905. 68 Saskatchewan Herald 23 August 1905. 69 Globe 07 July 1873. Also see: Globe 24 September 1873; Gazette 20 March 1869. 70 Yet it is worth noting that the federal government had also systematically failed in its efforts to socially engineer the disappearance of First Nations via policies of extinguishment and assimilation. In particular, these efforts were undertaken in the form of residential schools. See Celia Haig-Brown, Resistance and Renewal: Surviving the Residential School (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1988). Also see: Ward Churchill, Kill the Indian, Save the Man: The Genocidal Impact of American Indian Residential Schools (San Francisco: City Light Publishers, 2004). 71 Leader 04 January 1905.

How the Press Teaches Canadians What to Think about Aboriginals

15

future,”72 and on another occasion referred to it simply as the “passing of the red man.”73 Second, and related to such assertions, Indians, according to all of the papers surveyed here averred that natives could not effectively even feed themselves, echoing similar charges of 1869, though no discussion ever occurred to speculate how “primitive”74 aboriginals might have survived, and possibly thrived, the previous ten thousand years (or more) without European aid.75 At the same time, Indians were, according to the Saskatchewan Herald, essentially “base and dishonest” and had evinced such qualities since the earliest days of the settling of the West.76 Horse thieving and larceny were common as were other “ugly,”77 “wily,”78 and “debauched”79 behaviours, chimed the Moose Jaw Times.80 Self control was almost unknown, too, as natives all too predictably drank to excess,81 which often led to excesses of other kinds, especially violence and crime.82

Conclusion It would be an error to automatically assume consonance between press and public opinion—though this often occurs; the story here is more complex (and beyond the scope of this limited paper). Instead, as noted, the work of agenda-setting theorists shows how the press not merely frames issues for readers but primes readers, providing them with readymade consumable opinions. In 1873, John Cameron of the London (Ontario) Advertiser, boldly championed the agenda-setting power of the press: 72

Phenix 27 January 1905. Phenix 30 June 1905. Also see: Phenix 27 January 1905; Phenix 27 January 1905. 74 Phenix 16 June 1905. 75 Saskatchewan Herald 22 February 1905; Saskatchewan Herald 05 July 1905. 76 Saskatchewan Herald 22 February 1905. 77 Times 12 January 1905. Also see: Times 12 May 1905; Times 04 August 1905. 78 Times 28 July 1905. 79 Times 22 December 1905. 80 Also see: Leader 18 January 1905; Phenix 06 January 1905; Phenix 10 March 1905. 81 Phenix 27 January 1905. 82 See the Leader 14 June 1905; Leader 30 May 1905; Leader 02 August 1905; Leader 27 December 1905; Phenix 26 May 1905; Phenix 06 January 1905; Phenix 17 February 1905. 73

16

Mark Cronlund Anderson Much has been said, at one time and another, of the influence of the Press. That influence augments year by year. The number of readers is multiplied. No class of society is entirely exempt from the direct or indirect influence of the Press, while large sections of the community are dependent entirely for opinions as well as for news on the daily or weekly journal. This influence may be for good or for evil. It is a terrible thing to vest power in the hands of men without any sense of responsibility; but a conscientious journalist will never forget his moral obligations (...) further, it may be laid down as a sound business axiom that the Press cannot afford to make a statement it cannot prove.83

Ongoing colonialism completes the picture, rendering the sorts of portrayals presented here not simply as accurate but even as desirable, natural, inevitable. Put simply, colonialized images promote and support what Peter Kulchyski (2005) has identified as “totalizing” colonial practice. In this way, the press serves a primary teacher about important public issues such as the construction of race and identity. The importance, then, of the pejorative imagery of people of aboriginal background in the mainstream Canadian press in 1869, 1873 and 1905 is that it taught readers what to think about aboriginal peoples at the same time as it reinforced prevailing norms that were, in themselves, colonially racialized. While more work remains to be done by scholars to ascertain how prevalent such images were elsewhere in Canada, especially at later dates, emerging research suggests that similar imagery continues to plague contemporary Canadian media (Henry & Tator, 2002; Harding, 2006; Anderson & Robertson, 2007). An examination of recently published research shows that the imagery of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries bears close resemblance to imagery in the late twentieth century. For example, Anderson and Robertson (2007) explored and assessed press coverage of a key early land claims event in central Canada in 1974 that centered on allegations of unethical and illegal land usurpation and systematic racism directed against aboriginals. As a way of drawing attention to the issues an Indigenous group seized and temporarily occupied a local park in Kenora, Ontario. Though the assertions directed at the white community were essentially true and supported by scholarly study (Shkilnyk, 1985), the local news outlet veritably erupted with colonialized condemnation. By this I mean that the local paper employed virtually all of the stereotypes 83

As recorded in the Globe 30 September 1873. Also see: Globe 30 September 1873. On another occasion, it is worth noting, Cameron claimed that Canada’s press was the world’s best. Globe 30 September 1873. Also see an editorial, “Newspapers in the States,” Globe 29 November 1873.

How the Press Teaches Canadians What to Think about Aboriginals

17

identified earlier in this paper, including charges of alleged aboriginal inclinations for violence, criminality, alcoholism, cultural backwardness, and so on. The study found that prior to the park’s seizure the paper routinely framed indigenous peoples in ways closely akin to those identified in instances examined in this paper. Temporarily the tenor of these images became deeply exaggerated during the period of the six-week standoff. Once the standoff concluded peaceably the paper quickly resumed the tendencies of its pre-standoff reportage. In a second recent example Harding (2006) compared and contrasted imagery from the 1860s and the 1990s. Harding finds evidence of ongoing colonialized imagery, though he notes that the reportage of the 1990s provides room for a greater range of “voices.” At the same time he cautions that these voices have “been selectively incorporated” (p. 231). While Harding appears to infer from this evidence a probable diminution in the level of public commitment to colonialism, it is as likely, one might as reasonably infer from the work of Lambertus (2004), Furniss (2000), and Henry and Tator (2002) that the apparent emerging openness serves as little more than hegemonic strategy (see Kulchyski, 2005). Third, and finally, a recent study by Henry and Tator (2002) found ample evidence of ongoing racism in the mainstream Canadian press directed at, but not limited to, aboriginal peoples in contemporary news coverage. The study carefully plots a context for the imagery and refers to it as a “racist ideology” that “organizes, preserves, and perpetuates a society’s power structures. It creates and preserves a system of dominance” (p. 21). In such a system, notes Furniss (2000), news coverage provides only a single component of a larger colonial project. The most obvious conclusion to draw from the primary evidence presented here as well as the brief discussion of related secondary work suggests strongly that colonialism, a historical scourge in Canada, remains entrenched in the country’s printed press. The result? If the press provides a barometer, even an imperfect mirror of public opinion, as scholars have demonstrated, then colonialism remains extant, arguably even thrives in Canada to this day. The press remains a primary teacher for Canadians, though it has long since morphed to include radio, television, film, and the internet, teaching how and what to think about natives. Moreover, Canadians remain news junkies today, as they long have been. Because of the immense distances that often separate Canadian communities the printed press, especially in the days before electronic media, relied heavily on newspapers to inform them about the world and, crucially, about their place in it.

18

Mark Cronlund Anderson

It seems reasonable to ask, then, what might be done? The easy answer is “education.” But what sort of education? There is no reason to expect that formal pedagogical institutions—primary and secondary schools, for example—exist ideologically outside the fabric of Canadian core culture any more than the printed press does (Furniss, 2000). In this way, “education” is certainly no panacea. In fact, arguably formal and informal pedagogy walk hand in hand and have been effectively spun from the same colonial threads. At the very least, one may reasonably conclude that informal education, in this case the printed press, has been precisely the problem, not the solution.

References Anderson, M. and Robertson, C. (2007). The ‘Bended Elbow’ News, Kenora, 1974, How a Small-Town Newspaper Promoted Colonialism. American Indian Quarterly, 31(3), 1-29. Berkhofer, R. (1979). The White Man’s Indian: Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the present. New York: Vintage. Bird, E., ed. (1996). Dressing in Feathers: The construction of the Indian in American popular culture. Boulder, CO: Westview. Cortes, C.E. (2000). The Children Are Watching How the Media Teach about Diversity. New York: Teachers College Press. Coward, J.M. (1999). The Newspaper Indian: Native American identity in the press,1820-90. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Francis, D. (1992). The Imaginary Indian: The image of the Indian in Canadian culture. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press. Furniss, E. (2000). The Burden of History: Colonialism and the frontier myth in a rural community. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Hall, S., ed. (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Harding, R. (2006). Historical Representations of Aboriginal People in the Canadian News Media. Discourse and Society, 17(2), 205-235. Henry, F. & Tator, C. (2002). Discourses of Domination: Racial bias in the Canadian English-language press. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Horsman, R. (1981). Race and Manifest Destiny: The origins of American racial Anglo-Saxonism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Kulchyski, P. (2005). Like the Sound of a Drum: Aboriginal cultural politics in Denedeh and Nunavut. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.

How the Press Teaches Canadians What to Think about Aboriginals

19

Lambertus, S. (2004). Wartime Images, Peacetime Wounds, the Media and the Gustafsen Lake Standoff. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. McCombs, M. (2004). Setting the Agenda: The news media and public opinion. Cambridge: Polity Press. Nesbitt-Larking, P. (2001). Politics, Society, and the Media: Canadian perspectives. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press. Nichols, R.L. (1998). Indians in the United States and Canada: A comparative history. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Said, E. (1979). Orientalism. New York: Vintage. Seed, P. (1995). Ceremonies of Possession in Europe’s Conquest of the New World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Shkilnyk, A. (1985). A Poison Stronger Than Love: The destruction of an Ojibwa community. New Have: Yale University Press. Weston, M.A. (1996). Native Americans in the News: Images of Indians in the twentieth century press, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

RACE, ETHNICITY & THE NEWS: SENSITIZING YOUNG JOURNALISTS TO REPRESENTATIONS OF DIFFERENCES FRANK HARRIS III

Abstract When the primarily white staff members of a college newspaper faced accusations of racism for publishing the mug shots of three black male students on the front page, they said race was never considered. As journalists are taught to be fair and impartial, a ''non-consideration,'' ''colorblindness,'' or ''neutrality'' with regard to race would fall in line with the qualities one would expect of journalists when covering stories. However, this non-consideration of race is often cited only when the subjects in a story are minority group members. This inherently suggests race is not considered when the subjects in a story are white. Using as a case study the college newspaper's publication of the mug shots of the three black male students and the statement by its staff that race was never considered, this paper takes journalism educators' and practitioners' longstated role of impartiality and examines it in the context of growing research that finds that people hold implicit or unconscious attitudes toward race that affect their decisions. This paper concludes that the role of race should be included in the education of young journalists, and provides guidelines for the implementation of a course on race and the news.

Introduction In America, as in many nations throughout the world, the local news media's coverage of minority groups influences the way the dominant group treats them, both in interpersonal relationships as well as in public policy. In America, there is a history of news coverage of people of color—primarily Native Americans, blacks, Asians, Hispanics and, most

Sensitizing Young Journalists to Representations of Differences

21

recently, Middle-Easterners—that has formed an image in the minds of the white majority. News media is recognized as playing a significant role in that image. This paper looks at how a course was developed to sensitize young journalists to the issues of race and ethnicity in covering groups by looking at some recent examples of racialized reporting. The roots of this came about years ago during a talk I gave at a conference in Hartford, Conn. During the discussion portion of the talk, one of the attendees, a white journalist for a small-town newspaper, mentioned how he felt uncomfortable and unprepared to cover racial minorities, in this case, blacks, because there were no blacks on his staff. From my own experience as a journalism student three decades ago, no one addressed the issue of race when covering stories, despite the fact that race often plays an unconscious if not conscious role within most aspects of society. A recent event at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Conn., where I chair the Journalism Department and advise the student newspaper, brought the issue to the forefront once again in indicating the need for sensitizing those who will shape public views through their stories—a need not just from the classroom perspective, but from the practical experience of applying it as staff members of the campus newspaper.

A case study In the Southern News—the weekly campus newspaper of Southern Connecticut State University—the police mug shots of three freshmen students appeared on the front page of the May 3, 2006 issue under the headline ''Charges pending for suspended students.'' The three were arrested and charged with entering students’ dorm rooms and stealing digital cameras, cell phones, laptops and wallets. It was the first time that anyone could remember the mug shots of any students appearing in the campus newspaper—despite there previously having been a student arrested for rape, and another arrested for having guns in his campus housing facility. The difference: The latter were white; the former—the ones with their pictures in the newspaper—were black. Two days later, a university alumnus and youth and college advisor for the Connecticut State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sent an e-mail to numerous members of the campus black students and faculty. A week later, the e-mail appeared in a letter to the editor of the Southern News. In the letter he wrote that while he did not condone the behavior of the three students, putting their police mug shots on the front page of the campus newspaper did a disservice to other blacks

22

Frank Harris III

on campus, of which minorities comprised 20 percent. Said the letter writer: The persons responsible for the media lynching of the three Black male suspects involved, failed to consider that their actions symbolize the attacks of the white media on Black America for over 400 years. From criminalization to dehumanization, it is possible these photos have solidified guilt in the minds of white middle class academicians on Southern's campus. Furthermore, holding these students up to mock and scorn before all the campus has only reinforced the negative stereotypes that society often associates with young Black males. The operative question in this matter would then be, would this have been done if these students were white? Joining the ranks of Americas' media time honored tradition of wrongful deaths of the Black male image, clearly outweighs whatever positives you have done through past issues of Southern News. Your motives and intent in this matter must be called into question.

The primarily white staff felt some anguish over it. In an editor’s note in a subsequent issue, the paper acknowledged the controversy its decision to run the pictures had caused, but said when the decision was made, race was never considered. Rather, the pictures were published simply because the students were arrested. Said the editor’s note: We do acknowledge that to some, this is a sensitive issue. However, we cannot allow that fact to get in the way of doing our job properly. We felt it our duty to show the pictures. By seeing a face with the crime, maybe it could help some students recover their lost items. Our motives were not racially driven.We would have published the photos regardless of race.

As the chair of the journalism department and advisor for the campus newspaper, I knew all of the parties involved on the Southern News staff. I had taught many of them in my classes. I did not believe their intent was to cause harm, nor did I believe their motive in running the mug shots was driven by race. However, as a black man, I had my own discomfort about the photos. It was a discomfort felt by many. One black student, a journalism major, said the publication of the photos made him feel as if he were a suspect. One black administrator expressed dismay that this could happen. Additionally, I also was concerned about the statement that when the decision to run the photos came up, race was never considered. This leads to the central theme of this paper: To what degree should journalists be sensitive to considerations of race when covering a story? More broadly, the question can be asked of journalists in other countries as it extends to

Sensitizing Young Journalists to Representations of Differences

23

include ethnicity, religion, and other areas that designate a group as a minority or underrepresented group. For the purpose of this paper, a minority is defined as a group within a nation or society that is one or more of the following: ƒ ƒ ƒ

A numerical minority; A group with a history of being separated from the mainstream— socially, politically, economically or legally; A group with a relative recent history of being social outcasts (such as immigrants whose presence was acceptable in small numbers, but unbearable in larger numbers).

Returning to the central theme concerning race in news coverage, it should be emphasized that journalists are taught to be fair and impartial when reporting the news. That includes the entire newsgathering process. As such, if journalists—be they students or professionals—say they do not consider race when working on a story, that is, that they are, in effect, colorblind, then it can be said they are striving to embody what is expected of journalists: to be fair and impartial in an effort to report without bias. The argument to the contrary, that race should be considered and weighed on an ad hoc basis, might be construed by some to mean that journalism should be ''racialized.'' So there is the argument that a story should be considered on its own merits, with no consideration of race. This view holds that all stories should be treated the same. If a story involves any group, it should ignore any differences in the people involved in the story and just present it as it is. The idea, again, is to be fair and impartial. Hence the view that the story should be ''race neutral.'' Surely one cannot have one set of rules for publishing (or not publishing) a story for whites and another for blacks, another for Muslims, another for Hispanics. So the view that race was not considered would seem a valid one. Indeed, my own policy with regard to the school newspaper has been not to ask the race or other factors of the sources involved in a story unless a staffer brings it up. It should be noted that as advisor of the school newspaper, my role is to guide staff members and offer advice and feedback to questions they may have in all aspects of publishing the paper. They, however, make all the editorial decisions, which is a right they maintain under the First Amendment, which covers college newspapers at public institutions in the United States. The discussion about running the photos never led to a discussion of race. My recommendation was that the editor publish the pictures as long as the pictures were accurate. Had I known the students were black, would my

24

Frank Harris III

answer have been different? Yes, it would. That is not to say I would have recommended not to run the mug shots. I would, however, have posed some questions and issues for the editor to consider. For one, has the newspaper ever run mug shots of students before? If not, then why now? Would the staff be aware of the implications of running mug shots of black students here, but not running mug shots of white students arrested for worse crimes? As such, the fact that no mug shots of whites had been published in the Southern News suggests there should be a conscious consideration of race when looking at publishing the mug shots of blacks. It should be a conscious consideration of race with regards to these minority group members, just as it was presumably an unconscious consideration of race with regard to the majority group members—the former whose pictures were not included; the latter, whose pictures were not. With regard to the question of race as an issue, the view often is that unless someone consciously and overtly makes decisions based on race, that person is absolved of being identified as being a racist intent on harm. This overlooks the fact that decisions previously made, that treat the majority group favorably or disparately in a positive way, are also decisions that are race-based. As such, there is no colorblindness here if clearly one group has better treatment than others. That has been the case indicated in Robert Entman and Andrew Rojecki's book, ''The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America.'' They noted that black defendants were four times as likely as whites to be featured in a mug shot in a local TV news report. While this is TV, the same can be said to exist with newspapers. Race seems to be playing a role in unconscious decisions of support with regard to whites and blacks. This idea of unconscious decisions about race is an important one to consider, particularly when journalists or anyone says that their decisions are devoid of race consideration. Unconscious decisions rooted in race are something researchers Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald uncovered in the 1990s through an Implicit Association Test they developed.1 In their research, ''implicit'' is synonymous with the words ''unconscious'' or ''unaware attitudes and beliefs'' that people hold. Because the attitudes and beliefs are implicit, people are unaware of some of the beliefs or preferences they hold. In further research by Greenwald and Banaji—“Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes, Self-esteem and Stereotypes,'' which appeared in a 1

There is an active website on Implicit Association testing in which the public in America and numerous other countries can take the test to learn implicit attitudes not only on race, but on ethnicity, religion, gender and other areas.

Sensitizing Young Journalists to Representations of Differences

25

1995 Psychological Review—they explained that, ''The signature of implicit cognition is that traces of past experience affect some performance, even though the influential earlier experience is not remembered in the usual sense—that is, it is unavailable to self-report or introspection'' (p.4-5).2 Accordingly, the college newspaper staff's assertion that race was not considered can be said to be valid only in the sense that it was not overtly or consciously considered. That is, there was no one saying ''Let's run this mug shot of these black students to make blacks look bad, and never run such mug shots about whites.'' However, the research on implicit association finds that unconscious decisions on race are made all the time by everyday people. This would inherently include journalists, whose actions, emanating from their decisions, bear powerful consequences as evident by other considerable research on the effect of news media on shaping people's impression of others. In Robert Entman's (1989) study, ''How the Media Affect What People Think: An Information Processing Approach,'' Robert M. Entman pointed out that a standard assertion has been that ''media affect what people think about, not what they think'' (p. 347).3 He noted that his findings suggested that ''the media make a significant contribution to what people think—to their political preferences and evaluations—precisely by affecting what they think about. While he was referring to the political messages that newspapers presented to their readers, it would not be a tremendous leap of faith to say that a newspaper's message with regards to the selection of stories and images pertaining to race, ethnicity and religion would have a similar effect. That is, in regards to concerns of shaping racial attitudes, simply reporting a story or, in this case, publishing the mug shots of three black suspects, the news media sets the agenda not only on thinking about the 2

Greenwald and Banaji cited the works of Graf & Schacter, 1985; Greenwald, 1990; Jacoby & Dallas, 1981; Jacoby, Lindsay, & Toth, 1992; Jacoby & Witherspoon, 1982; Kihlstrom, 1990; Roediger, Weldon, & Challis, 1989; Schacter, 1987. 3 Entman cited the works of Klapper, 1960; cf. McGuire, 1985, that stressed that audience members tend to screen out information they don't like; Neuman, 1986; cf. MacKuen, 1984, that said audiences not only pay little attention to the news, but also understand so little that the news could not effectively influence them; Lau and Erber, 1985, p. 60; McCombs and Shaw, 1972; MacKuen, 1984, pp. 372, 386; Parenti, 1985, p. 23; MacKuen and Coombs, 1981; Behr and Iyengar, 1985; Miller, Erbring, and Goldenberg, 1979—whose central theme that audience members' autonomy left little susceptibility to their being influenced on what to think.

26

Frank Harris III

three people pictured in the news for a crime, but how they think about the people charged. Said Entman: If the media (or anyone) can affect what people think about—the information they process—the media can affect their attitudes. This perspective yields an assumption of interdependence: public opinion grows out of an interaction between media messages and what audiences make of them. (1989, p. 349)

The consideration then in regard to the mug shots of the three blacks on the front page of the Southern News is whether what white public opinion thinks about the three as individuals gets projected to members of the racial group to which the three belong. This is the consideration of the letter writer, as well as the black student journalist and other blacks on Southern's campus. Returning to the issue of being a minority and showing the race of the criminal suspects, there is a big difference in how suspects who are minority group members are regarded in comparison to majority group members. In the case presented here, blacks are often construed to represent not just themselves, but the entire race; whites who are pictured are representing themselves. They are individuals. Minority group members, whether in America or some other country, do not have that luxury. This fear of being seen negatively by the majority group has a historic basis. Consider the letter-writer's term, ''media lynching'' to chastise the Southern News for its use of the mug shots of three black males. It is a word that gained prominence following similar words used by Clarence Thomas during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings in October 1991. A black conservative, Thomas, who was facing critical questioning pertaining to an alleged incident of sexual harassment, referred to the hearings as "a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks." Since then, the term has been used to describe the news media's harsh treatment of blacks. When considering the brutal horror of lynchings in America4, in which, according to statistics from the Tuskegee Institute Archives, 3,446 blacks were killed over an 86-year period from 1882-1968,5 the use of the term lynching to signify anything other than the physical torture that was 4

See website Without Sanctuary: Photographs and Postcards of Lynching in America (www.withoutsanctuary.org). 5 The total number of overall lynchings in America was 4,742. Thus blacks represented 73 percent of all lynching victims. It has been said that these numbers are low estimates.

Sensitizing Young Journalists to Representations of Differences

27

committed against black human beings demeans the full horror of the word lynching. On the other hand, the American news media has played a significant role in contributing to the brutal practice of publishing stories of an inflammatory nature that, if not initiating racial animosity that led to lynchings, then certainly spurred such instances on. In Richard M. Perloff's ''The Press and Lynchings of African Americans,'' he said there was little doubt that press coverage of lynchings had a number of effects upon its audience. Among them, he said press coverage may have sown the seeds of ''distorted beliefs about the prevalence of black crime'' (2000, p. 327).6 Such was also said in Franklin D. Gilliam Jr. and Shanto Iyengar's (2000) ''Prime Suspects: The Influence of Local Television News on the Viewing Public'' when discussing the effect of local news coverage. They said the association of violent crime and racial imagery that normally appear in the local news does not go unnoticed by the public. In their work ''The Role of Social Groups in the Persistence of Learned Fear,'' Andreas Olsson, Jeffrey P. Ebert, Mahzarin R. Banaji and Elizabeth A. Phelps referred to the tendency of each group to be more fearful of those of other groups. They said race was not the inherent basis for fear of other groups, but instead, it is likely that sociocultural learning about the identity and qualities of outgroups is what provides the basis for the greater persistence of fear conditioning involving members of another group. Most notably, individuals acquire negative beliefs about outgroups according to their local cultures, and few reach adulthood without considerable knowledge of these prejudices and stereotypes. (2006, p. 387)

They further added: ''It is plausible that repeated exposure to information about outgroups might prepare individuals to fear newly encountered outgroup members'' (p. 387). Whether the fear is rooted in race or a perceived neutral learned behavior of any group different than one's own, the concern by blacks that the publication of the mug shots of other blacks might foster negative association by whites toward all blacks has merit. Still, there are students, such as one in a class discussion on this issue, who will insist that seeing these images will have no effect upon them. That is, seeing blacks as criminals in a mug shot will not make them fearful of all blacks, particularly in an environment where there are many 6

Perloff cited, among others, the work of Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1994.

28

Frank Harris III

blacks and where whites have friends and acquaintances who are black. So the argument would then be that the transference of fear applies only to those whites who have zero to minimal first-hand interactions with blacks. At Southern Connecticut State University, where 10 percent of the 12,100 students are black, one might argue that this theory might thus be nullified. However, if the implicit attitude toward race is something that everyone acquires, then the amount of contact with those of other races would only have an effect on the conscious level. That is people know and will express the ''right'' thing to do, say or conduct themselves. There will be little that can be done to address their unconscious biases. In ''Easier Done than Undone: Asymmetry in the Malleability of Implicit Preferences,'' A.P. Gregg, B. Seibt and M.R. Banaji (2006) indicate that while implicit attitudes are easy to acquire, changing or eliminating implicit attitudes is not easily done. As such, if one has an implicit prejudice attitude toward another group early on, it is difficult to undo it. Reinforcing their finding through anecdotal evidence is the outburst of former ''Seinfeld'' television star Michael Richards at a Los Angeles comedy club in November 2006. As widely reported in America, Richards responded to a heckler with this remark: Fifty years ago, we would have had you upside down with a fork in your ass.

He was referring to the practice of lynching. With that statement alone, his rage against an individual jumped to a rage against a whole race. He would later say, in effect, that he did not have a racist bone in his body and that he didn't know where the rage came from. It just shot out of him, he said. Supposing what he said was true, then where did his ''stuff'' come from? Andrew Scott Baron and Mahzarin R. Banaji, in measuring the racial attitudes of white American children and adults in their 2006 study ''The Development of Implicit Attitudes: Evidence of Race Evaluations from Ages 6 and 10 and Adulthood,'' reported that ''implicit pro-White/antiBlack bias was evident even in the youngest group'' (p. 53). The difference, however, is that among the white six-year-olds, they, according to Baron and Banaji, acknowledged or self-reported their bias. However, while the same intensity of implicit race bias was found in the white 10year-olds and white adults (whose average age was 19), these latter two groups did not display the same honest self-appraisal as the six-year-olds. In other words, as they get older, they learn the socially acceptable way—

Sensitizing Young Journalists to Representations of Differences

29

also known as the politically correct way—to respond to questions about race. As to whether this preference for one's own race is universal for any group, Baron and Banaji (2006) found that black American adults on average ''lack an implicit in-group preference, instead showing no bias in favor of one or the other racial group, even though they report strong ingroup liking on self–report measures'' (p.57).7 With regard to black children, they referred to the 2004 study ''Implicit Race Attitudes in African-American and Hispanic Children,''8 which measured the race attitudes in ''12- to 14-year-old Black Americans who lived and attended school in Bronx, New York" (p. 57). That study found that black children replicated the pattern found for Black adults. Said the study: In other words, at least by age 13, young black Americans do not show the in-group preference that has come to be the hallmark of white Americans, close to 80 percent of whom show some degree of in-group preference on the Implicit Association Test. (p. 57)

Returning to Richards' outburst against blacks, somewhere he learned about lynching as a controlling instrument to be applied to blacks. He consciously or unconsciously absorbed the history of America's racial past pertaining to blacks from formal and informal ways. But with regards to the students at the Southern News, does the publication of the mug shots mean the staff members were racists? While there was a certain blindness to the sensitivity of race, there are some other factors to consider that occur particularly with a college student newspaper that affect the editorial content of the newspaper. For one, there is the natural turnover of staff due to graduation. This serves to bring about a change in editorial judgment and direction in the newspaper. As such, the decision on what story or picture to run can center on the resourcefulness and tenacity of the editor. The editor at the time the mug shots were published was resourceful and tenacious in obtaining the police mug shots of the three black students. Previous editors had the same opportunity to obtain police mug shots of the white rape suspects and the white student with guns in his room, but did not pursue that course of action. Had the current editor been editor earlier, perhaps he would have pursued mug shots then. Of course, the public is unaware of all this. The public sees what appears to be a racial double standard. The fact is, whether by intent or 7 8

Baron and Banaji cited the work of Nosek, Banaji and Greenwald, 2002. Baron, Shusterman, Bordeaux & Banaji, 2004.

30

Frank Harris III

accident, it is a double standard by the newspapers that is race-based. How can young journalists be sensitized to consider race when covering a story?

Recommendation 1. Establish a journalism course that addresses the role of race and ethnicity. Included in journalists' education should be training that recognizes the role race and ethnicity plays in society. At Southern Connecticut State University, there has been a course called Race & the News that is currently a journalism elective. While a journalism course on race is not automatically going to eliminate what some might call a racial faux pas or others might call the inevitable consequence of covering diverse groups, it would at least provide some reference from which to work in the course of their daily work as journalists. 2. Create a classroom environment conducive to frank discussions on race and ethnicity. Achieving this involves establishing ground rules for discussions on race in which everyone participates and hears each other out. There have been times when I have taught the course that there was great tension building between groups. Race is a tough thing for many to hear and deal with. But deal with it, we must. In a Poynter Institute for Media Studies conference on race that I attended back in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1999, Keith Woods, the facilitator used the expression that everyone be committed to ''stay in the room.'' That is, regardless of how tough and uncomfortable some of the discussion gets, that everyone in the session agrees not to leave the room, but stay in, stick it out, listen, speak and work things out. It is important to create a nonjudgmental atmosphere where everyone is comfortable in expressing their thoughts and feelings. One of the challenges that often arises with regard to race, ethnicity and increasingly in America, religious issues, is getting people of the various groups to talk about sensitive issues of race, ethnicity and religion. Generally, it is the majority group members who have trouble expressing their thoughts and feelings out of fear that they will be viewed as racists. It usually is not difficult to get the minority group members to talk. With regard to blacks in America, many often will unwaveringly recount their experiences of racism perhaps because they see themselves as victims. Conversely, many whites often will only express their sentiments with

Sensitizing Young Journalists to Representations of Differences

31

great reluctance, usually because they fear being viewed as perpetrators of racism. One way of fostering an environment conducive to open discussion is getting students to know each other by addressing their assumptions. Pair off students and have them write down their answers to a few basic questions about their partner. The questions can be quite simple, relating to: The type of music this person likes best. Whether this person is ''conservative'' or liberal'' (using your own definition). Whether this person is from a city, small town or the suburbs, whether this person owns a pet (if so, what kind?). Or the questions can get to the point: Does the person have any close friends of another race? What is the partner's view on affirmative action/diversity? What is the partner's view about people of my race? I have found that getting students to do writings on their first awareness of racial and other differences is an effective way to explore their thoughts, feelings and experiences. Questions to ask: Describe your first awareness of race? How do you define yourself? Why do you define yourself this way? They can be assigned into groups of four from which they produce inclass and out-of-class journals on their thoughts and feelings about the class discussions, readings or videos, then work together within their groups to share their impressions. There will be those who will share views that some may find shocking, but it is important that the class members, while free to disagree, do so within the framework of respecting the person's right to express one's opinion and views. All students have a story about their first awareness of race. Sometimes these stories and other experience shape who they are. It also fosters a good discussion point for the courses. The fact is students bring their experiences and ''baggage'' with them and it is important for them to open up and show from where they have traveled and what they have accumulated along the way before there can be frank and open discussions. Once students are comfortable discussing race or ethnicity on a personal basis, they can look at the roots of race in the coverage of news. Then, take a look at the role of race in the American news process. 3. Use as teaching moments the experiences that arise from students' work on the campus newspaper. The fact is, a course titled Race and the News has been offered as part of a journalism elective course for several years at Southern. Some of the students on the staff had taken the course. Yet, there was still a blindness

32

Frank Harris III

to the sensitivities of race. It will happen. Classroom experience works best when tied to actual experience in covering stories for the news media. It took the hot heat of public scrutiny from some of the campus' black students and faculty to bring the issue to light. In this case, one rule does not fit all. Whereas, I think in hindsight, the mug shots should not have been published in light of the absence of publishing the mug shots of whites for worse charges, the then-city editor of the local New Haven Register, who is black, said he would have run it. But as he pointed out, he had previously published the mug shots of whites too. In other words, he had established a record of consistency with majority group members. The essence is consistency and awareness. That can only be brought to the light of learning through course discussions and experience attained through the campus newspaper.

Final note In concluding, it should be noted that in the following school semester, the new incoming editor of the Southern News took a step toward fairness and consistency: The next time a white student was arrested for a serious charge, his mug shot ran in the front page of the Southern News.

References Baron, A.S., Shusterman, A., Bordeaux, A. & Banaji, M.R. (2004, January). Implicit Race Attitudes in African American and Hispanic Children. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Austin, Texas. Baron, A.S. & Banaji, M.R. (2006). The Development of Implicit Attitudes: Evidence of race evaluations from ages 6 and 10 and adulthood. Association for Psychological Science, 17(1), 53-58. Behr, R.L. & Iyengar, S. (1985). Television News, Real World Cues, and Changes in the Public Agenda. Public Opinion Quarterly, 49, 38-57. Entman, R.M. (May 1989). How the Media Affect What People Think: An information processing approach. Journal of Politics, 51(2), 347-370. Entman, R.M. & Andrew, R. (2000). The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and race in America. University of Chicago Press. Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Morgan, M. & Signorielli, N. (1994). Growing up with Television: The cultivation perspective. Bryant, J. & Zillman, D. (eds.). In Media Effects Advances in Theory and Research. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Sensitizing Young Journalists to Representations of Differences

33

Gilliam Jr., F.D. & Iyengar, S. (July 2000). Prime Suspects: The influence of local television news on the viewing public. American Journal of Political Science, 44(3), 571. Graf, P. & Schacter, D. (1985). Implicit and Explicit Memory for New Associations in Normal and Amnesic Subjects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 11, 501518. Greenwald, A.G. (1990). What Cognitive Representations Underlie Social Attitudes? Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 28, 254-260. Greenwald, A.G. & Banaji, M. (1995). Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes. Psychological Review, 102(1), 4-27. Greenwald, A.G., Oakes, M.A. & Hoffman, H.G. (2003). Targets of Discrimination: Effects of race on responses to weapons holders. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 399-405. Gregg, A.P., Seibt, B. & Banaji, M.R. (2006). Easier Done than Undone: Asymmetry in the malleability of implicit preferences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 1-20. Jacoby, L.L. & Dallas, M. (1981). On the Relationship between Autobiographical Memory and Perceptual Learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 110, 306-340. Jacoby, L.L., Toth, J.P., Lindsay, D.S. & Debner, J.A. (1992). Lectures for a Layperson: Methods for revealing unconscious processes. Bornstein, R.F. & Pittman, T.S. (eds.). In Perception without Awareness, New York: Guilford Press. Jacoby, L.L. & Witherspoon, D. (1982). Remembering without Awareness. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 36, 300-324. Kihlstrom, J. F. (1990). The Psychological Unconscious. Pervin, L.A. (ed.). In Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research. New York: Guilford Press. Klapper, J.T. (1960). The Effects of Mass Communication. Glencoe, IL: Free Press. Lau, R.R. & Erberl, R. (1985). An Information Processing Approach to Political Sophistication. Kraus, S. and Perloff, R. (eds.). In Mass Media and Political Thought. Beverly Hills: Sage. McCombs, M.E. & Shaw, D.L. (1972). The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media. Public Opinion Quarterly, 36, 176-87. McGuire, W.J. (1985). Attitudes and Attitude. Aronson, E. and Lindzey, G. (eds.). In The Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol. 2 (3rd ed.). New York: Random House.

34

Frank Harris III

MacKuen, M. & Coombs, S. (1981). More than News. Beverly Hills: Sage. MacKuen, M. (1984). Exposure to Information, Belief Integration, and Individual Responsiveness to Agenda Change. American Political Science Review, 78, 72-91. Miller, A.H., Erbring, L. & Goldenberg, E. (1979). Type-Set Politics: Impact of Newspapers on Public Confidence. American Sociological Review, 50, 273-88. Murphey, D.D. (1995). Lynching: History and analysis. Washington, DC: Council for Social and Economic Studies. Neuman, W.R. (1986). The Paradox of Mass Politics, Knowledge and Opinion in the American Electorate. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Nosek, B.A., Banaji, M.R. & Greenwald, A.G. (2002). Harvesting Intergroup Attitudes and Stereotypes from a Demonstration Website. Group Dynamics, 6, 101–115. Olsson, A., Ebert, J.P, Banaji, M.R. & Phelps, E. (2006). The Role of Social Groups in the Persistence of Learned Fear. Science, 309, 785787. Parenti, M. (1985). Inventing Reality. New York: St. Martin's. Perloff, R.M. (January 2000). The Press & Lynching of African Americans. Journal of Black Studies, 30(3), 327. Roediger, H.L., Weldon, M.S. & Challis, B.H. (1989). Explaining Dissociations between Measures of Retention: A processing account. Roediger, H.L. & Craik, F.I.M. (eds.). In Varieties of Memory and Consciousness. Hillsdale, N.J., Erlbaum. Schacter, D. (1987). Implicit Memory: History and current status. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 12, 432-444. ''Without Sanctuary: Photographs and Postcards of Lynching in America,'' collection of James Allen and John Littlefield, 2000-2005. www.withoutsanctuary.org.

TIME OUT FOR HUCKLEBERRY FINN SHARON E. RUSH

Introduction Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is one of the most frequently assigned books in America’s classrooms; only Shakespeare is assigned more often (Mensh & Mensh, 2000). When my daughter read it in her sixth grade class, however, I began to think about why it should not be included in public school curricula. I think I have captured the essence of the harm she and other Black students suffer when they are required to read the book with the concept of “emotional segregation.” Emotional segregation occurs when students of color are isolated emotionally from their White classmates because the classroom environment promotes the “race precept,” that is, the myth of white superiority and Black inferiority (Higginbotham, 1996). Emotional segregation violates the Constitution’s guarantee that the government treats people equally but, perhaps more to the point, emotional segregation is inconsistent with the value of educational equality, a value held dear by loving parents and teachers. In this essay, I share with you a small part of my book that develops this concept in more detail (Rush, 2006). Two important caveats before I begin. First, this essay is written to loving parents and teachers, and especially to loving white teachers. They would not require students to read the novel if they believed it would hurt them. In fact, most teachers probably believe they understand the racism in Huck Finn and use the novel to denounce slavery and racial inequality. Teachers and parents think there is no harm in reading the book as long as students are taught to reject the “bad” parts of it. Second, parents and teachers who want the book included in school curricula usually join the debate by insisting, “But it’s a classic.” I explore this aspect of the debate in my book and only suggest here that even if one assumes the novel deserves its status as a classic in American literature, the harm it causes outweighs whatever literary value it is given by critics (Rush, 2006). Thus, my experiences as a white mother of a Black child cause me to share three closely related reasons, among others, why teaching the novel creates

36

Sharon E. Rush

emotional segregation in the classroom even though teachers assign it with the best of intentions and even though white society holds it out as a classic.

Reason 1: The book’s language privileges white students The language in Huck Finn creates emotional segregation by privileging White students over Black students in the classroom. On one level this is obvious: white students are not emotionally assaulted by the message of Black inferiority and white superiority that forms the basis of the novel. One way this message is conveyed is through Twain’s use of the racial epithet (the n-word) over 213 times. Only Black children can be called the racial epithet in the way the word is used in the novel and only Black children could have been Jim, the runaway slave, who is repeatedly referred to by the epithet. Many teachers justify exposing students to the word because of the novel’s historical time-frame and the way the word was used at the time. On reflection, however, the word continues to be used today just as it was used during Twain’s time: it is the ugliest reminder of how white society dehumanizes Blacks (Kennedy, 2002). For example, Judge Ito gave serious consideration to the admissibility of Mark Fuhrman’s testimony in O.J. Simpson’s murder trial because to have Fuhrman utter the racial epithet arguably would have created havoc in the courtroom (Arac, 1997). Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “What argument, what eloquence can avail against the power of the one word n___s? The man of the world annihilates the whole combined force of all the antislavery societies of the world by pronouncing it” (Arac, 1997). Nothing a teacher does or says can change this historical or modern reality. From a different perspective, most teachers think they can protect their students from the “bad” parts of the novel by explaining that whites should not use the epithet. This view is interesting and ironic because it is premised on an understanding that the book will cause harm (create emotional segregation) if teachers are not careful. However, parents and teachers must understand the total harm of the race precept or they will perpetuate racial inequality. As long as white students continue to be privileged over Black students, no amount of denouncing Black inferiority will be effective because inferiority and superiority go together; one cannot exist without the other. Thus, no matter how careful teachers are, no matter what admonishments they might give to the class to try to ensure that their Black students are not harmed, teachers cannot protect Black

Time out for Huckleberry Finn

37

students from the emotional harm inflicted only on them when they repeatedly read the word. A poignant example illustrates this concern. In one classroom, as an introduction to Huck Finn, a white teacher asked her students what the racial epithet meant and the white students turned around and looked at the Black students in the room (Henry, 1992). This example illustrates what emotional segregation is and how it functions to promote racial inequality in an otherwise racially integrated classroom. Even though the children were sitting together in the same room, the racial epithet created an emotional color line between them. To include the book in a mandatory curriculum, where students have no choice but to read it, reinforces the myth of white superiority and Black inferiority because the curricular choice sends a message to all students that the teacher does not care what emotional harm or humiliation the book causes Black students.

Reason 2: Teachers ignore the importance of literary imagination My concern here is twofold. First, T.S. Eliot described Huck Finn as a “boy’s book” (Eliot, 1961). Admittedly, Twain is skilled at drawing young boys into the story through the character of Huck. However, it is important to note that the story’s appeal is only to white boys; Huck’s whiteness is an essential aspect of his identity and his race defines him in contradistinction to Jim and all Blacks. Twain’s success at awakening the literary imagination of white boys creates its own irony. One of the primary reasons white society values the book is because Huck ostensibly stands his ground against slavery. Huck promises Jim he will not return him to slavery and declares he would rather go to hell than turn in Jim. Throughout the novel, however, Huck vacillates on his promise as he struggles with his “moral” dilemma. Again, some reflection exposes my concern. White society has always known slavery is immoral and has tried to justify it because of White’s society economic dependence on Black labor (Beard, 1984). It has been a struggle for white society to come to grips with its historical dehumanization of African Americans (Robinson, 2000). Asking white boys who already feel privileged reading the novel to empathize with Huck is a “moral regression.” A legitimate question to ask is whether there is any pedagogical value in asking young white boys to try to imagine that Huck faces a real moral dilemma. In my opinion, it is disingenuous to use the book to teach children this artificially constructed “moral” lesson.

38

Sharon E. Rush

Second, as white boys’ literary imaginations are absorbed with Huck’s adventures, the literary imaginations of the Black students are ignored and this contributes to the emotional segregation in the classroom. With whom do teachers think Black students identify? To the extent teachers even think about this issue, I think they expect all students to identify with Huck because his adventures are “fun.” This contention is consistent with most whites’ unawareness of their own whiteness. “Whites do not look at the world through a filter of racial awareness, even though whites are, of course, a race” (Wildman & Davis, 1995). From the perspective that whites have no race, then it is possible to understand how teachers might think that all students would identify with Huck because Huck would be “raceless.” This seems unlikely, however, because the novel is about race. Moreover, not only are people of color constantly aware of race, Whites also are constantly aware of the racial identities of people of color (Feagin & Vera, 1995). Realistically, what Black students are likely to identify with a white boy, especially one who constantly refers to Black people by the epithet? If this is what teachers expect, then think of the effect this has on all students. They must wonder why their teachers would ask Black students to identify with Huck and thereby disown their own racial identity. Again, this suggests to all students that the race precept is valid. In this way, white teachers ignore the emotional dilemma Black students face when asked to read the book. It is unhealthy for them to even try to identify with Huck, but it also is difficult for them to identify with Jim because Jim is a powerless slave. Do loving parents and teachers want Black children to try to imagine what is was like to be a slave? These exercises in literary imagination create emotional segregation. Black children do not and should not think of themselves as powerless people in a white society. Yet Black students do identify with Jim on some level because racial identity is as important to them as it is to Huck and whites. My daughter wrote in one of her assignments that the book is racist because Twain made “Jim treat himself lower than whites” because even Jim called himself by the epithet. She continued, “This meant to me that Mark Twain was saying that people of color have no heart, no dignity, no soul.” An eleven-year old Black girl correctly interpreted Twain’s belief in the validity of the race precept and she took it quite personally. Twain isolated her and most Black readers from their classmates who do not feel this harm and have no reason to take the racism personally. Thus, the racial differences between Huck and Jim are the essence of the novel and Twain is praised precisely because he is successful at

Time out for Huckleberry Finn

39

tapping into white boys’ imaginations. The harmful effect of the racism on Blacks’ literary imaginations cannot be ignored. Undoubtedly, loving teachers do not mean to strip Black students of their hearts, their dignity, or their souls, but teaching Huck Finn has this effect on Black students while it simultaneously protects white readers by segregating them from assaults on their hearts, their dignity, their souls. The only way to avoid the emotional segregation caused by the book is to exclude it from the curriculum.

Reason 3: Huck and Jim’s relationship is not a loving one Many whites justify their support for the novel by pointing out that Huck and Jim defy social mores by developing an interracial friendship. Lionel Trilling, a prominent literary critic in the late 1940s said, “[I]n Jim [Huck] finds his true father” (Eliot, 1961). I do not want to suggest that there is no affection between Huck and Jim, but I do want to suggest that their emotional attachment to each other is not based on love and certainly should not be characterized as a loving father/son relationship. Again, I explore many facets of this in my book and will highlight a few points here. Huck and Jim’s relationship is characterized by a power imbalance reflective of master/slave and not father/son. Huck is the de facto master of a grown man and exercises power over Jim. Perhaps the most obvious power Huck has over Jim is Huck’s power to return Jim to slavery. In fact, Twain plays this point over and over in his book (as he must) because it is essential to Huck’s “moral” development. No loving son would dream of harming his father, especially by returning his father to an institution as deadly as slavery. Admittedly, Huck never does squeal on Jim, perhaps indicating that Huck eventually comes to love Jim. On the other hand, Huck also never gets Jim to a free state and, in fact, loses sight of this goal following the raft’s collision with the river boat. This adventure illustrates how shallow Huck’s emotional attachment is to Jim. Miraculously, Huck makes his way to land and calls out for Jim but hears nothing in response. He does not look for Jim but continues with his adventures, including an extended stay with the Grangerford family. It is unclear how long Huck is with this family, but it is more than a week and may have been several weeks. During his stay, not once does Huck reflect on Jim’s whereabouts or express sorrow about Jim’s presumed drowning. Jim simply disappears and Huck does not seem to care. What happened to Huck’s conscience, a critical element of the story? Assuming Twain intends the suspense, it nevertheless is odd that Jim might have died in the

40

Sharon E. Rush

collision with the river boat and Huck never worries about him. If Huck truly loves Jim, he could not be so indifferent to Jim’s disappearance. For the most part, however, Jim is largely invisible in the novel, not only literally, but also in the way Ralph Ellison wrote about Blacks in The Invisible Man. One example is offered by many critics to illustrate this. After an explosion on a boat, Aunt Sally asks if anyone got hurt and Huck replies “no,” even though a Black man died in the accident. The most poignant example of Jim’s invisibility comes at the end of the novel. Jim reveals himself to help a doctor administer to Tom Sawyer’s gun shot wound. White men who see Jim threaten to lynch him, but the doctor speaks up for him and describes him as a “good n____.” When Huck learns of Jim’s selfless act, he concludes, “I knowed he was white inside.” Huck’s comment is a dramatic statement of the race precept: the only way Jim’s humanity can be “seen” by Huck (whites) is to transform Jim into a white person. The humanity of Blacks as Blacks remains invisible in the novel. This debunks critics’ praise for the book on the basis that Huck ultimately is able to “see” Jim’s humanity when white society cannot. Indeed, transforming Jim into a white man at the end of the novel seriously defeats Twain’s purported purpose to show Huck’s moral development and rebellion against racism. If Huck does not love Jim’s Blackness, he does not love Jim (Rush, 2000).

Final comments The multiple layers of racism in Huck Finn are not obvious to most whites. I worry that today’s teachers are even less likely to understand or grapple with the racism in Huck Finn because white society generally wants to think racism is history. In this way, many whites go out of their way to avoid “seeing” the persistent racism and racial inequality throughout society. With this mind set, Huck Finn is offered by teachers as proof that white society is no longer like Twain’s society. Consider this comment by Justin Kaplan, Pulitzer Prize winner and recipient of the 1967 National Book Award for his book, Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: It seems unlikely that anyone of any color, who had actually read Huck Finn, instead of merely reading or hearing about it, and who had allowed himself or herself even the barest minimum of intelligent response to its underlying spirit and intention, could accuse it of being ‘racist’ because some of its characters use offensive racial epithets. (Arac, 1997)

Time out for Huckleberry Finn

41

Kaplan’s comment reflects the race precept and a need by White society to trump Black voices and all anti-racist voices. By insulting Blacks and whites who think the novel is racist, Kaplan exposes his own inability to talk about race in sophisticated and compassionate ways. For a person truly committed to racial equality, the best evidence that the book should not be included in public school curricula is Black society’s overwhelming opposition to the book. The inability and unwillingness to respect Blacks’ views that the book is racist and hurtful are inconsistent with white society’s commitment to racial equality. Although repudiating racism and slavery are noble goals, trying to reach those goals by teaching Huck Finn as an anti-racist classic comes at the expense of the emotional welfare of Black students who are subjected to an emotional pain unique to their history and current status in America. Some Black students hide their discomfort and pain, but this does not mean they are not suffering through the assignment or that they are not internalizing the implicit, if not overt, message of white society’s belief in the current validity of the race precept. Critically important, white students who read the novel also “buy into” the message about the current validity of the race precept and their feelings of superiority are reinforced by the novel, even though teachers do not see this internalization, either. If whites respect Blacks’ evaluation that the novel is divisive and should not be part of public school mandatory curricula, teachers can avoid creating emotional segregation in the classroom by excluding it from their curricula. A physically and emotionally integrated classroom reflects the values loving parents and teachers hold with respect to educational equality.

References Arac, J. (1997). Huckleberry Finn as Idol and Target: The functions of criticism in our time. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Beard, C.A. (1984). The Constitution: A minority document. David, A.F. & Woodman, H.D. (eds.). In Conflict and Consensus in Early American History (6th ed.). Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company. Eliot, T.S. (1961). Introduction to the Adventures of Huck Finn. Lynn, K.S. (ed.). In Huckleberry Finn: Text, sources, and criticism. New York: Harcourt Brace. Feagin, J.R. & Vera, H. (1995). White Racism. New York: Routledge. Henry, P. (1992). The Struggle for Tolerance: Race and censorship in Huck Finn. Leonard, J.S. & Tenny, T.A. (eds.). In Satire or Evasion?

42

Sharon E. Rush

Black Perspectives on Huckleberry Finn. Durham: Duke University Press. Higginbotham, A.L. Jr. (1996). Shades of Freedom: Racial politics and presumptions of American legal process. New York: Oxford University Press. Kennedy, R. (2002). Nigger: The strange career of a troublesome word. New York: Pantheon Books. Mensh, E. & Mensh, H. (2000). Black, White, and Huckleberry Finn: Reimagining the American dream. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. Robinson, R. (2000). The Debt: What America owes to Blacks. New York: Dutton. Rush, S.E. (2006). Huck Finn’s ‘Hidden’ Lessons: Teaching and learning across the color line. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. —. (2000). Loving across the Color Line: A white adoptive mother learns about race. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Wildman, S.M. & Davis, A.D. (1995). Language and Silence: Making systems of privilege visible. Delgado, R. (ed.). In Critical Race Theory: The cutting edge. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

THE ROLE OF CONTEMPORARY MULTI-ETHNIC LITERATURE IN DEVELOPING STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING APPRECIATION OF OTHER CULTURES TO CHILDREN AND ADULTS KULDIP KAUR KUWAHARA

I said I was born in the West Indies and lived in the United States and that I was an American, even though I was a British subject, but I preferred to think of myself as an internationalist. The chaoush said he didn’t understand what was an internationalist. I laughed and said that an internationalist was a bad nationalist. —A Long Way from Home (p. 300)

In The Black Atlantic, Paul Gilroy (1993) refers to writers who “begin as African-Americans or Caribbean people and are then changed into something else which evades these specific labels and with them all fixed notions of nationality and national identity” (p. 19). Whether such experiences of exile are enforced or chosen, these writers “articulate a desire to escape the restrictive bonds of ethnicity, national identification and sometimes even ‘race’ itself” (p. 19). Gilroy goes on to define “the black Atlantic” as “this desire to transcend both the structures of the nation state and the constraints of ethnicity and national particularity” (p. 19). The richness and complexity of life is the domain of diasporic and multi-ethnic literature. Writers and theorists play with words in different worlds, highlighting connections and contradictions in a wide range and broad spectrum of world views. In developing graduate seminars in contemporary multi-ethnic literature, images of women in world literature, diasporic studies, exile studies, translation studies and postcolonial studies, I have sought to underline pedagogical approaches that teach children and adults appreciation of cultures other than their own. We see the beginnings of the appreciation of “other” cultures when what is perceived as “other” becomes part of “one’s own.” This is not to erase difference, but rather to acknowledge it by seeing it as part of a larger whole. Contemporary multiethnic literature provides the distancing effect needed to develop

44

Kuldip Kaur Kuwahara

appropriate strategies to restore balance and wholeness in a world torn apart, conquered and subdued by “others.” Ironically, though slavery and colonization led to increase of power over the powerless, the powerful also carried, what I would term, the burden of “othering.” This concept of carrying the white man’s burden translates to the realm of gender, power and powerlessness as well. If Rudyard Kipling carries the white man’s burden in a way that Salman Rushdie does not, Richard Wright carries the black man’s burden in a way that Zora Neale Hurston does not. In the 21st century, we seek community through awareness of difference. The role of multi-ethnic literature is central to the creation of a community that appreciates the connections between our common humanity as well as unique differences. The last two decades of the 20th century, and the beginning of the 21st century, has been a time of tremendous paradigm shifts. We have traveled more than half-a-century since modern post-World War I and World War II literature, and postmodern, postcolonial, as well as first, second, and third-wave feminism are now part of contemporary multi-ethnic literature. A study of postcolonial multi-ethnic literature reveals a pattern of hybridity and multi-layering that calls for a hybrid aesthetics to approach texts such as Maxine Hong Kingston’s Tripmaster Monkey, Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World, Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, and Ben Okri’s Infinite Riches. We need more sophisticated tools to understand, interpret and appreciate literary texts that cross national borders, or, like Yan Martel’s Life of Pi, remain at sea tossing and sailing through calm and troubled waters in search of different shores. In contemporary multi-ethnic works, far from denying differences between cultures, new and innovative pedagogical approaches call for an examination of diverse and hybrid cultures that go beyond limiting distinctions between “us” and “them.” Contemporary literature has played a significant role in correcting the imbalance of the 19th and early 20th centuries by having the Empire write back. If the spread of colonialism and the slave trade marked the beginning of globalization, the 20th and 21st centuries, with their focus on internationalization and respect for “other” cultures in an interdependent world, have shifted the balance by developing strategies that enhance appreciation of “the other.” The 21st century is a time of tremendous change and challenges, as well as possibilities. In the 19th century, the de-centering of power and authority opened up multiple avenues and patterns of thought and feeling that went hand in hand with individual rights and equality. Yet, at that time, even as the rhetoric of democracy and equality before the law made

Developing Strategies for Teaching Appreciation of Other Cultures

45

itself heard, there continued to exist a parallel world colonized, conquered and subdued by the same powers that celebrated freedom and individualism. Much of the literature of the time reflected both the reality and the inherent paradoxes on which social realities were based. In her essay, “Three Women’s Texts and a Critique of Imperialism,” Gayatri Spivak points out that: It should not be possible to read nineteenth-century British literature without remembering that imperialism, understood as England’s social mission, was a crucial part of the cultural representation of England to the English. The role of literature in the production of cultural representation should not be ignored. (p. 798)

The colonized often internalized the rhetoric of Empire and read English literature from that perspective. Chinua Achebe, for instance, on first reading Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, did not realize he was reading it from an English perspective—“them” vs. “us.” It registered a shock with him when he realized that the so-called nameless “savages” who were jumping up and down were like him, native to the continent of Africa, Congo, the heart of darkness. Gradually, the reality dawned on him that, since the British had colonized Nigeria, he identified with the ruling class and thus dismissed the importance of natives, who existed in the novel without a name or way of life. Motivated by the awareness of how he saw himself and others, both British and native, he took on the challenge of writing a counter novel, Things Fall Apart, published in 1958. Achebe thus made a 20th century response to Conrad’s novel and showed how 19th century globalization, based on conquest and colonization, had oftentimes projected a limited truth, and that readers of several great 19th century novels came away from their fictional experiences with a distorted or incomplete view of the truth. At the end of Things Fall Apart, Achebe writes of the Commissioner who had “toiled to bring civilization to different parts of Africa,” and reflected on the book he intended to write, “The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading. One could almost write a whole chapter on him” (p. 147). He concluded with, “He had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger” (p. 148). In this conclusion, Achebe shows how the Commissioner’s thoughts and attitudes toward the natives will have far-reaching effects since the book he publishes will be read by millions contrasting with the central character of the novel, Okonkwo, who, in committing suicide, enters the

46

Kuldip Kaur Kuwahara

silence of death with no spokesman to give voice to his innermost thoughts and fears. It is these thoughts and fears that Achebe gives voice to as he provides the reader of the novel with a double vision—the narrative as understood and communicated by the Commissioner, and the reader who has, as it were, been placed by the window to see Okonkwo’s life unfold before his eyes. Teaching Conrad’s Heart of Darkness along with its counter-novel, Things Fall Apart, provides balance through comparative perspectives and is an effective strategy to develop appreciation of other cultures. Jean Rhys’s novel, The Wide Sargasso Sea, also provides an answer to Charlotte Bronte’s portrayal of the mad woman in the attic in Jane Eyre. The silenced mad woman is given a voice in The Wide Sargasso Sea. The reader sees her grow up in the Caribbean, marry the symbol of colonial power and domination, Mr. Rochester, who then returns with her to the English center to shut her up in a cold, damp attic. Rhys’s counter novel questions the portrayal of the mad woman in the larger context of colonialism and feminism, and provides the reader with an appreciation of diverse, paradoxical, and ironic perspectives in multi-ethnic literature. To the 21st century reader, Hurston’s literary works come wrapped in rainbows embracing the world, opening windows, connecting real and imagined worlds. She is also part of a contemporary world searching for community and the power of the pen to overcome what disunites and makes things fall apart at a time of war, discord, destruction and abuse of power. She weaves cross-cultural stories from the souls of black men and women looking for patterns, shaping reality, making sense of her world. Including her works in a graduate seminar in 20th- and 21st-century multi-ethnic literature, as well as a first year seminar, has been a challenging experience. Typically, first year students take composition classes to improve their writing skills. Faced with the prospect of reading Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, they asked provocative questions. What was the point of reading Hurston when she filled her work with sub-standard English? It was difficult to read the dialogue that was not relevant to their experience. This occurred in North Carolina Central University where Hurston had once been a member of the faculty for a brief period during which she also founded the department of theater. When informed of this, students sat up and listened with interest as they became aware of exciting connections between what they were reading in class and the theatrical production of Mules and Men by the department of theater on campus. It was an award-winning performance bringing alive a whole way of life in the South. Alive with colors, sights and sounds of different worlds, it

Developing Strategies for Teaching Appreciation of Other Cultures

47

explored the shaping of distinct cultural sensibilities and the connections between multi-ethnic identities in cross-cultural contexts. The script was a theatrical version of Hurston’s collection of short stories and essays, and, before its presentation at the Kennedy Center, the original cast from North Carolina Central University visited Eatonville, Florida, and did research on the town and the people that Hurston immortalized in her work. Inspired by this, a student brought in a tape recorder for a class presentation and had the class listen to characters talking on the porch at the opening of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Another group dressed up in costume and took on the challenge of interpreting Hurston’s fiction, its universal relevance, as well as the depiction of a particular way of life. Porch culture, people sitting on porches at the end of a day, talking stories, telling lies to discover the truth, engaged the students’ attention as they looked at life through the fresh eyes of Hurston’s fiction. Some warmed to childhood memories of listening to stories told by grandparents about porch culture and the slow movement of time. Others began to experience a whole different way of life through fiction, relating oral traditions in African culture and trickster tales to the African American art of storytelling. Once the students had freed themselves from traditional ways of teaching and learning, they were free to experience the art of Hurston. They had been limited in their responses to Hurston’s writing by traditional teaching strategies. In its open-endedness and the refusal to be contained within the canon of the first half of the 21st century, the fiction and non-fiction of Hurston represents the late 20th and early 21st centuries with its interest in challenging the canon and foregrounding the significance of her multi-layered aesthetic designs. It is this 21st century interest in global, transnational contexts and diasporic studies that prompted me to include Hurston’s work in the graduate seminar in 20th and 21st century multi-ethnic literature. Studying selected contemporary authors from a variety of cultures including the Pacific, Caribbean, Native-American, Asian-American, South Asian, African American, Nigerian, South African and Canadian, we explored the value of story-telling in multi-cultural contexts to determine how literature shapes cultural identity, examined women writers in multi-ethnic contexts, made connections between oral traditions in multi-ethnic literatures, focused on the colonial dimension in postcolonial world literatures and observed how historical events inspired and influenced literature. Reading and discussion were based on cultural theory and criticism with special focus on reader-response theory and the 21st century reader of multi-ethnic literature. Secondary works such as Bonnie TuSmith’s All My Relatives: Community in Contemporary Ethnic American Literatures, and

48

Kuldip Kaur Kuwahara

New Approaches to American Ethnic Literatures, edited by Amritjit Singh, Joseph Skerrett and Robert Hogan, were of special interest to students with their focus on the role of historical memory in defining issues of communal and cultural diversity. This relationship between individuality and community, and the search for a balance in writing as an individual in a community shaped by storytelling and folklore, is as central to the work of Hurston as it is to the writing of Kingston and Alice Walker. Walker, who acknowledged Hurston as a foremother to her success as a novelist, had a profound impact on class discussion as students in the graduate seminar on multi-ethnic literature set out to explore complex questions raised by the shaping and significance of collective histories. Discussion centered around Hurston’s interest in studying different cultures as a student of anthropology, and critical issues related to the use of the terms “civilized” and “primitive” within the larger context of colonial/postcolonial studies. Wole Soyinka’s rejection of Karl Jung’s application of these terms was a provocative starting point. If the 20th century was the age of Freud and psycho-analysis, the 21st century was influenced by Freud’s student, Jung’s interest in the “Collective Unconscious” and its relation to cultural studies. Hurston’s interest in folklore challenges Jung’s interpretation of the terms “civilized” and “primitive,” and Soyinka’s response further develops Hurston’s perspective on the nature and value of the artistic response. In Myth, Literature and the African World, Soyinka, points out that to the African mind, myth-making and magical thinking are not a form of escape but a way of capturing the essence of experience through art. Through the magic of dance, song, and pantomime, Soyinka explores Yoruba myth in his play, The Lion and the Jewel, and an entire world comes alive as viewers are immersed in both the experience of watching the play and participating in it as actors and actresses. To read Their Eyes Were Watching God and Kingston’s Tripmaster Monkey, is to enter connected worlds that are also distinct. Like Hurston, Kingston, born in America, returns to the legends and myths of her ancestors. Kingston turns to her Chinese roots to explore the identity of her fictional hero, Wittman Ah Sing, a creative artist in the multi-ethnic city of San Francisco who seeks to transcend race and class in American society. The novel is an indictment of superficial stereotyping of minority cultures in American society. In Tripmaster Monkey, Kingston takes her readers on a journey to America, “The Gold Mountain.” The “Gold Mountain” trunk becomes a theatrical trunk “big enough to carry all you own to a new land and never come back (…) big enough to hold all the costumes for the seventy-two transformations of the King of the Monkeys

Developing Strategies for Teaching Appreciation of Other Cultures

49

in a long run of Journey to the West in its entirety” (p. 29). Like the central character of The Woman Warrior, Wittman Ah Sing takes on hybrid identities that challenge both Eastern and Western readers to recreate complex multicultural layerings of Kingston’s artistic vision. Through magical realism, Kingston plays with East-West connections and contradictions creating compelling images of women and men in multiethnic American literature. In catching the rhythm and flavor of life, masterpieces of multi-ethnic world literature can lead to peace and community-building through appreciation of multi-ethnic world cultures. At a time of war and conflict, in The Fifth Book of Peace, Kingston asserts, “The images of peace are ephemeral. The language of peace is subtle. The reasons for peace, the definitions of peace, the very idea of peace have to be invented, and invented again” (p. 402). Through appreciation of other cultures comes peace and through appreciation of multi-ethnic literature, peace can be created. From the perspective of the creative writer, the idea of peace is a creative moment of vision. We see this in the inspiring and thoughtprovoking conclusion to The Fifth Book of Peace, as Kingston calls on children and adults, “Children, everybody, here’s what to do during war: In a time of destruction, create something. A poem. A parade. A friendship. A community. A vow. A moral principle. One peaceful moment” (p. 402).

References Achebe, C. (1958). Things Fall Apart. Oxford: Heinemann Publishers. Conrad, J. (1910). Heart of Darkness. New York, NY: New American Library. Gilroy, P. (1993). The Black Atlantic: Modernity and double consciousness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Hurston, Z.N. (1990). Their Eyes were Watching God. New York: HarperCollins. Jung, C.G. (1989). Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Trans. Richard and Clara Winston. Ed. Aniela Jaffe. New York: Random House. Kingston, M.H. (1990). Tripmaster Monkey. New York: Random House/Vintage Books. —. (2003). The Fifth Book of Peace. New York: Random House/Vintage Books. McKay, C. (1970). A Long Way from Home. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

50

Kuldip Kaur Kuwahara

Rhys, J. (1966). Wide Sargasso Sea. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Soyinka, W. (1976). Myth, Literature and the African World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. —. (1963). The Lion and the Jewel. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Spivak, G. (1991). Three Women’s Texts and a Critique of Imperialism. Warhol, R. & Herndl, D. (eds.) In Feminisms: An anthology of literary theory and criticism. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. TuSmith, B. (1994). All My Relatives. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. Walker, A. (1985). The Color Purple. New York: Washington Square Press.

TEACHING WRITING ACROSS CULTURES GINGER JONES

I learned from a very early age that ideas of race are fluid and provisional. I grew up in the state of Louisiana, which is home to a mix of cultures and races. My mother’s relatives are Italians and Creoles, Frenchspeaking people of mixed European and African descent. My father’s family was predominantly Irish. While I have not always appreciated the mix of social perspectives my family’s cultural background has given me—in fact, I spent most of my graduate school experience ignoring the rich family history I come from—I’ve finally realized that my background gives me a head start in the classroom, especially a racially-mixed classroom. For most of my life, my teachers did not recognize my diverse background. I was taught to read and discuss the literature of the majority and, because I had no sense of the wealth of my cultural history, I tried to write as though my experiences were the same as that of the majority. Later, as a teaching assistant in graduate school, I was trained to teach as I had been taught: to explain the unknown in terms of the known. For example, I would often explain that we determine our arguments once we determine our audience. One would not argue with one’s mother in the same way one argues with one’s significant other. However, my examples were almost always taken from what I perceived as a social and cultural background I shared with my students. I knew about minority literature, but I had no guide for understanding, say, how perfectly realized the talent of Langston Hughes was. I read Hughes, of course, but as a secondary artist, one influenced by Vachal Lindsey and Carl Sandburg. I understood I would not have been able to complete the first job I had been hired to do, design a writing program for a small historically Black university that had never had one, if I taught as I had been taught. If I refused to acknowledge the diversity of my students’ lives—not only their racial diversity, but the time and energy they have to spend on higher education as well as the varying goals and attitudes they have about what writing and literature will do for them—I would not, as a teacher, have succeeded. I needed to design a teaching environment in

52

Ginger Jones

which minority students were taught the unknown in terms of what they knew, yet without altering or “dumbing down” the material. I had to learn about my students’ cultural references, expectations, and concerns. In time, I developed a set of teaching strategies that have been effective in multi-cultural writing classes. When I show up on the first day of classes, I realize that students who notice my skin color can perceive me as a potential threat, or as an ally. Just as, on that first day, I scan the faces of my students for non-verbal cues that indicate whether they have understood my explanation of my syllabus, for example. I think students can be equally adept at inferring a writing teacher’s openness to their backgrounds and experiences. Students recognize that a creative writing class may provide an avenue for ridicule as well as education, so I work to reduce the chance of ridicule and to gain my students’ trust early. While I do not become a friend, I do find ways of becoming friendly. I always mention my diverse background, and I tell them that as they have done now, I have also enrolled in writing classes. I search for ways to establish my credibility by offering information about my academic experiences. Throughout the semester I look for opportunities to remind students that I wasn’t born knowing what a thesis, a conclusion, or a round character is. I believe that students and teachers need to learn to trust each other and the experiences that influence their writing. As the class moves toward its first writing workshop, I present three rules that I will not allow broken. The first is that no one—and I include myself—can tell another student whether a piece of writing is bad or good. In fact, no one can use those words in reference to anyone else’s work. Students can mention what in their colleagues’ work is well crafted because, of course, to do this means they have to know the language of writers—the names of writers’ techniques. Students can elaborate on how an introductory sentence works in an opening paragraph, for example, leaving me to ask them rather than the student author, how the introductory sentence might be made clearer. The student reader learns to interrogate the student writer’s work rather than the student writer. I can then become a second interrogator, asking the reader of the essay or story or poem, not the writer, questions about the work. As the workshop students ask questions and make comments, the student writer is obeying my second rule, which is that he or she cannot speak, but only listen. This rule is designed to lead the writer to think harder about what changes, if any, he or she needs to make. I want to allow the student writer to make changes, or not, without having to defend his or her writing. The writer listens as the class debates how to understand

Teaching Writing across Cultures

53

the parts of the writer’s essay or creative work, not whether the work itself is worthy. As the class under my guidance lists, for example, particular criteria for a strong conclusion to an essay (Does it predict an outcome? Does it evaluate? Is it a call-to-action? Does it warn against something?), our student writer has hopefully begun to realize whether her work meets the requirements on our list. The readers can determine how the writer’s conclusion works to meet the criteria for a strong conclusion, leaving the writer to evaluate her own work. I have learned to emphasize what my students know about writing rather than what they do not know. My third and final workshop rule is that after a class discussion of her work, a student has an opportunity to make a limited response to what the class has discussed. The writer can either seek to clarify what we’ve discussed or tell us if, or how, she wants to revise her work. By hearing the writer’s plans for her work, the class learns more about the process of revision. If our writer asks, we can offer suggestions and opinions about the direction of the work, but the class will not at all listen to a writer’s rationale for her choices. If a student writer sees that he has reached an impasse between what he thinks about a part of his writing, the conclusion perhaps, and what the class thinks, I encourage that writer to articulate his perspective as a series of questions for the class. The class and I will attend to the question(s) our fellow writer has asked—but no one will give or accept reviews of another student’s work. In many cases, one or two students in the class have had little or no exposure to a minority culture, and that student may discourage minority students who are not writing about characters and situations that are familiar to the majority. When an essay comes up for workshop, rather than have students question its verisimilitude (conceivably in a work about racial discrimination), I invite the class to discuss how the student writer has used specific techniques. I want the class to focus on the quality of their fellows’ writing, not to use my classroom as a forum for debating whether or not prejudice and discrimination exist. I might ask, for example, about the essay’s sequence of facts (Does the action follow a logical order? If you were writing about this situation how would you record the facts?) or use of similes (Does figurative language strengthen the point of the narrative? How?). Another problem in workshops with students from varied backgrounds may be the use of non-standard English to tell of a personal experience. If I feel that a student writer’s use of non-standard English is appropriate, I say so. I identify the non-standard phrases, and explain how the impact of the language might be lost if the phrase or sentence were written in standard English. By identifying non-standard as well as standard uses of

54

Ginger Jones

English, I believe I save students from embarrassment and ridicule. I talk to my classes about the varieties of language a writer can use to develop an audience. I explain that I believe our various audiences can govern the words we use and the way we use them. I think that a single set of rules about the use of English (or any language, for that matter) is not always the appropriate set to use all the time. I want my students to become reflective thinkers instead of reactive ones. Given this kind of careful attention to what questions students are guided to ask, and what responses they are asked to make, my students, during the course of the semester’s workshop learn to identify the necessary parts of poems, short stories, personal experience essays, book reviews, and critical responses to literature. They come to understand the different ways in which people, including they themselves, can use language. And they learn not to fear sharing their opinions. Finally, because minority students tend to identify with their own ethnic traditions, using them as a source for their work, I have learned to ask all of my students to read and watch entertainment produced by and focused on minorities. I subscribe to Black Issues in Higher Education, which has articles about Black, Hispanic and Native American students, Black Issues Book Review, an excellent publication with book reviews, and interviews with contemporary minority writers. I occasionally rent movies I hear international or minority students mention, so that I’m able to rely on those characters as examples when I need to make a point in class. These media give me the entrance I need to discuss my students’ perspectives. The national media is saturated with magazines, books and movies that have few if any minority characters; I am always exposed to these sources. But my minority students need more from me and those colleagues who will help them become better writers. In order to present their writing in my classroom, they need to feel welcome and safe; they need to know I empathize with them. To do that, I educate myself by attending to what is popular with minority students—my education in examples relevant to mainstream White students occurs with far less effort. I assign all readings by canonical and contemporary Black and minority writers. I post book reviews of minority writers on my office door bulletin board. By knowing more about the backgrounds of my students, I can build their confidence in my objectivity. Of course, I cannot learn a complete set of cultural references for every culture that may be represented in a writing class, but I find my effort to use one or two key points of reference is amazingly welcome by minority students, who usually do not expect a teacher to make any such effort.

Teaching Writing across Cultures

55

Although these techniques were developed in part because of my specific education, from experience, I know they are useful in any multicultural education. A colleague told me once that university professors usually do not ask advice about teaching methods because doing so may mean that the professors are failures at teaching. Given time, my colleague said, university teachers eventually become better at what they do. But perhaps we can shorten the time it might take us to become better teachers, teachers who know how to deal with problems in the cross cultural writing classroom. I think that if we focus on the process of teaching, just as we focus on the process of writing, we can learn to enhance our students’ lives, their talent, and their work.

EMBRACING DIVERSITY: TEACHING AND MODELING APPRECIATION FOR OTHER CULTURES MARY ANN CLARK

Abstract One type of social and emotional intelligence is the ability to show empathy, understanding and compassion for others. With increased globalization and diversity of populations, learning to respect and embrace differences as well as commonalities has become an essential nuance of effective functioning in society. This chapter will describe a four-session classroom guidance unit that was developed by school counseling graduate students and their professor in a school/university partnership program. The sessions aim to help elementary students value their classmates, respect and embrace differences in backgrounds, to learn more about one another and to show caring and respect for all.

Introduction Many countries throughout the world are becoming increasingly multicultural populations with people from a variety of countries, cultures, and ethnicities. In the United States, there are a few states with populations which used to be considered “minority” that are now the majority and that trend is expected to continue. The increases in mobility, immigration, and a more global economy have contributed to such diversity. Additionally, there are an increasing number of children who are born into families with mixed heritages with regard to race, religion, culture or ethnicity. This increase in diversity affects many aspects of life, including family relationships, personal identification, and participants in the workforce, to name just a few. With major worldwide changes regarding work, gender roles, family structure and cultural diversity, many traditional functions in the

Embracing Diversity: Teaching Appreciation for Other Cultures

57

upbringing of children have been increasingly transferred to schools, transforming the role of educators. Furthermore, the growth of the media, marketing and the Internet have expanded the worldwide exposure of children to outside influences, resulting in parents sharing their role in the character formation of their children with factors which give them less control (Elkind, 2001; Wittmer & Clark, 2007). Research and common sense tell us that the influence of caring adults who are positive role models is a major factor in children’s healthy development and academic success. Although this chapter is primarily about the stark changes that have been taking place in the United States, many of these principles apply to numerous other countries as well. It is clear that sweeping changes have taken place in Asia, for example, that appear to shift the focus from the traditional extended family to a more westernized “individual” focus. These changes are not necessarily all positive, and can certainly be disruptive to the traditional societal structure. Experts agree that establishing meaningful connections between teachers and the students in their classrooms as well as among the students themselves are essential for the mission of education to be successful (Clark & Wittmer, 2007; Dodd, 2000; Mulgan, 1996). Many educators assert that too much instructional time is taken up with classroom management issues, including the lack of positive communication between teacher and student(s) (Dodd, 2000). They are recognizing that when schools attend to students’ social and emotional skills, the academic achievement of children increases, the incidence of problem behaviors decreases and the quality of the relationships surrounding each child improves (Cummings & Haggerty, 1997; Elias, Zins, Weissberg, Frey, Greenberg, Haynes, Kessler, Schwab-Stone & Shriver, 1997). An increasing research base suggests that teachers’ relationships with students contribute to their social and cognitive development through instilling motivation to learn, addressing their need to belong and by serving a regulatory function for the development of emotional, behavioral, and academic skills (Davis, Davis & Smith, 2003). A cooperative school environment can have substantial effects on the behavior of the students, increasing feelings of empathy for others, reducing inter-group tensions and antisocial behavior, improving moral judgment, and building positive feelings toward others including those of other ethnic groups (Clark, 2005; Clark, 2003; Joyce, Showers & Rolheiser-Bennett, 1987). A positive climate affects student achievement and fosters problem-solving skills (Cohen, 1999; Pasi, 2001). By creating nurturing environments, teachers encourage children to want to come to

58

Mary Ann Clark

school, thus improving attendance and motivation to learn (Glasser, 1997; Kohn, 1996). Research findings have indicated that the affective climate of the classroom can predict social as well as academic outcomes including empathy (Battistch, Solomon, Watson & Schaps, 1997), help-seeking, (Ryan & Pintrich, 2001), and intrinsic motivation for school and reading comprehension (Battistch et al., 1997). The school counselor, serving as a consultant and collaborator with teachers, can be in a pivotal position to teach and model communication skills to both teachers and their students (Clark & Wittmer, 2007; Lee, 1995; Ponterotto and Pedersen, 1993). Both counselors and teachers can teach and model for children how to convey caring and respect for one another in the classroom. Going a step further, counselors and counselor educators can conduct training in these skills for classroom teachers so that communication skills will become a natural part of the teaching repertoire. Such skills taught in a proactive, organized program that is part of the daily curriculum can generalize to students’ everyday lives, resulting in more positive interactions with others (Wittmer & Clark, 2002a,b).

C.A.R.E. (Communication, Attitude, Respect and Encouragement): The lessons As a “Professor in Residence” at a high-poverty elementary school in a university community in Florida, I worked with my graduate students in school counseling to help facilitate a positive classroom and school climate where students would be encouraged to value each other and their similarities as well as their differences. A number of teachers at our elementary school named “accepting differences and embracing diversity” as an area where they needed help in working with their students. My four graduate students themselves were a diverse group with regard to background and life experiences. Two of them were Haitian Americans and had come from low socioeconomic status (SES) families. Another was a Fulbright scholar from Namibia, Africa, and a first generation university student, who had come to our university to earn a Ph.D. He spoke nine languages! And the fourth student had lived in Norway and Spain as a young adult. They were excellent role models for the population of students with whom we were working, the majority of whom were eligible for free meals at the school. Most were African American and Latino children, and there were a few whose parents were international students at the University of Florida. Together, we created a four-session unit for fourth graders (9- to 10-

Embracing Diversity: Teaching Appreciation for Other Cultures

59

year-olds) on Embracing Differences through Caring and Respect, entitled C.A.R.E. (Communication, Attitude, Respect and Encouragement). The graduate students presented each lesson in pairs. Thus, they were able to plan the lessons cooperatively, could present and demonstrate the activities and could offer each other feedback on the lessons. We met as a group of five to process each lesson. The final lesson was presented to two fourth grade classes as a larger group. These lessons could be used by teachers, school counselors, teaching or counseling interns or people representing a combination of these roles. The C.A.R.E. unit is a set of activities designed to build a sense of community in the classroom. The overall goal of the activities is to help a classroom of students to perceive themselves as a “family” working together toward some common goals. To achieve this larger objective, the unit is designed to help students learn the skills of effective communication, the impact that their attitudes have on each other, how to show respect, and the importance of encouraging one another. Prior to each session, the teacher/counselor should decorate the letter for that day and display it in the classroom during and after the lesson. At the end of the unit, the students will see the word CARE written across the wall of the classroom. The lessons learned are to be used and reinforced in daily interactions after they are presented; they are skills that can be continually taught, practiced and modeled.

Lesson one: Communication (C) Communication is a very important aspect of classroom management and can help in developing harmony and a positive school climate. It is essential to all classroom interactions; those between teacher and students and among the students themselves. This lesson teaches and models ways to effectively communicate with others. The counselor/teacher should begin the session with the definition of communication. Emphasize to the students how we are always communicating by sending and receiving messages, both verbal and nonverbal. Exaggerating facial expressions and postures and having the students guess what message is being conveyed can be helpful. Then, ask them if the message demonstrated was clear or unclear. It can also be pointed out that people may sometimes have a facial or body expression that does not match their words. Listening skills are taught in this lesson. The acronym “S.O.L.E.R.” is used as follows:

Mary Ann Clark

60

ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ

Square up your shoulders and face the person you are talking to Open body posture and an open mind Lean toward the talker as appropriate Eye contact Relax

Students are also taught a feeling word vocabulary so they can state how someone who is talking to them is feeling. Making a statement to show you are listening for the feelings of the other person is emphasized in this lesson.

Lesson two: Attitude Prior to this lesson, the counselor/teacher develops a set of index cards with behaviors that could be judged as “helpful” or “not helpful” and has several short stories or poems for a student to read. These can be chosen to personalize situations that may need to be dealt with in a classroom. For example, if name-calling is taking place in the classroom, one of the stories may be about a child who is being teased. If students from other cultures are feeling left out, that could be another scenario. Then a short discussion on “attitude” follows, distinguishing between positive and negative attitudes. Students are told they will be practicing some ways to demonstrate such attitudes, particularly toward other people. The classroom is then divided into three small groups, each of which has a student reader, and an adult facilitator. The facilitator could be a teacher, counselor, an intern, or a parent volunteer. The designated student passes out the set of cards to the other group members and then reads one of the four stories or poems to the group. The students are to act out what is on the card. The group facilitator will lead a discussion on how the student in the story might feel (hurt, angry, sad, disappointed), and what students in the group could do to help that student. If the story is a positive, helpful scenario, students can point out what is good or right about the situation, and name the possible feelings of the main character. Four rounds of this activity take place. To close, have students, as a class, discuss ways in which they can show positive attitudes and practice good listening skills for the next week. Write these ideas on a poster board and display them on the wall. Tell the students that when they have practiced one of these ideas they can sign the poster board. The letter “A” is put on the wall next to the “C”.

Embracing Diversity: Teaching Appreciation for Other Cultures

61

Lesson three: Respect This lesson teaches students appropriate ways to show respect to other students and adults. They will learn how to appreciate individual and group differences in people. The intent of the lesson is for students to learn: 1) the elements of respect and why respect is important; 2) what can happen when people behave disrespectfully to each other; and 3) why respect is necessary in the classroom. A reference for this lesson is the book and song “Don’t Laugh at Me” (Seskin & Shamblin). The teacher/counselor begins by reviewing the previous two lessons and referring to the poster which students will have signed during the week, reinforcing the positive behaviors that have taken place. A brief discussion of the meanings of “respect” and disrespect” is introduced with student’s examples (no names to be used). Following the discussion, the teacher/counselor reads the book, “Don’t Laugh at Me” and asks these questions: ƒ ƒ ƒ

ƒ

What are some simple ways to show people we care about them? How does it feel when someone laughs at you, leaves you out of an activity, or treats you as if you are beneath them? Although the children in the story are all different, one from another, what are the things they have in common (they all have feelings, they all would like to have friends, they all want to be respected, etc.)? How are we as classmates all alike? How are we different from one another? What can we learn from each other?

The lesson ends with the letter “R’ being posted and with students being paired up to learn more about one another and show respect for each other.

Lesson four: Encouragement and Empathy This lesson is a celebration of having completed the C.A.R.E. unit. In this lesson, students learn the importance of understanding and encouraging one another. The lesson begins with a brief discussion on what it felt like to have a partner for the week, to learn more about the other person and to share respect for the other. The teacher/counselor discusses the word “empathy,” trying to understand another’s point of view and life experiences. Students are complimented on having completed the previous sessions.

62

Mary Ann Clark

A discussion is held emphasizing how a classroom is like a family, and these lessons have helped the members become closer by learning more about each other and feeling connections with each other. The word "encouragement" is introduced and students are asked to contribute examples of how they can be encouraging to one another. The teacher/counselor passes out paper gingerbread men and instructs the students to decorate them. They are then to write two things on the back that they can do to encourage one another in the classroom. The letter “E" is then put on the wall to spell the word CARE. After they finish this activity, the students tape the gingerbread men around the word CARE to represent the classroom family. The counselor/teacher asks the students what they notice about the ring of the gingerbread men (i.e. they are all different colors, they are decorated differently, they may be different sizes, etc.). The final activity is to teach the song “Don’t Laugh at Me” and have the students sing that together as a class. Singing together is a bonding experience. After the song, the counselor/teacher may want to provide some fun type of reinforcement such as stickers or posters that the students can have to remind them of the lessons they have learned. In addition to the unit described above, the school counseling graduate students shared some of their own life experiences in classrooms and in small group sessions. In so doing, they were role models for the children, and they created interest in other cultures. They shared flags that represented their countries, talked about customs, foods, and the languages that they spoke. Our student from Namibia used phrases in several of the languages in which he is fluent, inciting great interest among the elementary students. Several of the fourth graders who had come from other cultures and countries were encouraged to share their traditions as well, and were given positive feedback about doing so. These sharing sessions demonstrated that differences are to be valued, everyone has their own “story” and background, and each person is unique. We started an “Act of Kindness” program in the classrooms where students would practice and notice acts of kindness that were being carried out among their classmates and others in the school, creating posters that recorded these kindnesses. An attitude of interest and respect began to develop in classrooms and feedback from the classroom teachers was very positive about these experiences. They felt that the lessons did indeed facilitate the feeling of the classroom as a family.

Embracing Diversity: Teaching Appreciation for Other Cultures

63

Conclusion Social skills, including empathy, respect, showing kindness and encouragement are becoming increasingly recognized as essential competencies in today’s complex world. Establishing bonds and connections among teachers and their students in the classroom is an important step to helping students develop the repertoire of skills they need to be successful in their academic lives as well as to develop into good citizens who care about others and the world outside their individual domains. Understanding and respecting oneself and others is the key to embracing diversity and differences and ultimately to a more satisfying and productive life, individually and collectively. These attributes enhance the quality of life for individuals as well as for families, communities, and institutions. Teaching these social skills to young students and modeling them in the classroom can build important human connections and provide life long skills that will create more interpersonal and external harmony in the world.

References Battistich, V., Solomon, D., Watson, M. & Schaps, E. (1997). Caring School Communities. Educational Psychologist, 32, 137-151. Clark, M.A. (2003). Training School Interns to Teach Elementary Students to Respect and Care for Others. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education, and Development, 42, 91-106. —. (2005). Building Connections, Communication and Character in Classrooms. ASCA School Counselor, 42(3), 8-13. Clark, M.A. & Wittmer, J. (2007). Teaching Children to Respect and Care for Others: A character education program to support academic achievement. In Wittmer, J. & Clark, M.A. Managing Your School Counseling Program: K-12 developmental strategies (3rd ed.). Educational Media Corporation: Minneapolis, MN. Cohen, J. (Ed.). (1999). Educating Minds and Hearts: Social emotional learning and the passage into adolescence. New York: Teachers College Press. Cummings, C. & Haggerty, K.P. (1997). Raising Healthy Children. Educational Leadership, 54(8), 28-31. Davis, H., Davis, S. & Smith, T. (April, 2003). Middle School Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Climate: The role of perceived organization and rule clarity in predicting relationship quality, motivation, and achievement. Paper presented as part of a Symposium on School

64

Mary Ann Clark

Atmosphere, Motivation and Achievement at the Biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Tampa, FL. Dodd, A. (2000). Making Schools Safe for All Students: Why schools need to teach more than the 3 R’s. NASSP Bulletin, 84, 25-31. Elias, M., Zins, J., Weissberg, P., Frey, K., Greenberg, M., Haynes, N.. Kessler, R., Schwab-Stone, M. & Shriver, T. (1997). Promoting Social and Emotional Learning: Guidelines for educators. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Elkind, D. (2001). The Cosmopolitan School. Educational Leadership, 1217. Glasser, W. (1997). A New Look at School Failure and School Success. Phi Delta Kappan, 78, 597-602. Goleman, D. (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Books. Joyce, B., Showers, B. & Rolheiser-Bennett, C. (1987). Staff Development and Student Learning: A synthesis of research on models of teaching. Educational Leadership, 45(2), 86-97. Kohn, A. (1996). What to Look for in a Classroom. Educational Leadership, 54, 54-55. Lee, C. (ed.) (1995). Counseling for Diversity: A guide for school counselors and related professionals. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Mulgan, G. (1996). A Syllabus for Lifelong Learning (Assisting young people in developing social values and learning to take responsibility). Times Educational Supplement, n.4194, A24. Pasi, R.J. (2001). A Climate for Achievement. Principal Leadership, 2(4), 17-20. Ponterotto, J.G. & Pedersen, P.B. (1993). Preventing Prejudice: A guide for counselors and educators. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Ryan, A.M. & Patrick, H. (2001). The Classroom Social Environment and Changes in Adolescents’ Motivation and Engagement during Middle School. American Educational Research Journal, 28, 460. Wittmer, J. & Clark, M.A. (2007). Managing Your School Counseling Program: K-12 developmental strategies (3rd ed.). Minneapolis, MN: Educational Media Corporation. Wittmer, J. & Clark, M.A. (2002a). Teaching Children to Respect and Care for Others. Minneapolis, MN: Educational Media Corporation. Wittmer, J. & Clark, M.A. (2002b). Teaching Children to Respect and Care for Others. Instructor’s Guide. Minneapolis, MN: Educational Media Corporation.

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE: NEW PERSPECTIVES FOR THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF MULTICULTURAL AND GLOBAL RELATIONSHIPS IN THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SPHERES LORNA BELL-SHAW

Abstract The paper looks at why the assumptions we hold about our own identities and the identities of others influence the quality of communication each of us has in social situations. The quality of communication individuals experience in a social context that is defined by margin and center of meaning and public visibility is called a politics of culture in this paper. It is defined as such, because the quality of the interaction (the intensity of perceptions and the descriptions of interpersonal comfort level) can be seen to be governed by compelling and persuasive hidden messages senders have with receivers. These hidden messages appear to come from a function of communication interaction with the self and others where the "self" acts as agency, the "other" acts as co-agency, and the "communication experience" acts as service enabling the dynamics of culture and communication to continue. Agency, co-agency and service concern themselves with, and sometimes elaborate and/or distinguish between, participants according to ethnic, racial, or gender identity in interpersonal contexts. These unarticulated messages constitute a discourse about identity informed by what can be termed a grammar of agency, co-agency and service.

Agency as politics of the self I define a politics of culture as a way individuals build and perceive the image of themselves and of others. Further, the politics of culture is

66

Lorna Bell-Shaw

defined as the kind of information a person uses to interpret and value others different from him or herself. Finally, the politics of culture is defined as the social, private communication one has with another which is informed by a synthesized mixture of what one thinks of oneself and the degree of difference that one thinks one has with others who are racially or ethnically different. The politics of culture is the activity or outcome of the confluence of ethnicity, gender, and race. It is the active set of invisible rules which articulates a model of communication and relationship for us to follow when communicating with culturally different others in our social discourses. The politics of culture will determine the outcome of a communication experience by one or more persons based on the level of knowledge of self and knowledge of the other. There is not sufficient research available to state that individuals who self-identify ethnically are able to engage in better communication with those different from them. But individuals who identify themselves ethnically seem, in some cases, to have a higher degree of comfort in social communication situations with others different from themselves. Individuals who see others, but not themselves as “ethnic,” appear to have fewer interactions with others different from themselves and have a lower degree of comfort in social communication. This examination outlines the assumptions we hold about our own identities and that of others by citing examples from narratives in existing literature in intercultural communication. Reviewing these assumptions about identity shows how the politics of culture powerfully shape the reality of relational engagement in the social and public sphere. Finally, I offer an approach to redress these social communication difficulties by looking to curriculum intervention, arguing that a new perspective of relational engagement might be helpful in the teaching of intercultural communication as we attempt to prepare our students for participation in global affairs.

Introduction Umeeta has herself changed since she came to the United States (…) "When I was in India recently,”she says, "people would walk close to me, and I found myself moving away (…). (Lustig & Koester, 2003, p. 188)

Hall and Hall (1998) have suggested that the way we think about personal distance is culturally patterned. Because of this, foreign spatial cues are inevitably misinterpreted. Lustig and Koester (2003) explain that when foreigners appear aggressive and pushy, or remote and cold, it may mean, only, that their personal distance is "different from yours" (p. 189).

The Politics of Culture: Multicultural and Global Relationships

67

With the knowledge that ambiguity and miscommunication are often possible when we communicate across cultures with different cultural perspectives, the disconnection in social communication impedes communication interactions or relationships across lines of ethnicity, race, and gender. Umeeta’s reentry experience in India, in the quotation above, illustrates her difficulty of spatial relations in her ethnic home culture. There are several documented reports of experiences in the United States that are similar to Umeeta’s. They are used here in the form of narratives drawn from the literature in the field and collected from conversations and interviews I have had with various individuals and professionals in different and across different social situations. Research on cultural, ethnic, and racial territoriality and use of space in cultural groups is not new. There is a fair amount of research documenting comfort and discomfort levels in social relationships (Hall, 1959, 1976, 1982). There is even more research examining the political parameters of this spacing dynamics between ethnic groups (Hewstone & Jaspers, 1982; McPhail, 1994; and Gudykunst & Kim, 1984). Much of this research configures a conceptual space with antagonistic political claims. It frames the discussion and inquiry about relationships across cultural and ethnic identity in terms of the “center” and “margin,” meaning there are persons who occupy a space in the center and those who occupy a space at the margins. Such terms expose the power differential as a critical message problem which defines the scope, range, and quality of communication between individuals across the space of margin and center. Often, it is the fray at the margins that motivates and propels communication, frequently, because there is personal discomfort. Studies about United States ethnic groups show that the margin and center model typifies relationships among them. Research indicates that placement in this space seems to be determined by affiliation to ethnic group membership (Nakayama, 1995). Ethnic groups of color occupy the margins and Euro-American ethnic groups occupy the center. The discourse of the dynamics of communication between the tenants of the margin and the centre has been textualized as the discourse of racism. I would like to configure a different text or an additional text for the dynamic display of communication in public and private sphere relationships: one that describes the continuous force of push and pull that ends in the communication of verbal antagonism or communication of silence. This new text can be called the discourse on relational engagement. Why is it important to shift our focus from the language of racism to that of relational engagement? The term racism is confining. When used

68

Lorna Bell-Shaw

today, it reminisces through description or analyses of America’s 400-year history of its forced enslavement of persons from Africa. It also reverberates in people’s minds as an index of political achievement because of the subsequent legislative sanctions. What racism fails to show is that it is a public and private space where old values are continually being reconstructed and experienced as a living event. To use the term in the modern context hides it arbitrariness as a social and political construct. In the current context of the term, racism has a pregiven, historical value. This term fails to capture the vicissitudes of the lived experiences as persons shift from center to margin in their competition for social survival and distinction in personhood. The term, therefore, is dated. The second reason why the term has diminished value in talking about the communication and culture is that it hides the boundaries of possibilities of human social interaction because it prescribes how to believe or how to perceive and limits and silences the differences between experiencing life at the center and life at the margin. The constant rush to get to center and to remain there if one occupies that space sufficiently evidences the fact that something is amiss at the margins.

Methodology The paper uses narratives as critical text and applies a critical interpretive analysis. The examples, illustrations, narratives, and conversations provided are from primary and secondary sources. The critical analysis is intended to uncover the layers of unexplained and unarticulated communication transactions that are influenced by race, culture, and ethnicity and to offer new ways of understanding the study of culture and communication. Relational engagement is the conclusion of the critical exploration of the situations cited in this paper. Relational engagement is the private self awareness of the function of culture (race and ethnicity) in promoting comfortable public communication. Three characteristics are central to this study. First, it introduces the difficulties, constraints, and problems of talking about the silent operations of race and culture in social communication situations. Second, the paper draws from the body of research which defines the social site as a political or public milieu. The paper advances the idea that the social site is invested with a politics of culture. That is to say, the dynamism of historical perceptions still finds its way into the formation of personal intentions and individual perceptions of others developed by the historical rules of social engagements or, put another way, people use already

The Politics of Culture: Multicultural and Global Relationships

69

established stereotypes, produced and reinforced by the popular media to preface and edit their communication acts with each other and with others across racial and ethnic divisions. The social situation is a space or site given to a patterned or expected type of behavior depending on whether the persons are similar or dissimilar to us. The study uses examples and narratives from the existing literature to describe the condition of the social site. Further, the study discusses the outcomes of the communication dynamics implicating all of us, members of margin and center, in an agent/agency dynamic. The third consideration of this essay is the suggestion that this conceptualization of the power and politics of culture might be useful in the study of intercultural communication. My analysis of the dynamics of the center and margin is, ultimately, about the politics of our own identity and about the identity of others with whom we interact or don’t interact. This chapter is about how our personal views and perspectives are invested with a powerful politics of history, language, and perception; and how these dynamics influence the way we communicate, with whom we communicate and why we communicate. The politics of culture, therefore, is the power of culture. The way we think of ourselves and others, how we think about, and engage in, communication with others different from us, is largely dependent on a cultural script written with the influential and persuasive language of the heritage of the politics we have inherited. The language of the politics of culture guides and instructs the protocol in our communication relationships. Issues of identity are predicated on ethnicity and affiliation to the historical and racial heritage of a specific group so that group differences and acts of differentiation encourage communication behaviors that often produce misunderstandings. Although ethnic affiliation acts of identity affirmation are common, public, and visible today, the communication dynamics between and across US ethnic groups are often invisible and unarticulated. Thus, culture becomes a contemporary social problematic. The problem with the study and investigation of the subject of culture and identity, and race and ethnicity, is that it is difficult to talk about; it carries autonomous power acting as agent and agency. Ethnic identity can be described as problematic because its character conceals its power, often ambushing us as unwilling victims. The role of the politics of culture is to secure the center, thus differentiating between margin and center and demarcating relationships of distance or closeness in respect to the center. Relational engagement or disengagement is the experience of closeness or distance to the center. The communication between actors at both margin and center is constructed through rhetorical power and the efficacy

70

Lorna Bell-Shaw

of invisible cultural rules. We learn to communicate through codes of ethnic identities where the individual’s identity carries a locus of power and information based on his or her relationship of distance or proximity to the center or margin of the social site. The problematic of relational disengagement does not simply occur between those at the centre and those at the margin, rather, those at the margin themselves use the same script the occupants of the centre use. Ultimately, it is through curriculum intervention, through public discourse, or through classroom teaching that the presence, dynamism, and power of cultural politics can be understood and the problems of relational disengagement be remedied.

Culture, race and ethnicity are difficult to talk about for many reasons Things are made more problematic by the fact that the means of communicating is communication. Communication itself may injure or undermine discourse on culture, race, and ethnicity. In other words, it is possible to argue that it is bad communication that actually makes this subject uncomfortable to talk about and not the subject itself. Of the reasons of the subject’s difficulties I have identified at least three that sustain the salience of a "politics of culture." The first is the absence of a common language viable enough to sustain a body of discourse in social public situations about feelings and intimations that we are uncertain how to interpret and how to address. Katriel and Philipsen (1990) argue that we do make distinctions between communication and mere talk when we discuss the quality of our interpersonal lives. How, then, are we to be sure in articulating a politics of relational engagement whether or not mere talk is the sufficient condition for social communication, or whether deeper satisfying communication is needed? Is the greater challenge of social communication the communication pattern? Or are ethnic, cultural, and racial differences the problem? Krizek and Nakayama (1995) have shown that the quality of this communication is often articulated in the literature of postmodern and critical studies. Here, the central metaphors have been positionality and location of self. Thus, the social or public site is conceptualized as a place which has borders, margins, and a center. Relationships and discourses gain their strength, success, and privilege based on the position it holds in this social sphere. A fair amount of inquiry has already been done on the subject of the position of discourses and realities belonging to, or defined by, special

The Politics of Culture: Multicultural and Global Relationships

71

groups. Communication discourses, communication styles, and communication relationships of and between America’s ethnic groups have been studied and shown constraints and challenges. Chief among this kind of research is the study of white as an ethnic group where the "cultural invisibility of whiteness" (Krizek & Nakayama, 1995, p.191) is examined, deconstructed and made public. But beyond this new ethnic categorization, the findings in these inquiries have consistently indicated that how groups use the social space or conceptualize their place/position in it, leads to a dynamic of negotiation for the center of the space. Relational engagement or disengagement is a condition of this dynamic and explores the distance which members affiliated to ethnic identities experience in relation to their conceived position in the sphere of social communication. The second reason why the subject of culture and identity, ethnicity and race is difficult to talk about is its potential to carry reflexive impact. In other words, when we talk about things, we create their existence. So in trying to solve a problem by talking about it, we create a new one by talking more about it. Those of us who dismissed the chicken and the egg dilemma with ease may find it much more difficult to do so with this dilemma. Complicity (our complicity and participation), therefore, is an underlying feature of this inquiry. The third reason that this subject is difficult to talk about and study is that behaviors and acts that strain relations in social contexts within and across ethnic groups are often difficult to observe empirically. How should we code and decode acts that cause conflict, or create and maintain relational distance, which resist a single category of methodological inquiry. Communication behavior leading to relational distance can be attributed to a bad hair day, unintentional offenses, or simply a choice of personal preference.

Culture as an active force carries autonomous power and is a double agent Culture as an active force influences behavior and often acts as agent and co-agent. Culture’s power and influence in the social and public sphere is its anonymity. While one way of understanding culture is marked by phenotypic differences of color, gender, race, or ethnic identity, there is another implicit understanding, a hidden function of culture, which operates as agent of learning and thought. A useful concept of culture’s inherent language function taken from Vygotsky shows how culture as agent coordinates and appropriates value to our thoughts, our motives, our

72

Lorna Bell-Shaw

actions, and ultimately our relationships. Language is acquired, he said, at a moment when the internal representation and external reality converge. It is this meeting of the view of the external reality and our internal value that creates a "cultural language", a political script, so to speak (Garcia, 1998, p. 218). Others, such as Hamers and Blanc (1989), in the field of language, culture and thought explain, further, that shared representations and scripts which are basic to language proficiency arise in the interaction between the child and the significant other. The child will internalize those language functions that are valorized and used around him or her (p. 100, Hamers and Blanc as quoted in Garcia, p. 218). This is how culture begins its energetic assignments as agent. Although the centrality and power of language is not a new view to scholars of language and culture, this view of language as political agent gives, I believe, pause for a theoretical thrust of making more visible culture as politics. Culture, as an active force, functions in at least two identifiable ways. First, it acts to unify our perceptions of the social world as it is given to us. In this respect culture is an implicit teacher, its lessons hidden and its intentions unarticulated. Even in instances when we publicly call culture on her agenda, or expose that agenda (as in this case) we still operate within her parameters of meaning, assuming that a normative interpretation, for instance, has a value of goodness. This function of agency is unwaveringly powerful. The second function of culture is often understood in its act of separating us by our patterns of behaviors, beliefs, and norms. It is this separation and categorization of patterned behavior that distinguish us from them; stranger from friend; my culture from your culture. In this respect, culture is a sort of grammar, a praxis of comparison, a paradigm of rules of communication, and that typifies the character of engagement. It is a planned order of valuing. It is from the function of its praxis that this second function emerges, the result of ordered valuing. Culture acts as the punctuation marks in a sentence giving the sentence meaning; when we should use an exclamation marker, when a quotation, when a parenthesis and so on. Culture, as politics, orders a similar kind of structure to our relationships; when, for example, we should assume a social three-foot distance as opposed to an intimate one-foot distance, when touching is appropriate; whether or not, or how many times to decline a gift, or whether to accept a date at the first request. All this cultural grammar is very useful in constructing good cultural sentences, that is, appropriate communication. But a potential problem emerges when culture’s grammar

The Politics of Culture: Multicultural and Global Relationships

73

orders us to compose our cultural sentences using punctuation markers of ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, or class etc. Further, like language, culture’s essential feature is to conjugate action, thus construing meaning. This double feature of culture, both as noun and verb, as both human action and human design, gives it the character of a double agent; that is, simultaneously both agent and agency, a James Bond double 007 affair. Culture simultaneously provides answers to successful communication relationships while at the same time it impedes those relationships by setting up rules of boundaries or what can be called rules of engagement based on gender, racial and ethnic identity. Consistent with Sartre’s quotation below, the power of culture is active in how we define others and how others define us. But in the politics of culture as studied here, it is its silent persuasiveness and instruction that give culture its ontological nature of invisibility and political power. To expose the strength of culture is not new, to expose its political dynamics in reference to personal and private sphere communication is. So what are we to do now? How are we to improve our communication with others different from ourselves? Rubenstein (2001) provides an answer when he quotes Jean Paul Sartre in the preface of his book Culture, Structure and Agency: "We are not lumps of clay, and what is important is not what people make of us but what we ourselves make of what they have made of us" (preface). The following examples illustrate how culture’s grammar on how to communicate with ethnically different others often causes conflict, confusion, and mis-communication or disengagement. They can be categorized into communication or engagement of invisibility or hypervisibility. Examples of invisibility include narratives by individuals of alienation, coolness, and detachment. For example, a Chinese American participant in a video conversation assessed his experience of invisibility not merely at his being overlooked at the lunch counter but rather because the clerk was not trained to see him. One narrative I collected for this paper from an African American participant in a small group discussion in a university intercultural communication class explained similarly, "A server never assumes that I am first in line. I must forcefully but silently engage a server with silent nonverbal animated behaviors in my face and body if I do not want to be served last." Examples of hyper-visibility illustrate actors or participants in communication engagement situations playing by the rules, often perceived as fair play rules or political correctness rules. Participants are given excessive attention or unintended negative attention. Examples of

74

Lorna Bell-Shaw

narratives I collected include a story from a Hispanic American male who noted that he was seldom understood as himself; rather, in his communication with his co workers, he was often separated from his ethnic group as in "you are not like them." It is important to note that problematic communication engagements do not only come from members between different ethnic groups, but also from members within the same ethnic group. In Kim (1986), three examples of relational distance are reported and assumptions and use of distance in relationships of interethnic Americans are studied by Tzeng et al. (1986). Distance in relationships is referred to as alienation and it is one of three primary dimensions of study. Subjects were drawn from black and white ethnic groups. The subjects experienced relational distance or alienation as thoughts regarding rejection, indifference, and detachment from members of the group not like themselves. The results of the investigation showed that alienation or relational distance exists between these two ethnic groups. It was examined how positively or negatively members from their test groups think of themselves in relation to the terms friend, person, stranger, foeigner, white race and black race. Although the study by Tzeng et al. (1986) reveals some flaws of interpretive analysis from the examined data, its findings, nonetheless, are confirmations of earlier findings of the potency of uncomfortable experiences that individuals feel when they communicate across cultures. It was found that black and white ethnic groups were similar in the potency of their perceptions about I or me and friend, unfamiliar individuals such as foreigner, most people, and stranger. However, both ethnic groups evaluated the other group negatively and evaluated their group positively; and the concepts, I or myself and friend, were high and positive for the white ethnic group but close to neutral for the black ethnic group. Tzeng et al. (1986) attributed this difference to implicit affective behavior, and termed the units of difference affective components. A useful finding of this study was the deviation from reports of positive feeling to the findings of actual negative activity in the black ethnic group for the white group. The study also found that separation, that is to say, lack of closeness, was a defining factor in how these two groups used the social space of work and play. While those subjective inter-group distances were reported over a decade ago, a recent publication by Tatum (2003) supports these findings. Tatum’s book extends Tzeng’s discussion by arguing that the history of learned experience of stereotypes and roles produces a power (the politics

The Politics of Culture: Multicultural and Global Relationships

75

of culture) that holds the model of what relationships between ethnic groups should be. Tatum asks in her book: "How does it happen that so many black teenagers end up at the same cafeteria table [in a racially mixed high school]?" (p. 52). Various other perspectives are advanced by other scholars that could possibly provide answers to Tatum’s (2003) central question. Cummings James’ (1999) description of the provenance of stereotypes and roles she could identify in her family support Tzeng’s view that learned experience of stereotype produces in-group favoritism. Among her family’s repertoire she remembers the following: "Black people are just as good as white people". "A White man would never marry a black woman." "A white person can hardly ever be a real friend to a black person." In addition, Houston’s (1999) discussion of communication between white and black women adds one final dimension to Tatum’s question. Houston found dialogue a difficulty between the two ethnic groups and traced a history of suspicion and distrust between them. In her article, Houston records an excerpt from the 1855 diary of a young free black girl, Charlotte Forten, from an affluent family: Wed Sept 12 1855. I have met [white] girls in the schoolroom—they have been thoroughly kind and cordial to me—perhaps the next day met them on the street- they feared to recognize me; these I can but regard now with scorn and contempt (…) Others give the most distant recognition possible—I, of course, acknowledge no such recognition, and they soon cease entirely. These are but trifles, certainly, to the great public wrongs which we are (…) obliged to endure. But to those who experience them, these apparent trifles are most wearing and discouraging; even to a child’s mind they reveal volumes of deceit and heartlessness, and early teach a lesson of suspicion and distrust. (p.133)

Scholars of ethnic cultures have often joined linguists in putting linguistic behavior as a prime social act. In her article, Houston (1999) extracts the "talk" of both groups. In this way we can begin to see the effect of the power of culture to root stereotypes through historical experiences and to solidify perceptions of acceptable relational distance. Language is one other social site that exposes relational disengagement; for example, black women’s attributions about "black talk" describe openness and depth of issues. This could mean length of time on a particular subject or sharing views from multiple perspectives. The following attributions are extracts from Houston’s (1999, pp. 133-139) findings:

76

Lorna Bell-Shaw

Black women’s attributions on Black women’s talk: ƒ speaking out ƒ talking about what’s on your mind ƒ getting down to the heart of the matter Attributions of black women on white women’s talk ƒ friendly (but phony) ƒ arrogant ƒ weak ƒ illustrating fragility ƒ seemingly dependent and helpless White women’s attributions of white talk: ƒ all kinds of speech patterns ƒ distinct pronunciation ƒ using the appropriate words for the appropriate situations ƒ talking in a typical British-American language with no necessary accent and limited to "acceptable" middle class women’s topics. White women’s attributions of black talk: ƒ using black dialect ƒ saying things like "young uns", "yous", and "wif" ƒ using jive terms. Houston (1999) concludes that the two groups clearly hear different things when they talk. Beyond that, not only do the women hear each other differently, but they are differentially selective in the salience of good communication or engaged dialogue. Houston says that African American women concentrate on interpersonal skills and Euro-American women concentrate on language style and the closeness or distance from the center of what they perceive to be standard. The salience of the politics of culture is the communication behavior that indicates how each group member expects to use the social space. It is not surprising then that research is consistently finding that the communication between these two ethnic groups consists not of barriers but distance, not intolerance but indifference, not hostility but lack of reciprocity and relational engagement.

The Politics of Culture: Multicultural and Global Relationships

77

Conclusion How ethnic groups in America construct and experience engagement in social spaces are activities that invite more empirical investigation and critical analyses. But the illustrations above describe the condition of the social communication site as understood by occupants of the so called margin and center at least at the present time. In the current intercultural communication texts, there is a great deal of content about the development of a culture’s understanding of the world and of the culture’s belief systems, of a culture’s value system and of its world view. The two chief characteristics of this pedagogy seem to be (1) of a comparative and contrastive nature with an objective of inspiring students to be sensitive and knowledgeable about how others see the world and (2) purposive in prescribing and motivating students to understand and become competent for the larger purpose of successfully meeting the needs of economic global productivity. Although this is critical in the process of creating an engaged global citizenry, it should not be enough. Additionally, the economic benefit of global participation should not overshadow the condition of the affective experiences however unarticulated. What is needed is pedagogy that goes beyond the objectives of efficiency for economic benefit and advancement and more towards a cultural literacy that advances awareness and techniques to "read" the politics of culture in social situations. There is room to increase the potential of communication and develop additional language systems to talk about the quality of communication across ethnic and racial lines (Giroux, 1988). Because language can mystify, construct, and conceal our assumptions about our cultural behavior and position I see it as a critical and central agent of social and political problem-solving. Some say that the silent battles and misunderstandings of the negotiations for the centre of the political space are an example of the racial divide that is really an impasse that cannot be fully resolved or repaired. I say that it can be repaired, but we must first choose from a series of repair experts: handymen, the contractual professional, the politician, the pundit, the priest, the psychologist, the psychiatrist, or the professor. If we are interested in a repair job, then the burden of the repair lies at the capable feet of the professor and in the walls of the classroom. And it is the professor of culture, global awareness, and international concerns to whom the greater task of the coordination of its success is given. Inclusion of the politics of relational engagement may not bring significant changes but its placement

78

Lorna Bell-Shaw

in the curriculum, in syllabi, and in intercultural texts can inform us that something is amiss in our midst. Personal identity does not belong alone to us to pursue in our private lives but to those with whom we interact in a social or public context. In centralizing the invisible rules of how we silently look at ourselves and others in our intercultural communication texts and classroom teaching, we will have begun a new pedagogy of making public the private discomforts and anxieties and so attempt to overcome them. Our students will become practiced at "relational engagement" because they will have learned the politics of culture. Being aware of the centrality of race and ethnicity and learning the grammar of culture, that is to say, its politics, we can provide the ways and means to encourage students to cross the cultural divide and engage in deeper and more meaningful relationships and encounters with culturally different others. Whatever the social milieu—Tatum’s (2003) cafeteria, or the playground, the classroom or an invitation to family dinner—if the stories and discussion above bring the issue of the social disengagement to the students' learning arena, then this paper will have succeeded in being an active agent of communication about how imperative it is to begin the practice of models of communication which reduce anxiety and discomfort in private or public sphere communication. The best place to begin is with our students in the classroom.

References Chen, L. (1999). How We Know What We Know about Americans: Chinese sojourners account for their experience. Gonzalez, A., Houston, M. & Chen, V. (eds.). In Our Voices: Essays in culture, ethnicity, and communication. Los Angeles: Roxbury. Cummings James, N. (1999). When Miss America was Always White. Gonzalez, A., Houston, M. & Chen, V. (eds.). In Our Voices: Essays in culture, ethnicity, and communication. Los Angeles: Roxbury. Garcia, E. (1998). Student Cultural Diversity: Understanding and meeting the challenge. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Giroux, H. (1988). Teachers as Intellectuals toward a Critical Pedagogy of Learning. Granby: Bergin and Garvey. Gonzalez, A., Houston, M. & Chen, V. (1999). Our Voices: essays in culture, ethnicity and communication. Los Angeles: Roxbury. Gudykunst, W. & Kim, Y.Y. (1984). Communicating with Strangers. New York: Random House. Hall, E. (1959). The Silent Language. New York: Doubleday.

The Politics of Culture: Multicultural and Global Relationships

79

—. (1976). Beyond Culture. New York: Doubleday. —. (1982). Making Oneself Misunderstood: Languages No One Listens to. Speaking of Japan, 3(17), 20-22. Hall, E. & Hall, E. (1998). How Cultures Collide. Weaver, G.R. (ed.). In Culture, Communication and Conflict: Readings in intercultural relations (2nd ed). Needham Heights, MA: Simon & Schuster. Hamers, J. & Blanc, M. (1989). Bilinguality and Bilingualism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hewstone, M. & Jaspers, J. (1982). Intergroup Relations and Attributional Pprocesses. Tajfel, H. (ed.). In Social Identity and Intergroup Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Houston, M. (1999). Black Women Talk with White Women: Why dialogues are difficult. Gonzales, A., Houston, M. & Chen, V. (eds.). In Our Voices: Essays in culture, ethnicity and communication. Los Angeles: Roxbury. Katriel T. & Philipsen, G. (1990). What We Need is Communication: ‘Communication’ as a cultural category in some American speech. Carbaugh, D. (ed.). In Cultural Communication and Intercultural Contact. Hilldale, NJ: Erlbaum. Kim, Y.Y. (1986). Interethnic Communication: Current research. Newbury Park: Sage. —. (1989). Intercultural Adaptation. Asante, M. & Gudykunst, W. (eds.). In The Handbook of International and Intercultural Communication. Newbury Park: Sage. Krizek, R. & Nakayama T. (1995). Whiteness: A strategic rhetoric. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 81, 291-309. Lustig, M. & Koester J. (2003). Intercultural Competence. San Francisco: Allyn and Bacon. McPhail, M. (1994). The Politics of Complicity: Second thoughts about the social construction of racial equality. The Quarterly Journal of Speech, 80(3). 343-357. Nakayama, T. (1995). Whiteness: A Strategic Rhetoric. The Quarterly Journal of Speech, 81(3), 291-310. Rubenstein, D. (2001). Culture, Structure, and Agency: Toward a truly multidimensional sociology. Newbury Park: Sage. Tatum, B. (2003). Why are All the Black Kids Sitting together in the Cafeteria? New York: Basic Books. Tzeng, O.C.S. et al. (1986). Conflict Communication Styles in Black and White Subjective Cultures. Kim, Y.Y. (ed.). In Interethnic Communication: Current Research. International and Intercultural Communication Annual (vol. 10).

CHAPTER TWO LANGUAGE POLICIES TO OVERCOME LANGUAGE PROVINCIALISM IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION

ADVANCING AN INTEGRATIVE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR SECOND LANGUAGE MOTIVATION RESEARCH MINGYUE GU

Abstract Motivation is generally believed to be one of the most important determinants of second language (L2) achievement, hence you will find a plethora of theories and approaches in the relevant research literature. Although a number of frameworks have been proposed, an integrative view that considers both the individualist and social dimension of L2 motivation has not yet been presented. Furthermore, language learners’ linguistic behaviors can be said to have been neglected in motivation research. This paper, based on the comprehensive review of the current literature on motivation and the development of research methods in L2 motivation research, proposes a research framework that integrates sociocultural theory and discourse theory. The framework makes it possible to link up the individual and the social and to investigate motivation as a historical, social, and ideological construct. Respective studies would also contribute to the development of more rigorous and richer qualitative approaches to L2 motivation.

1. Introduction Research on language learning motivation has evolved quite dramatically since publication of Gardner and Lambert's seminal study in 1972. Its theoretical approaches have gone through the following stages: the socio-psychological approach to examine how an individual’s attitude towards the L2 and the L2 community influences his or her L2 learning behavior; the cognitive-situated approach to shift the focus from the motivational impacts of macro-context to those of situated-learning contexts; the process-oriented approach to reflect the dynamic and

An Integrative Framework for Second Language Motivation Research

83

temporal character of L2 motivation; the poststructuralist approaches to address the relationship between the individual and the social world, and to look at its impact on one’s investment in L2 learning. At the same time when the motivational constructs are extended to represent the complexity of L2 motivation in different contexts, different methodological practices have also been applied. After L2 motivation had been conceived and investigated as consisting of a range of measurable components in the socio-psychological framework for nearly three decades, the need for a qualitative approach to complement the quantitative tradition arose, which has already been described (Crookes & Schmidt, 1991; Dornyei, 2001a; Ushioda, 2001). Even though considerable research on L2 motivation has been carried out, only few studies have presented a holistic view that considers the social, contextual, and individual impact on the construction and transformation of L2 motivation. In addition, most of the existing studies have not investigated language learners’ actual L2 use, even though that might influence and be influenced by motivation. In order to fully understand L2 motivation, it is thus important to provide a more comprehensive view than the existing research paradigms by moving beyond the individualistic perspective of social-psychological and cognitive approaches as well as the social and ideological perspective of poststructuralist approaches, and to allow for research that incorporates “specific language behaviors rather than general learning outcomes as the criterion measure” of L2 motivation (Dornyei, 2003, p. 21). A theoretical framework integrating theories of sociocultural theory and discourse theory is proposed with the aim of capturing the social, situated, and linguistic dimensions of L2 motivation. The next sections of the paper review the literature on current L2 motivation research and provide an indepth analysis of the components of the proposed framework.

2. Quantitative approaches to motivation research 2.1 Gardner’s social-psychological approach The dominance of quantitative methods in L2 motivation research resulted from the great influence which Gardner’s motivation theory had. The quantitative studies conducted by Gardner and his associates (e.g., Gardner, 1985, 2000; Gardner and MacIntyre, 1993a; Gardner, Masgoret, Tennant & Mihic, 2004; Tremblay & Gardner, 1995) offered insights into the identification of variables associated with an individual’s motivation to learn an L2, established scientific research procedures, and standardized assessment techniques and instruments (Dornyei, 1994a). Its empirical

84

Mingyue Gu

nature was a characteristic feature of Gardner’s theory and distinguished it from many other L2 motivation conceptualizations. The Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) was designed by Gardner and his associates to assess major individual affective variables involved in L2 learning in Gardner’s socio-educational model. Several studies have assessed the ATMB empirically (Clement, Dornyei & Noels, 1994; Gardner & MacIntyre, 1993b; Gardner, Masgoret, Tennant & Mihic, 2004) and it has been shown to have very good psychometric properties as well as construct and predictive validity (Gardner & MacIntyre, 1993b). To sum up, as the first and most influential motivation theory in the L2 field, Gardner’s socio-psychological theory played an important role in setting up scientific L2 motivation research procedures and taking respective research to new heights. However, despite its emphasis on social attitudes, Gardner’s theory does not actually address the complex interrelationship of Anglophone and Francophone communities in Canada and its varying impact on L2 learning such as changing power relations between the two groups. Instead, the individual’s attitudes towards the L2 community were regarded as the social factors. this can be illustrated in Figure 1 below. Individualistic-societal continuum

Individualistic end: focusing on the individual’s idiosyncratic perception of the social world

Societal end: focusing on social practices and contexts

Figure 1 Gardner’s Theory on an Individualistic-Societal Continuum

Along this individual-societal continuum, Gardner’s theory would be placed towards the individual end. However, language learning can never exist in a vacuum, free of the impacts of socio-cultural factors. Subsequent research efforts were meant to address the contextual and social influences on L2 motivation. These will be discussed later in this article. In the next section, research which focuses on one particular aspect of Gardner’s model will be examined. Integrativeness has been widely researched in the L2 motivation field in different learning contexts, but its validity and relevance have been questioned by some scholars. Therefore, the debates shed light on the need for a more globally oriented model of motivation.

An Integrative Framework for Second Language Motivation Research

85

2.2 Debate on integrativeness and Dornyei’s ideal self theory The specific socio-cultural context in which Gardner’s studies were conducted invested the notion of integrativeness with a specific, contextualized meaning. This phenomenon has been widely researched in the L2 motivation field, but some empirical studies present findings which do not tie in with Gardner’s interpretation of ‘integrativeness’. In Canada, Clement and Kruidenier (1983) proposed that four orientations (i.e., travel, friendship, knowledge, and instrumental orientation) were critical to sustain motivation. Noels, Pelletier, Clement and Vallerand’s (2000) empirical study echoed the findings of Clement and Kruidenier and stated that integrativeness was only relevant to motivation in specific sociocultural settings. Gardner’s interpretation of integrativeness does not tie in with the findings of some empirical studies conducted in contexts where English is learnt as a foreign language (see also Dornyei, 2005). Yashima’s (2000) model-testing study in Japan found that integrativeness could be replaced by two variables—instrumental and intercultural friendship orientations. Also in Japan, McClelland (2000) states that, in an era when English has become an international language, ‘integrativeness’ should be redefined to focus on “integration with the global community rather than assimilation with native speakers” (p. 109). In a survey article reviewing motivation research in Japan, Irie (2003) points out that most motivation studies in Japan report a factor representing positive disposition towards L2 speakers and cultures; however, this factor is not equivalent to integrativeness, since “in many studies the positive disposition factor included items on utilitarian interests, such as traveling, which blurred the distinction between integrative and instrumental motivation” as pointed out by Dornyei (1990; 1994a, p. 91). In a study in Indonesia, Lamb (2004) finds the distinction between integrative and instrumental orientation was not clear and that, in EFL environments, globalization has endowed English with more meanings than before. Warden and Lin’s (2000) study in Taiwan does not successfully identify integrative motivation, and the authors note that “the preliminary study has established the existence of two motivational groups and two temporal orientations in the Taiwanese EFL environment,” and “an integrative motivation group is notably absent” (p. 544). Similarly, Dornyei and Csizer‘s (2002) study in Hungary investigating the relationship between motivational factors (integrativeness, attitudes toward the L2 Speaker/community, cultural interests, vitality of the L2 community, milieu, as well as linguistic self-confidence) and learners’ L2 choice and intended effort, finds ‘integrativeness’ to be the most important element in determining L2 learners’ motivated behaviors. However, it is

86

Mingyue Gu

not consistent with the content of integrativeness in Gardner’s theory. Therefore, Dornyei and Csizer propose that “scholars need to seek potential new conceptualizations and interpretations that extend or elaborate on the meaning of the term without contradicting the large body of relevant empirical data accumulated during the past four decades” (p. 456). Csizer and Dörnyei (2005) subject the data to structural equation modeling (SEM) and reconceptualize integrativeness as the ideal L2 self. Csizer and Dornyei (2005) claimed that from a self perspective, integrativeness could be understood as the L2 learning aspect of one’s ideal self; while instrumentality could be divided into two kinds related either to ideal self or to ought self depending on the extent to which the extrinsic motives are internalized. The less internalized the instrumental motives are the more they are associated with the ought self. According to Csizer and Dornyei (2005, p. 29), the motives related to ought self are more likely to be short-term than those related to ideal self, and the more positive learners’ attitudes towards L2 speakers are, “the more attractive” their ideal L2 self is. Dornyei’s (2005) L2 self motivation theory opened up a new research line to connect motivation research with cognitive psychology. Nonetheless, in an era of globalization when English is becoming the lingua franca, we might find more complicated precedents to one’s idealized English-related self than those to the ideal L2 self found in Dornyei’s studies that looked at different target languages in an EFL context.

2.3 The cognitive-situated approach With the aim of reopening the research agenda with a focus on education, a number of studies appeared and revived interest in L2 motivation in the 1990s (e.g., Clement, Dornyei & Noels, 1994; Crookes & Schmidt, 1991; Dornyei, 1994a, 1994b; Julkunen, 1989, 1993; Oxford & Shearin, 1994; Skehan, 1989, 1991; Williams, 1994). As a result, during what Gardner and Tremblay (1994) have called a ‘motivational renaissance’, researchers developed a number of constructs beyond the existing socio-psychological theory, and studied motivation in specific language-learning classrooms. Along the lines of the situated approach to motivation research, Dornyei (2001b; Dornyei & Otto, 1998) proposed a process-oriented approach to reflect the dynamic character and temporal aspect of motivation in a language classroom context. From this perspective, motivation was no longer seen “as a static attribute but rather as a dynamic factor that displays continuous fluctuation, going through certain ebbs and

An Integrative Framework for Second Language Motivation Research

87

flows” (Dornyei, 2002, p. 5). Dornyei’s (2003) process-oriented approach to L2 motivation in a classroom context has highlighted its dynamic character and created a research perspective similar to the developmental approach generally taken in SLA research. Dornyei (2002) examined the dynamic nature of task motivation, i.e., how motivation is constructed by the continuing interaction between internal and external factors. Motivation was found to be more highly correlated with learning behaviors than with global achievement measures. The findings also indicated that task motivation was constructed by both situation-specific and more general motives, and that the construction was far more complicated than the simple combination of state and trait motivation. It was indicated that task participants took the role of jointly constructing task motivation. In all, this study is an empirical attempt to adopt a process-oriented and situated approach to L2 motivation study, and it is an innovative study relating motivation and discourse analysis.

2.4 Summary Despite the importance researchers have attached to the integration of individual and social perspectives on L2 motivation research, none of the approaches mentioned above (socio-psychological, cognitive, situated, and process-oriented) has successfully addressed the impact of social, cultural,and contextual factors on motivation. The methodological practices of traditional L2 motivation research, which traditionally reflect a quantitative paradigm, have been criticized as presenting “a concept of motivation in terms of measurable components and yielding snapshot motivational indices for entry into statistical analysis with other variable indices” (Ushioda, 2001, p. 95). The need for a qualitative approach to complement the quantitative tradition, which had dominated the field for a long time, has already been well-argued (Crookes & Schimidt, 1991; Dornyei, 2001a). When both the theoretical foundations and methodological practices of L2 motivation research were criticized for their inadequate presentation of the intricacy of motivation, a new research agenda within a qualitative paradigm was proposed (Lantolf & Pavlenko, 1995; Norton, 2000; Norton Peirce, 1995, 1997; Pavlenko & Norton, 2007; Ushioda, 2001).

88

Mingyue Gu

3. Qualitative approaches to motivation research 3.1 Ushioda’s process model Ushioda (2001) reported on a small-scale qualitative study which focused on the content of language learners’ thinking at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Adopting open-ended and semi-structured interviews, Ushioda sought to explore the participants’ “personal conceptions of what language motivation meant and identification of the factors that shaped perceived motivational rationale” (p. 99). The working conceptions of motivation were found to be shaped by different “temporal frames of reference” (p. 107). Most of the participants attributed their motivation mainly to language learning experiences, and individuals differed in the extent of importance ascribed to long-term future goals. Participants’ reflections on motivational revolution over time showed that motivation both changed in degree and quality. Ushioda classified the factors in learners’ motivational perceptions as “either causal (deriving from the continuum of L2-learning and L2-related experience to date) or teleological (directed toward short-term or long-term goals and future perspectives)” (p.107). Dornyei (2005) argues that Ushioda’s (2001) study ties in well with L2 Motivation Self System, which is comprised of three dimensions, i.e. the Ideal L2 Self, the Ought-to L2 Self, and L2 Learning Experience because the Ideal and Ought-to L2 Self are teleological and L2 Learning Experience falls within causal dimensions. Different theoretical and methodological approaches arrive at a similar interpretation of L2 motivation, which further shows that different approaches are not necessarily contradictory, but complementary in some cases.

3.2 Investment and identity Drawing on feminist poststructuralism (Weedon, 1997), Norton (2000) introduced the concepts of identity and power relations to SLA theories and brought a new dynamic and perspective to SLA research. In her study of female immigrants to Canada, Norton defined identity as “how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future” (p. 5). She found the notion of identity extremely useful in explaining learners’ social location and their changing investment in learning an L2. Pavlenko (2000) also sees the learner’s identity as a mediating factor in the learners’ access to linguistic resources, and argues that learner status, race, ethnicity, gender, class, age, and social

An Integrative Framework for Second Language Motivation Research

89

status might mediate the learner’s access to linguistic resources, and especially, to interactional opportunities in L2. Since language learners’ social histories and personal identities had significant influences on L2 learning processes and issues of power, identity and language learning were so inextricably interrelated, Norton (2000) found that the existing L2 motivation theories failed to account for her informants’ complex and varying motivation when learning English. Therefore, she reconceptualized motivation as an investment, which “signals the socially and historically constructed relationship of learners to the target language, and their often ambivalent desire to learn and practice it” (p. 10). Norton stated that the notion of investment was not equivalent to that of instrumental motivation proposed by Gardner (1985). While the latter conceives of a language learner as someone who lives in a static, unitary surrounding with no historical imprint and desires access to the material resources belonging to the target language community, the former presupposes that a language learner, who has a complex social history and “multiple desires”, constantly organizes and reorganizes a sense of place and value in the social world (Norton Peirce, 1995, p. 16). Syed (2001) also argues that the notions of multiple and socially constructed identities need to be considered in motivation research. Syed studied how foreign language (especially heritage) learners’ notions of self were defined or redefined as they struggled to find their voice and place in society and how their notions of self influenced their “involvement, persistence, and learning of their foreign/heritage language” (p. 132) over a span of one semester. Concluding her study, Syed proposed that “motivation, or the desire and investment, in learning a language is far more complex than the static constructs usually used to measure it” (p. 143), and a number of socio-cultural and psychosocial factors “operating at the individual level” will play the motivating role in language learning.

3.3 Imagined communities The notion of an ‘imagined community’ was coined by Anderson (1991), and further theorized by Wenger (1998). Anderson (1991) states that the construct of a nation-state is imagined because “the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (p. 6). In this sense, imagination is a way to influence the citizens of a nation ideologically and to construct national identities. Wenger (1998) proposed three modes of community belonging: engagement, imagination, and alignment. Engagement is “a source of

90

Mingyue Gu

identity” (p. 174). Engagement has time and space limitations since one can only be in one place at a specific point in time. Imagination refers to “a process of expanding our self by transcending our time and space and creating new images of the world and ourselves” (p. 176). So imagination is capable of extending our experiences beyond the boundaries of mutual engagement. Alignment means “coordinating our energy and activities in order to fit within structures and contribute to broader enterprises” (p. 174). Through alignment, people coordinate their action with a certain community and become part of it. Wenger (p. 197) illustrates that what alignment conveys is not “inherent in engagement or in imagination” because people may engage in a community but not manage to align their actions, and people may imagine connecting with others without knowing how to go about it. Drawing on Wenger’s (1998) notion of ‘imagination’ as a sense of belonging to a community, Norton (2001) proposes the concept of ‘imagined communities’ as being constructed by the joint impacts of past experiences, knowledge derived from those experiences, and ideas of life in the future. A language learner’s imagined membership in the target language community might “invite one’s imagined identity” (p. 166). As Norton explained, “Imagination doesn’t necessarily result in the coordination of action. It is here that the notion of alignment becomes central because it is through alignment that learners do what they have to do to take part in a larger community” (p. 164).

4. What is lacking in existing motivation studies? In a world that is getting more and more globalized, English no longer only represents Anglophone countries, but has become a language for people to connect to the rest of the world. Socio-cultural change alters learners’ attitudes towards English and English speaking community. The integrativeness/instrumentality dichotomy and the extrinsic/intrinsic motivation dichotomy fail to fully explain the complex nature of motivation which is historically and socio-culturally constructed. New constructs of the ideal L2 self are proposed in order to better understand EFL learners’ motivation profiles. Furthermore, motivation is regarded as a process rather than a trait. Recently Arnett (2002) stated that “most people now develop a bicultural identity, in which part of their identity is rooted in their local culture while another part stems from an awareness of their relation to the global culture” (p. 777). Syed (2001) also indicated the struggles of minority students in the U.S. who simultaneously belong to two cultural and national communities to reconcile conflicting selves.

An Integrative Framework for Second Language Motivation Research

91

Qualitative researchers wanted to overcome the constraints of reducing human behaviors and attitudes to numbers and use the concept of identity to connect learners with the social world. Norton (2000) tried to arrive at a holistic picture of L2 learners by adopting a methodological framework which was influenced by researchers who seek to “investigate the complex relationship between social structure on the one hand, and human agency on the other, without resorting to deterministic or reductionist analysis” (p. 21). In spite of the research achievements in L2 motivation, several aspects need to be developed further. An integrative account of the individual and the social dimension is fundamental to a holistic presentation of L2 motivation, which still requires more investigation. Despite the accomplishments by researchers who have advanced the investigation of both the macro and micro dimensions of the social world (e.g., Norton, 2000, 2001; Norton & Pavlenko, 2007), the constructive effects of the social dimension on the individual learners’ motivation and identity remain a site for further exploration. Furthermore, the operation of discourse at the micro level, which allows for the exploration of L2 motivation in terms of the mediating role of language between the social and the individual, has not attracted enough attention. Although Norton (2000), influenced by poststructuralist feminism, has emphasized the role of discourse at the macro level, i.e., the social structure, an emphasis on discourse at the level of utterances would not only help to better explain the relationship between the individual and the respective context in the process of motivation development, but also counter the fact that L2 motivation has not been integrated into the traditional domain of applied linguistics. This may have resulted from the prevailing focus of motivation research on general learning outcomes instead of specific learning behaviors (Dornyei, 2003). The above discussion leads to a discourse-based L2 motivation research, which follows the recent trend in applied linguistics that “views language learning as a fundamentally social, cultural, and temporal activity rather than just an individual, decontextualized, ahistorical, cognitive activity” (Morita, 2004, p. 14). The next section of the article presents the theoretical foundation for a critical approach to a discoursebased motivation study that attempts to encompass the socio-cultural and dynamic dimensions of L2 learning.

5. An integrative perspective on L2 motivation A comprehensive view of L2 motivation calls for a focus not only on affective factors, but also on linguistic, institutional, and social influences.

92

Mingyue Gu

The theoretical framework proposed in this paper allows for such a focus. The critical approach draws on ideas from neo-Vygoskyan research and critical discourse research. Although the two approaches are grounded in different theoretical frameworks and emphasize distinct aspects of social practices related to language learning, they are complementary rather than exclusive. Sociocultural theory, founded by Vygotsky (1978) and further elaborated on in others’ works (e.g., Cole, 1996; Lantolf, 2000; Lantolf & Thorne, 2006; Wertsch, 1985a, 1985b, 1998), regards the development of higher-order cognitive functions as socially mediated. According to Vygotsky, cognitive development results from the transition of knowledge from the interpsychological level to the intrapsychological level with the help of more advanced peers and mediating tools. Socio-cultural theory emphasizes that the internalization process is a dynamic transformation which is related to, but not a simple replication of, external functions. A person’s cognition is shaped by his/her social relationships, cultural values and principles. The concept of mediation plays a critical role in the organization of activity and the generation of higher mental processes (Donato & McCormick, 1994). The mediating tools that are available and the ways in which these mediating tools are used in the internalization process define what is learned and the process of learning (Hall, 1997). The mediating (semiotic) tools include algebraic symbols, mnemonic devices, diagrams, gestures, and, most important of all, language. Vygotsky (1978, p. 28) conceptualized the function of language in the development of higher psychological functions as “enabling children to provide for auxiliary tools in the solution of difficult tasks, to overcome impulsive action, to plan a solution to a problem prior to its execution, and to master their own behavior”. Therefore humans use symbolic tools, most importantly language, to set up relationships between themselves and the external world. This theory is appropriate to examine learners and their social environment. Socio-cultural theory, therefore, allows for investigating social milieu, institutional as well as departmental systems, L1 speaking communities, and situated interactions in which L2 learners participate. It is helpful to better understand L2 motivation, which as Thorne (2005, p. 403) argues “is not an atomistic element possessed by a learner, rather it is built in relation to prior and ongoing activity and responds to changing social-material circumstances”. The challenges socio-cultural theory is confronted with are based on the assumption that all populations have equal opportunities to learn or neglect a language (Mitchell & Myles,

An Integrative Framework for Second Language Motivation Research

93

1998; Thorne, 2005). The first issue could be addressed by incorporating agency, identity, and power relations in analysis, and recent research has done so (e.g., Bazerman & Russell, 2003; Sawchuk, 2003). The second critique has been accommodated to a certain degree by researchers who applied socio-cultural theory to language learning (e.g., Lantolf & Pavlenko, 2001; Thorne, 2004). Socio-cultural theory is developing an increasingly critical perspective and it thus shares “aspirations for political engagement, while also offering distinctive contributions to the project of critical scholarship” with poststructuralist approaches (Thorne, 2005, p. 403). As we will see, these criticisms can be addressed by introducing the notion of discourse as taken from critical discourse analysis (CDA) (Fairclough, 1992, 2003). Central to Fairclough’s (1992, 2003) model of critical discourse analysis is that discourse, as an important form of social practice, “both reproduces and changes knowledge, identities and social relations including power relations, and at the same time is also shaped by other social practices and structures” (Philips & Jorgensen, 2002, p. 65). It thus provides insights into how culture and society are reflected in an individual’s language. Furthermore, Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis introduces issues of power, social positioning and social relations and also provides a method that ties in with the theoretical orientation of this study. I will now briefly outline the common ground as well as the mutually complementary features of socio-cultural theory, critical discourse analysis, Fairclough’s model and Halliday’s (1985, 1994) systemic linguistics, upon which Fairclough draws in his work, as outlined in Clarke (2005). Vygotsky’s theory, moving from the social to the individual, looks at how individual consciousness is mediated by the social (Wells, 1999). Halliday’s systemic linguistics, which underpins critical discourse analysis and moves from the individual to the social, sees language as social semiotic and examines how the social is constructed in the utterances of individual learners. Thus, while Vygotsky’s theory examines the individual through the social, Halliday’s theory explores the social through the individual (Wells, 1999). However, the two theories share the view that culture and language are mutually constitutive. Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics is thus compatible with, and complementary to, Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory (Wells, 1999). Furthermore, Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis theory, which adopts Halliday’s notion that language and text are multi-functional for text analysis, goes one step further further by being more interdiscursively oriented and by placing greater emphasis on the role of politics and power.

94

Mingyue Gu

Additionally, both socio-cultural theory and critical discourse analysis share a ‘genetic’, or contextual, orientation. Vygotsky proposes three genetic domains: the sociocultural domain, which is concerned with how the histories of human cultures influence the development of different kinds of symbolic tools, which in turn affect the kinds of mediation valued by these cultures; the ontogenetic domain, which is focused on how mediational means, primarily language, are appropriated and integrated by humans during their lifespan; and the microgenetic domain, which looks at the step-by-step development of mediation over a short span of time such as situated interactions. Following Halliday, Fairclough distinguishes between text and context in his model of critical discourse analysis. While in Vygotsky’s theory learners’ utterances and statements can be understood as their microgenetic development, in Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis utterances and statements can be seen at the level of text. He further distinguishes between two kinds of contexts: discursive practice, which involves the production and consumption of the text, and social practice, which involves ideology and power relations operating at the broader societal level. Thus, the three levels of Fairclough’s analytical framework are: the micro level of text; the meso level of discursive practice, and the macro level of social practice. In sum, this contextual and process-oriented perspective, in which language is constitutive of reality and the individual and the social are mutually shaped, is a feature of Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory, Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics, and Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis. On the other hand, their perspectives, embedded in their fundamental compatibility with each other (Clarke, 2005), contribute to achieving a holistic view of L2 motivation. Vygotsky’s theory is about exploring the mediating and constructing role of social semiotic factors on individual cognition. Halliday’s theory reflects the influence of the social dimension on the individual's language as social semiotic and the multiple functions realized by any utterance. Drawing on Halliday’s multifunctionalism, but moving further, Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis enables us to go beyond analyzing text in a particular register and genre and instead interpret texts in multiple, power-laden discursive and social practices. In relation to motivation, this sonceptualization draws on a sociocultural framework to provide a multi-layered perspective on motivation construction and employs the notion of discourse to examine the constitutive role of language on motivation and identity.

An Integrative Framework for Second Language Motivation Research

95

6. Conclusion The comprehensive review of the literature shows that L2 motivation research has moved beyond the study of motivation free of contextual constraints to investigation of motivation as an individual, social and ideological construct. The framework presented in this paper aims to provide a tool for integrating the above dimensions of L2 motivation. The integration of socio-cultural theory and critical discourse analysis allows for a linguistic and social analysis of English learners’ motivation. The combinations of the theories enable researchers to investigate the changing process of English learners’ motivation; to explore the historical, social, and cultural elements that influence it, and to analyze their language use that both reflects and is influenced by it. The consideration of both linguistic and ethnographic aspects of L2 motivation, and the emphasis on interaction between individual and social context make the framework a useful tool to better understand the multiple, dynamic and contextualized nature of L2 motivation.

References Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism (2nd ed.). London & New York: Verso. Arnett, J.J. (2002). The Psychology of Globalization. American Psychologist, 57, 774–783. Blommaret, J. & Bulcaen, C. (2000). Critical Discourse Analysis. Annual Review of Anthropology, 29, 447-466. Bazerman, C. & Russel, D.R. (2003). Writing Selves/Writing Societies: Research from activity perspectives. Fort Collins, CO: The WAC Clearinghouse. Clarke, M. (2005). Teaching Identity: The discursive construction of an evolving community of practice. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Melbourne, Australia. Clement, R., Dornyei, Z. & Noels, K.A. (1994). Motivation, SelfConfidence, and Group Cohesion in the Foreign Language Classroom. Language Learning, 44, 417-437. Clement, R. and Kruidenier, B. (1983). Orientations on Second Language Acquisition: 1. The effects of ethnicity, milieu, and their target language on their emergence. Language Learning, 33, 273-291. Cole, M. (1996). Cultural Psychology: A once and future discipline. Cambridge, MA: Bellknap-Harvard.

96

Mingyue Gu

Crookes, G. & Schmidt, R.W. (1991). Motivation: Reopening the research agenda. Language Learning, 41, 469-512. Csizer, K. & Dornyei, Z. (2005). The Internal Structure of Language Learning Motivation and Its Relationship with Language Choice and Learning Effort. Modern Language Journal, 89, 19-36. Donato, R. & McCormick, D. (1994). A Sociocultural Perspective on Language Learning Strategies: The role of mediation. Modern Language Journal, 78, 453-464. Dornyei, Z. (1990). Conceptualising Motivation in Foreign-Language Learning. Language Learning, 40, 45-78. —. (1994a). Motivation and Motivating in the Foreign Language Classroom. Modern Language Journal, 78, 273-284. —. (1994b). Understanding L2 motivation: On with the challenge! Modern Language Journal, 78, 515-523. —. (2001a). Teaching and Researching Motivation. Harlow: Longman. —. (2001b). Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. —. (2002). Researching L2 Motivation in the 21 Century. Crew, V., Davison, C. & Mak, B. (eds.). In Reflecting on Language in Education (pp. 1-19). Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Institute of Education. —. (2003). Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations in Language Learning: Advances in theory, research, and applications. Language Learning Supplement, 53(1), 3-29. —. (2005). The Psychology of the Language Learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition. Mahwah, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates. Dornyei, Z. & Clement, R. (2001). Motivational Characteristics of Learning Different Target Languages: Results of a nationwide survey. Dornyei, Z. & Schmidt, R. (eds.). In Motivation and second language acquisition (pp. 399-432). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Dornyei, Z. & Csizer, K. (2002). Some Dynamics of Language Attitudes and Motivation: Results of a longitudinal nationwide survey. Dornyei, Z. & Schmidt, R. (eds.). In Motivation and Second Language Acquisition (pp. 399-432). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Dornyei, Z. & Otto, I. (1998). Motivation in Action: A process model of L2 motivation. Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 4, 43-69. London: Thames Valley University. Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press. —. (2003). Analyzing Discourse: Textual analysis for social research. London: New York: Routledge.

An Integrative Framework for Second Language Motivation Research

97

Gardner, R.C. (1985). Social Psychology and Language Learning: The role of attitudes and motivation. London: Edward Arnold. —. (2000). Correlation, Causation, Motivation and Second Language Acquisition. Canadian Psychology, 41, 1-24. Gardner, R.C. & MacIntyre, P.D. (1993a). A Student's Contribution to Second Language Acquisition, Part II: Affective variables. Language Teaching, 26, 1-11. Gardner, R.C. & MacIntyre, P.D. (1993b). On the Measurement of Affective Variables in Second Language Teaching. Language Teaching, 43, 157-194. Gardner, R.C., Masgoret, A.M., Tennant, J. & Mihic, L. (2004). Integrative Motivation: Change during a year-long intermediate-level language course. Language learning, 54(1), 1-34. Gardner, R.C. & Tremblay, P.F. (1994). On Motivation, Research Agendas, and Theoretical Frameworks. The Modern Language Journal, 78, 359-368. Hall, J. K. (1997). A Consideration of SLA as a Theory of Practice: A response to Firth and Wagner. Modern Language Journal, 81, 301306. Halliday, M.A.K. (1985). Spoken and Written Language. Geelong, Vic: Deakin University Press. —. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd ed.). London: Edward Arnold. Irie, K. (2003). What Do We Know about the Language Learning Motivation of University Students in Japan? JALT Journal, 25, 86– 100. Julkunen, K. (1989). Situation- and Task-Specific Motivation in ForeignLanguage Learning and Teaching. Joensuu: University of Joensuu. —. (1993). On Foreign Language Learning Motivation in the Classroom. Tella, S. (ed.). In Kielesta mielta—Mielekasta kielta, 70-78. Lamb, M. (2004). Integrative Motivation in a Globalizing World. System, 32, 3-19. Lantolf, J.P. (1994). Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning: Introduction to the special issue. The Modern Language Journal, 78, 418-420. —. (2000). Second Language Learning as a Mediated Process. Language Teaching, 33, 79-96. Lantolf, J.P. & Pavlenko, A. (1995). Scociocultural Theory and Second Language Acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 15, 108124.

98

Mingyue Gu

Lantolf, J.P. & Pavlenko, A. (2001). Second Language Activity Theory: Understanding second language learners as people. Breen, M.P. (ed.). Learner Contributions to Language Learning (pp. 141-158). Harlow, England: Pearson Education Limited. Lantolf, J.P. &Thorne, S.L. (2006). Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press. McClelland, N. (2000). Goal Orientations in Japanese College Students Learning EFL. Cornwell, S. & Robinson, P. (eds.). In Individual Differences in Foreign Language Learning: Effects of aptitude, intelligence, and motivation (pp. 99-115). Tokyo: Japanese Association for Language Teaching. Mitchell, R. & Myles, E. (1998). Second Language Learning Theories. London: Edward Arnold. Morita, N. (2004). Negotiating Participation and Identity in Second Language Academic Communities. TESOL Quarterly, 38, 573-603. Noels, K.A., Pelletier, L.G., Clement, R. & Vallerand, R.J. (2000). Why are You Learning a Second Language? Motivational orientation and self-determination theory. Language Learning, 50(1), 57-85. Norton, B. (2000). Identity and Language Learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. —. (2001). Non-Participation, Imagined Communities and the Language Classroom. Breen, M.P. (ed.). In Learner Contributions to Language Learning: New directions in research (pp. 159-171). Harlow, England: Longman. Norton Peirce, B. (1995). Social Identity, Investment, and Language Learning. TESOL Quarterly, 29(1), 9-31. —. (1997). Language, Identity, and Ownership of English. TOESL Quarterly, 31, 409-429. Oxford, R.L. & Shearin, J. (1994). Language Learning Motivation: Expanding the theoretical framework. Modern Language Journal, 78, 12-28. Pavlenko, A. (2000). Access to Linguistic Resources: Key variable in second language learning. Estudios de Sociolinguistica, 1(2), 85-105. Pavlenko, A. & Norton, B. (2007). Imagined Communities, Identity, and English Language Learning. Cummins, J. & Davison, C. (eds.). In Kluwer Handbook of English Language Teaching: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Phillips, L. & Jorgensen, M. (2002). Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Sawchuk, P. H. (2003). Adult Learning and Technology in Working-Class Life. New York: Cambridge University Press.

An Integrative Framework for Second Language Motivation Research

99

Sealey, A. and Carter, B. (2004). Applied Linguistics as Social Science. London: Continuum. Skehan, P. (1989). Individual Differences in Second-Language Learning. London: Edward Arnold. —. (1991). Individual Differences in Second-Language Learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 13, 275-298. Syed, Z. (2001). Notions of Self in Foreign Language Learning: A qualitative analysis. Dornyei, Z. & Schmidt, R. (eds.). In Motivation and Second Language Acquisition (Technical Report #23, 127-148). Honolulu: University of Hawaii, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center. Thorne, S. L. (2004). Cultural Historical Activity Theory and the Object of Motivation. Van Esch, K. &. St. John, O. (eds.). In New Insights into Foreign Language Learning and Teaching, (pp. 51-70), Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang Verlag. Thorne, S. (2005). Epistemology, Politics, and Ethics in Sociocultural Theory. The Modern Language Journal, 89(3), 393-409. Tremblay, P.F. & Gardner, R.C. (1995). Expanding the Motivation Construct in Language Learning. Modern Language Journal, 79, 50520. Ushioda, E. (2001). Language Learning at University: Exploring the role of motivational thinking. Dornyei, Z. & Schmidt, R. (eds.). In Motivation and Second Language Acquisition (pp. 93-126). Honolulu: University of Hawaii, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center. Vygosky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Warden, C. & Lin, H.J. (2000). Existence of Integrative Motivation in Asia EFL Setting. Foreign Language Annals, 33, 535-547. Weedon, C. (1997). Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Wells, G. (1999). Dialogic Inquiry: Towards a sociocultural practice and theory of education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wertsch, J.V. (ed.). (1985a). Culture, Communication and Cognition: Vygotskian perspectives. New York: Cambridge University Press. —. (1985b). Vygosky and the Social Formulation of Mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. —. (1998). Mind as Action. New York: Oxford University Press.

100

Mingyue Gu

Williams, M. (1994). Motivation in Foreign and Second Language Learning: An interactive perspective. Educational and Child Psychology, 11, 77-84. Yashima, T. (2000). Orientations and motivation in foreign language learning: A study of Japanese college students. JACET Bulletin, 31, 121-133.

LANGUAGE POLICY AND LANGUAGE PROVINCIALISM: BARRIERS TO GLOBALIZATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLING IN THE UNITED STATES JUDITH LESSOW HURLEY

In 2004-2005, there were approximately 5.1 million students, K-12, in the United States, who were designated limited English proficient (NCELA, 2006). Limited English proficient (or LEP) is the term generally used to describe students who by some measure have insufficient English to function academically in ordinary classrooms, where no language modifications or assistance are available. Such students, also called English language learners (ELL’s), constitute a little over ten percent of total public school enrollment in the United States, and their numbers have doubled in the last decade. Limited English proficient students are predictably concentrated in several states, including Florida, Texas, Illinois and New York. California alone reports 1.6 million students or one in every four students as LEP. But the "big" states do not tell the whole story. All states have students with limited proficiency in English, and several states, including Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and North Carolina have recently seen significant growth in their LEP populations. Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese speakers predominate, but American schools open their doors every day to speakers of over 50 languages (Kindler, 2002; National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition, 2002). But headcounts of LEP’s do not tell the whole story, either. Many students are not limited in their English but have another language at home, and they may or may not be proficient in that language as well. In California, those students may account for more than half the public school population. Data about them is harder to come by. They do not represent a "problem", and we do not view them as a resource, so we do not much bother to count them.

102

Judith Lessow Hurley

It has been observed that the first generation speaks a heritage language, the second understands but does not speak it, and the third generation takes high-intensity language classes to recapture it. We don’t start out that way, but in the U.S. heritage languages disappear within three generations. This could be the source of a strange, uniquely American ambivalence about language, a kind of language provincialism. Americans seem to feel that if you learn your second language in school, that is educated. If, however, you learn it in your own home, that is somehow less desirable. So rather than supporting home languages, our educational policies seek to eradicate them, squandering a wealth of language resources, at no small cost. Beyond simple provincialism, voters in the United States have enthusiastically endorsed language restrictionist policies in schooling. For example, California, Arizona and Massachusetts, states with significant populations of students with languages other than English, have passed laws that seriously limit the availability of bilingual programs in public schools. Language restrictionism in American education is not a new phenomenon—indigenous Native American languages were eradicated in the harshest ways imaginable. Carl Gorman, father of the famous Indian artist R.C. Gorman, remembered that he was chained to a radiator in school for speaking his native tongue (Thomas, 1998). In young adulthood, Carl Gorman was to become a Navajo code-talker, one of a regiment of Navajos recruited in World War II to transmit secret messages in a code based on their native language. It is widely acknowledged that the code-talkers, whose code baffled the Japanese, made a significant, if not the significant contribution to the American victory in the Pacific. Spanish speakers have been similarly treated, punished for speaking Spanish in school well into the twentieth century. My contemporaries remember having their mouths washed out with soap for speaking Spanish in school. Nor has language restrictionism confined itself to indigenous American languages like Spanish. German was a vital American language until the middle of the nineteenth century. Beginning in the 1840s, an antiimmigrant movement aimed initially at Irish newcomers spilled over into an English-only movement that all but obliterated large German-English programs in newly emerging centralized public schools (Crawford, 1989). Our national wrong-headedness about language is costly in a global economy and potentially dangerous in our current highly charged political environment. We are all probably familiar by now with the famous advertising goofs: Braniff, now defunct, advertising leather seats, appealed to Spanish speakers to fly en cueros, the Spanish idiom for naked. "Come

Barriers to Globalization in Public Schooling in the United States

103

alive with Pepsi Cola" reportedly made its way into the Chinese media as "Bring your ancestors back from the dead with Pepsi." Clearly the translators had little insight into semantics, much less resurrection! These examples are amusing, but in a global economy it is more than foolish and expensive to lose market share because you cannot talk to the people who might buy your products. Our failure to study other languages has serious implications for national security as well. We knew that after World War II, when we passed the National Defense Education Act in 1958 which included support for foreign language instruction. But we have lost sight of the importance of languages as our collective memory of that war has faded, as evidenced by a story published in the New York Times. "Baffled Occupiers, or the Missed Understandings" (Tierney, 2003) highlights the unfortunate and even dangerous misunderstandings that have occurred in Iraq because American military personnel do not speak Arabic, and demonstrate little understanding of Iraqi culture. The story notes that American officials, discouraged by their inability to communicate, "end up spending most of their time in their compounds talking to one another while dispatching Iraqis into the field." The story also notes the stark contrast with Russian diplomats, who appear on Al Jazeera and speak fluent Arabic. Given the lack of public and government support for bilingual programs, embattled bilingual educators could not help noticing the irony: Following 9-11, the FBI and other government agencies advertised on bilingual list-serves seeking Arabic speakers. A United States General Accounting Office report collated data from the U.S. Army, the Department of State, the Foreign Commercial Service and the FBI. The report concluded that "(...) shortfalls have adversely affected agency operations and hindered U.S. military, law enforcement, intelligence, counter terrorism, and diplomatic efforts" (United States Government Accounting Office, 2002, p. 2). Despite the enormous resources and opportunity offered by our linguistic diversity and the enormous costs of our provincialism, our language resistance persists. It is possible to graduate from high school, university and even doctoral programs in the United States without demonstrating proficiency in, or even some knowledge of, a second language. Primary and secondary level teachers, who are responsible for assisting large numbers of second language learners to learn English, are generally not required to speak a second language, and in many cases, have only minimal exposure to the nature or dynamics of language and language acquisition as part of their professional preparation.

104

Judith Lessow Hurley

Language provincialism is pervasive, and surfaces, surprisingly, even among highly educated people. At San Jose State University, despite multiple initiatives to internationalize the curriculum, we do not require language study for graduation. Attempts to include language as an option among our general education requirements have provoked comments from faculty that language is a skill, not a content area, and therefore should not be considered a part of general education. Recently, faculty leaders at my institution initiated a conversation that asked their colleagues to explore the concept of an "educated person." At one lunch-time discussion I attended, a participant proposed that any educated person should speak more than one language. The implication of that remark was not lost on a room full of monolingual Ph.Ds. After a moment of somewhat frosty silence, a participant offered the suggestion that an educated person might have familiarity with a second culture, which did not necessitate knowing another language. Interesting idea. Despite the persistence of language provincialism and language restrictionism, there are still some bright spots. Louis D. Brandeis High School in New York offers its students three Spanish tracks: Spanish as a foreign language, Spanish for Spanish-speaking immigrants and Spanish for heritage speakers, who may particularly need support for Spanish academic language and literacy (Zehr, 2003). At the elementary level, two-way immersion programs are offered in a variety of languages across the United States. Two-way or dual immersion programs use minority languages as the medium of instruction, for linguistically mixed students. English speakers acquire a new language and minority language students develop English language skills while maintaining and developing their home languages. Data indicate that twoway immersion students achieve high levels of proficiency in both languages, and also do well in academic subjects (Lindholm-Leary, 2000). In 2006, the Bush administration announced the National Security Language Initiative, with the intention of increasing the number of Americans fluent in languages critical to the national defense, including Arabic and Chinese. While the initiative has not yet been fully funded, it provides support for the idea that language ability is the key to our security as a nation. They say that "(…) if you speak three languages you are trilingual, two you are bilingual, and if you speak one you’re an American." Given the value of speaking more than one language in an increasingly shrinking and inter-related social environment, and the deep richness of linguistic resources in the United States, that is an equation that needs to be changed.

Barriers to Globalization in Public Schooling in the United States

105

References Crawford, J. (1989). Bilingual Education: History, politics, theory and practice. Trenton, NJ: Crane Publishing. Kindler, A.K. (2002). Survey of the States’ Limited English Proficient Students and Available Educational Programs and Services: 20002001 report. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition & Language Instruction Educational Programs. Lindholm-Leary, K. (2000). Biliteracy for a Global Society: An idea book on dual language education. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education. National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (2002). Poster: The Growing Numbers of LEP Students, 2004-2005 [on-line] www.ncela.gwu.edu. Thomas, R.M. Jr. (February 1, 1998). Carl Gorman, Code Talker in World War II, dies at 90. The New York Times, 31. Tierney, J. (October 22, 2003). Baffled Occupiers, or the Missed Understandings." The New York Times [on-line] Available: www.nytimes.org. United States Government Accounting Office (2002). Foreign Languages: Human capital approach needed to correct staffing and proficiency shortfall (GAO Publication No. GAO-02-375). Washington, D.C. Zehr, M. (April 2, 2003). Schools Tap Talent for Home Languages. Education Week [on-line] Available: www.edweek.org.

DUAL-LANGUAGE PROGRAMS: WHAT ARE THEY AND WHY SHOULD WE USE THEM? SOME POINTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EDUCATORS, PARENTS, AND ADMINISTRATORS LUCIA BUTTARO

Abstract In an increasingly diversified and multilingual world, more and more young children find themselves in an environment where more than one language is used. Similarly, with job changes that involve moving to different parts of the world, parents can feel overwhelmed by the linguistic demands placed on their children and themselves. What can parents expect for their children? Do parents have anything to contribute to the process of early language development? Do children have to be especially intelligent to be able to cope with more than one language? This paper will address these questions and provide answers that will benefit educators, administrators and parents as well.

Introduction People everywhere have strong ideas about children growing up with second or third languages. These ideas influence how people interact with their children and how they look at other people's children. These ideas also influence how professionals such as teachers, doctors, and speech therapists advise parents of children growing up bilingually. Sadly, many ideas that people have about children growing up with a second or third language in childhood are not of any benefit to these children and may, in fact, have adverse effects. One of the purposes of this paper is to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions about children growing up bilingually and to offer suggestions that can help children to become fluent users of two or more languages. After all, if this is a common practice in

Dual-Language Programs: Recommendations for Educators and Parents 107

Europe, why can't bilingualism be seen as an asset and not a detriment in the USA? One in six US teachers has non-English speakers in the classroom. In New York City, the educational implications of children's ability to use sometimes distinct, sometimes overlapping linguistic codes are mostly viewed negatively. Differences in the linguistic codes of the community and the school, and conflicts between their ways of speaking, learning, and showing what they know contribute to the academic failure of linguistic minority groups (Philips, 1972; Heath, 1982, 1983). Policies are being formulated in response to the country's educational, economic, and social crises without comprehending the repercussions for minority and majority communities alike. Inflammatory debates about bilingual education, English-only laws, ethnic studies, and multicultural curricula are too frequently fueled by poisonous stereotypes of the nation's speakers of other languages. Ladefoged (1992) insisted that "we must be wary of arguments based on political considerations", and that "it would not be the action of a responsible linguist to persuade them [a group that is giving up the use of its language] to do otherwise" (p. 811). Dorian (1993) pointed out that the facts are not so obvious and there are no apolitical positions where languages and cultures are threatened. I agree with Dorian (1993) that "it seems a defensible intellectual as well as emotional position to hold that each loss in linguistic diversity is a diminution in an unusually powerful expression of human cultural life, given the nature of language" (p. 578). When the stakes are not only loss of language and culture but a decent life, as they are in many ethnolinguistic minority communities in the USA, the tasks of a responsible linguist must include political action. By incorporating the word "political" in its name, anthropological linguistics openly declares its intention to discuss the language and politics connection and to make it clear that, whether we choose to discuss it or not, there is no language without politics. The cultural and linguistic lessons that living in The Bronx teaches are often not understood by the schools, and this affects whether or not the children learn the school's lessons. Members of every Hispanic or Latino generation want their children to speak, read, and write Spanish, but few have any idea of the enormity of the task, and the community resources to help them—beyond the beleaguered bilingual schools—are almost non existent. To be effective, language maintenance efforts must tap into the extensive linguistic and cultural knowledge that exists throughout the larger Latino community, and tackle the social, economic, and political problems that demean and restrict that knowledge.

108

Lucia Buttaro

A bilingual environment is often a necessity and not a choice Many discussions of the advantages and disadvantages of early bilingualism seem to be based on the idea that a bilingual environment is something that parents choose for their children. This, however, is usually not the case; young children who grow up bilingually are for the most part doing so because there is no way that they can grow up monolingually. For example, it may be the case that the child interacts regularly with monolingual individuals, some of whom speak one language (e.g., teachers and classmates who speak only Italian), others of whom speak another (e.g., parents who speak only French). Other children may grow up in a community where most people speak the same two languages on a day-to-day basis. The usage rulers for these languages determine when a particular language is spoken. Imposing changes in these conventions so that all bilingual speakers in the child's social world would limit themselves to one and the same language in all circumstances is not only impossible but also ethically dubious, because it would infringe on an individual's linguistic human rights.

Hearing a variety of languages in childhood is not a cause of a language disorder or language delay All over the Western world, there are speech therapists, medical doctors and teachers who advise parents of young children who grow up with more than one language to stop using one of those languages with their children. Typically, the language to be given up is the language that is not used in the overall environment. For example, speech therapists in the United States often suggest that parents stop using Spanish in the home in favor of English. The common reason for their advice is twofold. First, it is often claimed that hearing two or more languages will confuse the child and lead to grave problems in language acquisition. However, there is no scientific evidence to date that hearing two or more languages leads to delays or disorders in language acquisition. Many, many children throughout the world grow up with two or more languages from infancy without showing any signs of language delays or disorders. These children provide visible proof that there is no causal relationship between a bilingual environment and language learning problems. In addition, there is no scientific evidence that giving up one language has a beneficial effect on the other.

Dual-Language Programs: Recommendations for Educators and Parents 109

In fact, the abrupt end of the use of the home language by a child's parents may lead to great emotional and psychological difficulties both for the parents and for the child. After all, language is strongly linked to emotion, affect, and identity. A three- or four-year old whose mother suddenly stops talking to him/her in the language familiar to him/her, particularly if his/her mother does not respond to the things he/she says to him/her in that language, may make the child feel emotionally abandoned and totally lost. Speech therapists who advise monolingualism should not be surprised to find that the child in question starts to exhibit troubling behavior. Should the child recover from this traumatic experience; there is no evidence that progress in the main language of the environment is helped by the loss of the home language (otherwise known as subtractive bilingualism). In fact, it has been shown in educational settings that build on a child's skills in the first language helps the acquisition of a second one.

Two languages in one sentence is not a sign of confusion Often, it is claimed that small children who are learning to speak two languages go through a stage of mixing and confusing the two. The use of words from both languages in a single sentence is cited as evidence that the child cannot distinguish between the two languages, but in reality, this is not a sign of confusion. In fact, it has been shown that the use of two languages in one sentence by natural bilinguals reveals a great deal of linguistic skill (Romaine, 1995). It is also true that while young bilingual children use words from two languages in the same sentence, they produce far more sentences using only one language. This clearly shows that they are able to keep their languages separate. The question then becomes: In what circumstances do children use words from both languages in the same sentence? They do it only when talking to people that they know understand both languages and who do not get upset with them for using such sentences. In other words, the social context in which children find themselves determines whether and to what extent they use more than one language in a single sentence. The same happens with bilingual adults; they use words from two languages in the same sentence only in sociolinguistic settings in which it is appropriate. This is called code switching. Code switching is characteristic of many parts of the world where two or more speech communities live in close contact, but often it is misunderstood. Sometimes code switching is confused with the historically recurrent process of word borrowing. For example, English

110

Lucia Buttaro

loans like londri (laundry), lonchar (to have lunch), biles (bills), etc. regularly appear in the Spanish of monolinguals in New York City and they have been adapted phonologically and morpho-syntactically to such an extent that members of the second-generation think they belong to the Spanish lexicon (Acosta-Belen, 1975; Zentella, 1981). Spanish distinguishes between regresar (to return/to go back) and devolver (to return), but many of the students and teachers I worked with who were bilingual, used regresar for both meanings, just as they merged preguntar (to ask a question) with pedir (to ask a favor). It is not always easy to distinguish loans from code switches, and some researchers believe "that efforts to distinguish codeswitching, codemixing and borrowing are doomed" (Eastman, 1992a, p. 1). More serious than confusing code switching with loans is the charge that code switching represents language deterioration and/or the creation of a new language—called Tex-Mex or "Spanglish" in US Latino communities, Japlish, Chinglish, etc. in others. The pejorative connotations of these labels reflect negative evaluations of the linguistic and/or intellectual abilities of those who code switch: Speakers of the nondefined mixture of Spanish and/or Spanish English are judged as "different", or "sloppy" speakers of Spanish and/or English, and are often labeled verbally deprived, alingual, or deficient bilinguals because supposedly they do not have the ability to speak either English or Spanish well (Acosta - Belen, 1975, p. 151).

Important tips for parents Because language in the first ten years of life is such an important basis for the achievement of academic and social skills, it is no luxury to reflect a little more on just what elements play an important role in learning a language, whether it is one, two, or more. Although it is not possible here to spell out the things a parent should consider when his/her child is in a situation where he or she could learn to speak more than one language, it is my hope that the brief list of pointers below offers some assistance. Investing in a child's bilingualism or multiculturalism, after all, should yield a high return. Here are a few basic points that are important in raising children with more than one language: 1.

Do what comes naturally to you and your families in terms of which language(s) you use when, but make sure your children hear both (or all three or four) languages frequently and in a variety of

Dual-Language Programs: Recommendations for Educators and Parents 111

2.

3.

4.

circumstances. Create opportunities for your children to use all of the languages that are important in their lives. Talk to your children in the same way, not, for instance, using one language for the elder and another language for the younger. Language is tied to emotions, and if you address your children in different languages, some of your children may feel excluded; which in turn might adversely affect their behavior. Avoid abrupt changes in how you talk to your children, especially when they are under six. Don't suddenly decide to speak French to them if you have been using only English. In this respect, beware of "experts" (e.g., doctors, teachers) who tell you to stop speaking a particular language to a child. Some therapists alarm parents by blaming the bilingual household for confusing children and causing speech problems, and advise parents to speak to the child only in English. Perhaps some therapists are influenced by studies conducted in the 1930's which concluded that bilinguals stuttered more than monolinguals, and are unaware of reassessments which concluded that "any correlation between bilingualism and stuttering must be unreliable" (Hoffman, 1991, p. 141). If you feel strongly about your children using one particular language with you, encourage them to use it in all of their communication with you. Try to discourage their use of another language with you by asking them to repeat what they said in the preferred language or by gently offering them the appropriate words in the language you want them to use. It is no more crucial than asking your child to say, "Please" before giving him/her a cookie. Doctors and others who advise caretakers to avoid code-switching are defended by advocates of the "one parent-one language" principle. Not all families opt for a consistent pattern of language use; nor do they always adhere to the one parent-one language principle. The parents, and other family members, may use both languages or they may follow no specific pattern at any time. For the establishment of bilingualism this kind of strategy tends to be less successful, as the choice of using a particular language at any given time will depend on arbitrary factors, and the child may find this confusing. If this happens, the majority language may soon become the dominant one, and the incidence of mixed language output is likely to be high (Snow, 1991, p. 45). In fact, "bilinguals acquire the same items, and in the same sequence of acquisition as monolinguals" (Hoffman, 1991, p. 69).

112

5.

6.

Lucia Buttaro

Do not make language an issue, and do not rebuke or punish children for using or not using a particular language. If you feel your child is not talking, as he or she should in the preschool years, have a hearing test done, even if teachers or doctors tell you that bilingualism is the cause of any language delays. An important fact about bilingual language acquisition is that children differ in the rate at which they move through various stages (Snow, 1993). Ignorance of this fact can lead to comparisons that construct a "confused" and "languagedelayed" child. Many professionals who work with children make the same mistake in advising bilingual parents. There is considerable worry among preschool and primary teachers, speech pathologists, and pediatricians that bilingual households produce language delay or contribute to language problems, but there is no evidence to support this (Snow, 1993, p. 395.). Follow your own intuition about what is best for you and your family. Keep in mind that young and old alike follow the unwritten rule, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again, but in the other language".

Two-way bilingual programs Two-way Bilingual Education (also known as bilingual immersion, developmental bilingual and dual language) programs have taken root in many schools across the United States. In these types of programs, students develop dual-language proficiency by receiving instruction in English and in another language in a classroom that is usually comprised of half native speakers of English and half native speakers of the target language (for the purpose of this paper, that language is Spanish). While Spanish is currently the most common target language represented in twoway programs, other programs support learning through Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, Navajo, Russian, Portuguese and French. Two-way programs provide both sets of students with ample exposure to the two languages, allowing them to progress academically in both languages and gain an appreciation of another culture. Two-way bilingual programs work toward academic, language and affective goals. Language minority students benefit from the opportunity to develop and learn through their native language as well as English (Krashen, 1991), and English speakers achieve well academically in an immersion environment (Genesee, 1987; Harley, Allen, Cummins & Swain, 1990). The additive bilingual environment supports development of both languages and enhances students' self esteem and cross-cultural understanding (Christian, 1994).

Dual-Language Programs: Recommendations for Educators and Parents 113

Implementation issues The two-way curriculum is content-based and focuses on the development of strong academic achievement in both languages. Because students learn content through a language they do not speak natively, techniques that make instruction more comprehensible are preferred. The strategies teachers use most often include experiential or hands-on activities, thematic units, peer interaction, multiple cues that give students additional chances to master concepts (e.g., a graphic representation such as a semantic web followed by a discussion or direct experience on a field trip), and whole language philosophies. While the goals of two-way bilingual programs generally remain constant, the methods through which these goals are realized depend largely on local conditions, demographics and community attitudes. As a result, each program makes a selection from a variety of modes of instruction. For example, a program may allocate the two languages by content (e.g. social studies and math are taught in Spanish, while science, arts and music are taught in English); by time (e.g. instruction in each language on alternate days); or by person (e.g. one teacher uses only Spanish and another uses only English). Some programs operate as magnets within their districts; others are strictly neighborhood-based. Two-way programs also follow different language development models. The two most popular are the "50/50" model, in which the students receive instruction for equal amounts of time in the two languages, and the "80/20" model, in which about 80 percent of the instruction is in the target language with about 20 percent in English in the early grades, gradually moving towards the 50/50 model in the upper grades. The way in which students are integrated varies somewhat as well. Many programs never separate the students based on their language background, while others provide specific second-language instruction to segregated groups every day. However, as Christian (1994) points out, cross-group interaction helps students realize the full benefits of the twoway approach, since the presence of native speakers of both language groups makes the environment of the two-way programs more conducive to second-language learning.

Future directions and concerns Various reports and statistics reveal that the two-way approach is effective not only in teaching of the two languages to both groups but also in the development of academic excellence. Lindholm and Gavlek (1994)

114

Lucia Buttaro

cite samples of schools with two-way programs where student achievement on several standardized tests—including math achievement tests in English and Spanish—demonstrate academic progress as well as fluency in both languages. While the researchers noticed major variations within and across school sites, it was clear that the students were achieving the desired levels of bilingual proficiency. Ongoing research by Collier (1994) in five urban districts shows that language minority (Hispanic) students in two-way programs experience more long-term educational gains than students in other bilingual or English as a second language (ESL) programs. I have been working closely with the teachers at a school in The Bronx for about two and a half years. I have taught them an Adelphi University graduate level-three credit-TESOL class. I felt it was important for them to get the necessary strategies, methodologies, and techniques in secondlanguage acquisition. The rapport I developed helped reduce anxieties since I spent quite a bit of time in the classrooms with them, observing the way theories were applied to practice, co-teaching, and spending time with the students. There were a total of eight teachers at first, four from kindergarten, two from first grade, and another two from second grade. One of the kindergarten pairs had to be dropped from the dual-language program since there were many issues involved such as language-minority students, language-majority students and children in special education classes, all combined in one room. The teachers were inexperienced so I felt that the pressure was too much for them to handle. All six teachers spoke about the many challenges they faced. First, because everything was done in two languages, many materials had to be developed from scratch, and since the teachers were alternated from Spanish and English instruction, they had "twice as many students in half the time." They also reported multiple challenges in working with the parents. Specifically, the need to help parents understand that second-language (L2) acquisition is a slow process and that the program has cross-cultural goals as well as linguistic and academic goals. Linguistic challenges were cited, such as teaching content information through the L2, distinguishing special needs from the L2 process, easing the frustration of students who do not understand the language, and promoting Spanish language use among all students. Administrative challenges mentioned were tensions between the duallanguage program and the general education program within the school and the dual-language program and the central administration at the regional level. Scheduling, working with a partner teacher, and

Dual-Language Programs: Recommendations for Educators and Parents 115

disagreements among staff regarding program features were concerns voiced by the group, e.g. "There has been a lot of debate over how much they believe in this model.” Trying to make sure we had a uniform philosophy was also voiced on numerous occasions.

Suggestions All six teachers were invited to recommend ways in which the school and the district could facilitate the work of the dual-language program teachers. Foremost among teacher concerns was finding qualified and skilled teachers and offering them substantive training. One teacher mentioned: "You just can't throw a teacher into a classroom and tell her to teach the curriculum if she lacks the techniques or knowledge (…) I am thrilled at the fact that this program is opening up and giving me a big chance. But, I do feel that there is a lack of time for searching for people that are competent, or training people to be competent in the field". Nearly all teachers agreed that more training and professional development would go a long way to help overcome these challenges. Beyond a general call for more comprehensive and ongoing teacher training, teachers suggested a number of ways that administrators could better support the program and the teachers. Suggestions included the following: 1) paying mentor teachers to aid new teachers and prepare curricula; 2) giving both novice and veteran teachers more direction and materials; 3) extending the period of apprenticeship for student teachers. Within the school, teachers cited the need for positive cross-cultural attitudes among all school staff, and recommended conducting staff meetings in Spanish as well as in English to allow for more input from Spanish-dominant staff.

What new teachers should know All the teachers were eager to share their experiences and insights in the form of advice for new and prospective teachers. They suggested that new teachers become familiar with the structure and goals of the program. One teacher said: "In the dual-language program, they have to believe in the program, they have to believe in bilingual education; they have to believe it's important to learn other languages and other cultures." New dual-language teachers should possess subject-matter competence, be familiar with the grade level curriculum and have appropriate expectations, be prepared with a wide array of effective teaching practices, and be firm in the underlying belief that all students can learn and succeed.

116

Lucia Buttaro

Teachers also spoke about cross-cultural and linguistic knowledge that would be important for new teachers to possess. A basic familiarity with the two cultures and languages involved in the program is key, as is having some ideas about how to work with the two groups of parents. One teacher mentioned that "the increased demands placed on teachers by parents in the dual-language program deserve extra consideration." Other issues the teachers raised were considering how to elevate the status of the language-minority students in an integrated setting and become familiar with the differences across two languages, such as conventions of punctuation and capitalization.

For those who believe that English monolingualism equals great success English fluency, even being monolingual, is not the guaranteed passport to educational and economic progress that organizations like US English claim (US English 1987, 1988). Some groups that lost their native languages generations ago, like Native and African-Americans, suffer among the worst health, educational, and economic problems in the nation, while others with a high proportion of non-English monolinguals, like Cubans in Miami, have "reversed the established notions of assimilationacculturation before participation" (Talbot, 1993, p. 14), proving that English fluency is not a sine qua non for economic advantage. English proficiency may not guarantee educational or economic success, but it is a crucial skill nevertheless, and it is intensely desired, pursued, and achieved by most Latinos, notwithstanding arguments to the contrary by US-English and other proponents of legislation to make English the official language of the United States. In fact, an epidemic rate of Anglicization is evident in the dramatic loss of Spanish by the second generation nationwide (Veltman, 1983, 1988). Children who are raised speaking a language other than English are an untapped reservoir of national strength whose linguistic repertoires must be expanded (Zentela, 1986). The expansion of repertoires succeeds when it builds upon the strengths of speakers' existing abilities, that is, when it is additive, not subtractive, following Lamberts' (1977) use of these terms. Sadly, two sobering facts currently increase the pressure to Americanize, or "Englishize" ethno-linguistic minorities with a subtractive vengeance. One is the spiraling number of school-aged children who are "limited English proficient", ignominiously referred to as "LEPs", who totaled 5.5 million in 1985 (Waggoner, 1986). Another reliable count indicated that there were approximately 4.4. million limited English-

Dual-Language Programs: Recommendations for Educators and Parents 117

proficient children in the United States (Kindler, 2002). While public school enrollments rose about 24 percent between 1989 and 2000, the number of limited English proficient students grew a startling 105 percent. Enrollments of limited English-proficient students are predictably high in certain states. California, for example, which enrolls nearly 10 percent of the nation’s schoolchildren, identified 1,559,248 limited English-proficient students, K-12 in 2001-2002 (California Department of Education, 2003). The other concern is the inability of nearly half of the US adult population to handle the basic reading and math necessary for daily living (Celsis, 1993). Along with rising fears about recession on the home front and slippage in the world economy, they spur a revival of the narrow approach to Americanization favored early in the last century, epitomized by President Theodore Roosevelt's insistence on talking "United States": The man who becomes completely Americanized (…) and who talks "United States" instead of the dialect of the country which he has of his own free will abandoned is not only doing his plain duty by his adopted land, but is also rendering himself a service of immeasurable value (cited in Molesky, 1988, p. 51).

Understanding Spanglish A language is not a collection of words, sounds, and grammatical rules divorced from the geographical, ethnic, gender, and class identities of its speakers. Membership in one or more speech communities is reflected in people’s dialects, that is, in the specific configuration of vowels, consonants, intonation patterns, grammatical constituents, lexical items, and sentence structures shared with other community members, as well as in the rules for when, where, and how to speak. Some dialects, like those of the English and Spanish monarchs, came to be considered the correct or pure form because of the historic, economic, and political power of its speakers, not because of any greater intrinsic beauty or logic in the dialect’s features. Moreover, there are multiple ways of “doing bilingual” (Auer, 1984, p. 7), and they are not captured by talking about Spanish and English as if they were monolithic codes or as if a bilingual were two monolinguals joined at the neck. Because no bilingual uses his/her language in exactly duplicate situations, there are few ambi-/equi-linguals, or truly balanced bilinguals in the world; one language is more dominant than the other in different situations or life stages. Also, contrary to Weinreich’s (1968, p. 73) conviction that “the ideal bilingual switches from one language to the other according to appropriate changes in the speech situation but not in an unchanged speech situation and certainly not

118

Lucia Buttaro

within a single sentence", there is intense and prolonged contact among different networks and generations, as there is in The Bronx, and it is precisely the ability to switch languages in the same sentence and situation that characterizes the most effective bilingual. Teachers and students in The Bronx schools call their language behavior “mixing” or “talking both”, without negative connotations, and scholars who study bilingual poets and rappers consider it “the vanguard of polyglot cultural creativity” (Flores and Yudice, 1990, p. 74). But many more people refer to it pejoratively as “Spanglish”, meaning a deformed linguistic mish-mash. In an effort to counter the categorization of code switchers as linguistically and cognitively deficient, sociolinguists have responded by replacing disparaging terms like “Spanglish” and its southwest equivalent “Tex-Mex” with the neutral, if lifeless, linguistic term, code switching, and by quantifying speakers’ adherence to syntactic rules to prove that code switchers are not without language—they are juggling two grammars. Not every code switcher is a virtuoso at alternating the dialects in his/her repertoire, but almost all honor the complex rules of when and where to link the two grammars, and some of them speak “Spanglish” proudly. The six teachers interviewed for the paper have different ways of reaching their goals. Yet, there was considerable overlap in what they viewed as the benefits and challenges of being a dual-language teacher: their thoughts on how schools and districts could help them meet the challenges they face, and their advice for new teachers working with the upper levels; e.g. the new third-grade teachers starting in September of 2005. Hopefully, the opinions expressed in the interviews and the demographic trends brought forth by the questionnaires I provided would enhance appreciation for the deft and complex work that these professionals do and the qualifications they possess. Further, they should serve as a stimulus for more investigation and, ultimately, for change in the way dual-language teachers are prepared and supported. Overall, the two-way program at the schools in The Bronx have shown positive results: students achieve academically and socially and are pleased with the program thus far. Parents, too, have indicated their satisfaction and are committed to keeping their children in the two-way bilingual program for an extended period of time. While the students are in the process of becoming functionally bilingual, they are also forming friendships with students from other ethnic and linguistic backgrounds and learning to appreciate the diversity that is historically characteristic of American society but particularly fragile today.

Dual-Language Programs: Recommendations for Educators and Parents 119

Applying the bilingual alternative One alternative way of teaching ethnolinguistic minorities that is fiercely debated is bilingual education. Critics argue that it costs too much money, retards the learning of English and does not move children into allEnglish programs fast enough, and that bilingualism puts minorities at a cognitive disadvantage and threatens national unity (Baker & Kanter, 1983; Porter, 1990; Imhoff, 1990). Bilingual education advocates question the ideological and methodological biases that plague most of the criticism, and cite research that proves the educational and cognitive benefits of bilingualism (Hakuta, 1986; Hakuta & Snow, 1986; Government Accounting Office, 1987; Crawford, 1989; Ramirez, 1991). Casanova (1991, p. 174) astutely contrasts “the robustness of positive research findings against eroding government support “for bilingual education with the unchallenged expenditures on programs for the gifted and talented which have neither judicial nor research support". Reappraisal of data that claimed bilingual education programs were ineffective proved that the more rigorous the evaluation of a bilingual education program, the more it showed that it worked (Willing, 1985). Finally, a $4.1 million survey of 2,000 Spanish-speaking students over four years (1984-1988) in five states found that the stronger a native language component in a program, the more effective it is in teaching English language, reading and math (Ramirez, 1991). That comparison of three alternative methodologies, commissioned by the US Department of Education, discovered the following: First, there were few significant differences in achievement between immersion and early exit programs, that is, between children taught almost exclusively in English and those taught mostly in English. Second, children in late-exit programs taught primarily in Spanish had the most sustained growth in achievement. Third, students in all three groups took five or more years to acquire academic proficiency in English (Crawford, 1992, p. 229). These findings, seemingly contradictory, because children who were taught in Spanish learned more English and content subjects than those who were taught in English, corroborated theories about the progress language learners made when provided with comprehensible input (Krashen, 1975), and the advantage of establishing a strong base in the native language so that skills can be transferred to the second language (Cummins, 1981). The language learning capacity of humans does not function hydraulically (Hakuta, 1986), that is, it does not require that the brain be

120

Lucia Buttaro

emptied of Spanish in order to learn English. Instead, a learner makes use of his/her first language in order to achieve proficiency in a second language. The amount and type of grammatical discourse and pragmatic knowledge that can be transferred is facilitated the more the two languages involved are similar. In the case of English and Spanish for example, correspondences in grammatical surface structure and the same writing system means that the child who knows how to speak, read, and write Spanish well will be able to transfer many of those skills into English. Thus, the time spent on Spanish in a bilingual classroom not only helps children understand the lesson, it also helps them learn English faster. For similar reasons, parents who are told to speak only English to their children may be inhibiting their fullest development of English when they comply. When the parent’s version of English does not include the fulllength exposition of argumentation, subordination, clarification, etc. that they communicate with in Spanish, children are being denied significant linguistic input. Consequently, the teaching of children in their native language (e.g. math, science, and social studies), and teaching the native language (communication, arts) are essential components of a bilingual education program, along with intensive English as a second-language instruction, content courses in English, and bicultural history. Parents need to be informed and reassured that it is acceptable for them to use Spanish in the home. Unfortunately, the opposite is usually conveyed at meetings and this is detrimental to the children’s self-esteem and success at being truly bilingual.

Cultural mismatch? Arguments in favor of bilingual education have focused on the mismatch between the language of the home and the language of the school as a primary cause of educational failure. But children who have learned English as a second language—even those who become English dominant do not necessarily use English the way a native monolingual does. Is it possible to speak in English, yet talk like a Puerto Rican or a Haitian, for example in terms of how knowledge is impaired or displayed? The cultural ways of using language to teach and learn in ethnolinguistic minority homes may differ from those that are required in mainstream classrooms and institutions (Heath, 1986), and conflicts between those ways may result in failure as decisive as that caused by conflicting languages. Even when teachers speak the native language of their students, they may teach in mainstream ways that are unfamiliar to their students,

Dual-Language Programs: Recommendations for Educators and Parents 121

thus students and teachers may use similar linguistic codes and still not “speak the same language”. Most New York children leave the bilingual and multidialectical homes to enter schools that reward the mainstream ways of speaking, reading and writing one linguistic code, Standard English, to the exclusion of all others. Where some bilingual programs exist, they make the same demands in standard Spanish. This approach works best for students who have acquired the standard(s) at home, but it shuts the doors on the ways of speaking and learning that most New York children bring to class, for example, the ways they teach, explain, argue, etc. in their non-standard English. Students’ strengths are not tapped, and they come to regard those strengths as weaknesses. To reverse the process, the linguistic repertoires of students and teachers must be expanded to avoid potential areas of conflict between the school’s ways of taking in or demonstrating knowledge and those of the community it serves. It is almost as if our children are proficient (or need to be) in four dialects: standard English and Spanish and non standard English and Spanish to fit into their neighborhood community and school community. Discussions of cultural differences in language and learning can be explosive because of the distortions that result when the well-off and welleducated families of powerful economies are posited as the model against which all others are judged, for example, by assuming that if Anglo white middle-class parents talk baby talk, then baby talk is best. This can lead to viewing differences in poor and uneducated communities as deviance, so that Latino caregivers that rely on children to learn by observation are blamed for their children’s academic failure. To avoid these pitfalls, there is a pressing need for cross-cultural research that asks: Is there really a mismatch between the ways in which particular groups of children are taught at home and at school? Is cultural mismatch the cause of educational failure? Is it possible to achieve a better form between home and school ways of using language?

In pursuit of bilingual excellence? It is important that educators learn how to confront their own biases. The narrow norms of one cultural group and class cannot be the yardstick against which others are measured. We cannot earn the respect of caregivers if we are always telling them that they are doing a bad job of raising their children. One immediate way of facilitating the adoption of new ways of using language is to allow students to talk more. Increased opportunities for meaningful talk allow for the mergence of a variety of

122

Lucia Buttaro

dialects—accounts, stories, analogies, rebuttals, creative performances, collaborative discussions, role playing, joking, proverbs, teasing styles, imitations, translations, etc. Classrooms that foster expanded linguistic repertoires provide a wide range of discussions and projects that require understanding, speaking, reading, and writing the formal varieties of English and the home language, but they also acknowledge the appropriateness of non-standard dialects, the cultural significance of nonstandard dialects, and the bridges they offer for crossing over into other ways of using language. It may jeopardize the linguistic and social development of children if their language is “corrected” in every part of the school day. Formal and informal patterns of language emerge as normal byproducts when students meet intellectual challenges that demand a wide range of genres. Varied language flows best from engaged cooperative interaction (Heath, 1983). A similar approach, “small collaborative academic activities requiring a high degree of heterogeneously grouped student-to-student social (and particularly linguistic) interaction which focused on academic content”, was the key instructional strategy in the excellent bilingual programs studies by Garcia and Garcia (1988). To stimulate purposeful communication, teachers should de-emphasize unnatural repetition drills, fill-in sheets, and decontextualized lessons on punctuation and grammar. Knowledge of spelling, parts of speech, etc. can be learned as an integral part of communicating effectively in the pursuit of collective goals.

Teaching from strengths Teaching formal uses of standard English and standard Spanish is essential, but it can be achieved in ways that supplement, not supplant, students’ verbal repertoires. The notion that schools must banish all but standard English in order to provide the best opportunity to learn it does not take advantage of the transferability of linguistic knowledge and skills. Knowledge of the forms and functions of one style and/or dialect transfers to the learning of another style or type of dialect. One need not be acquired at the expense of the other, especially when the dialect that the schools attempt to eliminate is essential to student’s identity and survival. If forced to choose between the language of the community and the school, the choice is clear but it is unnecessary. Within the community, the power of street speech is irrefutable, and it is imitated by outsiders who want to be “cool”. The greetings “yo” and “que pasa” are heard on the lips of rock stars, poets, and Wall Street

Dual-Language Programs: Recommendations for Educators and Parents 123

brokers. The community’s range of dialects can serve as a powerful activator of one that is favored by outsiders in formal settings. All code switchers know some standard English and standard Spanish since all mutually intelligible dialects share many features. Those shared aspects can be a valuable resource for achieving greater fluency in the formal varieties. The variable nature of non-standard dialects means that students hear and use alternative sounds and structures frequently. Classrooms that incorporate the expressive vitality and code switching will establish the strongest base for reaping the cognitive and academic benefits of multilingual proficiency.

Towards a bilingual pedagogy The events in the lives of children in the Bronx make it painfully clear that no method will succeed unless it is accompanied by an appreciation of the forces that push-pull students between home and school, between studying and struggling to survive. The lessons that living in communities like East Tremont teaches are often not understood by the school, and this affects whether or not working-class Latino children in the U.S. learn the lessons of the schools. Merely changing the language of the classroom does not transform an educational system. Parents, educators, and community leaders who recognize that students may become illiterate but still know how “to read the world” look to “critical pedagogy”, based on the theories of Paulo Freire (Freire, 1970; Freire & Macedo, 1987; Walsh, 1991). Their goal is the educational excellence achieved when curriculum and methodology challenge traditional student-teacher power relationships and allow students’ own voices to emerge as they interrogate their reality. A basic premise is that the educational systems’ disabling approach must be challenged because the mismatch between the home and school ways of speaking is critical to the power that one group’s ways exert over the others. The ultimate objective, as Walsh (1991, p. 137) explains it, is education in the pursuit of broader social change: If we view schooling as the promotion of interaction through which students generate their own knowledge and, with the assistance of curriculum, build upon their language, culture and experiences, then our approach is most likely process oriented (e.g., incorporating aspects of whole language and techniques of cooperative learning). Or, instead, we view schooling as a sociopolitical and cultural process through which students act and struggle with ongoing power relations and critically appropriate forms of knowledge that exist outside their immediate experience, then chances are our classroom is based on dialogue, on the

124

Lucia Buttaro problem themes of students’ lives, on encouraging students to question and to work toward social change.

Bilingualism is one of the most significant problem-themes of Latino students’ lives. Intense dialogue is generated when students explore their feelings about English and Spanish in general and different varieties in specific, about their underdeveloped literacy skills, and about the links between their community’s linguistic repertoire and its revolving-door migration. Questions and contradictions arise that require thoughtful discussion, study, and collective research. Does the nature of U.S.-Latino relations demand both the marginalization of Spanish and the stigmatization of the bilingualism of Latino immigrants? Why is the bilingualism of a well-to-do source of linguistic security and a sought-after advantage while the bilingualism of the poor is a source of insecurity and a disadvantage? How do we explain the fact that bilingual education is looked down upon as a remedial program while many mainstream adults pursue second-language studies? Another contradiction: The South Bronx’s and El Barrio’s code switching is blamed for corrupting two languages, but fluent bilinguals, including teachers, regularly communicate that way, and code switching rappers and poets are praised for their creativity. The purpose of this paper is not to rationalize school failure or to hunt down culprits, but to come to grips with the complex and pervasive role of language in students’ lives in ways that make them feel positive about what they know and enthusiastic about what they can learn. A bilingual critical pedagogy facilitates owning many ways of talking and knowing, so that students can speak in formal varieties of Spanish and English as authentically as they do in their street talk, and tackle all subjects as confidently as they face the dangerous streets. It is very easy to take the defeatist position and say that the kind of bilingual excellence proposed here as a goal for public education is too much work and too costly. We may satisfy ourselves and say that the primary responsibility of educators is to steer the code of wider communication, Standard English, and mainstream language genres. But that traditional approach has been found wanting for mainstream as well as non-mainstream students, causing expensive special-education programs to proliferate. Unless schools change radically, we will lose the opportunity to teach large numbers of diverse children in ways in which they can excel, and which help build a more just society. Fortunately, some alternative schools that are the fruits of visionary parent-staffcommunity collaborations are underway.

Dual-Language Programs: Recommendations for Educators and Parents 125

An anthropological linguistic perspective We need to understand that what may be a survival tactic for the streets may not be as functional in the classroom, or ultimately contribute to the fullest development of the children’s linguistic skills. A few community members have adopted the Mexican-American Richard Rodriguez’s (1982) view that the right to full participation in this society demands paying the price of giving up the language of the home. There seems to be little awareness of what it takes to raise children in the U.S. so that they end up with a command of two languages. Most caregivers are satisfied if children understand enough Spanish to behave appropriately. Almost no one insists that Spanish be spoken in certain settings or with certain speakers. The expectation is that exposure to grandmothers will ensure fluency in Spanish, and that English is learned in schools and on the block. But, grandmothers with limited years of formal education cannot teach children to read and write in Spanish, and since most of them understand English and do not insist on being addressed in Spanish, grandchildren may get little practice in speaking Spanish. As a result, Latino identity is defined in New York as a way that attempts to resolve conflicting linguistic and cultural pressures, and Spanish is de-emphasized. Parents, educators, and community leaders should insist on giving bilingualism the prominence it deserves, and work towards resolving the contradiction between national cries for widespread foreign-language competence on the one hand, and the calloused indifference to the maintenance of the mother tongues of the nations on the other. Support for bilingualism is not only essential to the group’s success, it is fundamental to any effort to achieve a language-competent nation. Far from being fostered as a national resource, bilingualism is blamed for fomenting separatist views and threatening political upheaval. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the charges of supporters of “Official English” laws, which would outlaw bilingual education, bilingual ballots, and other government services that are not in English only. There are disturbing similarities between the pronouncements of U.S. English, the main lobbying group for such legislation, and those who view the opening of the literary canon as an abandonment of the timeless truths embedded in the Western classics. The first Executive Director of U.S. English declared that non-English language services must be eliminated because “government should not stand idly by and let the core culture slip away” (Birkales, 1986, p. 77). In a similar vein, we see a “leading opponent of multicultural curricula fragmentation, civil antagonism, illiteracy, and economic technological ineffectualness” (Hirsch, 1988, p. 92). One U.S.-

126

Lucia Buttaro

English advocate goes so far as to blame sociolinguists for opportunistically championing multiculturalism and multilingualism (Imhoff, 1989, p. 20). Monolingual societies are defined as culturally impoverished and multilingual societies as culturally enriched because of the amount of material these countries provide for sociolinguistic study. But our societies are not organized for the amusement of academics, and we have no responsibility to complicate our lives in order to provide material for their own monographs.

Concerns about equity Griego-Jones (1994) studied the emergent literacy development of Spanish-dominant children in dual-language programs. She found that the children showed a strong preference for using English even when their Spanish skills were much better than their English skills. Griego-Jones and others have found that students receive indirect messages about the importance of English over Spanish. For example, when teachers or students code-switch, it is usually from Spanish into English. Seldom have researchers found frequent code-switching into Spanish during English instructional time (Howard, Sugarman & Christian, 2003). Social pressures also have an influence, especially as students move beyond their elementary years. Freeman (1998) found that students who had a positive attitude toward bilingualism and biculturalism in their duallanguage school chose English over Spanish in junior high and even rejected their own cultural background to remain popular among Anglo peers. Their linguistic and cultural capital, their Spanish language and culture, were not valued in their new school. The Anglos held both the linguistic and cultural capital and the only way Latinos could be equal was to reject their own language and background. Another interesting fact is that Spanish instructors are all bilingual, but English teachers are all monolingual. The resources in Spanish are not of the same quality and quantity as those available in English. If the English books are glossy hardbacks and Spanish materials are black and white photocopies, students get the message that the school does not value Spanish. Access to books is critical for high student achievement in dual-language classes. Professional development for teachers needs to be ongoing. It is also important for both teachers to have receptive knowledge of the other language of instruction.

Dual-Language Programs: Recommendations for Educators and Parents 127

Curriculum development For second-language learners, the content is made more comprehensible when teachers organize around themes. Students always know what the topic is even if they do not understand everything that is being said in their new language. Themes provide students with a constant and interwoven preview in the first language, view in the second and review again in the first. The teacher previews content in the students’ first language before they study the content further in the second language. Then the teacher reviews the content in the student’s first language. This should not be confused with concurrent translation, an ineffective strategy. Content is NOT repeated in each language. Instead, what is taught in one language builds on the same concepts as the lesson taught in the other language. Students can draw on concepts they developed in their first language and apply them to what they are learning. It is important to create a riskfree environment, one that encourages learning. Positive experiences include working on subjects with peers, singing songs, doing skits, or discussing topics of interest. The language experience approach (LEA) is appropriate for second-language learners. As students dictate, the teacher models a variety of writing skills such as capitalization, paragraphing, and punctuation as well as sentence structure and story organization. Research has shown that second-language learners are most apt to be engaged and learn when they work together cooperatively (Kagan 1986; Long & Porte, 1985; McGroarty, 1993; Holt, 1993; Darling-Hammond, Ancess & Falk, 1995; Wells & Chang-Wells, 1992). While it is important not to water down the curriculum, it is also important not to instruct at a level that is beyond the abilities of the non-native speakers. Concurrent translation is very ineffective because students listen only to the language they understand and tune out the second language. Dual-language teachers need to understand a number of things to interpret assessments. They need to understand bilingual theory, the importance of developing students’ first language, how bilingual children acquire a second language and how biliteracy develops. We need to be concerned with the lack of authentic reading materials. Bilingual students need authentic, culturally relevant materials to read. Strickland (2004) encourages teaching through themes and incorporating skills in shared and guided reading. She suggests five components that are useful for balanced dual-language literacy programs.

128

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Lucia Buttaro

Teach skills as a way to gain meaning. Skills are not ends in themselves. Each day, include time for both guided instruction and independent work. Otherwise, students will never internalize skills and make them their own. Avoid teaching children as if they were empty receptacles for knowledge. Instead, allow them to build knowledge in a processoriented way. Interpret print and electronic materials effectively. That way, your classroom will reflect the multimedia world in which students live. Always consider standardized test scores in light of informal assessment data. Encourage parents to do the same (p.4).

Conclusion Many programs in New York have the 50/50 model, with one half of the day in English and the other half in Spanish. I have tried (unsuccessfully) to convince program directors and administrators to change to a 90/10 or 80/20 model since research in California shows greater success for these last two models (Lindholm–Leary, 2001). I believe this model can offer more potential for the students. Fluency, comprehension, and knowledge of vocabulary in Spanish need to be evaluated before native Spanish speakers are given literacy instruction in English. Students need to be taught to read and write in their primary language in preschool and kindergarten. At this point, I feel there is a very real possibility that poorly implemented programs will fail, attract public attention, and lead to the rejection of dual-language programs in general. A key to dual-language programs is that all students are valued members of the learning community and that their language and culture are valued. When students come in with limited preparation, the whole school needs to embrace them, help to build up their self-esteem by finding their strengths, and then provide the academic support they need. DelgadoRocco (1998) found that English-speaking children had higher status in dual-language classrooms and were given more praise and support for learning a second language than their Spanish-speaking peers. This finding supports a concern that even dual-language programs are not free from the tendency to hold different expectations for the two groups of students. Many teachers need some sensitivity training to help them empathize with the children, their families and their needs. This should include sensitivity to the dialect of Spanish the children bring to

Dual-Language Programs: Recommendations for Educators and Parents 129

school. It is important that children learn academic Spanish but at the same time not be made to feel that the language spoken at home is inferior. My visits throughout many dual-language classes in New York have indicated that although staff meant well, they really had not developed an in-depth understanding of program design or appropriate pedagogy. Former bilingual teachers or newly credentialed bilingual teachers were thrown into dual-immersion classrooms without enough pre-planning or ongoing support. Many of the teachers I spoke to did not really understand how dual language instruction differed from the transitional bilingual education they had taught. Many were surprised to find out that translation is not an effective way to scaffold. My experience and exposure have shown me that if there are even a few at a school site who do not understand and/or support the duallanguage program, it can be sabotaged from within. At the moment, the biggest challenge facing New York is finding enough credentialed bilingual teachers who could teach content in Spanish. Many teachers in dual-language programs admitted they feel alienated. Others have also said that being in a dual-language program is like being in a marriage. If the partnership is not working, there needs to be an amicable divorce. Without the support of the whole community, the program cannot succeed. It is important to understand that bilingualism and the country’s multiculturalism are not the root of the political, social, and economic problems facing the United States today. Blaming linguistic and cultural diversity is a smokescreen for the fact that the U.S.A. has not resolved fundamental inequalities. The nation’s problems would not disappear if we all spoke the same language; unless by speaking the same language we mean that we have the same rights and obligations toward each other. At times, I feel pessimistic and at times I feel optimistic about the nation’s ability to achieve a common language of respect, and about the future of the Latino community. It is impossible not to be disheartened by the anti-immigrant and antiSpanish (as well as anti any other language) fervor that has accompanied the adoption of English-only amendments by 18 states since the 1980s, the rise of anti-Latino racially motivated attacks in New York, the socioeconomic disparities that leave 19.6 percent of Latino children living in poverty (Passell, 1992), the over-representation of Latino children in special-education classes, the revival of genetic inferiority theories to explain Latino test scores (Dunn, 1988), and the public demonization of women who are forced to raise their children with welfare benefits that amount to less than half of poverty-level income. That home is not only

130

Lucia Buttaro

where English speakers reside, and the American dream is not dreamed in English only. The children in the Bronx and East Harlem have spent their lives building linguistic and cultural bridges; the only way to prove that we do not believe that they are garbage is to meet them halfway. Our reward would be a more respectfully diverse, and consequently more United States. My most audacious hope is for a truly new century: one in which poor children are not alone in crossing linguistic and cultural frontiers.

References Acosta-Belen, E. (1975). Spanglish: A case of languages in contact. Burt, M. & Dulay, H. (eds.). In New Directions in Second Language Learning, Teaching and Bilingual Education, Washington, D.C.: TESL, 151-158. Auer, P. (1994). Bilingual Conversation. Amsterdam: John Benjamin. Baker, K.A. & Kanter, A. (eds.) (1983). Bilingual Education: A reappraisal of federal policy. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. Birkales, G. (1986). The Other Side. International Journal of the Sociology of Language: Language rights and the English language amendment, 60. California Department of Education (2003). Number of English Learners in California Public Schools by Language and Grade. Retrieved 2005 from Dataquest: www.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/ Casanova, U. (1991). Bilingual Education: Politics or Pedagogy? Garcia, O. (ed.). In Bilingual Education: Focus shift in honor of Joshua A. Fishman on the occasion of his 65th birthday (1). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamin’s Publishing, 167-180. Celsis, W. (1993). September 9: Study says half of adults can’t read or handle arithmetic. New York Times, A1, 22. Chase-Dunn, C. (1988). Comparing World-Systems: Toward a theory of semiperipheral development. Comparative Civilizations Review, 19, 29-66. Christian, D. (1994). Two-Way Bilingual Education: Students learning through two languages. Santa Cruz, CA and Washington, D.C.: National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning. Collier, V. (1994). Promising Practices in Public Schools. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Teachers of English to speakers of other languages, Baltimore, MD.

Dual-Language Programs: Recommendations for Educators and Parents 131

Crawford, J. (1989). Bilingual Education: History, politics, theory and practice. Trenton, NJ: Crane Publishing. Cummins, J. (1981). The Role of Primary Language Development in Promoting Education Success for Language Minority Students. In California State Department Education, Office of Bilingual, Bicultural Education, Schooling and Language Minority Students: A theoretical framework, Los Angeles: California State University, Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center, 3-50. Dorian, N.C. (1983). A Response to Ladefoged’s Other View of Endangered Languages. Language, 69(3), 575-579. Eastman, C. (ed.) (1992a). Code Switching [special issue]. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 13 (1/2). Flores, J. & Yudice, G. (1990). Living Borders/Buscando America: Languages of Latino self formation. Social Text [24], 8(2), 57-84. Freeman, R. (1998). Bilingual Education and Social Change. Clevedon and Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Seabury Press. Freire, P. & Macedo, D. (1987). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey. Garcia, E.E. & Garcia, E.H. (April 1988). Effective Schooling for Hispanics. Paper presented at the 1988 NABE convention, Houston, Texas. Genesse, F. (1987). Learning through the Two Languages: Studies of immersion and bilingual Education. Cambridge, MA: Newbury House. Government Accounting Office (1987). Bilingual Education: A new look at the research evidence. Gathersburg, MD: U.S. General Accounting Office. Griego-Jones, T. (1994). Assessing Students’ Perceptions of Literacy in Two-Way Bilingual Classrooms. Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students, 13, 79-93. Hakuta, K. (1986). Mirror of Language: The debate on Bilingualism. New York: Basic Books. Hakuta, K. & Snow, C. (1986). The Role of Research in Policy Decisions about Bilingual Education. NABE News [Spring1], 9(3), 18-21. Harley, B., Allen, P., Cummins, J. & Swain, M. (eds.) (1990). The Development of Second Language Proficiency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Heath, S.B. (1982). What No Bedtime Story Means: Narrative skills at home and at school. Language in Society, 11(2), 49-76. —. (1983). Ways with Words: Language, life and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

132

Lucia Buttaro

—. (1986). Sociocultural Contexts of Language Development. California State Department of Education (ed.). In Beyond Language: Social and cultural factors in schooling and language minority students, Los Angeles: California State University, Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center, 143-186. Hirsch, E.D. (1988). Cultural Literacy: What every American needs to know. New York: Vintage Books. Hoffman, C. (1991). An Introduction to Bilingualism. New York: Longman. Howard, E.R., Sugarman, J. & Christian, D. (2003). Trends in Two-Way Immersion Education: A review of the research. Report 63, Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk. Hymes, D.H. (1974). Foundations in Sociolinguistics: An ethnographic approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Imhoff, G. (1988). Partisans of Language. English Times, 12. —. (1990). The Position of U.S. English on Bilingual Education. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 508, 48-61. Kindler, A.L. (October 2002). Survey of the States Limited English Proficient Students and Available Educational Programs: 2000-2001 summary report. Washington, D.C.: NCLEA. Krashen, S.D. (1975). The Input Hypothesis: Issues and implications. London: Longman. Krashen, S.D. (1991). Bilingual Education: A focus on current research. Washington, D.C.: National Clearinghouse on Bilingual Education. Lambert, W.E. (1977). The Effects of Bilingualism on the Individual: Cognitive and socio-cultural consequences. Hornby, P. (ed.). In Bilingualism: Psychological, Social and Educational Implications, New York: Academic Press, 15-28. Ladefoged, P. (1992). Another View of Endangered Languages. Language, 68, 808-9. Le Page, R.B. & Tabooed-Keller, A. (1985). Acts of Identity: Creole based approaches to language and ethnicity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lindholm, K.J. & Gavlek, K. (1994). California DBE Projects: ProjectWide Evaluation Report, 1992-1993. San Jose, CA. Lindholm-Leary, K.J. (ed.) (2001). Dual Language Education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Passell, J. (1992). A Demographic Profile of Puerto Ricans in the United States. Washington, D.C.: National Puerto Rican Coalition. Phillips, S.U. (1972). Participant Structures and Communicative Competence: Warm Springs children in community and classroom.

Dual-Language Programs: Recommendations for Educators and Parents 133

Cazden, C.B., Hymes, D.H. & John, V. (eds.). In Functions of Language in the Classroom, New York: Teachers’ College Press, 370394. Porter, R.P. (1990). Forked Tongue: The politics of bilingual education. New York: Basic Books. Ramirez, D. (1991). Final Report: Longitudinal study of structured English immersion strategy, early exit and late exit transitional bilingual education programs for language minority children. [Executive Summary]. San Mateo, CA: Aguirre International. Rodriguez, R. (1982). Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez. Boston: David R. Gidine. Romaine, S. (1995). Bilingualism (2nd ed.). London: Blackwell. Talbot, T. (1993). September 12. The dream is no longer Havana. The New York Times Book Review, 14. Veltman, C. (1983). Language Shift in the United States. Berlin: Mouton. —. (1988). The Future of the Spanish Language in the United States. New York/Washington, D.C.: Hispanic Policy Development Project. Waggoner, D. (1986). Estimates of the Need for Bilingual Education and the Proportion of Children in Need of Being Served. Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) Newsletter. Walsh, C.E. (1991). Pedagogy and the Struggle for Voice: Issues of language, power and schooling for Puerto Ricans. New York: Bergin & Garvey. Weinreich, U. (1968). Languages in Contact. The Hague: Mouton: (First edition published in 1953). Willing, A. (1985). A Meta-Analysis of Selected Studies on the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education. Review of Educational Research, 55, 269-317. Zentella, A.C. (1981). Language Variety among Puerto Ricans. Ferguson, C.F. & Heath, S.B. (eds.). In Language in the U.S.A. London: Cambridge University Press, 218-238. Zentella, A.C. (1986). Language Minorities and the National Commitment to Foreign Language Competency: Resolving the contradiction. ADFL Bulletin, 17(3), 32-42.

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR BILINGUAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS: FACTORS IN THE SUCCESS OF ONE SMALL SCHOOL SANDRA LILIANA PUCCI, JESÚS CASTELLÓN AND GREGORY CRAMER

Introduction This paper reports on the first year of a multi-year case study of a small bilingual high school in a large Midwestern school district in the United States. It was undertaken as a collaborative effort by a university professor and two teachers from the school who are also doctoral students. Ongoing data collection began in November 2005 and focuses on exploring and describing the “founding members’” efforts to struggle against “playing host to the system” (Bowles & Gintis, 1976) through the establishment of a new progressive university preparatory school which serves an overwhelmingly Latino English language learning population. This paper asks the question: How are “radical possibilities” (Anyon, 2005) promoted or subverted within the macro, meso and micro contexts which affect the schooling of our students?

Theoretical framework A growing body of literature suggests important benefits of smaller high schools in comparison to their traditional large “comprehensive” counterparts. (Ayers et al, 2000; Darling-Hammond et al, 2003; Meier, 2003). Such benefits reside in both affective and academic domains. Proponents of small schools have reported more personalized environments where teachers know all students, where students exhibit positive feelings about self and school, and where parents have more choice and show more involvement, and other relevant climate issues.

Educational Opportunities for Bilingual High School Students

135

In specific cases the differences in academic achievement have been well documented. The transformation of two low-performing comprehensive high schools into smaller schools by the Coalition Campus School Project in New York City produced startling improvements in several areas: Attendance, reading and writing assessments, graduation rates, and college-going rates (Darling-Hammond et al, 2003). Data from the high school drop-out literature, which focuses on school structure rather than students’ personal failings, indicate that the social and academic organization of a school can have significant impact (Lee & Burkham, 2003). Smaller school size can serve to “constrain” the curriculum, limiting offerings to more challenging, academic material rather than lower-level courses, which in turn leads to higher and more equitably distributed learning (Lee, Croninger & Smith, 1997). At the present moment, there is little research examining how Latino students fare in these smaller schools. The school that is the center of this case study was founded on the principles of best practices for language minority students (August & Hakuta, 1997; Cummins, 2000; Lucas & Katz, 1994). This research has shown that utilizing and developing the native language enhances academic achievement and English proficiency. Bilingual education in this school district is defined as a K-12 developmental program.

Background The school which is the subject of this inquiry was founded by nine bilingual high school teachers, their students, a university professor of bilingual education, and a group of parents. It is a product of years of working together in a large comprehensive high school and the desire for a more effective and equitable education for students. Their previous institution has a population of 1,500 and a “typical” urban drop-out statistic of 50 percent. The group of teachers felt that their substantial efforts were “diluted” by other personnel in the building who clearly did not share their vision. They had previously worked with the aforementioned university professor as part of a major federal grant aimed at instituting important changes, but when the principal of the school retired, things began to unravel. In sum, at a certain point the group decided to take advantage of the school district’s chartering mechanism to found their own smaller high school. The school is defined as an “instrumentality charter” of the district, i.e. all teachers are union members and employees of that school district. Their chartering document cites transformative pedagogy, integrated curriculum, constructivism, and the

136

Sandra Liliana Pucci, Jesús Castellón and Gregory Cramer

development of bilingualism/biliteracy as the theoretical underpinnings of the school. Ironically, upon submitting chartering documents, not only did they face strong opposition from the other staff in their former high school, but also from a few “community leaders” who were offended that the group did not seek their permission. Founding members were the target of multiple forms of harassment for over a year, but that history is beyond the scope of this paper. The school started operation in September of 2004 and is currently in the fourth year of its charter. At the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year there were 267 students enrolled, 17 above their funding cap and a substantial waiting list. About 95 percent of the students are Latino, with the majority of Mexican or Caribbean origin. The students are largely placed in grade level groups according to level of English and Spanish proficiency; these are malleable groups of “English dominant,” Spanish dominant,” and “transitional.” A “constrained curriculum” is the norm at the school, with students at each grade level receiving roughly the same classes, all academic in nature. Students begin taking Advanced Placement (AP) courses in their sophomore year. Enrollment goes through the usual process used by the district; there are no entrance requirements. The school has no administrator and runs as a teachers’ cooperative.

Mode of inquiry Mixed methods research is ongoing in this bilingual, university preparatory high school in the urban Midwest. The researchers (we) consist of a university professor, who is also one of the “founding members” of this school, and two teachers currently enrolled in doctoral studies. Thus the issues of subjectivity, authenticity, and legitimacy are central. The paper reports on data collected during the first and second year of the project (years two and three of operation of the school). Data were collected by the three aforementioned researchers who served in multiple roles: as non-participant observers in the classroom, as participant observers at meetings, as full participants at meetings, as well as classroom teachers who acted as complete participants in their teaching contexts (Gold, 1958; Junker, 1960). Observational fieldnotes, video and audiotapes, student artifacts, online parent surveys, publicly available institutional data, and focus group and interview data (students, teachers) were collected during this time.

Educational Opportunities for Bilingual High School Students

137

Data sources Multiple data sources were collected to develop an in-depth understanding of the operation of the school. Selected classrooms were observed twice weekly by one of the researchers. Ethnographic field notes, audio recordings, and student artifacts were collected (Emerson, Fretz & Shaw, 1995) during observations. A purposive sample of students across grade levels were interviewed. Although we originally wanted to interview students based on our pre-established criteria, in the end, focus groups of students were assembled, based on student choice. The researchers met with the teachers regularly as a means of conducting member checks in order to clarify and/or modify any interpretations and conclusions. The institutional data served to enrich and triangulate the interview and observational findings (Merriam, 1995). The data were analyzed, categorized, compared, and contrasted using a methodology that seeks to “elicit meaning from the data” (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993, p. 235), rather than codify or compute it (Spradley, 1980). A domain analysis was used to sort the data into multiple categories, allowing a portrait to emerge that is reflective of the “big picture” of the systems and issues affecting operation (Frank, 1999).

Results The purpose of this study is to examine and describe factors which support or hinder the success of this school and its students. While data analysis is ongoing and at the time of this paper we are still formulating the surveys and analyzing additional institutional data, several themes emerged from the analysis of data collected during the initial phases of the study.

Community The majority of students and teachers in the school feel a strong sense of community and belonging. Students report that “everyone knows each other, and nobody got problems with each other.” Several students and teachers used the term “family-like” to describe the atmosphere at the school; one student said that “people actually pay attention to you here.” The students feel that the teachers are “different, cool with us,” and that they can discuss anything with them. However, some also felt that certain teachers “try to control us, and they can’t.” It is interesting to note that despite the fact many students used the term “family-like” to describe the

138

Sandra Liliana Pucci, Jesús Castellón and Gregory Cramer

atmosphere, there are still important teacher-student tensions and misunderstandings. Yet we find an overwhelming social buy-in on the part of students. Although there are different “cliques” among students, the general sentiment is one of respect between students, teachers, and parents. The majority of the students in the school live in the neighborhood. There are also many siblings and cousins at the school, and some of the teachers and staff have their own children enrolled. The majority of teachers also feel that the quality of student-teacher relationships on the school level is remarkably close. Although they had experienced close relationships with students when they worked in previous settings, they commented that the size of the school also influences their interactions. Some teachers reported significant mentoring relationships with many students who they have not even had in class.

Curriculum Both teachers and students have high expectations for the quality of work students are expected to complete in class. The strongest, and most successful, curricular focus to date has been mathematics. The school has maintained its commitment to six years of mathematics in four years of high school, offering a full array of courses, taught by highly qualified bilingual personnel. At the time of writing this paper, sixty students are enrolled in calculus. The Spanish for Native Speakers (SNS) offerings have helped a significant number of students; last year thirteen scored well enough on the AP Spanish grammar examination to obtain the retroactive college credits. Similarly, the social studies/language arts connection with Latino history and literature, which all freshmen receive, has remained consistent despite staff turn-over. Unfortunately, this has not been true in all areas. Science, for example, has been plagued by the general lack of bilingual science teachers, as well as significant teacher turn-over (a more lengthy discussion of staffing will follow in the next section). During year three some important questions began to be posed regarding AP courses and the relative absence, according to the view of some teachers, of a truly culturally relevant and engaging curriculum. This is of particular importance, since despite the social buy-in of students, there is still a noticeable number who remain academically unengaged. This theme also arose during student focus groups, with several students describing their courses as being “boring,” or “something my Grandmother would like.” Students know they are “advanced,” but report wanting things that they can relate to, “stuff we are going through,” rather than “things that happened even before Christ was born.”

Educational Opportunities for Bilingual High School Students

139

There was a move on the part of one group of teachers, those who have the task of programming, to separate current eleventh graders (third of four years in U.S. high school) into two groups, one which would have the AP U.S. History combined with an advanced English course called “American Authors,” and those who would have “regular” English 11 and “regular” U.S. History. This was mediated by both teacher and student interventions to include more students in the “advanced” classes; but the result was still one group with “regular” courses. Interestingly, this was interpreted by students as separating the “más cerebritos” (most brainy) from others, and as they were being separated from their friends, their lament was both academic and social. This sounded an intense ideological alarm for other staff, who maintain that this is in effect, tracking, and against the school’s philosophy. A new teacher, who was assigned the “low” U.S. History course, raised not only issues of equity but also of pedagogy, as in his opinion, the “mix of higher and lower” achievers was better for everyone, and this mix was not evident in his class. A core group of teachers were especially dismayed at the tracking, as the eleventh graders are products of the school, i.e. most have attended since the beginning of their high school career. At one point a special meeting of the “founding members” was called to discuss this. This issue will be further detailed in the “teacher consciousness” section, and in the discussion.

“Explain” Students were eager to discuss their classroom experiences, and were clear about what they expected from teachers. They do not want to have books “thrown at them” but for teachers to explain. To keep explaining until they get it, to show them how, not just tell them. Good teaching, therefore, was demonstrated by a teacher who didn’t give up, who “stayed with the students” during the lesson, made sure they understood, and tried different ways of getting things across. Students complained about material sometimes being covered too quickly. One student recounted that she went to school one day asking about the previous day’s work, and the attitude of the teacher was “like it is already tomorrow.” Some students reported being loaded with homework that they could not complete due to after-school obligations. Many students have jobs, help their parents at their workplace, or pick up and take care of younger siblings and cousins. Compounding those realities is the issue that they sometimes do not understand the material well enough to do the homework independently, and are penalized if they do not complete it. As one student commented

140

Sandra Liliana Pucci, Jesús Castellón and Gregory Cramer

“no es que no queramos, es que no entendemos” (it’s not that we don’t want to do it, it’s that we don’t understand.).

Intellectual freedom There is generally an air of professional fulfillment and satisfaction among the staff with regard to courses. Essentially running their own show, they are able to offer Latino history, Latino literature, Spanish for native speakers, a large array of mathematics courses, including AP statistics, pre-calculus and calculus, art history, holistic literature-based ESL, music, film analysis, psychology, and other courses. Additionally, grants which were awarded for charter school operation, as well as a district level grant for “smaller high schools” enabled the school to purchase large amounts of non-textbook print materials, as well as technology. However, there is a delicate tension between teachers’ desires to offer certain courses, and student needs and interests. Special electives are sometimes based more on teachers’ tastes and expertise than student interests.

Print-rich environment There was a heavy emphasis on developing biliteracy in the original chartering document. Most of the founding members had been part of a large federal grant focusing on developing biliteracy at their former school. Space for this new school was carved out from an existing middle school with dwindling enrollment, thus there is no library. The teachers decided to use an available classroom to set up a “literacy center,” stocking it with a large quantity of high-interest books both in Spanish and English. However, this center did not effectively function until year three of the school’s operation, as the demands of “start up,” as well as an under-estimation of library skills needed for such an undertaking, resulted in slow progress. It was interesting that by the end of year two the teachers, as well as the university professor, had “gone back to their roots,” recognizing the urgency of getting the center functioning. After further surveying the students, even more high-interest materials have been purchased and made accessible.

Political engagement The larger political context of immigration finds the students and majority of teachers quite active. Participation in local and nationally

Educational Opportunities for Bilingual High School Students

141

organized protest marches in 2006-2007 was considerable. Several of the teachers and the university professor continue to push for college opportunities for “undocumented” students, which are a considerable portion of the school’s population. The state where the school is located has no provisions for undocumented students to receive resident tuition; according to statute they must pay as if they were international students, regardless of their graduation from a high school clearly located within the boundaries of the state. Without doubt, this is highly problematic and demotivating for students. However, through conversations and connections, school personnel have been able to establish informal agreements regarding in-state tuition with three state universities.

District bureaucracy All of the “founding member” teachers had worked for this large urban school district for a number of years before starting their school. Nevertheless the entrenched bureaucracy of the district continues to present challenges and surprises. There is considerable tension between the school’s vision of autonomy and flexibility, and the district’s structures requiring accountability and conformity. The amount of paperwork and compliance with bureaucratic demands have proved to be much more than even the “seasoned” teachers expected. Countless “central office” meetings cause teachers to have to take time away from students and teaching. Managing the budget, meeting testing requirements, and other tasks which are not connected to student learning are significant. The smaller size of the school and corresponding lack of support staff layers found in more traditional settings have led to a heavier burden on the lead teacher, as well as other individuals.

Staffing Although the school can interview and select teachers, a shortage of high school bilingual personnel continues to plague the school and the district. Years one and two were particularly difficult, with “long term substitutes” and other teachers assigned to the building who were philosophically incompatible with the school, among other issues. At the end of year one, two of the “founding members” exited themselves from the school on an “incompatibility transfer.” In the middle of year two, a highly skilled science teacher decided to return to Puerto Rico. A new teacher, who had been chosen through the school’s interview process, walked out after three weeks. Yet another new teacher seemed afraid of

142

Sandra Liliana Pucci, Jesús Castellón and Gregory Cramer

the students the entire year, and was not invited to return for year three. Years three and four started with the school in a slightly better position regarding staffing, but the shortage of bilingual high school teachers is acute, with no relief on the horizon. Additionally, the amount of work required at a teachers’ cooperative, and the attitude and approach that this work requires, are very different from a traditional setting. Our field notes recorded one-third to one-half of the staff still in the building two or even three hours after school was over, especially during years one and two. The size of the school contributes to a feeling of transparency or “nakedness”—everyone knows what is happening in your classroom—which is welcomed by many, but may have contributed to the dissatisfaction of staff who left.

Special education Special education is an area which is under intense scrutiny in this school district due to a high-profile law suit. It was determined by the district that the school had not received an adequate number of special education students during its first year. To remedy this, the school was given a new group who were randomly assigned to the school in September of 2005. This consisted of “most restricted placement” (MRP) students, with an alphabet of disabilities attached to their school records, including learning, behavioral, and emotional tags. This situation presented a number of unforeseen challenges. First, since these students did not select the school and did not live the neighborhood, they arrived without the “buy-in” of the other students, who had chosen to attend. The school tried to program the students into a few “regular” classes, which connected them to other students and seemed both productive and positive, until they were told by the district that they were in violation of the students’ “individualized education plans” (IEPs). To complicate the scene, the district assigned an unlicensed monolingual special education teacher to the building to be in charge of this class. The person was not only unable to teach effectively, he couldn’t even keep the students in his room. Fortunately, this situation has greatly improved with a new teacher and a more experienced staff with regard to special education issues. This situation proved to be one of the greatest challenges the school has faced.

Teacher consciousness, constructing “el hombre nuevo” The group of founding teachers all moved from a large comprehensive high school with multiple layers of personnel responsible for various tasks,

Educational Opportunities for Bilingual High School Students

143

i.e. administrators, counselors, clerical personnel, etc. After forming a teachers’ cooperative and opening a new school, it has been a continuous struggle to transform their own ways of thinking about their responsibilities, the students, and each other. This was seen in the form of both inequitable work burdens, particularly felt by the lead teacher, and “baggage” in the form of negative attitudes and beliefs which have proved difficult to shed, gone totally unexamined, or in some cases, reified. As previously mentioned, of particular concern to some was the push to track the eleventh graders. Reasons given for separating the students included some having “low skills,’ or “not being willing to do the work.” Some staff blamed the lack of skills on one or two particularly poor teachers who eventually left the school, while others saw this conversation as representing a stark retreat from the original mission of the school. In year three a “junior meeting” was called, which resulted in previously tracked students deciding for the AP offerings, and others ‘deciding’ for the “easier class.” At the time of writing this paper, teachers have tentatively agreed to stop the tracking and separation, but there are still many important conversations which need to take place, many of which go straight to the heart of the Advanced Placement system and the high school curriculum itself.

Discussion Data collected up to this point in time highlight the significant, if not unexpected challenges in founding and setting up a small bilingual high school. They also point to several meaningful accomplishments, as well as critical work to be done. In many ways the concept of a “constrained curriculum” (Lee & Burkam, 2003) has worked both in principle and practice. Being a small school with limited staff, it is almost impossible to change a student’s schedule if conflict occurs. There is simply nowhere else for the student to go, i.e. s/he must stay in that section of AP statistics with the other sophomores. This is quite different from a large comprehensive high school, where students can usually be re-programmed—sometimes on teacher whim—into a non-academic elective. In the context of the school in this study, this constrained curriculum should mitigate against tracking, embracing one academically-oriented curriculum for all. In most cases it has, except in the notable deviation of the juniors in “regular” English and history (although “de-tracked” for calculus). An examination of student transcripts shows that there is little or no variation of courses in the freshman and sophomores years. Yet, as we

144

Sandra Liliana Pucci, Jesús Castellón and Gregory Cramer

have seen, even with the liberationist vision of the original chartering documents, adults sometimes find it hard to enact truly transformative stances toward students and each other. Some students report, and we have recorded, differential treatment in terms of access to information, flexibility regarding independent studies, attendance, grading, discipline, and “second chances.” Institutional capital, although seemingly distributed on a communitarian basis, still has “competitive” leaks (Stanton-Salazar, 2001) with certain students or groups of students able to curry more favor than others. Staff agree that more face-to-face time where philosophical and ideological questions can be raised is desperately needed, yet meeting times inevitably get eaten-up by the crucial nuts-and-bolts work needed to simply keep the school floating. But we are not the first to be faced with this challenge, it is a situation which has been discussed in small teacherled schools (Meier, 2002). Yet, as Meier insightfully points out, there needs to be time to “safely” navigate critical issues. With the small numbers of students and close monitoring of their progress, the school is fostering a great percentage who are on track to graduate on time. In fact, the graduation and college-going rates, on paper, appear to be fantastic. Nevertheless, a critical incident happened at the end of year two, where four ninth graders who had not passed all their classes were “flunked.” This was not a staff consensus decision. Interestingly, in this case, the small size of the school worked against these students, who were programmed again as ninth graders, repeating the entire first semester ninth grade curriculum, including classes they had actually passed. Those who had completed sufficient credits by January were “promoted” to the tenth grade. This situation caused much hurt and resentment on the part of these students, who ironically did not transfer to another school. Then there is the question of whether a challenging, academic curriculum needs to be complied with, rather than questioned and reconceptualized. That AP courses constitute a “gateway” to college success seems to be a relatively unchallenged concept by the majority of educators in the United States. Instead, discussions of equal access to AP take center stage (Solorzano & Ornelas, 2002) rather than the stifling, traditional AP curriculum itself, the financial interests of the College Board, or the underbelly of this system. The fact that passing AP examinations can lead to retroactive university credits at some—not all— institutions of higher learning certainly could be used as a justification, a so-called return on the investment, but a deeper analysis is required. Factors such as number of students passing examinations, as well as possibilities of other challenging, culturally responsive, critical courses

Educational Opportunities for Bilingual High School Students

145

need to be considered. At this school, the leap between a Latino-centric freshman year and the culturally subtractive emphasis of AP courses in subsequent years has created a disjointed curriculum which sends mixed messages. To complicate the discussion, the school was recently featured in a very positive light in the local newspaper, due to its offerings of AP courses. Views of children and their families sometimes also conflict. In year three, with the calming of the “start up” waters, other issues have been able to float to the surface. There are differing beliefs among teachers who feel that the school is for everyone, and that we should work with all kids no matter what the challenge, and others who maintain that if a student does not comply with the disciplinary and academic demands of the school, “it’s time to look for another school.” They, that is we, go around and around on these issues, with no resolution immediately on the horizon. A new teacher bravely commented to one of us: “You know, not all kids need to go to college.” Certainly a college education may not guarantee a family-supporting job, and there has recently been a great deal of discussion and analysis surrounding these assumptions (Anyon, 2005). But those of us who come from immediate or not-so-immediate immigrant backgrounds know that although higher education might not ensure success, in the absence of other strong forms of economic and social capital, it is still your best bet. Che Guevara, in his essay “Socialism and Man in Cuba,” discussed the difficulty of constructing a new society with individuals who were born and conditioned in the old. While our comparison to the Cuban revolution may seem hyperbolic, what the founding documents of the school show is just that: An attempt to forge a new school society, a different, more equitable way of relating and being. The transition is difficult, and Guevara comments: I think the place to start is to recognize this quality of incompleteness, of being an unfinished product. The vestiges of the past are brought into the present in the individual consciousness, and a continual labor is necessary to eradicate them. The process is two sided. On the one side, society acts through direct and indirect education; on the other, the individual submits himself to a conscious process of self-education. The new society in formation has to compete fiercely with the past. The past makes itself felt not only in the individual consciousness—in which the residue of an education systematically oriented toward isolating the individual still weighs heavily—but also through the very character of the transition period in which commodity relations still exist. So long as it exists its effects will make themselves felt in the organization of production and, consequently, in consciousness (in Deutschman, 1987, p. 249-50).

146

Sandra Liliana Pucci, Jesús Castellón and Gregory Cramer

Implications and educational importance of the study The national high school graduation rates of Latino and other students of color in the United States reveal an ongoing system of inequity. Although there seems to be controversy in the literature as to what constitutes a “drop out” (Fry, 2003), all agree that a substantial number of Latinos either drop out of a U.S. high school—15 percent according to Fry—or simply do not complete high school, 47 percent according to figures disseminated by the National Council of La Raza (www.nclr.org). Extensive commentary on this is beyond the scope of this paper, but one interesting point is Fry’s distinction between English Language Learners (ELLs) and English proficient Latino drop-outs. He asserts “Lack of English language ability is a prime characteristic of Latino drop outs. Almost 40% do not speak English well. The 14% of Hispanic 16-19 year olds who have poor English language skills have a drop out rate of 59%” (p.5). One can only speculate as to the role of the lack of quality bilingual programs for most secondary students. The drop-out rate for Latinos in the Midwestern district where this study is taking place hovers at around 40 percent. There is a clear need to expand the research literature examining institutional factors and the utility of a constrained curriculum, as well as the positive affective and academic results of smaller high schools. Differential access to university preparatory courses has been repeatedly documented in the literature (Olsen, 1997; Romo & Falbo, 1996; Stanton-Salazar, 2001; Valenzuela, 1999). Although some, most recently Kozol (2005), insist that integration and/or bussing students of color to more affluent, suburban high schools is the key to high school graduation, few have actually tried to construct, along with families, a school with a culturally/linguistically relevant curriculum for them. This study examines one such school attempting to do so. If supporting and hindering factors can be identified through an examination of a variety of data, this research may provide substantial indications of how to fight educational inequity more effectively. The hope of constructing “el hombre nuevo” remains.

Educational Opportunities for Bilingual High School Students

147

References Anyon, J. (2005). Radical Possibilities: Public policy, urban education, and a new social movement. New York: Routledge. August, D. & Hakuta, K. (eds.) (1997). Improving Schooling for Language Minority Children: A research agenda. Washington, D.C.: National Research Council. Ayers, W., Klonsky, M. & Lyon, G. (2000). A Simple Justice: The challenge of small schools. New York: Teachers College Press. Bowles, S. & Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in Capitalist America. New York: Basic Books. Cummins, J. (2000). Language, Power and Pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire. Clevedon, U.K.: Multilingual Matters. Darling-Hammond, L., Acess, J. & Wichterle Ort, S. (2002). Reinventing High School: Outcomes of the coalition campus school project. American Educational Research Journal, 39(3), 639-673. Deutschman, D. (ed.) (1987). Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution: Writings and speeches of Ernesto Che Guevara. New York: Pathfinder Press. Emerson, R., Fretz, R. & Shaw, L. (1995). Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Frank, C. (1999). Ethnographic Eeyes: A teacher’s guide to classroom observation. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Fry, R. (2003). Hispanic Youth Dropping out of U.S. Schools: Measuring the challenge. Washington, D.C.: Pew Hispanic Center. Gold, R. (1958). Roles in Sociological Field Observation. Social Forces, 36, 217-223. Junker, B. (1960). Field Work. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Kozol, J. (2005). Shame of the Nation: The restoration of apartheid schooling in America. New York: Crown. LeCompte, M. & Preissle, J. (1993). Ethnography and Qualitative Design in Educational Research. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Lee, V. & Burkham, D. (2003). Dropping out of High School: The role of school organization and structure. American Educational Research Journal, 40(2), 353-393. Lee, V., Burkham, D., Chow-Hoy, T., Geverdt, D. & Smerdon, B. (1998). Sector Difference in High School Course Taking: A private school or Catholic school effect? Sociology of Education, 71(2). 314-335. Lee, V., Croninger, R. & Smith, J. (1997). Course Taking, Equity, and Mathematics Learning: Testing the constrained curriculum hypothesis

148

Sandra Liliana Pucci, Jesús Castellón and Gregory Cramer

in U.S. secondary schools. Educational evaluation and policy analysis, 19(2), 99-121. Lucas, T. & Katz, A. (1994). Reframing the Debate: The roles of native languages in English-only programs for language minority students. TESOL Quarterly, 28(3), 537-562. Meier, D. (2002). The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a small school in Harlem. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Merriam, S. (1995). Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Olsen, L. (1997). Made in America: Immigrant students in our public schools. New York: The New Press. Romo, H. & Falbo, T. (1996). Latino High School Graduation: Defying the odds. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Spradley, J. (1980). Participant Observation. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich. Stanton-Salazar, R. (2001). Manufacturing Hope and Despair: The schooling and kin support networks of U.S.-Mexican youth. New York: Teachers College. Valenzuela, A. (1999). Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican youth and the politics of caring. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

ENGLISH-MEDIUM INSTRUCTION IN HIGHER EDUCATION: HUMAN AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPACTS NIKKI ASHCRAFT

Introduction In his report, “The Future of English”, Graddol (1997) noted that “one of the most significant educational trends worldwide is the teaching of a growing number of courses in universities through the medium of English” (p. 45). There are several rationales presented for using Englishmedium instruction in higher education in countries where English is not a native language. The reason traditionally given has been that the information related to certain academic disciplines (e.g., the textbooks and the journals in those fields) is published in English, and that this information is not available in local languages. Thus, students have had to read and study these subjects in English because there were no other language options. Nowadays, with the growing awareness of the effects of globalization, other reasons are being offered for English-medium instruction. One reason why institutions of higher education choose to offer Englishmedium instruction is that English is increasingly being used as the language of international communication, and teaching in English is perceived as a way to internationalize the educational system (Paseka, 2000; Vinke, Snippe & Jochems, 1998). Some universities equate internationalization with “Englishization” (Tsuneyoshi, 2005), that is, the conversion to English-medium instruction. Other universities use the fact that they offer English-medium instruction as a promotional tool to attract students from other countries to their university (Vinke et al, 1998), thereby augmenting the numbers of their student body and the amount of tuition payments they receive. A final reason for English-medium instruction is that in today’s world students need high levels of Englishlanguage proficiency in order to be competitive in the global job market. When graduates are employed, the economy of the country is strengthened.

150

Nikki Ashcraft

Therefore, teaching in English at the university level is perceived as helping the country economically, however indirectly. In this chapter, I will share my experience in a college at a Middle Eastern university that recently converted to English-medium instruction and my observations of the impact this conversion has had on staff, students, and faculty. Then, I will discuss some of the ways that using a foreign language as the medium of instruction has influenced the pedagogical process, particularly for native-language speaking instructors. Finally, I will offer recommendations for organizations that wish to make the shift from native-language to English-medium instruction.

The educational context The United Arab Emirates (UAE) University was established in 1977 to provide higher education for male and female Emirati nationals. Like other universities in the Arabian Gulf, the UAE University has joined the trend of offering English-medium instruction as a way to modernize the country’s educational system and to better prepare students for the global workforce. The college of humanities and social sciences, previously known as the faculty of arts, was one of the four original colleges in existence when the UAE University was established. In the fall of 2004, the college of humanities and social sciences underwent a reorganization and adapted a new curriculum called “The New Vision.” The goals of The New Vision are to increase the interdisciplinary focus of the college of humanities and social sciences to strengthen students' communication skills in both Arabic and English, and to enhance students' employment opportunities. Implementing this new curriculum has involved the introduction of new courses, the development of new programs of study, and the restructuring of the college’s programs into four divisions. It has also involved converting from Arabic-medium instruction to English-medium instruction. The internal documents describing The New Vision state, “English proficiency and fluency is a required goal for graduation; therefore, the use of English as the language of instruction would be increased in courses where this is appropriate” (College of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2004, p. 7). Thus, from the fall of 2004, all core courses within the college were to be taught in English. Furthermore, all programs, with the exception of the Arabic Language and Literature program, were required to teach their courses in English to the students who had been admitted to the college during that academic year and in the years that followed. Students who had been admitted under the old curriculum, or “The Old Vision,” would continue

English-Medium Instruction: Human and Pedagogical Impacts

151

their studies in Arabic. This meant that some programs had to run dual Arabic-medium and English-medium tracks until the Old Vision students graduated. As these students graduated, Arabic-medium instruction would gradually be phased out until the college was entirely English-medium. It was expected that the conversion to English-medium instruction should be completed by Fall 2007. I joined the UAE University as a professor in the college of humanities and social sciences in the fall of 2004 and left in the spring of 2007. Here, I will share my personal experience with the conversion to Englishmedium instruction. I will also provide data that has been collected through informal conversations with colleagues, formal semi-structured interviews with teaching staff, as well as through formal classroom observations.

The human impact People and processes are affected when an educational organization converts from using local languages to using English as the language of instruction. This was evident at the UAE University. Linguistically, Arabic and English are quite distinct (Chiswick & Miller, 2004) and even employ different writing systems. The change in the language of instruction in the college of humanities and social sciences impacted administrative staff, students and instructors alike.

Administrative staff When an educational organization converts to using English as the medium of instruction, administrative staff, such as secretaries and technicians, are affected because some, if not all, of their work now has to be conducted in English. Some staff may not have a high enough level of English-language proficiency to perform their jobs solely in this language. At the UAE University, administrative staff who were not native English speakers were highly encouraged to attend English classes with the expectation that they would eventually have to take (and obtain a certain score) on the General Training version of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam. English language proficiency thus becomes a criterion in the selection of administrative staff and in the measurement of their job performance. Tsuneyoshi (2005) has also noted a similar need for administrative staff in Japanese universities to have English language proficiency when working in English-medium studyabroad programs targeted toward non-Japanese students.

152

Nikki Ashcraft

Although administrative staff do not fulfill teaching functions, they still have an influence on the teaching and learning environment. If the staff do not speak English fluently, it is difficult for the organization to create an English-immersion environment for the students because instructors and students will continue to speak Arabic when dealing with the administrative staff. Furthermore, with the language conversion, policies, procedures, and forms used within the organization will have to be translated into English. This responsibility may fall upon administrative staff who do not have the language proficiency nor the professional skills to produce a quality translation. Professional translators should be contracted to perform translations of these documents. Organizations will need to include items in their budgets for translation expenses when planning for a language conversion.

Students Students are greatly affected by the conversion to English-medium instruction because a high level of English language proficiency is required to study their academic subjects in the language. It has been proposed that there are two types of language proficiency: Basic interpersonal communication skills and cognitive academic language proficiency. Basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) refers to the ability to have conversations and carry out daily activities in the second language. It is the language needed for social interaction. Students can acquire BICS within two years of language study. In contrast, cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) refers to the ability to use the second language in order to learn and do academic work. CALP takes five to seven years to fully develop (Gopaul-McNicol & Thomas-Presswood, 1998; Hoffmann, 1991; Kasper, 2000). Educators need to recognize that although students may be able to converse easily in a language, they may not yet have developed the cognitive academic language proficiency which is necessary to successfully learn content through the second language. To ensure that students have the cognitive academic language proficiency necessary to successfully undertake university studies, the organization that wishes to convert to English-medium instruction can take two actions. It will either have to make a high level of English proficiency a requirement for admission, or it will need to have a very strong English language program that is capable of preparing students to carry out academic studies through this language. Historically, the UAE University

English-Medium Instruction: Human and Pedagogical Impacts

153

has relied on a one-year foundations program operated by the University General Requirements Unit (UGRU) to develop students’ language proficiency prior to their entering a college. However, there has been a notable gap between the exit conditions of UGRU’s English language program and the language proficiency needed for academic study. Students take the IELTS exam as a means of assessing their language proficiency and their readiness for English-medium instruction. Scores on the IELTS exam can range from 1 (non-user) to 9 (expert user). At the time of the college’s language conversion, the UAE University required students to score a 4.5 on the IELTS exam in order to exit from the language program and to begin studies in one of the faculties. A score of 4.5 falls between the bands of 4 (limited user) and 5 (modest user). The IELTS organization considers a score of 6 to be a “competent user” (International English Language Testing System, 2005). Therefore, students have been exiting the English language program at the UAE University and entering English-medium content-area classes without even being competent users of the language. The IELTS organization also provides recommendations as to the score that students need to successfully study different subject areas. Majors in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, such as Mass Communication and Linguistics, fall under the category of “Linguistically Demanding Academic Courses.” The IELTS organization recommends that students should have a score of at least 7.0 (good user), preferably 7.5 or higher, to study in these disciplines (International English Language Testing System, 2005). Students who have entered the College of Humanities and Social Sciences with an IELTS score of 4.5 are obviously going to have difficulties with English-medium instruction in their subject area.

Instructors Instructors are strongly affected by an organization’s conversion to English-medium instruction because they have to teach their subject areas to students who are still acquiring English as a second language. They may find that students do not have a high enough level of language proficiency to listen to lectures, pick out the main ideas, and take notes. Students may not be able to read and comprehend the textbook. Students may not be able to write a complete sentence, let alone an essay or an extended research paper. Content-area instructors in English-medium universities in the Arabian Gulf are sometimes surprised by students’ low level of English language proficiency (Sonleitner & Khelifa, 2004) and feel frustrated

154

Nikki Ashcraft

because, although they are experts in their academic fields, they lack the knowledge and skills to deal with language issues in their classrooms. They may not understand second language acquisition processes or know how to teach in a way that is comprehensible to second language learners. Other instructors may not be sensitive to language issues in the classroom because they feel, “I have to teach math, or science, or history. I am not a language teacher.” Even those instructors who do have an understanding of language issues may not feel they can devote class time to developing students’ language skills when they have a dense syllabus to cover. It is common for instructors in English-medium contexts to be torn between what Paseka (2000) calls a “subject-orientation” or a “language orientation” (p. 363); that is, how do instructors divide their limited class time to meet contentlearning objectives as well as students’ language-learning needs? The fact that under The New Vision “English proficiency and fluency is a required goal for graduation” (College of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2004, p. 7) raises another issue, viz. that of assessment. Instructors have to struggle with deciding what role, if any, students’ English-language communication skills will play in their assessment of students’ work in their discipline. In my own program, Applied Linguistics, the faculty members decided to incorporate evaluation of students' English language usage into the assessment of all student work (both oral and written). The portion of the grade allotted to language usage is determined by the course instructor but will not exceed 30 percent. English-language proficiency was crucial in our program as our students were training to become English language teachers. However, not all of the programs in the college have established language assessment polices, nor is there a policy for the college as a whole. When an educational organization converts to English-medium instruction, all instructors are affected, yet native-language speaking instructors doubly so. Not only do they have to deal with the students’ low level of English proficiency, but English is also a second language for them. They may prefer to teach in their native language and resent being forced to teach in English. For example, Tsuneyoshi (2005) has observed a reluctance among Japanese professors to teach classes in English because they perceive teaching in English as requiring more effort. At the UAE University, some Arabic-speaking instructors have not felt confident enough in their own English language proficiency to teach classes in English. Unfortunately, with the college’s conversion to English-medium, their jobs are now at risk. Once the New Vision is fully implemented, there will no longer be any Arabic-medium courses left for

English-Medium Instruction: Human and Pedagogical Impacts

155

them to teach. Some countries deal with the issue of language proficiency by requiring university teaching staff to pass a language exam. For instance, Kirkgoz (2007) describes the Language Proficiency Examination for Academic Personnel which is used in Turkey. However, the college of humanities and social sciences at the UAE University has adapted the strategy of hiring new faculty members who are either native Englishspeakers or faculty members who have conducted their undergraduate and/or graduate studies in English-speaking countries. It is assumed that since they have studied their discipline in English and earned their degree(s) in an English-speaking country, they are capable of teaching in English.

Impact on the teaching process Given that the majority of the faculty members in the college of humanities and social sciences during the time of my employment there were native Arabic-speakers, either Emiratis or from other Middle Eastern countries (e.g., Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria), I became curious as to how the conversion to English-medium instruction was affecting their pedagogical practices. That is, how did teaching in English (a foreign language for them and their students) differ from teaching in Arabic (the native language for them and their students)? I began to collect data on this question through informal discussions and through formal semi-structured interviews and classroom observations with my native Arabic-speaking colleagues. Findings indicate that the language of instruction has impacted the teaching process for native Arabic-speaking instructors. When preparing their lectures, instructors often had to rely on their own English-language resources because the English-language materials in the university library were limited and out-of-date. Gathering these resources could be challenging for them because they, unlike the native English-speaking instructors, did not travel “home” to an English-speaking country during vacations. During lectures, native Arabic-speaking instructors seemed to be more sensitive to students’ struggle with the language, perhaps because they themselves had learned English as a second/foreign language. The instructors used pedagogical techniques to support content learning and language learning. For example, during the lessons I observed, they encouraged students to use monolingual (English/English) dictionaries, they asked students to create flash cards with vocabulary in English and Arabic, and they used targeted English to Arabic translation.

156

Nikki Ashcraft

Using English as the language of instruction also created classroom management issues. First, students knew that the instructors were native Arabic-speakers. In one class I observed, students had to be repeatedly “reminded” to speak in English with the instructor and with each other. Second, one instructor noted that students with low levels of English were more likely to cheat on exams and to plagiarize research papers and projects because they did not have language skills adequate for completing the tasks. Overall, the instructors felt positively about their English-medium teaching experiences. However, it was pointed out that in some programs which were offering courses in both English and Arabic during the transition from the old to the new curriculum instructors may be assigned to teach courses based on the language of instruction used in those courses. That is, Arabic-speaking instructors who could not speak English were assigned to the Arabic-medium courses, while Arabic-speaking instructors who were proficient in English and who could teach courses in either English or Arabic were pidgeon-holed into teaching Englishmedium courses even if these courses did not correspond to their interests or area of specialization. This created some tension between those instructors who could speak English and those who could not.

Recommendations There are several actions that educational organizations might take to facilitate their transition to English-medium instruction. These include developing a comprehensive language policy, providing opportunities for instructors to develop their pedagogical and linguistic skills, and updating the English-language materials available to faculty and students in the library.

Comprehensive language policy Any educational organization which is planning to change its language of instruction would do well to develop a detailed language policy document. Developing this document would force organizations to articulate their language policy, to make decisions regarding its implementation, and to think about the long-term consequences the policy has on educational administration, learning, and teaching. One university which has developed a comprehensive language policy is the University of Wales-Bangor. This university is a bilingual university where Welsh and English are treated on an equal basis. The university’s

English-Medium Instruction: Human and Pedagogical Impacts

157

80-page language policy explains how the two languages should be employed in written communication, telephone communication, and electronic communication; during face-to-face meetings; during lectures and tutorials; and on assignments and examinations. For example, the language policy states that anyone who interacts with the university should receive communication in the language he/she prefers. Telephones should be answered with a bilingual greeting. It is the policy that all staff and instructors should be bilingual. Those who do not speak Welsh have a specified period of time in which to learn the language. Furthermore, students have the option of sitting their exams and submitting their assignments in either of the two languages (University of Wales-Bangor, 2000). Not all organizations have the need for such an extensive language policy document as that produced by the University of Wales-Bangor. However, it is important for organizations to document their rationale for converting to English-medium instruction and to think about the consequences that a language shift will have on the work of staff and instructors and on the learning experiences of students. Drafting a language policy document will help the organization to clarify which languages are to be used for communication in various situations and to define the organization’s expectations of staff, students, and instructors.

Faculty development workshops In the best of circumstances, students would enter the educational organization with a high level of English language proficiency and be able to study their courses though the medium of English just as native English-speaking students would. However, as has been demonstrated by the case of the college of humanities and social sciences at the UAE University above, students who enter the organization may have an inadequate command of the language and may not yet have developed their cognitive academic language proficiency fully. As a result, instructors who have not worked with second language learners before may need to be educated about second-language acquisition processes and to receive some pedagogical training on how to integrate content teaching with activities that develop the language proficiency of their students. Instructors can be given an orientation to these issues at the beginning of their employment with the university. Ideally, however, this training would be more in-depth and take place over a period of time. For example, instructors might be offered a series of workshops over the course of a semester. Some workshops could cover theories from the

158

Nikki Ashcraft

field of second-language acquisition (e.g., the need for students to receive comprehensible input and to produce comprehensible output, the distinction between basic interpersonal communication skills and cognitive academic language proficiency, and the effects of interlanguage and first language interference). Other workshops could focus on specific classroom practices for improving students’ language comprehension while facilitating content learning. These include modifying speech, using visual aids, utilizing a variety of questioning techniques, and extending the time instructors wait for students to respond. Instructors could be taught how to employ strategies, such as mind-mapping and quickwriting, to activate students’ linguistic and conceptual schemata at the beginning of a lesson. They could be coached on how to provide scaffolding for their classroom activities until students are able to realize them on their own. They could also be educated on how collaborative/cooperative learning lowers students’ affective filters and offers opportunities for participation and language practice (Ashcraft, 2006). If these workshops are offered over a period of time, instructors would have the opportunity to experiment with these pedagogical practices in their classes, to reflect on their effectiveness, and to discuss their experiences with other colleagues who are going through the same process. Teaching in English requires instructors to have language proficiency in three areas: general English, the academic English of their discipline, and pedagogical English (i.e., language for managing classroom interactions) (Paseka, 2000). Organizations which are converting to English-medium instruction should provide opportunities for non nativeEnglish-speaking instructors to improve and/or maintain their own English-language proficiency. This might be done by offering general English or English for Specific Purposes courses. Instructors can be encouraged to organize writing groups in which they share and revise articles they are submitting to English-language publications. They might also form reading groups to read and discuss English-language journals in their fields.

Library resources An educational organization that is planning to convert to Englishmedium instruction needs to evaluate the quantity and quality of Englishlanguage materials contained in its library. If the organization has previously offered instruction in a local language, it may not have a large collection of English-language materials. However, students need access to English-language materials to carry out projects for their classes which

English-Medium Instruction: Human and Pedagogical Impacts

159

are being taught in English. Instructors need English-language materials to supplement their course textbooks, to prepare lectures, and to conduct their own research. Priority has to be given to expanding the library’s collection of English-language materials in those academic disciplines which are being taught through the medium of English. Ideally, these acquisitions would occur before the actual language conversion takes place.

Conclusion An educational organization’s decision to change its medium of instruction from a local language to English has consequences for all who are involved with the organization. Administrative staff are affected because they must begin to perform their job responsibilities using another language for communication. Students are affected because their contentarea learning is mediated through a language in which they may not be proficient. Instructors must not only teach their subject areas, but also tackle language issues—their students’ and their own—during the teaching process. Institutions need to think through the consequences of implementing such a conversion and to put support systems into place to ease the transition for administrative staff, students, and instructors. Many educational organizations around the world are converting to English-medium instruction because of its perceived benefits. In this chapter, I have discussed some of the ways people in the educational organization are immediately impacted by such a conversion. However, the trend towards English-medium instruction in higher education has social implications as well. Once it was noted that students were struggling with English-medium instruction at the university level, the response in many countries has been to try to strengthen English-language teaching at the secondary level to better prepare students for university study. This has required curricular revisions, the adoption of new textbooks, and teacher training in new methodologies. It has also been the impetus for teaching English as a Foreign Language to students in primary schools and to students of even younger ages. This has given rise to a new breed of teacher-education program focused on Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL). Thus, the English-medium trend in higher education is trickling down to affect the secondary and primary levels of education as well as the programs that train teachers to work at those levels. Also, in some countries, as more and more schools and universities convert to English-medium instruction, students lose the option of studying in their native language. What cultural effects, if any, will be seen in non-English speaking countries once students begin completing the

160

Nikki Ashcraft

bulk of their education through the medium of English? In countries like the United Arab Emirates there is already a cultural tension between the traditional culture and Western culture. Among some groups, the conversion to English-medium instruction is seen as cultural imperialism. What role will English-medium instruction play in language loss/revitalization or in cultural assimilation/maintenance? It may be a generation or two before the full social impact of English-medium instruction in higher education can be seen.

References Ashcraft, N. (2006). Overcoming Language Barriers in Content-Area Instruction. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives, 3(1). Available www.zu.ac.ae/lthe/vol3no1/lthe03_01_03.html Chiswick, B.R. & Miller, P.W. (2004). Linguistic Distance: A quantitative measure of the distance between English and other languages. Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor. College of Humanities and Social Sciences. (2004). A New Vision and a Modern Curriculum. Al-Ain: United Arab Emirates University. Gopaul-McNicol, S. & Thomas-Presswood, T. (1998). Working with Linguistically and Culturally Different Children: Innovative clinical and educational approaches. London: Allyn and Bacon. Graddol, D. (1997). The Future of English? A guide to forecasting the popularity of the English language in the 21st century. London: The British Council. Hoffmann, C. (1991). An Introduction to Bilingualism. London: Longman. International English Language Testing System (2005). IELTS Handbook 2005. Kasper, L. (2000). Content-Based College ESL Instruction: Theoretical foundations and pedagogical applications. Kasper, L. (ed.). In ContentBased College ESL Instruction. London: Lawrence Erlbaum, 3-25. Kirkgoz, Y. (2007). English Language Teaching in Turkey: Policy changes and their implementations. RELC Journal, 38(2), 216-228. Paseka, A. (2000). Towards Internationalisation in Teacher Education: An attempt to use English as the working language in a sociology course. Teaching in Higher Education, 5(3), 359-371. Sonleitner, N. & Khelifa, M. (2004). Western-Educated Faculty Challenges in a Gulf Classroom. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives, 2(1), 1-21.

English-Medium Instruction: Human and Pedagogical Impacts

161

Tsuneyoshi, R. (2005). Internationalization Strategies in Japan: The dilemmas and possibilities of study abroad programs using English. Journal of Research in International Education, 4(1), 65-86. University of Wales-Bangor (2000). Language, Education and Training Scheme. Retrieved February 3, 2006, from www.bangor.ac.uk/ar/cb/pdf/cynllunIaith_en.pdf Vinke, A.A., Snippe, J. & Jochems, W. (1998). English-Medium Content Courses in Non-English Higher Education: A study of lecturer experiences and teaching behaviors. Teaching in Higher Education, 3(3), 383-394.

NEW HORIZONS FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING IN CHINA: DEVELOPING A POSITIVE CLASSROOM CULTURE YINGCHUN LI

Introduction The last 20 years have witnessed dramatic changes in many aspects of China’s social and cultural life. Not least China's economic growth has boosted demand for competent English-language speakers. There has been a clear need to raise the national level in English proficiency in order to sustain China’s increasing presence in international affairs (Hu, 2005). Learning English has thus become almost a “national mission” (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996; Hu, 2003) and the Chinese government has officially announced that learning English is a must for the whole nation (Jin & Cortazzi, 2002). Given that higher levels of education are widely held to be critical to the economic success of a society (Rosenberg, 2004), paramount importance has been attached to English language learning at the tertiary level in China. The primary concern of the Ministry of Education in China is that tertiary students develop adequate linguistic skills so that after graduation they will be able to contribute to China’s unprecedented economic growth. In China, English language is learned as a foreign language. Since EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms are the sites where most of the language learning activities take place, they are crucial to language learning and also have a decisive effect on learning results. That is why a considerable amount of research has been undertaken in the context of these language classrooms. The purpose of second- or foreign-language classroom research is to identify the pedagogic variables that may facilitate or impede language learning (Nunan, 1990). With the view that classrooms are cultural entities, I have designed this ethnographic case study for the investigation of the relationship between classroom culture

New Horizons for Language Learning in China

163

and the construction of learning opportunities in two EFL classrooms in a higher education institution in a Chinese setting.

1. China’s EFL classroom teaching and learning traditions EFL classroom education in China has its own established traditions although these do not deviate far from the norm of classroom education in other subjects. In the EFL classrooms, language teachers and language learners have their defined roles to play; the language teachers have their preferred language teaching methodology and the language learners have their adopted language learning approaches. The stereotypical teacher-student relationships in Chinese classrooms have been extensively reported (Chen, 2006; Dooley, 2001; Rao, 2002; Watkins & Biggs, 1999) as they are seen as the underlying reason why classroom dynamics are far from interactive and are held partly responsible for Chinese students’ lack of English proficiency. The teachers are regarded as knowledge providers and authorities in the language classroom while the students are regarded as receptacles of knowledge and as their teachers' subordinates. Hence knowledge is transmitted from the teacher to the students because the teacher’s task is to “give” whereas the students’ task is to “receive”. As Watkins and Biggs have noted, students appear to be obedient, passive, and unwilling to air personal views in their classrooms (1999). To understand why these roles have been established in China’s EFL classrooms, one must first of all take into consideration the educational traditions of Chinese society in which classroom participants have been brought up. These traditions are very likely to influence what participants expect to find in the language classrooms and they are very often linked with Confucius Heritage Culture (CHC) in China (Watkins & Biggs, 1999). Scollon (1999), for example, has shown that Chinese students’ participation patterns in classrooms can be related to their underlying philosophical assumptions concerning classroom communication. In fact, in China, Confucius’s educational philosophy has been the overarching canon for Chinese teachers and students to comply with in their classroom life for centuries. The following quotes are taken from The Analects, which is a record of Confucius' famous words and discussions he has held with his disciples on important matters of life, such as education and politics. When talking of his preferred teaching style, Confucius made the following remark: “I transmit but do not innovate. I am truthful in what I say and devoted to antiquity.” Speaking of learning approaches, he said:

164

Yingchun Li

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” It is phenomenal how that ancient educational philosophical wisdom continues to influence classroom interaction in modern day China. In this legacy-rich CHC context, participants’ dispositions have been cultivated through years of schooling that position them towards certain classroom attitudes and behaviors. Fundamentally, these educational philosophies have a strong impact on classroom participants’ understanding of how language learning should be achieved. Thus it can be said that language learning is mostly a process of knowledge transmission from the antiquity to the present; it is a process of observation, reflection, and imitation. Because of its compatibility with the Confucian education philosophy (Scollon, 1999), Grammar-Translation method has been accepted as an effective classroom language teaching method, which has contributed to the predominance of many teacherdominated EFL classrooms. Another factor contributing to the establishment of Chinese language classrooms’ dynamics and teacher-student power relations might be China’s language testing system. For many EFL teachers and learners in China, the higher and ultimate goal of learning English language—to become competent users of this language—has very often been equated with, and reduced to, the short-term goal of achieving good exam scores in national language tests. “Achievement is measured with examination” has always been a constant feature of China’s EFL educational policy (Postiglione, 1999). Before even starting university life, students’ English skills have to be tested in National College Entrance Examination, which is a standardized examination for recruiting tertiary students across the country. The scores students achieve in this national examination can determine the rank of the university which they will attend after high school. Once they embark on their university education, Chinese students have to pass certain national language tests, which is very often a prerequisite for them to get their degrees or to enhance their job prospects. Under this language testing system, university graduates on average show low competency when they try to put their English knowledge to practical use. Some graduates, who have achieved high scores in exams and obtained many certificates of English qualifications, may still experience difficulties when translating technical information into English or find that they are unable to communicate freely with people from English-speaking countries. Language teachers and learners in China believe that it is Chinese educational traditions and language testing systems which are responsible

New Horizons for Language Learning in China

165

for producing graduates whose command of English leaves a lot to be desired. Some of them claim that educational traditions have perpetuated teacher-dominated classrooms in which language learners are deprived of learning opportunities, and that the national language testing system has classroom participants largely ignore the practical use of the target language and instead focus exclusively on what is relevant in order to pass those standardized tests. As a response to such claims, language educators keep looking for ways to improve and transform EFL classroom pedagogy in China.

2. Communicative language teaching: a step forward? In the 1980s, China’s Ministry of Education introduced the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) method to replace the traditional Grammar-Translation language teaching method, which in turn has led to an influx of native speakers coming to China to teach the English language. The appeal of CLT classrooms is their democratic classroom environments in which language learners are engaged in cooperative, participatory tasks through joint interactions. The CLT method is thought to facilitate learning through the Socratic method of education that emphasizes the art of rhetoric (Scollon, 1999) where knowledge is acquired through dialectical questioning. Many people hoped that the expatriate teachers, with their Communicative Language Teaching approach, would help to overcome Chinese students’ passivity and eradicate “dumb” English, for it was widely held that native English speakers could introduce a genuine English-language learning atmosphere in China’s EFL classrooms Chinese students of English have shown a variety of responses towards the expatriate teachers’ organization of language classes once their initial excitement and curiosity waned. There were students who welcomed expatriate teachers as they believed that these would be a source of authentic uses of English. However, there were also students who experienced disorientation in class for a variety of reasons. Some considered the expatriate teachers’ language classes to be unsystematic as no textbooks were used; some criticized that their classes were chaotic due to too much group work, and some were of the opinion that they learned too little from expatriate teachers that would be of any value for them in the national language exams. Western teachers’ experiences with CLT in China’s EFL classrooms were thus very often negative. They found that the educational approach

166

Yingchun Li

they were used to and were willing to advocate in China met with apparent resistance from passive Chinese learners (Watkins & Biggs, 1999). Many expatriate teachers were overwhelmed by disillusionment, and some of them have had to adopt an eclectic position in trying to reconcile Chinese language teaching traditions with their preferred communicative approach. Take, for instance, a Western teacher who described his “classroom culture shock” when he was greeted by wide-eyed wonder and silence and was led to believe that it would be a struggle to implement CLT in the Chinese EFL classroom (Schreck, 2005). Only a minority of Western teachers were fortunate enough to create a communicative classroom environment in which their students readily accepted and welcomed their teaching ideologies methodologies. The experiences made in classes led by expatriate native speaker teachers triggered extensive discussions among language teachers and language learners, which centre around the pros and cons of “Chinese classroom teaching style” and “Western classroom teaching style”. For some, the central concern has been whether one style of language teaching can be seen as superior to the other. Some classroom participants have condemned the Chinese educational system as being a complete failure due to its overriding emphasis on language testing. For them, the solution lies in replacing the Chinese language teaching model with the Western model. Others believe that the traditional Chinese educational system and language teaching approaches have advantages over Western ones as the Western model is not of much use in terms of meeting curriculum objectives. While the above represent opposing poles of a continuum, to me it seems that the central issue should be how language learners get more learning opportunities out of their language classrooms? The underlying assumption for the advocates of “a communicative language classroom” is that verbal interaction will create language learning opportunities which will enhance the learners’ linguistic skills. In other words, verbal interaction is encouraged in the classroom because it is believed to be correlated with language learning. However, this leaves several questions unanswered. For example, do the different approaches to language teaching as pursued by Chinese teachers and Western teachers of English simply mirror the differences in Chinese and Western educational philosophies and legacies? Since normally a Western teacher’s language classroom is visibly more “interactive” than a Chinese teacher’s, does this automatically imply that a Western teacher’s language class provides more learning opportunities than a Chinese teacher’s class can provide, and thus

New Horizons for Language Learning in China

167

enhance language learning? Why, then, have many Chinese teachers and students clearly indicated their preference for the traditional GrammarTranslation language teaching methodology over the Western Communicative Language Teaching methodology? Trying to find answers to these questions gave rise to the present research project. The chief aim of was to gain a better understanding of classroom teaching and learning, specifically, to gain insight into how language learning opportunities were constructed in the classrooms. My objective was to analyze the effects of patterned classroom events on the construction of learning opportunities within two EFL classrooms in a higher education setting in China.

3. Language classrooms as cultural entities To unravel the complexity of language classrooms, researchers have referred to what happens in language classrooms as social events (Allwright, 1988; Block, 1996; Storch, 2002), i.e. language classrooms are seen as social ecologies (Ellison, 2000). According to Tarone (2006), the language classroom is “a unique community” (p. 164) to which all participants contribute, where all the variables are interrelated and jointly affected (Ellison, 2000). Therefore, classroom culture is a meaningful metaphor to approach classroom realities because “it addresses the interactive, social and often opaque features of the classroom which are instrumental in language learning” (Breen 1994, p. 21). The notion of “classroom culture” is widely endorsed in applied linguistics literature (Allwright & Bailey, 1991; Breen, 2001; Holliday, 1994) and it is the approach which was adopted to study classroom realities in this research. Culture, as a broad concept, is associated with a multitude of definitions which are based on different theoretical assumptions. I take the view that a social grouping can be said to be united by a “culture” when there is a discernible set of behaviors underlying its cohesion as a group (Beales, Spindler & Spindler, 1967). “Culture” as used in this research is a dynamic, ongoing group process which operates under constantly changing circumstances to enable group members to make sense of, and operate meaningfully within, those circumstances (Holliday 1999). We speak of an “institutional culture”, for example, when staff and students in a university share certain speech and other behaviors as a variable of various contextual factors within the university. Similarly, we can speak of a “classroom culture” when teachers and students have developed a certain implicit code of practice in the classroom context.

168

Yingchun Li

We should, however, distinguish between “classroom culture” and “learning culture”. “Learning culture” refers to the particular ways in which the interplay of a variety of factors shapes learning opportunities and practices (Hodkinson et al., 2007). “EFL Classroom culture” is a special kind of “learning culture” in which language learning activities take the classroom as their main site of occurrence; it embodies the intensification of the cultural experience of learning (Breen, 1985) in a particular social context—the EFL classroom. An operational notion of culture (Holliday, 1994)—classroom culture—allows for the unique characteristics of a group to be discovered rather than presumed. This minimal definition of classroom culture includes all those aspects of social cohesion, values,and artifacts which distinguish one social group from another (Holliday, 2002). Every classroom can be seen as having its own individual culture (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996; Holliday, 1994, 1999), which varies from site to site. Viewing the EFL classroom as a cultural entity enables us to understand classroom reality. Each classroom culture is comprised of some basic components such as the physical setting of the classroom, participants’ subjective worlds, and participants' speech and other behaviors. It is through the constant interplay of these cultural components that a classroom culture is established and developed. My cultural approach to the EFL classroom and language learning is concerned with participants’ language teaching and learning behaviors as a variable of all relevant classroom cultural components, which are not isolated but interrelated. In language classroom research, many researchers have tended to focus on one or two components of classroom culture. For example, verbal interaction has attracted much attention in language classroom research. In my opinion, language learning and its outcome are a variable of several forces in the whole structural system of the classroom culture. The particular participants, their previous life histories and their life experiences as classroom cultural members all impact on language learning. I think that it cannot be claimed that language learning is only a variable of verbal interaction, or of any one component of the whole classroom cultural system alone. The significance of this cultural approach to language classrooms and classroom language learning is its emphasis on the organic, ecological nature of language development, which may have a strong effect on educational research and on how we conceptualize learning and teaching processes (Van Lier, 1998).

New Horizons for Language Learning in China

169

4. My research project In this study, I have employed both ethnographic research and case study methods. With the two EFL classrooms approached as two cases of “classroom culture”, an “ethnographic case study” design can help to generate an analytic description of classroom reality from both an emic and an etic perspective and shed light on the relationship between classroom reality and language learning. Towards this end, ethnographic methodologies enabled me to systematically document language teaching and learning interactions in rich, contextualized detail (Watson-Gegeo, 1988). While emphasizing “interaction” and “social context” (Lowenberg, 1993; Nunan, 2004), my goal in this research is to provide a descriptive and interpretive account (Hammersley & Atkinson, 1995) of what participants do in the two EFL classroom cultures and of the meaning those classroom interactions and the classroom cultural context have for them regarding the construction of language learning opportunities. My emphasis is on highlighting the need to contextualize the actions and contributions of the participants in settings in which language development takes place (cf. Freeman, 1992; Holliday, 1994; Van Lier, 1988, 1990). Classroom interactions, by their very nature, are seen as central to the process of language learning while classroom learning is regarded as something that is co-constructed by participants at various levels. I have chosen two EFL classrooms as my research units, i.e. cases. The two classrooms are located in the School of Foreign Languages in a Chinese provincial Normal University and they were led by a British language teacher (Esther) and a Chinese language teacher (Ying). The choice of my research subjects has been grounded in their reputation as two very successful classrooms at the School. Specifically, my research questions are: 1. What are the characteristics of the two EFL classroom cultures under scrutiny?; and, 2. How are learning opportunities constructed in the two EFL classroom cultures? This research has been conducted in compliance with the qualitative research ethical framework and guidelines (cf. BERA Ethical Guidelines, 2004). My data collection has been a multimodal process. Participant observation, interviews, field-notes, audio-recordings, and the collection of documents and texts have been employed as data collection methods. My data corpus is thus composed of the transcripts and audiotapes of the classes which I observed and interviews, field-notes, and the collected documents and texts.

170

Yingchun Li

Data analysis, which was begun along with data collection, was an iterative and recursive process. The analysis of data demanded my sensitivity to the subtleties of these two EFL classroom cultures. In qualitative inquiry, there are multiple practices, methods, and possibilities for data analysis (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996). In this study, I mainly employed ethnographic analysis of the two cases so as to reproduce the two “classroom cultural lives” and account for their implications for the construction of learning opportunities; I used conversation analysis when I explored the influence of verbal interactions on the construction of language learning opportunities. Ethnographic analysis was used to understand participants’ beliefs, expectations, values, and social relationships as they were disclosed in their classroom cultural events. Through these ethnographic analyses of the two classroom cultures, I gained the anthropological interpretations of participants’ classroom cultural lives as lived and experienced. Considering that interaction is central to the construction of EFL classroom cultures and language learning opportunities, and that verbal interaction is the major form of classroom interaction in both language classrooms, the analysis of verbal interactions is essential to this study. To analyze verbal interactions, I used conversation analysis, which helped to reveal which “cultural” or contextual aspects the participants geared their talk to (Schegloff, 1992; Seedhouse, 2004). As Schegloff (1987) has stated, much CA work “can be seen as an extended effort to elaborate just what a context is and what its explication or description might entail” (p. 221). The orientations that participants displayed in their verbal interactions with one another were part of their “classroom cultural context”; and conversation analysis of these verbal interactions helped to understand cultural context. While I will treat these two classroom cultures as individual cases, and the focus will be on explaining the ways in which learning opportunities are constructed in each of them, there is a degree of comparison at times. However, this study was not meant to be comparative or contrastive, but rather interpretative. The objective of this research was not to compare the advantages of one EFL classroom culture over the other; instead, this study was carried out to highlight the relationship between EFL classroom cultures and the construction of learning opportunities through the illustration of how learning opportunities were constructed in these two EFL classrooms. This research complements the current research literature on language classrooms and language learning; it has yielded new insights into how we can approach classroom realities.

New Horizons for Language Learning in China

171

5. Two EFL classroom cultures The two EFL classroom cultures in this study represented two pedagogical entities with their own characteristics as discussed below. Esther’s EFL classroom was recommended by the head of the School as a “model EFL classroom” led by an expatriate teacher; it was also credited as a “learner-friendly” language classroom among the language learners. The subject taught by Esther was “English Conversation”, its pedagogical goal being to develop learners’ English oral skills and to enhance their communicative competence through communicative activities. The cultural group in Esther’s EFL classroom was comprised of a native English speaker as the language teacher—Esther—and her 33 sophomore students. Overall, these students were willing to use their own initiative in classroom participation. The great majority of these students wanted to be active participants in Esther’s classroom activities. Over 70 percent of the students interviewed aimed at active participation for the reason that such opportunities of interaction with native English speakers were rare and they were eager to develop their oral competence in Esther’s classes. More than 20 percent of the interviewees adopted a “respond-when-beingcalled” attitude, which they attributed to their lack of language skills and introvert personality rather than their unwillingness to speak; only a few— 10 percent—of the interviewees claimed to be on the reserved side and would rather “watch and listen to” what Esther and their fellow students did and said. While many expatriate teachers will leave China after a few years’ of having lived and worked there, Esther had been teaching English at tertiary level in Chinese higher institutions for seven years at the time when this research project was conducted, and she had made it be known that she wanted to stay in China and go on with her teaching. Her experiences of teaching languages in the Chinese context had won her a good reputation among her Chinese students, who generally agreed that her language classes were a source of fun and valuable English language knowledge. Together with her students, the “exceptional” expatriate teacher had established her procedural structures in their EFL classroom cultural system, which was reflected in their syllabus, medium of instruction, and preferred classroom activities. The dispositional features of the classroom culture in Esther’s class were mainly shown through Esther’s beliefs in “communication” as the pivot of language education and the language learners’ unconcealed welcoming attitude towards her class and ready acceptance of her educational ideology.

172

Yingchun Li

Unlike her Chinese counterparts at the School, Esther had no preassigned textbooks or syllabus. Her so-called “syllabus” was one that consisted of materials she collected and tasks she devised before each of her classes; it was an assembly of information ranging from “hot” topics that were closely related to her students’ daily lives to basic knowledge of British culture and traditions. It was a requirement at the School that English be the medium of instruction. Using English as the primary medium of instruction, Esther sometimes switched from English to Chinese as the secondary medium of instruction. It was a routine in Esther’s classroom culture to have one or two presenters at the beginning of each class. A typical class would start with teacher-student greetings followed by two or three students’ individual presentations. One student would step to the front of the class at a time either voluntarily or by being called on; the presenters would deliver a speech which they had prepared before and which would take three to five minutes. Group work was another major form of classroom activity in Esther’s class, and there was a wide variety of group activities which took place regularly and took up a large part of class time, including role-plays, game-plays, puzzle-solving, team-competitions, group discussions, and simulated interviews. Interactions in Esther’s classroom culture were mostly interpersonal verbal interactions, i.e. dialogues and conversations between people. Not only were there oral interactions between the language teacher and the language learners as the two parties involved in the language educational process; there were also a great deal of learner-learner interactions in this EFL classroom. In summary, Esther’s classroom culture was characterized with by interactivity through interpersonal verbal interactions. Both the language teacher and the language learners were oriented towards a communicative language learning context. Ying’s language classroom revealed a completely different scenario. There was a discernable dichotomy between “tradition” and “innovation” in Ying’s educational ideology. On the one hand, Ying’s educational ideology had been greatly influenced by ancient “Confucian educational tradition”; on the other hand, there were some elements that demonstrated her propensity towards novel teaching methods, which was very much in line with the School’s commitment to “innovation”. For example, she strongly advocated “learner autonomy”. The students in Ying’s class expected their teacher—Ying—to be authoritarian, to be in charge of class talk and make all the major decisions so that they could simply comply with her directions and classroom organization.

New Horizons for Language Learning in China

173

“Interpretation” was the subject that was taught in Ying’s class. Many of Ying’s lessons could be divided into three parts. The first part of the lesson would be “test-related”, the middle part of the lesson would be “text-related”, and the last part “exercise or assignment-related”. Like in Esther’s EFL classroom culture, the medium of instruction in Ying’s classroom culture was also double-coded in both the English and Chinese language. There were teacher-learner interactions, there were “textual interactions” between the participants and their textbooks or exercise books; there were also exchanges of information between the teacher and the students via written portfolios. Judging from the evidence available so far, the answer to the question “Is Ying’s classroom an authoritarian classroom culture?” should be both “yes and no”. The answer is “yes” because teacher authority remains important for classroom discipline and the control of classroom activities, and Ying has a strong moral responsibility to guide students on the right path. The answer should be “no” because additional teacher-learner communication via portfolios generated “democratic communication” between the teacher and the learners, which also contributed to the promotion of a symmetrical teacher-learner relationship. The juxtaposition of these two EFL classroom cultures revealed two different classroom cultural lives. Located in the same institution and taking place in similar physical settings, these two EFL classroom cultures had different participants with dissimilar demographic and dispositional features and were oriented towards reaching different pedagogical goals. The most conspicuous difference between the two was the fact that one was highly participatory with overt verbal interpersonal interactions, while the other one was distinctly teacher-fronted with fewer learner-learner verbal interactions but more textual interactions. Given that much research literature posits the positive correlation between verbal interactions in the language classrooms and the production of learning opportunities, one might assume that Esther’s communicative classroom is more successful in the construction of language-learning opportunities than Ying’s teacherfronted classroom. However, this is not the case in the current study, for both EFL classroom cultures have been found to be favorable for the construction of learning opportunities and both classroom cultures were seen as conducive to learning by the students. Irrespective of the differences, the two EFL classroom cultures have several things in common, as students in both of them believe that they live in a classroom environment that is favorable for the construction of learning opportunities, and learners genuinely believe they can make good progress in either classroom culture.

Yingchun Li

174

6. Developing a positive classroom culture In this study I identified a number of positive traits which the two EFL classroom cultures shared and which were found to be conducive to the construction of learning opportunities. These positive classroom cultural elements may be of value for both language education practitioners and educators in general to develop positive classroom cultures which will focus on the quality of classroom life (Wright, 2006) and ultimately on effective learning. ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ

The learners have a strong motivation to achieve their linguistic goals; Most of the time, there is agreement between teachers' and students’ perceptions of how language learning is best achieved and what constitutes a learning opportunity; The teacher is sensitive to learners’ needs and is willing to adjust the classroom culture when there is discrepancy between the teacher’s and the learners’ perceptions of learning opportunities; The teacher has experiences with learning a foreign language himself/herself so that he/she has empathy for the language learners; The expatriate teacher has a good command of the learners’ native language and the local culture; Both the target language and the native language of the learners are used as a medium of instruction, and both are used appropriately; Learning opportunities are constructed both inside and outside the classroom.

A big challenge for me to overcome in this research was the generalizability of the findings. The question posed here is “to what extent can my research results be extended to other classroom groups?” Given China’s geographical vastness and regional diversity, the classroom practices and the classroom cultural realities may not be hugely representative of the practices and realities in other classrooms located in other regions. What is more, the individuality of a particular classroom as a particular “case” makes it impractical to make rash generalizations for “one of the problems with L2 classroom research is that there is such a tremendous variety of L2 classrooms” (Van Lier, 1988 p. 5). The pedagogical practices and participants’ performances described in this study may not reflect EFL classroom realities across China.

New Horizons for Language Learning in China

175

Nonetheless, it is my intention that through the close examination of these two cases, new and valuable insights can be gained for the understanding of the interrelationship between classroom interactions, classroom cultures, and learning opportunities. My conclusion is that we cannot make hasty or stereotypical judgments about the value of a language classroom based on its observable verbal interaction patterns. The benefits of verbal interactions for language learning notwithstanding, it might be oversimplistic to say that an apparently less interactive (in the sense of verbal interaction) classroom culture deprives the learners of learning opportunities and is therefore detrimental to language learning. In view of the fact that China is a language teaching market of huge potential because of its dramatic economic growth, this study is important in that it informs language educators of EFL teaching and learning situations in contemporary China. Based on this study, I propose that teachers should be aware of the existence of an EFL classroom culture and, further, aspire to develop a positive classroom culture that is configured optimally for the construction of learning opportunities that learners need. In reality, not many teachers and learners are aware that such a “classroom culture” exists and influences the processes of language teaching and learning (Coleman, 1996). Amid the ebb and flow of educational fashions, many teachers pay attention to how to make their classroom teaching methodology more effective. What I propose on the basis of my study is that rather than concentrating on the comparison of the “good” and “bad” of certain classroom teaching methodologies, we should put more emphasis on the improvement of the quality of life in foreign-language classrooms (Wright, 2006). We should develop a “positive classroom culture” in which learning opportunities are constructed to meet learners’ needs so that both the teacher and the learners can have a fulfilling educational experience.

176

Yingchun Li

References Allwright, D. (1988). Observation in the Language Classroom. London: Longman. Allwright, D. & Bailey, K.M. (1991). Focus on the Language Classroom: An introduction to classroom research for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Beales, A.R., Spindler, G. & Spindler, L. (1967). Culture in Process. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Block, D. (1996). Not So Fast: Some thoughts on theory culling, relativism, accepted findings and the heart and soul of SLA. Applied Linguistics, 17, 63-83. Breen, M. (1985). The Social Context for Language Learning: A neglected situation? Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 7, 135-58. —. (2001). Language for Teaching a Language. In Candlin, C.N. & Mercer, N. (eds.). English Language Teaching in its Social Context: A reader. London: Routledge. Chen, Y. (2006). EFL Instruction and Assessment with Portfolios: A case study in Taiwan. The Asian EFL Journal Quarterly, 8(1), 69-96. Coffey, A. & Atkinson, P. (1996). Making Sense of Qualitative Data: Complementary strategies. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Coleman, H. (1996). Society and the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cortazzi, M. & Jin, L. (1996). Cultures of Learning: Language classrooms in China. Coleman, H. (ed.). In Society and the language classroom. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Dooley, K. (2001). Re-Envisioning Teacher Preparation: Lessons from China. Journal of Education for Teaching, 27(3), 241-251. Ellison, C.M., Boykin, A.W., Towns, D.P. & Stokes, A. (2000). Classroom Cultural Ecology. CRESPAR. Freeman, D. (1992). Language Teacher Education, Emerging Discourse, and Change in Classroom Practice. Flowerdew, J., Brock, M. & Hsia, S. (eds.). In Perspectives on Second Language Teacher Education. Hong Kong: City Polytechnic of Hong Kong. Hammersley, M. & Atkinson, P. (1995). Ethnography: Principles in Practice (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. Hodkinson, P., Biesta, G., James, D., Gleeson, D. & Postlethwaite, K. (2005). Improving Learning Cultures in Further Education: A new cultural approach. TLRP research briefing 12. London: TLRP. Holliday, A. (1994). Appropriate Methodology and Social Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

New Horizons for Language Learning in China

177

—. (1999). Small Cultures. Applied Linguistics, 20(2), 237-264. —. (2002). Doing and Writing Qualitative Research. London: Sage. Hu, G. (2003). English Language Teaching in China: Regional differences and contributing factors. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 24, 290-318. —. (2005). CLT is Best for China—an untenable absolutist claim. ELT Journal 59(1), 65-68. Jin, L. & Cortazzi, M. (2002). English Language Teaching in China: A bridge for the future. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 22(2), 53-64. Lowenberg, J. (1993). Interpretive Research Methodology: Broadening the dialogue. Advances in Nursing Science, 16(2), 57-69. Nunan, D. (2004). Research Methods in Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Postiglione, G. (1999). China’s National Minority Education: Culture, schooling and development. New York: Falmer. Rao, Z. (2002). Chinese Students’ Perceptions of Communicative and Non-Communicative Activities in EFL Classroom. System, 30, 85-105. Rosenberg, B. (2004). Editorial. New Zealand Journal of Tertiary Education Policy. 1(1), 3. Schegloff, E.A. (1987). Between Micro and Macro: Contexts and other connections. Alexander, J. (ed.). In The Micro-Macro Link (pp. 207234). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Schreck, R. (2005). Classroom Culture Shock. Retrieved June 4, 2007, from http://dudao.szpt.edu.cn/Showcontent.asp?ID=298. Scollon, S. (1999). Not to Waste Words or Students: Confucian and Socratic discourse in the tertiary classroom. Hinkel, E. (ed.). In Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning (pp. 13-27). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Seedhouse, P. (2004). The Interactional Architecture of the Language Classroom: A conversation analysis perspective. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Storch, N. (2002). Patterns of Interaction in ESL Pair Work. Language Learning, 52, 119-158. Tarone, E. (2006). Language Lessons: A complex, local co-production of all participants. Gieve, S. & Miller, I.K. (eds.). Understanding the Language Classroom. Palgrave: Macmillan. Van Lier, L. (1988). The Classroom and the Language Learner. London: Longman. —. (1990). Ethnography: Bandaid, bandwagon, or contraband. Christopher, B. & Rosamond, M. (eds.). In Research in the Language Classroom. London: Macmillan.

178

Yingchun Li

—. (1998). The Relationship between Consciousness, Interaction and Language Learning. Language Awareness, 7(2-3), 128-145. Watkins, D.A. & Biggs, J.B. (1999). The Chinese Learner: Cultural, psychological and contextual influences. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre. Watson-Gegeo, K.A. (1988). Ethnography in ESL: Defining the essentials. TESOL Quarterly, 22(4), 575-592. Wright, T. (2006). Managing Classroom Life. Gieve, S. & Miller, I. (eds.). Understanding the Language Classroom. Macmillan: Palgrave.

POSSIBILITIES AND JUSTIFICATIONS FOR COMMUNICATING CULTURAL ISSUES IN TEACHING ENGLISH FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY NADEŽDA STOJKOVIû

Introduction The curriculum of the Faculty of Electronic Engineering, University of Niš, Serbia, is laden with English language requirements. Some course material is in English, and students are required to read and write about their research for international journals, almost all of which are in English, as are most of the international conferences or training programs which they take part in. Soon, the faculty will be offering courses in English for foreign students. This faculty being a renowned school, many students are highly motivated to learn English for they can envisage good prospects abroad, and will easily get scholarships to continue their academic careers or manage to secure prestigious jobs. English as a subject is meant to teach language skills for communicative activities which students will actually encounter in their professional life. They are taught English that will help them access the extensive technical information available in English, prepare them to use technical English before they enter the job market and/or continue their academic careers. In other words, the course is primarily supposed to be market-effective and target-set. A language teaching methodology that addresses these issues is English for Specific Purposes (ESP), or rather, its sub-category, English for Science and Technology (EST). For a teacher, involvement in ESP practice is often a solitary endeavor through uncharted territory. Unlike EFL, there are no standard, readymade courses and accompanying teaching methods. And where textbooks exist, they are not necessarily suited to the needs of a particular institution. On top of this, each institution has its idiosyncrasies that will decide the content of an ESP course.

Nadežda Stojkoviü

180

This paper will present an outline of a case study of teaching English for specific purposes at the Faculty of Electronic Engineering, University in Niš, Serbia. The focus will be on the relation between the content of the course and broader, more complex and profound social and cultural issues. The following issues are at the heart of the line of argumentation: ƒ

ƒ

ƒ

ƒ

English is, without doubt, a lingua franca, the mother tongue of globalization. Accordingly, we will deal with questions of new perceptions of identity as mediated through that language (identity always being mediated through language), which, in turn, is undergoing major changes itself, mostly in the direction of simplification. Science and technology figure large in globalization, thus strongly influencing issues of self-awareness in this historical period. These two, English and science and technology, inseparable as these hallmarks of our present and signposts for the future are, contain a set of semiotics, a view of the world. This is what the case study will focus on. It will contain students' reflections and reactions to questions concerning the interdependence and influence of science, technology, and English. For a country striving hard to become a member of the so called developed world, the world essentially characterized by science and technology, such striving necessarily implies crucial changes from within. In this respect, English for science and technology impacts directly on the future direction of the country. Finally, in the light of all the above, how, i.e. on what principles and premises, is the curriculum for English for science and technology to be developed, what is the role of the teacher, and what are the most suitable methods of teaching? It is at this point that teachers become fully aware of the scope of their responsibility.

Language teaching and culture A major responsibility of teachers at all levels is to teach the language and communication skills needed for academic success, for the world of work and for facilitating social mobility (Hymes, 1962) in a world in which technology increasingly brings different cultures into contact every day. In this situation teaching a second language within a cultural context would seem to be essential.

Communicating Cultural Issues in Teaching English for Technology

181

The word culture is used here as implying the integrated patterns of human behavior that include thoughts, communicative acts, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions of racial, ethnic, religious, or social groups. It refers to what educators like Howard Nostrand (1989) call the "ground of meaning", i.e. the attitudes and beliefs, ways of thinking, behaving, and remembering shared by members of that community (p. 51). The word competence is used because it implies having the capacity to function in a particular way: the capacity to function within the context of culturally integrated patterns of human behavior defined by a group. Being competent in cross-cultural functioning means learning new patterns of behavior and effectively applying them in the appropriate settings. Culture and competence, i.e. linguistic competence, become obviously inseparable. One of the salient ways in which culture manifests itself is through language. Material culture is constantly mediated, interpreted, and recorded—among other things—through language. It is because of that mediating role of language that culture affects foreign-language teachers. In the final analysis, culture is always linguistically mediated membership of a discourse community that is both real and imagined. Membership implies identity, the way people perceive themselves. Language plays a crucial role not only in the construction of culture and hence one's identity, but in the emergence of cultural change. Language is thus essentially rooted in the reality of the culture (Malinowski, 1923). When we speak of culture, of competence, of identity, we are close to approaching the core existentialist questions as they are the major constituent elements of human cognition. Vygotsky conceptualized cognitive development as the transformation of socially shared activities into internalized processes. The sociocultural theory of language states that it is through social mediation that knowledge becomes refined, viable, and coherent. Mediation of language is the mechanism through which external—sociocultural—activities are transformed into internal— mental—functioning. Sociocultural theory holds a strongly interactionist view of language learning. Accordingly, the role of the teacher goes beyond providing a rich language environment to learners. The teacher uses the language as a cognitive tool to enable learners to develop thoughts and ideas in language. The thinking process indicates development in learners, who become independent and capable of completing tasks as they reach their potential level of development. If language is seen as social practice, culture becomes the very core of language teaching. Cultural awareness must then be viewed both as enabling language proficiency and as being the outcome of reflection on language proficiency (Kramsch, 1993, p. 8).

182

Nadežda Stojkoviü

How can language teaching focus less on mere language structures and function per se and more on the social process of enunciation? First of all, it can do so by focusing on the language learners themselves. Learners of a foreign language, challenged to learn a linguistic code they have not helped to shape, in social contexts they have not helped to define, are indeed poaching in the territory of others—a kind of oppositional practice, that both positions them and places them in opposition to the current practices of the discourse community that speaks that language. This attitude will help to motivate and inspire students to develop their own cognitive potentials. Linguistic and cultural competence gained in this way facilitates critical awareness, a kind of "critical cross-cultural literacy" (Kramsch & Nolden, 1994; Kramsch, 1995). If understood this way, a language teacher is not only an impresario of a certain linguistic performance, but the catalyst for steadily increasing cultural competence. Teachers of language as social semiotic are placed at the privileged site of "possible reinscription and relocation emerging out of cultural difference" (p. 62). As to culture and teaching materials, text book writers, like everyone else, think and compose chiefly through culture-specific schemata (Alptekin, 1993). Thus, coursebooks will directly or indirectly communicate sets of social and cultural values. This is the so-called ‘hidden curriculum’, which forms part of any educational program, but is unstated and undisclosed. It may well be an expression of attitudes and values that are not consciously held, but which nevertheless influence the content and imagery of the teaching material, and indeed the whole curriculum. A curriculum, of which teaching materials are part, cannot be neutral because it will always reflect a view of social order and express a value system, implicitly or explicitly (Cunningsworth, 1995, p. 90), as any language is the mirror image of the culture in which it is spoken. Let us now look at the culture we are speaking about when discussing the use of English.

The English language in our globalized culture English is the most successful language since Latin, but its success does not have much to do with its linguistic features. The fate of English, as of any language, is determined by a combination of power, politics, history, and geography, and not by its words, nor its sounds, nor even its literature. Yet, the influence of English as the global language has grown on an unprecedented scale. The impact of English is noticeable in many languages as it is now essentially a second national language. Learning it

Communicating Cultural Issues in Teaching English for Technology

183

has very little to do with wanting to talk to anybody from Great Britain or the United States. In our global world, you cannot live a full life as a citizen without speaking English, because some domains—business, science, even intellectual discussions—are dominated by English now. There has been much dispute on the impact of English on national languages, and the possible dangers it poses. The issue we are dealing with here is the opposite phenomenon, however. While the rapidly changing sociolinguistic profile and glossography of English in today's world influences the political sociology of the recipient language, we need to bear in mind that English itself is at the same time open to influences from those it influences. Today, there is a Babel of varieties of English worldwide. ‘World Englishes’ is a collective term for all the different varieties of English worldwide, for the sum of the core vocabularies, or central word-stocks, of each English-speaking region— including England. The native speakers of this language have become a minority. The native/non-native concept has been rendered irrelevant as everyone is a native speaker of this variety of English. And to the extent that there is a core English which is an abstraction, everyone is considered a native speaker of that particular language. The fact that the world is increasingly inter-connected for the purpose of easier and faster communication is likely to bring forth some new, unifying norms, though probably simplifying in themselves, that will preserve communicative effectiveness of English. As an international language it has to be an independent language (Widdowson, 1994), belonging to those who use it. There are certain pedagogical implications with regard to this growing number of bilingual users of English. For example, a native speaker's competence will no longer be used as a standard in language learning and pedagogy. The World Englishes may thus be said to be representing the regional dialects of our lingua franca, initially shaped and now constantly reshaped under the influence of the demands of trade and science and technology, the inseparable partners of today. The common denominator uniting trade and science and technology is speed. To learn the language that can serve those needs cannot in itself be a long process, for such a language would not by nature be appropriate for those fast-lived areas of human action. So, the language learnt and spoken for these purposes is simplified. But to what extent? Core general vocabulary is at the intermediate level, correct pronunciation will be mandatory in so far as it provides intelligibility, grammar is reduced through the elimination of sections that provide 'nuances' in meaning—sequence of tenses can be done without, the same applies to the subjunctive and some tenses. Furthermore, the dominance of

184

Nadežda Stojkoviü

the spoken over the written language also adds to this process of simplification. When writing becomes necessary, it is no longer handwriting, but typing, and so there is no need to know how to spell words correctly, for that can be done automatically. However, this does not apply to the area of specific vocabulary, which is in the process of being enriched enormously, especially in the natural and technical sciences; the fact notwithstanding that only experts will be able to appreciate that.

Communicating cultural issues In conversation classes students are often invited to discuss, and comment on, the growth and dynamics of a scientific community, new developments in scientific communication, and more significantly, the linguistic dimensions of scientific communication, i.e. of the role of English. They are also asked to think about the constituent role of language in science and society, and the contributions which science makes toward language development. The dynamic interaction between language and science will be analyzed, as the linguistic hegemony imposed by the new information technologies has serious consequences on the development of science and technology as well as language, literature, and culture in the developing countries. The new global economic order, termed informationalism by Castells (1996), first emerged in the 1970s following advances in computing technology and telecommunications. One of its consequences is the dominance of the communicative approach within the field of Englishlanguage teaching. The emphasis of the communicative approach on functional interaction, rather than on achieving native-like perfection, corresponds to the imperatives of the new society, in which English is shared among many groups of non-native speakers rather than dominated by the British or Americans. In a globalized world, future engineers will have to master skills of critical analysis, evaluation, experimentation, collaboration, communication, abstraction, system thinking, and persuasion (Reich, 1991). And, due to globalization, these skills are increasingly applied in English language contexts. They will be required to use English in highly sophisticated communicative acts and collaborative projects with people around the world. They will need to be able to write persuasively, critically interpret and analyze information in English, and carry out complex negotiations in English.

Communicating Cultural Issues in Teaching English for Technology

185

The question that arises is whether they will equally be able to express themselves. English language educators need to be aware of this and consider how they can rise to the occasion and master this situation by promoting curricula that provide all learners of English with the opportunity to think critically about their environment and express their own identity and views. While much has been written about empowering teaching approaches in community ESL courses (Auerbach, 1995; Morgan, 1998), less has been said about the possibilities of such critical approaches in occupational programs, either in vocational schools or at worksites. This will be an important issue for ESOL educators concerned with critical pedagogy in the new century. The fact that the spread of World Englishes, changes in employment patterns, and the emergence of new technological literacies are mutually reinforcing trends of the global informational economy calls for a common approach. A key pedagogical concept would be multiliteracies, put forth by a group of specialists in education, critical literacy, and discourse analysis (New London Group, 1996; see also Cope & Kalantzis, 2000). The multiliteracies concept suggests that students should learn to negotiate a multiplicity of media and discourses. In the case of foreign-language teaching this means going far beyond the linguistic syllabi based on collections of syntactic or functional items. It also goes far beyond the notion of task-based learning, at least when task-based learning is interpreted as consisting of a progression of narrow tasks designed principally to assist learners’ in grasping particular grammatical forms. In conversation classes students are given the opportunity to critically analyze the content, coherence, organization, pragmatics, syntax, and lexis of communication they study and practice, viz. English for science and technology. Here students are given the opportunity to deal with issues of culture and identity which keep emerging in the new global era. The teacher’s overt role should thus extend beyond narrow language items so as to help students learn to critically interpret information and communicative acts in a given social (global) context. Future engineers will use English, together with technology, to express their identity and make their voices heard. There is no need to choose between an integrative discourse, which views English as opening the door to international commerce, tourism, technology, and science, and an empowering discourse, which views English as an ideological instrument of unequal power relations (Cox & Assis-Peterson, 1999). English is both these things and more. English is what its speakers make of it.

186

Nadežda Stojkoviü

In view of its hegemonic role in international exchanges, the learning of English can contribute to the formulation of counter-discourses in relation to inequalities between countries and social groups relative to the degree of scientific and technological development. Teachers of English for science and technology can foster the students' ability to engage in such counter discourses by facilitating the development of critical literacy skills in a multiplicity of media and genres. In summary, if the major dichotomy of the 21st century is one between global networks and local identities, English is a tool for both. It connects people around the world and provides the means to give meaning to those connections. If English brings the world to our students' doorsteps, we can enable them to make their voices heard in the world, primarily by making them aware of the intricate nature of the language that is shaping our presence and will continue to shape our future.

References Alptekin, C. (1993). Target-Language Culture in EFL Materials. ELT Journal, 47(2). Castells, M. (1996). The Information Age: Economy, society and culture. Oxford U.K.: Blackwell Publishers. Cunningsworth, A. (1995). Choosing Your Coursebook. Oxford: Heinemann. Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and Power. London: Longman. Hymes, D.H. (1971). On Communicative Competence. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Halliday, M.A.K. (1978). Language as Social Semiotic. The interpretation of language and meaning. London: Edward Arnold. Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kramsch, C. & Nolden, T. (1994). Redefining Literacy in a Foreign Language. Die Unterrichtspraxis, 27(1), 28-35. Malinowski, B. (1923). The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages. Ogden, C.K. & Richards, I.A. (eds.). In The Meaning of Meaning. New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Nostrand, H. (1989). Research on Teaching: An annotated international bibliography for 1945-1961. Seattle: University of Washington Press. New London Group (1996). A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing social features. Harvard: Harvard Educational Review. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in Society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

CHAPTER THREE DIVERSE ETHNIC, SOCIO-ECONOMIC, AND CULTURAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES

VBU: THE FIRST E-LEARNING PROJECT FOCUSED ON THE DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT IN ROMANIA MIHAELA ALEXANDRA IONESCU AND ùTEFAN STANCIU

Abstract This paper aims to evaluate the consistency of the stated goals with the final results of the Virtual Business University (VBU)—the first e-learning project in Romania—i.e., how this project has contributed to changes in the Romanian mentality concerning entrepreneurship. At the same time, we present a case study that shows the impact of education on the quality of professional life and the broadening of life horizons for the individual member of society.

Introduction Although Romania has already had 17 years of experience with a freemarket economy, further development of the entrepreneurial spirit still faces resistance from the working population. Certain tacit assumptions still exist which are grounded in the collectivist dimension of Romanian culture as part of the great socialist corporation that was based on the principles of a planned economy. The dominant mentality still feeds on such ideas as: continuous education is an investment on the part of the employee for the benefit of the employer, or the entrepreneurship required to set up and run a private business is dependent on an individual's access to politically powerful circles, etc. Against this background, the Faculty of Communication and Public Relations (FCPR) within the National School for Political Studies and Public Administration (NSPSPA) in Bucharest, as a result of a project cofinanced by the EU and PHARE, created, in 2003, a center for life-long learning and training—the Virtual Business University (VBU), the first e-

Romania's Virtual Business University and the Entrepreneurial Spirit

189

learning project in Romania. This project was not only an online school, but a vehicle to change the collective mindset in order to support the development of entrepreneurship and a new work culture, which was geared towards improving knowledge and individual performance through education. VBU was also meant to serve as a counseling agency for small and medium businesses, offering strategic guidelines for the development of the entrepreneurial spirit in Romania, setting up new businesses, supporting employers, employees, and prospective investors. This paper aims to evaluate the consistency of the declared aims with the final results, i.e. how much the VBU has contributed to any change in the Romanian mentality concerning entrepreneurship. At the same time, we present a case study that shows how much education impacts on the quality of professional life and the broadening of life horizons for the individual member of society.

Project history VBU is a center for lifelong learning offering online classes in the field of business studies. VBU study modules are designed to reflect Romanian educational, social, and economic realities. Curricula are constantly updated in order to respond to changing labor market requirements as well as to developments at the societal level as presently the Romanian society is a society in transition in all spheres. Between October 2003 and April 2004, VBU offered classes to 1,300 students from all parts of the country, with its mission reflecting the following values: ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ

Educational and professional excellence; Career-orientation; Quality services; Interaction and flexibility; Counseling; High rates of success.

Among the most important VBU objectives are: promoting new forms of education, which have not been applied to a great extent in Romania so far; providing lifelong quality distance-learning to meet labor market requirements; fostering skills and competencies required by Romanian businesses; promoting managerial and communicative skills among the target groups; supporting the foundation and ongoing development and viability of new businesses; teaching the importance of social

190

Mihaela Alexandra Ionescu and Stefan Stanciu

responsibility, of values associated with an entrepreneurial culture, and of the necessity of developing a new—individualistic—work culture. The secondary objectives include: learning the specific theoretical and practical skills required in the business world, and learning to access the information channels necessary to engage in managerial and entrepreneurial activities. All classes are based on the collaboration of renowned professors and successful business practitioners in Romania. The VBU educational programs' graduates receive a diploma issued by the FCPR. The faculty also gives credit for the classes studied if a VBU graduate decides to enroll in a master's program with the FCPR that includes those classes. This is one of the incentives VBU offers to its students in order to get them to take their education to a higher level so that the mentality change will be long-term and result in concrete action along the desired lines. At the end of the project, VBU entered into the second stage of the program. Starting in 2005, it has been offering lifelong online-learning classes supported by the www.uva.ro online platform, a user friendly site especially created for e-learning. Each class had a duration of ten weeks and the students had the option to choose one to three of such modules in line with their interests. The modules included such topics as: business finance, setting up your own business, or marketing and communication. The high level of satisfaction among the graduates and the impact of the classes encouraged the team to continue the program even after the end of the central project and of the second stage of the program by offering new classes geared towards the specific needs of its clients. The new program, which was started in 2007, focused on such topics as: project management, financing plans, marketing communication, etc. .

Case study This project will be analyzed twofold. First, the sociological investigation focused on the number of objectives achieved and how much VBU contributed to the mentality change concerning private entrepreneurship among the people who participated in these programs; and how much the project really improved the quality of their professional lives, their life horizons and the proliferation of the new work ethic. The second analysis covered the communication strategy and public relations from the perspective of determining the extent to which that was consistent with the mission and the respective programs. Here the focus was on the slogans of this campaign, i.e. on the impact on the target groups.

Romania's Virtual Business University and the Entrepreneurial Spirit

191

Sociological investigation Every culture is marked by a series of models, guiding images, and representations to which the members of the society relate in their work, in their social roles, and relations (Chombart, 1970, p. 19). Work is an important vector in structuring a society and a generator of desired moral behavior. In this context, an opinion poll conducted between October 22 and November 4, 2005, by the Gallup Organization shows that 80% of the Romanians think that non-working people tend to become lazy, 76% think that one needs to have a job in order to value one’s skills, 73% put work in the first place even if it encroaches on their spare-time, 67% see work as a societal duty, and 59% believe it would be humiliating to receive money without having worked for it (Soros, 2007). While the poll data indicate the importance the subjects attach to an individualistic work culture, they also emphasize that the Romanians' perception of themselves on this subject is one of laziness, as they wait for others to coordinate them into action, which clearly shows they are collective-oriented workers, not individualistic ones. Moreover, the 2007 opinion poll (Soros, 2007) shows that mostly Romanians from small town or village communities were satisfied with their social status and with community life. After all, small communities still cultivate traditional cultural models—a way of life based on rigid moral values, i.e. modern rather than postmodern life. At the same time, the poll reveals that Romanians view themselves critically as far as their work ethic is concerned. The majority think that Romanians work better abroad and not in their own country, because at home they are still influenced by the former communist system and the present system that does not promote an individualistic work ethos. What we thus have is a discrepancy between what they would like to practice and what they do practice—a dichotomy between what is ideal and real. The VBU project's emphasis lay exactly on changing this mindset and on bringing about the desired behavior in order to overcome this dichotomy. To be true, some perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors cannot be changed by a single intervention, so strategic interventions are needed at the macro level. This might even involve country branding for building a positive national identity—an identity tarnished by communism and by living in country undergoing a period of transition. However, a new educational concept in higher education has contributed to that very change, even if at a very basic level for a start, as presented in the following part.

Mihaela Alexandra Ionescu and Stefan Stanciu

192

Methodology The study was conducted between March and May 2007. The research method used was the sociological investigation. The research technique applied was the questionnaire. We set up a survey, which included 25 questions relating to the objectives presented above. Based on the survey we investigated and ascertained the level of VBU objectives achievement. Ours was an exploratory research by which we hoped to confirm several working hypothesis that we intend to use in a future longitudinal study pertaining to this topic. We studied over 700 subjects. They were between 22 and 45 years old: 61% were between 21 and 30, and 39% between 31 and 45. The subjects came from all the major regions of the country; 60% were women, 40% men. 9% had 1-2 years of work experience, 14% had 2-5 years, 33% had 5-10 years, 18% had 10-15 years, 16% had 15-20 years. 21% were top management, 36% were executive management, 43% had no management duties. As for the qualification level, 32% had a master’s degree and 2% had a doctoral degree.

Results and discussions First, we established a list of dimensions, including work ethos; interaction with the business community; valorization of work; individual responsibility; the perceptions about a work culture before and after graduating from the VBU program; the entrepreneurial approach to work, life-long learning before and after graduating from the VBU program; lifelong learning as training vs. learning as a way of life; flexibility and utility of e-learning modes of education vs. traditional modes of instruction. The data obtained revealed the following results: ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ

96% think that a work ethos and a results-based approach are very important; 84% think that the involvement of their company with the community is essential in an individualistic and entrepreneurial work culture; However, only 21% think that this interaction really takes place; 62% changed their perceptions of a work culture toward associating it with individualistic and entrepreneurial values; The valorization of work represented a unanimously accepted dimension. For almost all of the subjects, passion for work was essential;

Romania's Virtual Business University and the Entrepreneurial Spirit

ƒ ƒ ƒ

193

64% viewed the entrepreneurial approach to work in a positive light; The same percentage considers lifelong learning as important in order to be able to compete on the labor market, but also as a way of life. 92% of the subjects attested to the importance of flexibility and usefulness of e-learning vs. traditional modes of instruction.

Here are some samples of the survey answers: ƒ ƒ

ƒ

I wish to thank you for the printed courses I have received and for the interesting forum chats that I followed with great interest, even though I did not manage to participate in all of them. I have tried to be involved as much as possible in the projects I had to submit. This was not only an obligation for me, but also an enjoyable challenge, which changed me not only in the sense that I accumulated information, but it also improved my personal and professional life. Even if the majority of us have some ideas about what communication means, I think that this course clarified many things in my mind and helped me see the big picture behind what image and communication mean for a company, regardless of its size. Now I see things differently, and I am convinced that everything I learned will prove to be very useful. Thank you and good luck in your future endeavors.

The analysis showed that at least at that stage the VBU program produced change because it brought about a change of perception, of judgment; it also re-fashioned a certain attitude because it changed the degree of curiosity. The one thing that was not significantly changed was the approach to work. A change in paradigm, as the VBU had desired, was not achieved. This change will only take place when the following three indicators have been achieved: perception, attitude, and approach (action).

Analysis of the communication and public relations strategy The operational meaning of "culture" for the respective strategy covered two dimensions: one, culture as “an activity meant to prepare the intelligence for bearing fruit, an activity similar to that of the peasant who cultivates his land” (Marrou, 1997, p. 438), and culture as a life style and

194

Mihaela Alexandra Ionescu and Stefan Stanciu

spiritual ideal. These meanings were transferred as the major characteristics of a new labor culture, oriented towards individualism and its values. To these, other dimensions were added. For example: the employees think it is natural to fight for their own interests; managerial policies and practices encourage private initiatives; each member of the organization is individualized (Hofstede, 1996). Education was defined in terms of the Greek paidea as educatio, doctrina, disciplina, eruditio, studia, litterae, and humanitas (Stanciu & Ionescu, 2005). In other words, education is a complex whole which includes knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral models, which the members of a specific society share and transmit; their beliefs, moral values, laws, facets of their private and public lives, customs and traditions, and all other abilities and skills learned as members of that particular society. Education as a life style includes sets of dominant social values, which set the course for social change, shared linguistic symbols, religious beliefs, everyday behaviors, as well as intellectual, artistic, and literary history. Structuring a communication and public relations strategy helped the VBU to address a large target group, which was a sine qua non for the subtle changes it aimed for. The target group members influenced their coworkers and their employers through disseminating the knowledge from VBU at several levels (in fact, colleagues and employers of the graduates were found to enroll in the following modules). The strategy influenced the modules on offer—classes started to cover other areas of study, for which there was a great demand on the Romanian market, especially after accession to the EU lead to the establishment of new business ventures that require human capital not influenced by socialism. That is why the slogan for the first two VBU stages was “Success is learned (…) online”. This slogan combined all the elements of the strategic design presented and analyzed above. The third stage, which is still a work-in-progress, is based on the same objectives which are designed to bring about the behavioral change which the qualitative analysis showed had not been achieved yet, operates under a new slogan: “You can read the horoscope to understand the stars (…) or you can build the career you have been dreaming of. Make yourself known.” This slogan is more explicit as regards the notions of autonomy and individualism. We have mentioned before that in Romania the idea that enjoying a measure of quality of life in your professional career is a matter of luck has not disappeared. This is why the research team has chosen to focus on this misconception in addressing the present target audience, and emphasize the possibility to be successful through one’s own efforts and self development.

Romania's Virtual Business University and the Entrepreneurial Spirit

195

The future With the help of the above analysis we hope to have identified and corrected mistakes—following what the target groups considered reality to look like and not what we considered reality to be like—in order to develop the future guidelines applied by the college and of the VBU, which will result in an education that does not only promote professional skills and knowledge, but also a way of life.

References Chombart, de L.P.H. (1970). Images de la Culture [Culture Images]. Paris: Petite Bibliotheque Payot. Hendrix, J.A. & Hayes, D.C. (2006). Public Relations Cases. Washington D.C.: Wadsworth Publishing. Hofstede, G. (1996). Managementul Structurilor Multiculturale [Multicultural Structures Management]. Bucureúti: Editura Economică. Ionescu, M.A. (2007). La Globalisation et Ses Incidences sur la Culture Corporative. Proceedings of the International Conference on Globalization and Policies of Development. Bucharest: Comunicare.ro, 367-372. Marrou, H.I. (1997). Sfântul Augustin úi Sfârsitul Culturii Antice [Saint Augustin and the End of Ancient Culture]. Bucureúti: Humanitas. Soros Foundation (2007). De ce Sunt Romanii (ne) Multumiti [Why Are Romanians Unhappy?]. Press Release. Retrieved February 2007 from www.osf.ro. Stanciu, ù. & Ionescu, M.A. (2005). Cultură úi Comportament OrganizaĠional [Organizational Culture and Behaviour]. Bucureúti: Comunicare.ro.

EXPANDING THE PROFESSION: INDUSTRY PLACEMENT FOR TEACHERS ANNAMARIE SCHULLER AND ROBERTO BERGAMI

Abstract Portable skills are in high demand in modern-day business environments and there is increasing pressure for new entrants to the workforce to possess a range of knowledge that enables individuals to be "work ready". The requirement to be work ready is particularly relevant to postsecondary school leavers, who, having undertaken a vocational course of study to further enhance their chances for employment, face challenges in entering the job market, as the employers' expectation is for them to have current knowledge. The work-ready skills inherently require students to be up-skilled with modern-day practices and knowledge of contemporary issues. The challenge for teachers is the ability to provide such timely knowledge by incorporating up-to-date practices into the study curriculum. Teachers can only successfully meet this challenge where they also have knowledge of contemporary market-place practices. Such knowledge is rarely gained through the study of literature. It is commonly accepted that theory stems from practice and if teachers are meant to be skilling students with practical skills, then logically there will be a time lag between practice and the development of theories to support such practices. Regular industry placements may be a means by which teachers can acquire knowledge of contemporary practices. Such placements allow teachers to bring back to the classroom valuable lessons for students and enable the imparting of knowledge on a more up-to-date basis. Through a specifically developed model, this paper highlights the benefits of industry placements, concluding that this type of professional development benefits not only teachers, but students and employers alike.

Expanding the Profession: Industry Placement for Teachers

197

Introduction This paper considers the issues associated with industry placement for teachers and the associated challenges and benefits such experience can provide to the various stakeholders involved. A summary of the major educational reforms that have taken place in Australia over the past ten years is provided, together with an overview of the current framework of Australia's vocational education and training (VET) system and the link/influence that industry currently enjoys in the creation of the curriculum. The challenges and benefits of industry placement for teachers are discussed in the context of curriculum development and design. The notion of the development of long-term communities of practice is also explored in the same context. This paper provides a conceptual model that highlights the possible benefits that may be derived from teacher placement in industry and argues that these benefits far outweigh any costs and limitations.

The current structure of post-secondary education in Australia There are a number of educational choices in Australia that may be pursued beyond secondary education, as follows: Vocational education and training The VET sector is dominated by the publicly funded national Technical and Further Education institutes (TAFE), with "three out of every four students" enrolling in its courses (Keating, 2006). The majority of its courses are industry-competency based1 and are governed through a central 'national training package' framework that ensures their equivalence of content and delivery across Australia. Courses range from Certificate to Advanced Diploma level, are usually developed in response to a wide range of industrial needs, may

1

The most generally accepted definition for CBT is that put forward by the Vocational Education, Employment and Training Advisory Committee in 1992: "CBT is training geared to the attainment and demonstration of skills to meet industry-specified standards rather than to an individual's achievement relative to that of others in a group" (National Centre for Vocational Education Research Ltd., 1999, p. 2).

198

Annamarie Schuller and Roberto Bergami

be delivered in-house, and can be articulated into the UniversityHigher Education (HE) sector. Universities (Higher Education) Australian universities are publicly funded (with the exception of two private organizations) and are self-accrediting insofar as educational programs are concerned. University courses typically provide a more liberal style of education at undergraduate and postgraduate degree levels. These qualifications usually provide advanced entry into the professional occupations. There are a number of dual-sector institutions that offer both TAFE and HE programs, although the two are separately administered and their funding and pedagogical content and approach are quite different. Private Registered Training Organizations (RTO) These organizations may offer VET programs, but typically are more selective in their offering. RTO are a commercial entity driven by profit motives and typically provide classroom and in-house programs tailored to particular industry sectors and clients. Industry Some of the larger industrial organizations are privately registered RTO, offering in-house VET programs to staff. These programs are in response to the organisational requirements. Staff career development is encouraged through the completion of these courses. It is possible for these programs to articulate into the HE sector. Not-for-profit organizations A number of not-for-profit organizations, mainly in the social services sector, are also RTO in their own right. They tend to concentrate on the provision of re-skilling programs for the disadvantaged/unemployed groups within the community. These organizations enjoy a degree of government funding. Their programs generally sit at the lower end of the national training qualifications structure and are therefore unlikely to be suitable for articulation into HE. In order to contextualize the TAFE system it is important to understand the historical background of VET.

Expanding the Profession: Industry Placement for Teachers

199

A brief history of Australia's VET 'reforms' VET was firstly conceived between the 1940s and the 1970s as "training in technique for the trades" and "embedded in the industrial relations landscape, not the education sector" (Schofield, 2001, p. 21). In 1974, as a result of the Report of the Australian Committee on Technical and Further Education (commonly referred to as the Kangan Report, after its chairman, Mayer Kangan), the modern Technical and Further Education (TAFE) system was instituted. This system provided a "distinct education sector serving both individual and manpower needs" (Anderson, Clemens, Farrell & Seddon, 2001, p. 27) enabling the VET system to be recognized as being "an integral part of tertiary education" (Schofield, 2001, p. 21). The beginning of the current VET reforms can probably be traced back to the National Training Reform Agenda (NTRA) policy initiatives of the 1980s. The NTRA sought to achieve a more equitable outcome for disadvantaged groups, and a desire to create a more inclusive VET system (Taylor et al., 1997). As Australia's economic performance deteriorated, micro-economic reform was stimulated by industry and government alike. This resulted in a landmark report, Australia Reconstructed (1987), which provided the impetus for further reforms to the VET sector over the next fifteen years to address industry's labor-market demands in an increasingly challenging and competitive marketplace. In Australia, the competency based training (CBT) system has been much of the focus of VET reform since the 1990s. Several reports were instrumental in influencing the direction of vocational education. The Finn Report (1991) emphasized the need for integration of both "general and vocational education and of work and training, underpinned by a number of 'key competencies' necessary" (Taylor et al., 1997, p. 107) for work, education and adult life and advocated articulation across all sectors. In the Carmichael Report (1992), the Employment and Skills Formation Council noted that: (…) CBT is a move away from a culture of failure, where some are stigmatized as failures, to a training culture in which each and every individual is challenged to meet or exceed specified standards of performance. (Seddon, 1992, p. 7)

The Mayer Report (1992) findings identified key generic and vocational competencies required by industry, ultimately resulting in the establishment of nationally recognized VET education standards under the

200

Annamarie Schuller and Roberto Bergami

auspices of the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) (Taylor et al., 1997). The creation of ANTA "legitimised and facilitated industry leadership in the VET system by having industry organising and maintaining its involvement in all levels of decision-making (Billet, 2004, p. 17) using a highly centralized framework. It is argued that the current national training agenda, with a preoccupation for narrowly framed, competency based and industry specific skills "takes attention away from the 'working knowledges' that are necessary in every occupation and every community" (Anderson, 1999, p. 29). This is the result of the governments' policies of 'corporatizing' educational institutions—because 'education is business'—as well as through the 'industrialisation' of the curriculum. The increased influence gained by industry has, in some sense, hijacked the educational agenda in the VET sector, and it would appear that training rather than education is well suited to today's immediate needs for job readiness (Billet, 2004). The curriculum was developed with minimal, if any, collaboration with teachers, resulting in the provision of a CBT system that caters for today's training and not tomorrow's thinking. This issue has already been recognized by industry associations in Australia: What may be relevant to an enterprise's skill needs today may have no bearing on that same enterprise's skill needs in five year's time. (Australian Industry Group and Engineering Employers Association of South Australia, 2003, p. 19)

Given these concerns, teachers need to reassert themselves as influencers in curriculum design and content to ensure that education, not just training is offered to students, and that education must be for the long term. In the current political climate that largely favors industry and ignores teachers, one way to achieve influence may well be through industry placements for teachers. A conceptual model describing the process of possible influencing factors derived from teacher industry placement is shown in Figure 1.

Expanding the Profession: Industry Placement for Teachers

201

Influencing curriculum content

Industry placement Theory into practice x x x Classroom teaching

Community engagement Knowledge & skills acquisition Industry networks

Industry placement experience

Industry placement skills

Theory development

Figure 1: The Schuller-Bergami Model— Teacher Industry Placement: Theory into Practice

There are a number of factors that can influence curriculum content and development from the Schuller-Bergami Model (SBM).

Teacher's current industry knowledge The teacher must possess technical knowledge and an ability to impart such knowledge to the students. Industry placement provides such opportunities. The length of industry placement is an important consideration because "true learning often proceeds slowly" (Gela, 2004, p. 8) and it takes some time to fully understand and appreciate a particular industry's 'culture'. There are funding and workload considerations for the relevant stakeholders: teachers, educational organizations, and industry, and for this concept to succeed these should be viewed in terms of an investment in the future rather than an expense of today. When the teacher is equipped with latest knowledge on industrial processes he is better placed to make sound educational judgments and suggestions about the inclusion or the exclusion of particular content in a program. The teacher could therefore exert his influence in shaping future curriculum content.

202

Annamarie Schuller and Roberto Bergami

Testing of existing theories against the industry placement experience A teacher brings prior knowledge to the placement. This may be a result of prior studies, or prior industrial experience, or both. It is unlikely that the teacher will have had the opportunity to keep up-to-date with the progress of industrial processes and, in this sense, the placement may be regarded as a professional 'refresher'. However it is more than this, as the teacher will be able to observe and reflect on the industrial processes experienced during the placement, and evaluate these against his prior theoretical and practical knowledge. The purpose of this comparison should lead the teacher to reflect on the application of the theories and an identification of any gaps that might exist. This may also lead to the formation of new theories that should be capable of being incorporated in future curriculum development.

Influence on classroom teaching The placement experience will provide the teacher with a greater repertoire of ideas and examples to illustrate the theories that underpin industrial processes. The teacher is able to provide real life examples to inform students of the latest practices, industry trends, and industry specific employee skills requirements. Quite apart from the resources/benefits that industry and teachers may mutually experience, the knowledge of a company's management techniques, of marketing, financial management, the chance to develop curriculum materials and laying the foundation for a link with a local firm are just a few positive spin-offs. (Meadon, 1990, p. 28)

There is a call upon teachers to become 'boundary riders' (Wickert, 2005, p. 13). These are the teachers who see the new opportunities and throw themselves into creating more collaborative initiatives with those who work at the policy level. Industry placement is then a strategy that may be used to influence curriculum development by including the teacher's voice in the process.

Development of communities of practice The teacher can be an agent of change and influence, and s/he can do so by being a catalyst for the development of communities of practice

Expanding the Profession: Industry Placement for Teachers

203

among the stakeholders. The stakeholders of the industry placement were identified earlier as being the teacher, the educational institution and industry. There is of course one very important stakeholder that needs to be added to this equation, that is, the student. A community of practice has been defined basically as a group of individuals who share a common interest in their activities within a community (Lave & Wenger, 1991). This definition of community of practice allows for participation at various levels. For this community to be successful, however, its membership must have a degree of commitment and behave in a mutually respectful and trusting manner (Mittendorf et al., 2006, p. 300). Based on these notions, it is possible for the teacher to develop industry participation in the classroom. Invited speakers can be brought to the classroom to pedagogically engage with the students. This enables students to be directly exposed to the industrial environment they may face upon entering the workforce. It is acknowledged that such exposure is limited, but nevertheless this falls into the concept of 'legitimate peripheral participation' through "increased access of learners to participating roles in expert performances" (Lave & Wenger, 1991, p. 17). The invited speaker, the expert performer, provides a role-model to the students. The classroom interaction provides industry with an opportunity to scout for new talent. This symbiotic relationship creates a 'win-win opportunity'. In relation to curriculum development and participation, it is possible for the teacher to learn and observe first-hand what the employee skill requirements are. These can be compared with the current curriculum to see where improvements may be desirable. A pedagogy that provides long-term core generic skills and knowledge, enabling students to effectively engage in the workplace, and solve problems beyond the immediate 'train for today' approach is needed. This requires a departure from the CBT approach, as industry has already indicated that the generic component of VET in schools [and implicitly TAFE] should provide underpinning skills and knowledge for life-learning in an ever changing work environment. (Australian Industry Group and Engineering Employers Association of South Australia, 2003, p. 29)

Government educational policy nowadays is mostly influenced by "dominant ideas of the day" (Gonczi, 1998, p. 137), that is, the input from the larger organizations—the participants to this process. The voice of teachers and the community generally appears to be absent from discussions related to educational reform. This is a pity because it is the teacher who expands the student's knowledge base through the classroom.

204

Annamarie Schuller and Roberto Bergami

The teacher is expected to work with material that has largely been imposed by 'remote control' administration, and often, this material has been found pedagogically wanting and unable to deliver on the required skills for future employment. If the teacher were able to influence industry's agenda, then the curriculum should be capable of change for the benefit of students and the community at large.

Conclusion Education, not just 'training', is as important as ever towards building a more knowledgeable society. The teacher, being at the core of the process, should be allowed to educationally transform future generations based on a 'holistic' and not a short-term narrowly-based CBT approach. It is curious to note that the current system places industry at the helm of educational imperatives, but industry itself is not an educator. The modern day teacher needs to embrace the changing world of education. To ensure relevance of learning programs and generate understanding between industry and educators, strategic alliances will need to be strengthened and built. Educators need to understand how the workplace skill needs continually change, industry needs to understand the school environment and what can realistically be achieved in supporting the skills formation needs of the workplace. (Australian Industry Group and Engineering Employers Association of South Australia, 2003, p. 1)

The development of communities of practice through industry placement for teachers provides an opportunity for educators and industrialists to better understand each other's needs and challenges, and ensure that educational content is both relevant and appropriate to equip students entering the workforce.

References Anderson, D. (1999). Vocational Educational Reform and Students: Redressing silences and omissions. Australian Educational Researcher, 26(2), 99-125. Anderson, D., Clemens, A., Farrell, L. & Seddon, T. (2001). Reimagining VET. Education Links, 63(Summer), 27-29. Australian Industry Group and Engineering Employers Association of South Australia (2003). Submission to the Senate Employment, Workplace Relations and Education References Committee Inquiry into Current and Future Skills Needs. Adelaide, SA.

Expanding the Profession: Industry Placement for Teachers

205

Billet, S. (2004). From Your Business to Our Business: Industry and vocational education in Australia. Oxford Review of Education, 30(1), 13-35. Gela, B. (2004). Deep Change: Professional development from the inside out. Maryland, U.S.A.: Scarecrow Education. Gonczi, A. (1998). The Potential Destruction of the Vocational Education and Training System. Ferrier, F. & Anderson, D. (eds.). In Different Drums One Beat?: Economic and social goals in education and training. Leabrook, SA: NCVER Ltd. Keating, J. (2006). Post-School Articulation in Australia: A case of unresolved tensions. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 30(1), 59-74. Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York, U.S.A.: Cambridge University Press. Meadon, L. (1990). Review of a Company's Teacher Secondment Programme. International Journal of Educational Management, 4(4), 27-28. Mittendorf, K., Geijsel, F., Hoeve, A., de Laat, M. & Nieuwenhuis, L. (2006). Communities of Practice as Stimulating Forces for Collective Learning. Journal of Workplace Learning, (18)5, 298-312. National Centre for Vocational Education Research Ltd. (1999). Competency Based Training in Australia. Learbrook, SA: Australian National Training Authority. Schofield, K. (2001). The Search for a New Settlement: Rethinking vocational education and training. Education Links, 63(Summer), 2126. Seddon, T. (1992). An Historical Reckoning: Education & Training Reform. Education Links, 44(Summer), 5-9. Taylor, S., Rizvi, F., Lingard, B. & Henry, M. (1997). Educational Policy and the Politics of Change. New York, USA: Routledge. Wickert, R. (2005). Dreams or Reality? Writing adult literacy into the future. Paper presented to Queensland Council for Adult Literacy, Annual State Conference, June 3.

THE IMPACT OF INTERNATIONAL STUDY TOURS ON STUDENTS' INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCIES DECLAN MCCROHAN, RICHARD MAPSTONE AND ROBERTO BERGAMI

Abstract In today's globalized economy, employers seek individuals with the ability to work effectively with people from different backgrounds and cultures. As a result of this, universities have been redesigning their curricula to become more international in their outlook and have offered more opportunities for students to study overseas as part of their course (Inglis et al., 1998). An important component of this has been the development of structured educational travel experiences often referred to as international study. This paper investigates the impact on international study tours offered by universities and the impact they may be having on students' propensity to study overseas for an extended period of time, as well as students' level of a range of intercultural competencies.

Introduction Over the past two decades as the forces of globalization have gathered momentum, the value to employers of individuals who are capable of working effectively with people from different cultures has increased dramatically. These individuals who possess what is often referred to in the literature as intercultural competencies, are skilled in approaching and relating to people of a different cultural background to their own. Hence, significant research and time has been spent by both the private and public sectors investigating how individuals can develop their intercultural competencies. This has also become a key concern of universities around the world as they attempt to better prepare their graduates to work effectively in the global economy. As a result of this, universities have

The Impact of International Study Tours on Students' Intercultural Skills 207

been redesigning their curricula to become more international in their outlook and have offered more opportunities for students to study overseas as part of their course (Inglis et al., 1998). An important component of this has been the development of structured educational travel experiences often referred to as international study tours, which recognizes that theory and practice are dialectically linked and allows students to apply what they have learned in practice (Hutchings et al., 2002). In an effort to internationalize their programs and provide Australian students with similar international experience, Australian universities have been actively developing relationships with their overseas counterparts, particularly in Asia, allowing for Australian students to study at these institutions for varying periods of time. Unfortunately, however, most Australian students either do not understand or do not recognize the value of such an international study experience and are very reluctant to undertake part of their studies offshore, with only 1,990 Australian tertiary students studying abroad in the second semester of 2002. Davis et al. (1999) identified the existence of a culture in Australia that does not place a high value on an overseas study experience as the main factor preventing Australian students from studying overseas. A study by Bakalis and Joiner (2004) sought to explain this culture and found that whether students participate in an exchange program or not is associated with students' level of openness and their tolerance of ambiguity. The Australian government is seeking to address this issue and has targeted the sending of young Australians to study overseas as a key policy initiative. The government will provide financial assistance to students wishing to study overseas through the Overseas Higher Education Loan Program (OS-HELP) (Livingstone, 2003). Given the importance placed on this issue by the Australian government, Australian educational institutions need to be producing graduates who can function effectively in differing cultural settings, particularly in a multicultural society such as Australia and also in an everincreasing globalized workforce. Graduates who are more culturally and socially aware will be better prepared to work in a globalized economy where the one constant is change (Hutchings et al., 2002). Developing these intercultural competencies is critical as working with people from different cultural backgrounds can cause misunderstandings, miscommunication, stereotyping of one's level of competence and contributions, and a tendency to blame others—all of which can lead to conflict, tension, and disagreements (Iles, 1995). As argued by Stier (2004), future generations will place a higher value on intercultural

208

Declan McCrohan, Richard Mapstone and Roberto Bergami

competencies in order to function in a global world and will hence eek out knowledge and experiences outside of their home country. Unfortunately, the current student flows into and out of Australia would indicate that most local Australian students are graduating with less developed intercultural competencies compared to international students. This is disconcerting, when more than ever before, as a result of the globalization of national economies, the benefits of such an 'international experience' are becoming increasingly valued by employers, particularly as employment locations are constantly shifting as economic activities change their locations to seek out lower cost structures (Debrah & Smith, 2000).

Theory development Broadly speaking, intercultural competencies refer to the way individuals approach and relate to people of a different cultural background to their own. Possession of intercultural competencies allows individuals to communicate more effectively with others despite their differences, better determine how their behavior is impacting on group processes, and to react in a more objective fashion to the different attitudes and behaviors shown by others (Shaw & Barrett-Power, 1998). In essence, intercultural competencies are the interpersonal skills required when interacting with people in a professional context (Stier, 2004). A number of attempts have been made by researchers to categories the vast array of intercultural competencies proposed in the management literature. Lloyd et al. (2003) identified eight competencies they argue are important to culturally diverse teams, including dissimilarity openness, emotion management skills, intercultural communication competence, tolerance for ambiguity, cultural understanding, conflict management skills, information management skills, and self management skills. Stier (2004) more broadly defines intercultural competencies into three subcategories: interactional competencies, referring to the ability to be sensitive to cultural peculiarities in communicative situations, cognitive competencies which relates to an individual's ability of perspectivealteration, role-taking, self-reflection and problem-solving, and emotive competencies which refers to the ability to understand the feelings that intercultural encounters trigger. Lloyd & Hartel (2003) identified five intercultural competencies required by expatriates to succeed with their international posting and it is these five intercultural competencies that this study will include in its quantitative analysis. The five competencies included intercultural communication—the ability to accurately code and

The Impact of International Study Tours on Students' Intercultural Skills 209

decode messages in an intercultural environment; tolerance for ambiguity, which relates to the ability to adapt to, and feel comfortable with, ambiguous situations; dissimilarity openness—being open to differences and not making value judgments based on the degree of similarity between themselves and others; cognitive complexity—referring to the "ability of a person to perceive a wide variety of things about another person and to make finer interpersonal discriminations than cognitively simple individuals" (Dodd, 1987); and finally self-monitoring competence, which refers to the ability to be flexible in one's behavior in order to meet the demands of a particular situation.

The study tour The international study at the heart of this study was a twelve day visit to Thailand incorporating business and social aspects. Business students participated in this study tour as an elective subject in their degree program, at additional personal financial cost. The trip was open to any local or overseas student studying within the faculty of business and law of a large government university in Australia. Five of the 19 students were foreign students from Malaysia and China. A number of students had different ethnic backgrounds (European and Asian), although they were born in Australia. The group was limited to a maximum of 20 for logistics purposes and to ensure that the cohort was not too big to make it impersonal. A blend of business and social activities were planned to ensure that a balanced view of the country was presented to the students. The students were addressed by a total of 11 organizations, including site visits to several businesses. The social activities included contact with students undertaking an Australian undergraduate business degree in conjunction with a local Thai government university in Bangkok. The rationale for this connection was underpinned by the knowledge that some of the local Thai students will invariably choose to study in Australia as part of their course work and therefore these students would have a "point of connection". Likewise, if Australian students were to visit Thailand again in the future they could also have a point of contact. The study tour was preceded by preliminary sessions designed to prime the students for the visits by providing background economic information as well as expected cultural etiquette during the visit. The main overall objective of the study tour was to learn from an academic point of view and also immerse the students into a different culture so they may consider international issues from a broader perspective through the experience of "having been there".

210

Declan McCrohan, Richard Mapstone and Roberto Bergami

Research methods Data was collected through the use of a survey questionnaire. All of the respondents were enrolled in a credit-bearing subject, with part of the assessment including participation in an international study tour to Thailand. Students were given a questionnaire to complete prior to, and post returning from, the study tour to Thailand. Of the 19 students that completed the questionnaire before going to Thailand, 16 students also completed the follow-up questionnaire on their return. The respondents were asked the same questions in both of the surveys. The purpose of the two surveys was twofold: 1.) to measure what impact the international study tour experience had on the students' likelihood of participating in an extended overseas study experience at sometime in the future; and, 2.) to measure what impact the study tour had on the students' level of intercultural competencies identified earlier.

Results In order to test our first hypotheses, a paired sample t-test was conducted using SPSS on the question in the survey asking respondents to indicate their level of desire to participate in an overseas exchange program. The results are presented in Table 1. Variable Desire to participate in an overseas exchange program

Paired differences Question

Mean

Std. dev

Df

2.1

0.400

1.183

14

Sig (1-tailed) 0.095

Table 1: Paired sample t-tests for students' desire to participate in an extended overseas study experience.

The significant p-value highlighted in bold in Table 1 indicates that at the 90 percent level of significance there is evidence to show that participation in an international study tour does increase students' desire to participate in an extended overseas exchange program. In order to test our second research hypothesis, the relevant questions for each of the five intercultural competencies identified earlier were grouped together and are presented in Table 2. SPSS was used to calculate the mean scores and paired sample t-test statistics to determine if the respondents various intercultural competencies

The Impact of International Study Tours on Students' Intercultural Skills 211

increased after participation in the study tour to Thailand. Each t-test is conducted at 90 percent level of significance. Intercultural competency to be tested Tolerance for ambiguity Dissimilarity openness Self-monitoring competence Intercultural communication

Questions to be analyzed Q3.1 to Q3.5 Q3.6 to Q3.10 Q3.11 to Q3.13 Q3.14 to Q3.21

Table 2: Survey Questions categorized by intercultural competency

Table 3 shows the results for the questions measuring the various intercultural competencies previously discussed. Intercultural competency

Tolerance for ambiguity

Dissimilarity openness

Self-monitoring competence

Intercultural communication

Cognitive complexity

Paired differences Question 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19

Mean 0.714 0.143 0.071 0.500 0.357 -0.143 0.231 -0.358 0.154 -0.286 -0.571 0.071 0.143 0.143 0.286 0.857 0.214 0.857 0.214 -0.308 0.154

Std.dev

1.063 1.099 1.411 0.859 1.008 1.099 1.166 1.277 0.801 0.914 1.158 0.917 0.949 0.535 0.469 1.027 1.051 1.027 1.051 0.947 1.068

Df 13 13 13 13 13 13 12 13 12 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 12 12

Sig (1 tailed)

0.045 0.3175 0.409 0.024 0.095 0.318 0.245 0.158 0.251 0.132 0.044 0.388 0.292 0.168 0.500 0.168 0.020 0.004 0.230 0.132 0.315

Table 3: Paired Sample T-Tests on Intercultural Competency Questions

Declan McCrohan, Richard Mapstone and Roberto Bergami

212

The sign of the mean difference indicates whether there has been an increase or a decrease in the mean score for that particular question. A positive mean difference score indicates there has been a decrease in the mean response to that question after the respondent participated on the international study tour. On all questions except for question 3.1, question 3.2, question 3.6 and question 3.7, a positive mean difference indicates an increase in the respondent's intercultural competency. For these other four questions, a positive mean difference indicates there has been a decrease in the respondent's intercultural competency. Table 2 shows that of the twenty one questions in Section 3 of the questionnaire, 16 questions showed a change in the respondents mean response indicating a higher level of intercultural competency after the respondent returned from the international study tour. The significant p-values highlighted in bold in Table 3 indicate those questions which showed a statistically significant (90 percent level of significance) increase in the mean response to that question after the respondent completed the international study tour. Three of these variables represent an increase in the respondent's level of tolerance for ambiguity and two of these variables represent an increase in the respondent's intercultural communication skills.

Qualitative discussion As the previous section has illustrated, there is some quantitative support showing that participation in an international study tour can develop the level of students' intercultural competencies. Unfortunately, quantitative analysis is not always able to capture and explain the 'real' impact that a particular event may have had on an individual. However, the group leader of the tour group observed a significant change in the behavior and outlook of a number of students that went on the study tour to Thailand. Aspects of these changes included: ƒ

ƒ

An appreciation of the different way of life that ordinary Thais enjoy, especially those running small businesses. Many comments were made by students about street vendors and the long hours they endured to earn a living. The bartering process. This process opened up a previously unknown to most students, as it is common practice in Australia to accept the price for an item for sale without challenging the value. It was an interesting experience to observe the students quickly

The Impact of International Study Tours on Students' Intercultural Skills 213

ƒ

ƒ

ƒ

develop skills to ensure they got the best deal possible for themselves. Observation of different work ethics and attitudes. In more structured business situations, for example, with large organizations and government departments, the students noted the different approaches displayed during their visit. The comments included the more hierarchical structured approach to business and the working hours that some of the employees kept. Observation of different cultural manifestations. From a social point of view the student cohort was in agreement that, according to their observations, Thai society seemed to be very tolerant and very gentle in its public display, the general comment being that “it made them feel nice”. Gaining a greater level of independence during the tour. This was largely because they were independent at the end of the official duties of the working day. This level of independence was purposely planned to ensure that the students were exposed to ambiguous situations in a different setting to the ones they would normally be used to, thus fostering another aspect of decisionmaking that was new to them. The idea behind this was the enhancement of a student's personal growth and maturity in dealing with new situations. The student cohort reported very positively about the opportunity to make independent decisions and it was observed that individuals would usually seek the input of other group members as part of their decision-making process.

It is also useful to look at some of the feedback students provided on their return from Thailand to gain a better understanding of how the tour impacted on them. Some of the comments students wrote included the following: "The (local students) were so friendly. I learned a lot and made friends during the tour". "The beauty of Thailand consists not only of what it has and possesses, but more importantly how one feels in being there". "The trip to Thailand exposed me to many new things about the world we live in and about myself. The things I learned were invaluable. I realized how isolated and how sheltered I was to the world. It also made me realize how naive and vulnerable I am. I have met people who have touched me in so many ways. The relationships I have formed from this trip to Thailand

214

Declan McCrohan, Richard Mapstone and Roberto Bergami will definitely not be forgotten. I will never forget the experience given to me. I will always remember how much fun and independence I acquired”. "This study tour is not just an academic research trip, it played a more important role than the name it has. It is a great opportunity for me to know more, it also tells me how important it is to go abroad to get much more information which we cannot find in a textbook". "The Kingdom of Thailand, one of the most attractive countries in South Asia, gives us an unforgettable experience and happy time. I will never forget the twelve days I spent with my group members and other Thai people and I believe the friendships with them will last forever". "What an experience, Thailand is the best thing I have ever done. The amount that I got from the trip was much more than I could have ever expected". "The businesses that we visited were extremely interesting. I learned a lot. It was great to be able to learn from people who have such a wealth of knowledge in many different industries. Overall I had a fantastic trip. Not only did I get to learn a lot about Thailand, its history, its people and culture, I've learned a lot about myself and it has helped me to realize what I want to do with my life". "I learned how to behave and not behave in public by being exposed to and accepting the differences in culture and the way that people live and the need to be considerate towards others is the greatest thing I have learned. I learned a lot by being able to be immersed in the culture and being able to accept it". "I found the whole experience a real eye opener and I feel that I am much more appreciative of not just my own culture but of others as well, and this has also been demonstrated by mixing much more with international students at university".

These comments from the students have a common theme running through them—the participation in the study tour provided them with something, an experience, which was unique to them, something they had not been able to acquire in their other more “traditional” subjects. For many students, this study tour had a significant impact on them, in a way that most of them were not expecting prior to the tour. It is this international experience that can develop their intercultural competencies and better prepare them to enter the global workforce.

The Impact of International Study Tours on Students' Intercultural Skills 215

Discussion and conclusion This study examined the impact of participation on a university international study tour on students' desire to participate in an extended overseas study experience and the students' level of intercultural competencies. Our analysis revealed that participation on the international study tour increased the students' desire to participate in an extended overseas study experience, as well as increasing students' tolerance for ambiguity and intercultural communication skills. Individuals with increased levels of tolerance for ambiguity are better able to make decisions and deal with an ambiguous situation without obtaining more information, are more likely to seek out objective information about an ambiguous situation, and are more open to new information about themselves or others (Gudykunst & Kim, 1997). This enables them to feel relatively more comfortable in unfamiliar situations than individuals with lower levels of tolerance for ambiguity. Individuals who possess increased levels of intercultural communication skills are better able to encode and decode messages when interacting with people from a different cultural background, with different languages, rules and norms, which effectively reduces confusion and misunderstandings (Ayoko & Hartel, 2000). The study also highlighted some of the comments made by students on returning from the study tour in Thailand. These comments clearly showed that the study tour had a significant personal impact on the students, many of whom commented on how they now perceive things and events around them in a different manner and how the experience they had could not be replicated from reading a textbook. These findings give support to the Australian Government's funding of the Overseas Higher Education Loan Program (OS-HELP) aimed at increasing the number of Australia students studying overseas. It may also be worthwhile for the Australian Government or individual universities to designate increased funding for the provision of international study tours within their university programs curriculum and to encourage inclusion of international study tours as part of any new program curriculum in the future. Given Australia's geographical isolation from the rest of the world and a culture that does not encourage our youth to seek out an international study experience, it is important that the Australian government continues to fund and develop new policy initiatives to increase the number of young Australians studying overseas. The intercultural competencies that can be developed whilst overseas will be highly valued by employers all over the

216

Declan McCrohan, Richard Mapstone and Roberto Bergami

world and will more favorably position Australian graduates against the global competition they face when seeking employment.

Suggestions for further research This study provides an exploratory analysis of the impact of international study tours on students' desire to study overseas and their level of intercultural competencies. It provides support (somewhat limited given the small sample size) to the hypothesis that exposure to different cultures via participation in an international study tour can increase students' desire to study overseas for an extended period, as well as positively developing students' level of intercultural competencies. Further research in this area is certainly justified and could look at a range of other factors that may impact on the effectiveness of international study tours and their ability to increase students' intercultural competencies. For example, the study tour used in this study was of 11 days in duration. It would be of interest to conduct similar research on international study tours of a longer duration to see if there is any change in the intercultural competencies that display statistically significant increases. Another factor which could influence the extent to which intercultural competencies are developed during the international study tour could include the composition of the itinerary of the tour. Varying the amount of time students spend on study related activities, i.e. attending company visits and government briefings, as opposed to time dedicated to cultural immersion activities such as traveling the country and visiting cultural significant places of interest, could influence the type of and extent to which the student's intercultural competencies change. Finally, an opportunity exists to undertake some comparative research on international study tours to different countries. It would be interesting to examine whether the impact of international study tours on intercultural competencies varied depending on the country being visited, and to the extent that country was culturally similar to that of the participants of the tour. As the value of employees with intercultural competencies continues to increase due to the disappearance of national boundaries in business, it is important that Australia is able to produce graduates who possess such attributes enabling them to be competitive in the international workforce. This study has provided evidence that a useful tool in encouraging students to study overseas as well as developing students' intercultural competencies is the participation in an international study tour offered as part of students' tertiary degree studies.

The Impact of International Study Tours on Students' Intercultural Skills 217

References Ayoko, O.B. & Hartel, C.E J. (2000). Cultural Differences at Work: How managers deepen or lessen the cross-racial divide in their workgroups. Queensland Review, 7(1), 77-87. Bakalis, S. & Joiner, T. (2004). Participation in Tertiary Study Abroad Programs. International Journal of Education Management, 18(5), 286-291. Davis, D., Milne, C. & Olsen, A. (1999). Becoming Internationally Competitive: The value of international experience for Australian students. IDP Education Australia, Sydney. Debrah, Y. & Smith, I. (2000). Globalisation and the Changing Patterns of Employment. International Journal of Manpower, 21(6), 446-451. Dodd, C.H. (1987). An Introduction to Intercultural Effectiveness Skills. Dodd, C.H. & Montalvo, F.F. (eds.). In Intercultural Skills for Multicultural Societies, 3-12. Washington, D.C.: SIETAR International. Gudykunst, W.B. & Kim, Y.Y. (1997). Communicating with Strangers: An approach to intercultural communication. New York: McGrawHill. Hartel, C., Lloyd, S. & Youngsmart, D. (2003). Working Abroad: Competencies expatriates need to successfully cope with the intercultural experience. Journal of Doing Business Across Borders, 2(2). Hartel, C. & Lloyd, S. (2003). The Intercultural Competencies Required for Inclusive and Effective Culturally Diverse Work Teams. Monash University, Faculty of Business and Economics. Working paper 28/03. Hofstede G. (1980). Cultures' Consequences (2nd ed.). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Hutchings, K., Jackson, P. & McEllister, R. (2002). Exploiting the Links between Theory and Practice: Developing students' cross-cultural understanding through an international study tour to China. Higher Education Research and Development, 21(1). Iles, P. (1995). Learning to Work with Difference. Personnel Review, 24(6), 44-60. Inglis, A., Kristy, S. & Rolls, C. (1998). The Impact of Participation in a Study Abroad Programme on Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Community Health Nursing in a Developing Country. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 28(4), 911-917. Livingstone, R. (2003). Policy Support for Australian Students on International Study Programs—The next step. Paper presented at the

218

Declan McCrohan, Richard Mapstone and Roberto Bergami

17th Australian International Education Conference in Melbourne, Oct. 21-24. Stier, J. (2004). Intercultural Competencies as a Means to Manage Intercultural Interactions in Social Work. Journal of Intercultural Communication, Issue 7. Zakaria, N. (2000). The Effects of Cross-Cultural Training on the Acculturation Process of the Global Workforce. International Journal of Manpower, 21(6).

HELPING INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS ADJUST TO LIVING AND STUDYING IN AN ARABIC AND ISLAMIC ENVIRONMENT DALE TAYLOR

From 2005 to 2006 I was an academic advisor at United Arab Emirates University women’s campus in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. As an academic advisor one of my responsibilities was to work with international students and provide services for them. While assisting these students, I noticed that the Western non-Arabic students were in a unique and complex situation. Many of these students had never lived in an Islamic country. It was their first experience away from home and the first time studying at a university. Not only were they undergoing a first year experience, they were having this experience in a foreign, Islamic, country, which was radically different from their home country. Because of their unusual position, I felt that their experience should be documented. The experiences of these students could provide valuable insights into the needs of Western students who must adjust to the values and cultural norms of a society that is structurally different to their own. There is little research about Western students studying in Islamic countries so I set about finding and documenting information on international student experiences of adjusting to, living and studying in the United Arab Emirates.

United Arab Emirates University The United Arab Emirates is made up of seven Emirates: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain. Islam is the main religion and Arabic is the official language. United Arab Emirates University is located in Al Ain, which is in the Abu Dhabi Emirate of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi tends to have a more traditional culture than the Dubai Emirate. United Arab Emirates University was established in 1976 and was the first university established

220

Dale Taylor

in the United Arab Emirates. It is a national university, receiving students from all seven Emirates. Its mission is as follows: UAEU is the premier national university whose mission is to meet the educational and cultural needs of the UAE society by providing programs and services of the highest quality. It contributes to the expansion of knowledge by conducting quality research and by developing and applying modern information technology. It plays a significant role in leading cultural, social, and economic development in the country (UAEU Website, 2006).

UAEU has nine faculties: humanities and social sciences, science, education, business and economics, shari’a and law, food systems, engineering, medicine and health sciences, and information technology. In addition, the university maintains a University General Requirements Unit (UGRU), which is a foundation program for all first-year students. The mission of UGRU "is to enable UGRU students to become successful through participation in an exemplary developmental program as preparation for their life in university and society." Within this developmental program students take courses in English, math, information technology, and Arabic. If students receive a score of 185 on the university placement exam, Common English Proficiency Assessment (CEPA), and receive an IELTS score above 5.5, they do not have to complete courses in UGRU. Those who do not obtain this level must take UGRU classes in all subjects. While in UGRU, students may take classes in their chosen faculty. As the university must abide by the cultural and religious norms of an Islamic society, males and females are educated separately. There is a men’s campus and a women’s campus at UAE University: 3,196 students attend the boys’ campus and 11,545 students attend the women’s campus. In total, there are 14,741 students at United Arab Emirates University. There are approximately 300 international students, which include students from other Gulf countries; of these 300, only 100 are from countries outside the Gulf region. Non-Gulf international students are the focus of this research project. As mentioned before, it is the mission of UAEU to meet the educational and cultural needs of UAE society. Thus, the focus of university programs is on developing UAE society, but foreign students have been welcomed into that vision by the UAE government by being given places at UAE national university and by being provided with financial resources to do so. Moreover, international students can benefit greatly from attending university in the UAE. They can learn about a

Helping International Students to Adjust to Life and Study in the UAE

221

different culture, learn to manage themselves and intercultural communications within that culture, they can obtain an excellent education and, in some cases, get jobs in the United Arab Emirates once they have completed their degree. In spite of the many advantages of studying in the UAE, there can be many challenges as well and international students must be prepared to meet these challenges.

Religion and culture in the UAE and their impact on international students In the United Arab Emirates Islam is widely practiced, and Arabic is the official language. However, English is widely spoken and other religions are practiced. The society of the United Arab Emirates tries to maintain its traditional values while trying to modernize at the same time. In order to better adjust to UAE culture it is important that students understand the religion of the culture, as religion strongly influences the way nationals in the Gulf live their lives. "It is important to understand that Islam as a religion is a way of life, not part of it" (Lkorchy, 2006). Also, religion influences how women are perceived, and thus their behavior as well. The modesty of women is highly regarded in Arabic culture. The mingling of males and females who are not immediate family members is forbidden. Dating is not allowed and socially it is taboo for females to speak with males who are not family members. The United Arab Emirates University maintains this practice by segregating the students by gender. The university has a male and female campus, which are approximately 10 kilometers apart. The international students who were interviewed for this report were all female and studied and resided on the women’s campus. The women’s campus provides five different hostels for female students, and hostel number one is where the majority of the female foreign students are housed. The international students there have to abide by the same rules as the national students, who are housed in one of the five hostels during the week. The hostels offer a very secure environment. There is a guard at the gate, and only female students who reside there, tradespeople, and employees have access to the hostels. Entrance out of the hostel is restricted for the female students. The young women are not allowed out of the hostel unless accompanied by a member of their family or with someone who has been approved by their father or brother via written communication to the hostel administration. These students can also go out shopping or to medical appointments if

222

Dale Taylor

they take university transport and are accompanied by a chaperone. Some students see this as restrictive, but it is a culture that wants to protect the safety and modesty of the girls, hence the reasons for restrictions. The policy for international students is that they, too, must have written permission from their fathers or closest male relatives in order to leave the campus. Emirati girls who live in the hostels return home on the weekends, and the international students do not. The restriction of movement is one of the many situations international students find most difficult. Having information about Islam and the perception of women within the religion prior to arriving in the Gulf could help female students cope better once they arrive. Three of the Russian students I spoke with said they did not have any idea about the religion and culture of the UAE prior to their arrival.

Culture model: The Hofstede Analysis The Hofstede Analysis (Hofstede, 2001) is a useful measurement tool to use when trying to understand culture, especially when comparing two different cultures. This model uses four main dimensions to examine culture. The first is the power distance index. This examines the degree of equality or inequality between people. "It measures the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country accept that power is distributed unequally" (Brooks, 2004, p. 8). In the United Arab Emirates, there exists a high power distance in that they do not allow significant upward mobility of their citizens. The power distance index score for the UAE is 80, which is double that of the USA with a score of 40 (Hofstede). The second dimension is individualism versus collectivism, which is the degree to which society reinforces individual or collective achievement. The United Arab Emirates has an individualism score of 38, while the USA has a score of 91 (Hofstede, 2001). In the United Arab Emirates, the group is more important than the individual. This is very different from the UK or America. Therefore, some of the foreign students and teachers are bewildered when students freely share their answers with others. It is the group that is important, not the individual. As a result, a father may tell his children what they must study for the good of the family, rather than the individual. Children often marry because of the wishes of the family, rather than by individual choice. Masculinity versus femininity is the third dimension of the Hofstede (2001) Analysis. It is the extent to which society reinforces, or does not

Helping International Students to Adjust to Life and Study in the UAE

223

reinforce, the traditional masculine work role model of male achievement, control and power. The United Arab Emirates has a masculinity ranking of 53, which is slightly higher than Canada and nine points lower than the United States. Though males dominate a significant portion of the society and its power structure, while females are controlled by male domination, "there is no relationship between the masculinity and femininity of a society’s culture and the distribution of employment over men and women (…) Again, most national cultures cannot be described as falling precisely at either extreme of this measure; the cultures fall along a continuum, and are scored in relation to each other" (Brooks, 2004, p. 8). The fourth dimension is the uncertainty avoidance index. This dimension focuses on the level of tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity within society. The uncertainty avoidance index can be defined as the extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations. High uncertainty avoidance countries have a low tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. A society like this is rulesoriented. Laws, rules and regulations are very important. A low uncertainty avoidance country is less concerned with ambiguity and uncertainty and has more tolerance for diverging opinions. Less ruleoriented societies more readily accept change and take greater risks. The United Arab Emirates has an uncertainty avoidance ranking of 68. To put that in perspective, Great Britain has an uncertainty avoidance index score of 35 and the USA has a score of 46 (Hofstede, 2001). Understanding and applying Hofstede's descriptive tool can help students understand the different cultures into which they are placed by drawing structured comparisons with their own.

The needs of international students In order to determine the needs of international students at United Arab Emirates University, I asked a small focus group of students from Russia, Mongolia, Kenya, Canada, and the USA the following questions: 1. 2. 3.

What is needed to help international students adjust to the university? What services, support and resources do international students require to help them adjust to life in the hostels? How would you help an international student prepare to come to the United Arab Emirates and United Arab Emirates University?

224

Dale Taylor

The international students said that from the beginning the rules must be made clear. Often, international students were not aware of the hostel rules until they had broken one. Expected behavior of the girls while in the hostels must be known from the beginning. Also, local mores and traditions as regards female behavior should be explained to the female international students as well. Several of the international students were ostracized by local girls because of the way they were dressing. The international students had had no idea that their style of dress would cause so much offence and ridicule. In addition, they expressed a need for opportunities to make friends. Meeting other international students and being able to socialize would allow international students to develop friendships and support networks. They want to get to know local people and their culture and would like access to and knowledge about the culture in which they live. One of the main reasons for coming to the UAE to study was to learn about a different culture and interact with the nationals. International students felt that this did not occur as easily as they would like. Many commented that they wanted a comprehensive cultural and university-related orientation—academically speaking as well as in practical terms. This should be done in both English and Arabic since there are many students who are not of Arabic origin, who also said they would like to be able to choose to do take their exams in English. Many of the women I interviewed said they felt alien in their first few weeks at UAE. There was a great deal of unknowns, and no one provided them with any information. Several of the girls missed registration deadlines because they were not aware of the procedures for registering. As a result, girls missed taking some of their required and optional courses. The lack of communication hindered their ability to graduate within their specified time. Also, some of the girls did not know about the visa procedure. An official visa is required for study in the United Arab Emirates. If they do not have this visa, they are fined on a daily basis. This presented financial problems for some of the girls as they did not have the money to cover the fines. The students felt that having an official guide to the university, which was aimed specifically at international students, would be very helpful, and it would reduce a great deal of anxiety caused by ignorance of crucial details. For example, some students did not know the specific course requirements of their program. Therefore, some students came to the university hoping to get into the medical faculty. However, they were not aware that the places in the medical faculty are reserved for national students only.

Helping International Students to Adjust to Life and Study in the UAE

225

In addition, a guide could provide a map and or physical lay-out of the university to assist the students in finding their way around. Along with a guide, a list of current international students and their contact details could be provided to incoming international students prior to their arrival. This would help them obtain first-hand information about studying and living in the United Arab Emirates. Foreign students also require advice and counseling about postgraduation issues and re-entry to their home country. These international students are faced with having to look for a job either in their home countries or in the global market place once they have completed their degrees. This is a daunting task for anyone, but these students have the added complication of having been away for their home base and community contacts for four years or more. They have lived and studied in a very different culture, and near the end of their studies they must make some big decisions. Furthermore, these students may experience reverse culture shock when they return to their own countries after a prolonged absence.

Challenges faced by international students First-year students in their own countries are faced with loneliness, adjusting to new people, making important decisions, dealing with more difficult subjects than in high school in different learning environments, and building new support networks. Additionally, "Students are arriving at the University with a broader array of personal and familial challenges. Their demands on our health care facilities and our counseling services, for example, have increased dramatically" (Spanier, 2004). These difficulties are exacerbated for international students, as was revealed during one of the focus group discussions with a Mongolian, a Russian, and a Kenyan student. The following is a summary of the situations and challenges they faced upon arrival at United Arab Emirates University. One student said that, "Arriving in the UAE was a big shock because I did not know about the culture." Another commented, "I spent a week in my dorm room because I was in shock." A third student explained that, "The buildings were all in white but people were all dressed in black like you were visiting a graveyard." A large concern of all the students was that no direction was provided and they felt that they did not have access to admissions or information, so they did not even know where the restaurants were, for example. Also, they had no idea about other international students. They had no awareness of, or interaction with, them. When the female international students

226

Dale Taylor

needed to buy toiletries, they were told they could not leave the campus. "We were stressed for months," one of the Mongolian students told me. On top of the stress, a lack of information had them miss placement exams. All students must take the CEPA placement exam, and if they miss the exam, they are not placed in classes. Beginning university was difficult and stressful for these international students. Not knowing Arabic and not being supplied with relevant information hindered their ability to progress. These students said, "We had to depend on ourselves, if not, no one would look out for us. We had to be self-reliant and seek things out." As an academic advisor I dealt with their difficulties due to the lack of choice and restrictions for females. Often, students would come to me because they were trying to devise strategies to help convince the male head of household to let them study what they wanted. There are several cases of girls studying education because this is a gender-segregated field and a choice encouraged by their fathers and brothers. Several students I saw expressed the desire to study engineering, science, or journalism, but since they were likely to work in an environment alongside men, their families did not permit them to enroll in these faculties. While that was not the case with the Western foreign female students, the restriction of movement is what they find extremely challenging. Essentially, the foreign students are to stay within the university compound unless they have permission to leave, or they are transported somewhere with a university driver using university transport. Within the university compound there are faculty buildings, gyms, cafeterias, hostels (students' dormitories), mosques, libraries, etc. It is effectively selfcontained so students only need to go out for personal items. The ability to obtain these personal items is important to the girls, so they are incredibly frustrated when they cannot. A university bus transports groups of girls to the local mall once a week. However, only 40 students are able to go each week and over 250 live in the hostel. As a result, the female students do not have the opportunity to leave the campus as often as they would like. Male foreign students, on the other hand, are free to leave their hostel and university whenever they want, using either their own or public transportation. Another challenge for students involves dealing with the organizational structure of the university, while having a limited knowledge of Arabic. Rania, a Kenyan student, said that "if you don’t know Arabic, you are isolated. It is not a welcoming place." Nina, who arrived in 2001, said that, at that time, there was no guidance, and no one told them what to do. She also pointed out that interacting with the staff at the hostel was difficult because the hostel staff did not speak English. As a result, a lot of

Helping International Students to Adjust to Life and Study in the UAE

227

important information was not communicated to them. No one informed these students about registration procedures and, as a result, they started their classes late in the semester, and they did not get the classes they needed. Rania was fortunate in that she was guided by another Kenyan girl who had studied at United Arab Emirates University before. This friend told Rania about the university and what to expect. She informed her about visa and registration procedures. Recently however, procedures and flow of information between the university administration and the foreign students have improved. In 2005, an International Student Coordinator was appointed. Her responsibilities include meeting with the foreign students, taking care of their visa requirements, and being a source of information for them. The lack of knowledge about the host culture was also a huge challenge for the foreign students. The Islamic way of life is a major element of the culture in the UAE. Following the tenants of Islam is reflected in the daily practices of students in the university. Prayer breaks are granted to students and classes are stopped while these are observed. During Ramadan, one must not be seen eating or drinking in public places. Fasting is conducted from sun-up to sun-down. During the day, cafeterias are closed and there is nowhere on campus, besides their own dorm rooms, where students may eat or drink. Furthermore, young women are to dress modestly. The majority of students wear abayas and shaylas, the black cloaks and head covers, and there is peer pressure among the women to conform to this type of dress. Those who deviate from this and wear Western style or tight fitting clothes are ostracized and sometimes criticized by the other women. Two of the Russian students informed me that they were chastised for wearing jeans and t-shirts. Because some students do not have prior knowledge of expected dress, they were surprised and intimidated by the comments directed at them. Ann, an American/Palestinian student who is Muslim, said she felt singled out as a "foreigner" who covers. She said that she thought teachers did not want to be seen as favoring the American student so she was not called on in her classes, and she was docked points. She also said that she felt like an outsider, an oddball, when she voiced her opinions which expressed a different view. She thought that the local students were not accepting of her because they had never socialized with foreigners before. She said that many of the local students "make you feel bad, like you should go back to your own country." Ann also told me that she experienced a severe form of culture shock because she came from a more assertive culture, and was placed in a

Dale Taylor

228

culture where the girls are more passive. She said the nationals she knew tended not to speak up. "They have a fear of making their family look poorly so they won’t speak up." Ann added that "even if a local girl has been wronged by a teacher, say a grade miscalculated, local girls tend not to speak up. I, as an American would." Talking to the local girls, Ann found out that girls are often put down by their family members and their brothers make the decisions. "It seems like males have control over females from an early age and this affects the girls' confidence." Ann also said, "It is like they (females) have given up, and they don’t believe those in authority will let them do anything." Furthermore, she mentioned the fact that she had tried to start many activities for the girls, but they had failed to show interest, and it had become discouraging. Ann had also noticed that "the culture puts pressure on girls to be a certain way." She said that the girls act chaste and cover in public, but act another way with friends. As a result of examples like this, she experienced a lot of what she considered to be hypocrisy.

Helping international students adjust to UAEU The international students I spoke with felt that the university could be more proactive in helping them acclimatize to the university. The following is a list of requests that would help the international students. 1. 2. 3. 4.

5.

6. 7.

Provide handbooks about UAE culture. Give students maps of the campus and provide handbooks about residence life. Provide information about university departments, including personnel offices, registration procedures, student development and assistance, youth care, and the International Office. Provide an orientation specifically for international students and designate someone to be responsible for assisting and answering the questions of international students; this person should be available during the evening as well as the day. A buddy system would help international students learn about the university and its procedures more quickly. A personal mentor would be extremely helpful. It would be useful to have someone to introduce hostel procedures such as what to do and what not to do. Allow more transportation to the malls and other places in the community. Connect international students with others. Provide more social space and establish an International student club.

Helping International Students to Adjust to Life and Study in the UAE

229

8.

Develop programs where international students are matched with local families. There was also a sense that students could have done more to help prepare themselves for, and adjust to, a new culture and academic environment. The international students said those coming to the UAEU must be calm and accepting. To a great extent, they need to leave behind their own practices, but they should not change who they are. International students ought to be aware that the operating systems here may function differently. Awareness was seen as the key. The more students read and learn about the culture of the United Arab Emirates prior to their arrival, the more they will understand. They must not expect things to function the same way as in their home country.

The rewards of studying in the UAE I also spoke with a focus group of Emirati girls and two foreign students in May 2006. Amena, Shukree, Zahra, Rukieh, Mouza, and Haifa met with me to discuss the culture of the UAE and how foreign students could adjust to the UAE culture. As the discussion was coming to a close, the young women started talking about the benefits of having foreign students at their university. They said that they could exchange information about cultures, meet new people, learn and practice other languages, learn from others’ experiences and develop new friendships. These Emirati students were able to sympathize with the foreign students, too, because coming from a strong family-centered culture they realized how difficult it must be for foreign students to be away from home. Several of the young Emirati women said they could never leave their families and go away to school. At the most, some of them said they would be able to study abroad for one month. Ann, the American student, said that having foreign students is a big benefit for the university. "The university can thrive on diversity—diverse opinions, perspectives, and ways of doing things. She added, "Many Emirati students at our campus have not met foreign students before, so it is an opportunity for them to learn from exposure to different perspectives as well. It is important that they hear other opinions in order to broaden their outlook." The majority of foreign students felt they had undergone a great deal of growth while they were here, and they felt stronger and more capable because of the experience. Ann believed that many of her encounters on campus had taught her that she needed to be strong and persevere in order to achieve. She said, "I am glad I went through the system the way it was.

230

Dale Taylor

It made me stronger." She added, "I had many struggles, but I survived." For Ann, trying to start clubs, facing apathetic students, and meeting resistance from staff and students were all part of her struggles. She said that going through a growing-up stage in a different culture had allowed her to benefit. Developmentally, she thought she had really grown up over the previous year. She had developed patience and acceptance. Furthermore, even though Ann considered herself to be open-minded and she became even more so while attending UAEU, she also realized that some of the rules at UEAU make sense. An example she gave was that if the rules at the university were not so strict, many Emirati girls would not be allowed access to higher education. Living in a country with such a different culture was also exciting for the foreign students. They felt it is an interesting part of the world, which has both traditional and highly modern aspects to it. One of the foreign students said she developed a clearer view of the world, one that transcends her culture and self. As a result, she said, her thinking was more reasonable and balanced. Most importantly, the majority of the foreign students were convinced that they had received an excellent education. They were educated by some of the best professors from all over the world. They had very good texts, were challenged by the curriculum, and had access to vast amounts of knowledge. They also had many opportunities to accept different ways of doing things. And because the students were all generously provided with a scholarship from the UAE their education and living expenses were covered for the whole time they spent studying at United Arab Emirates University.

Conclusion International students benefit financially, academically, and culturally while at United Arab Emirates University. Scholarships cover tuition, books, and living expenses. Moreover, students gain valuable knowledge and insights from being taught by professors from all over the world. In addition, they experience growth and development while learning about different cultures. Since they are placed in a unique environment, where they can interact with local people as well as with many other people of different nationalities, students can gain valuable insights and understanding. However, the transition both into and out of UAE is challenging for many of the international students, and they need adequate preparation in order to cope with a different culture and society. The

Helping International Students to Adjust to Life and Study in the UAE

231

university can assist these students by providing specific services and programs that would meet their needs and, in turn, the international students ought to take responsibility for learning as much as they can about the religion, society, and practices of the United Arab Emirates prior to their arrival in the country.

References Brooks, A. (2004). The Influence of National Culture on Management and Leadership. United Arab Emirates: UAE University. Hofstede, G. (2001). Cultures’ Consequences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Lkorchy, F. (2006). Counseling the Muslim Client. Counseling Arabia Conference 2006. Sharjah Women’s College. Higher Colleges of Technology. Sharjah: United Arab Emirates. Spanier, G.B. (2004). Emergent and Persistent Issues for First-year Students. The Mentor: An Academic Advising Journal. October 22, 2004. www.psu.edu/dus/mentor United Arab Emirates Yearbook (2006). Editors Al Abed, I., Vine, Paula, Peter Hellyer, P. & Vine, Paul. Ministry of Information and Culture. Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: Trident Press.

RESHAPING THE CHINESE DIASPORA: INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION AND FOREIGN STUDENTS FROM THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA FRANK H. SHIH

Abstract Foreign students from Asia are a familiar sight on university and college campuses throughout the United States. In some institutions as many as one-third of the student body is from that area of the world. The impact of this demographic trend is significant in American higher education, influencing all aspects of an institution from policies formulated in administrative offices to activities in classrooms, laboratories and dormitories. For Chinese foreign students—sojourners in an alien society—the repercussions of this experience are much more profound. For members of a population swept up by global forces, an American campus is only part of a broader cultural landscape that challenges their traditional views of ethnicity and national identity. From an historical perspective, the unfolding of novel experiences in uncertain political and economic times contextualizes this group as distinct and contemporary members of the Chinese Diaspora. The remarkable growth of international students has its origin in the expanding global interdependence of human activity. Spurred on by the unprecedented rate of technological advances in communication and transportation, international education is a reciprocal endeavor between nations that encompasses technical and cultural exchanges, commercial and financial transactions, and governmental and institutional interactions. Moreover, as cultures around the world adopt similar attributes, crosscultural interactions are enhanced and promoted. As these global features gain saliency on the local level, they lay the groundwork for individuals and their communities to assume transnational identities.

Reshaping the Chinese Diaspora: Students from the P. R. C.

233

Introduction In this paper, I will explore interrelationships between the three concepts of globalization, transnationalism and diaspora. Commonly used in social science, all three are associated with a wide range of phenomena pertaining to the movements of populations, information, capital, ideas, commodities and their significance for political economy and geopolitics. In the research, I describe the historical and cultural processes that link their expression in the organization and culture of international education and universities worldwide and discuss their impact on overseas foreign students from the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) in the U.S. I contend that the impact of globalization on Chinese universities has resulted in creating and sustaining a Chinese elite and intellectual class. Through the higher-education experience in China, this highly selective group acquires a cultural understanding and familiarity with the constellation of private and public institutions and government agencies that comprise the industry of international education. This knowledge and background, interwoven with encounters and interactions with global forces and diverse cosmopolitan groups, marginalize the population from their fellow citizens while at the same time preparing them to function in transnational roles. With multiple “push” and “pull” immigration factors favoring overseas education and residency, these students are poised on a trajectory which ultimately leads to post-graduate education outside of China. In the U.S., cultural and institutional features of universities play a role in the construction of their identity. With ties to the homeland and the likelihood of future settlement outside of China, a diasporic consciousness gradually emerges. With a distinctive class and transnational outlook, this category of intellectuals forms a distinctive population among the overseas community and thus shapes the contours of the Chinese Diaspora. The perspective of the diaspora approach is valuable in examining this population. Transnational communities manifest their de-territorial qualities. As powerful forces in the transfer of information, capital, and commodities they erode the hegemony of nation-states and heighten the domination of globalized networks. Diaspora as a research paradigm becomes a valuable tool in the effort to understand localities that resist global homogeneity, preserve historic identities and maintain links to ancestral homelands and cultures. The present research focuses on the everyday lives of foreign students from the P.R.C. who are enrolled in a major U.S. university on the East Coast. The field data was gathered predominantly from the interviews of

234

Frank H. Shih

28 individuals from the P.R.C. in various stages of their education between 1991 and 1994. Ethnographic information collected through participant observation complements the data from informants’ narratives.

Globalization The notion of a "global village" or a "world culture" has become a popular way to conceptualize a salient feature of the post-modern world. The cultural process, often referred to as globalization, is a useful approach for social scientists who struggle "to come to terms systematically with major aspects of contemporary 'meaning' and change" (Robertson, 1990, p. 20). By including multiple agents and agencies rather than focusing on the activities of nation-states and large corporations (Worsley, 1990), globalization broadens the scope and focus of past research (Appadurai, 1990; Nash, 1981). The framework of globalization in this regard acknowledges the significance of individuals and their cultural contexts as well as transnational social and political realities. More of a process than an explanatory model, the concept of globalization is too sweeping and, yet, remains incomplete. The tendency to focus exclusively on the impact of Western influences, observes Worsley in Featherstone (1990), is distorting since it neglects local and regional realities (p. 12). Much of the cultural analysis, in fact, presupposes only Western expansionism. Advances in technology, particularly in communications and transportation, are the driving forces in the globalization process. Cultural change is accelerated and facilitated by the speed in which large amounts of information are transmitted on a global scale. New communication technologies generate diverse local variations of global culture as regional cultures offer unique responses to outside influences and creative resistance (Appadurai, 1990; Smith 1990, p. 175). The accelerated pace in the diffusion of culture around the world is followed by new patterns in the movement of populations. As social networks and de-territorialized identities proliferate in the global landscape, new explanatory paradigms in social science become necessary.

Transnationalism Traditionally, immigrants who depart their homelands for settlement in another locality are assumed to slowly but inevitably replace the desire to return to their homelands by gradually assimilating to the host culture. Today, many immigrant groups do not sever ties with their homelands

Reshaping the Chinese Diaspora: Students from the P. R. C.

235

even after a generation of settlement in the new country. Many, in fact, carry their social statuses as well as their culture to the country of settlement. We now talk of de-territorialized populations spawning hybrid cultures that affect both their host and home countries. These communities, along with movements of other groups—tourist, migrant workers, student-scholars, and official cultural exchange participants—and aided by the expanding access to modern transportation, are a new dimension in the globalization process. Immigrants are now transnational and immigration is now portrayed as an important transnational activity (Slater, 1981). Transnationalism defines the condition of simultaneously participating in more than one social structure that traverses national boundaries. It is "the processes by which immigrants build social fields that link together their country of origin and their country of settlement" (Glick Schiller et al., 1992, p. 1). The identity of transnationals is an evolving product of cultural and social forces which are constructed in one or more countries and carried across (one or more) national boundaries. Israelis, Armenians, Haitians, Mexican Americans, South Asians in London, or Turks in Germany are often cited as examples. The significance of this phenomenon for individual participants in the contemporary global context has been noted by a new term, "transmigrants." Recognizing the complexity of migrations, Glick Schiller et al. (1992) writes: "As transmigrants live in several societies simultaneously, their actions and beliefs contribute to the continuing and multiple differentiation of populations" (p. 11).

Diaspora The prominence of globalization and transnationalism in the last century has led to increasingly frequent and broader applications of the word diaspora (Clifford, 1994, p. 307). When one refers to diaspora populations, the Jews, Greeks, and Armenians are invariably invoked. The classic notion has recently expanded to incorporate a range of dispersed communities and “metaphoric designations for several categories of people—expatriates, expellees, political refugees, alien residents, immigrants, and ethnic and racial minorities (…)” (Safran, 1991, p. 83). The term “(…) appears to be replacing, or at least supplementing minority discourse” (Clifford, 1994, p. 311). The broadened meaning for the word “diaspora,” is such that Clifford asserts: “(…) all or most communities have diasporic dimensions (…),” and “(s)ome are more diasporic than

236

Frank H. Shih

others (…)”(p. 311). He concludes that “it is not possible to define diaspora sharply”. The “re-naming as diasporas” (Tololyan, 1996, p. 3) may be due to a number of factors attributable to globalization and the tension between transnationals and the power and control of the nation-state. The decline of European domination and greater awareness of oppressed minority groups asserting autonomy against nation-states have also increased the usage of the term “diaspora” (pp. 20–23). These two historical patterns have spurred the increase rate of population movements which highlight ethnic and cultural differences between migrants and citizens of their host countries and emigration from lesser developed regions of the world to industrialized countries (Clifford, 1994, p. 310). Ma (2003) suggests that in addition to “groups of people (…) dispersed from a common ancestral homeland and that have settled in a different place”, the term diaspora, takes into account different categories of meanings. These include a “process of dispersion” and a locality with “regional significance” where dispersed peoples have settled” (p. 7). The above notwithstanding, almost all authors would suggest that diaspora groups have central elements. Diasporas are foremost a distinctive group of people historically dispersed in multiple localities and linked by ancestry or by traditional attachment to a real or imagined homeland. The idea of a homeland, while varied depending on subpopulations, is maintained either through direct contact with the home community, myth, “(…) a collective memory” (Tololyan, 1996, p. 12), “self-reproducing structures: language schools, religious institutions, picnics and newspapers, radio stations and restaurants (…)” (Safran, 1991, p. 24), or a combination of any of those mentioned. In many cases, the original diasporic peoples have experienced exile. That is, there is a history of forced “uprooting and resettlement outside the boundaries of the homeland” (Tololyan 1994, p. 12). Having been driven out of their homelands, many diasporas communities are “(…) committed to the maintenance or restoration (Safran, 1991, p. 84)” and the eventual return to their homeland. The notion of “the return” or restoration of the homeland is the most potent political feature of a diaspora and laden with nationalistic agendas. The affirmation of a historic homeland acts as a call for communal solidarity and at the same time as an effort by diasporic groups to insulate, preserve, and reproduce a distinct culture. In its mildest form, its pronouncement is part of a series of steps for a group “to recognize itself and to act as a collectivity” (Safran, 1991, p. 23). In its most strident expression, the political power of an identifiable homeland legitimizes

Reshaping the Chinese Diaspora: Students from the P. R. C.

237

claims of nationalism and has the potential to incite protest and revolt against the hegemony of ruling governments (Clifford, 1994, p. 310). The labeling of a Kurdish diaspora, for example, pressures the governments of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran. Consequently, the strength and weakness of a diasporic community will fluctuate in response to political, cultural, and economic pressures from the host and homeland governments (Tololyan, 1996, p. 11; Clifford, 1994, p. 306). In this way, the community’s diasporic outlook is always dynamic. Clifford (1994) states: “(…) at different times in their history, societies may wax and wane in diasporism, depending on changing possibilities—obstacles, openings, antagonisms, and connections—in their host countries and transnationally” (p. 306).

The Chinese diaspora In the beginning of the 20th century, the Chinese population in Southeast Asia was compared to the Jews, the archetypal diaspora (Berdichevsky, 2007, p. 2). The comparison was mainly based on the economic influence of Chinese communities as members of the merchant class and as intermediaries between colonial agencies and indigenous populations. Though the distinct communities in the Chinese Diaspora are not simple to demarcate, the diaspora concept remains a valuable approach in the analysis of the overseas Chinese population. Using a single term to classify the diverse overseas Chinese communities is problematic because of the challenges inherent in defining a Chinese identity and nationality. The political tensions between the P.R.C. and the Taiwanese government add to the complexities surrounding the notion of a single Chinese ethnicity. This is illustrated by Wang’s (1999) discussion about “Chineseness”, where he describes three terms for overseas Chinese—haoqiao, tongbao, and haiwai huaren—that are frequently applied interchangeably and the political implications they carry. Haoqiao is the traditional designation for Chinese citizens who live overseas. However, since the second half of the 20th century, the term has created incongruities for Chinese residents of Hong Kong because of Taiwan’s claim as the true China. The people of Hong Kong live under Chinese rule but have a separate status than the citizens of China. Thus, the P.R.C. government refers to the population of Hong Kong and Macau as tongbao, or compatriots, while the Taiwanese government, who do not consider their own citizens “overseas Chinese”, refer to the residents of Hong Kong as haoqiao. Tongbao does not imply present or prior Chinese

238

Frank H. Shih

citizenship but acknowledges China’s political control over residents of the former British territories. For overseas Chinese who are not citizens of China or under Chinese rule, the third term, haiwai huaren, meaning overseas Chinese, is more appropriate. To solve the dilemma, Wang (1999) prefers self-designation under the rubric of the Chinese Diaspora, “(…) the diaspora or Chinese overseas do not include the people of Taiwan and Hong Kong-Macau, nor those, whatever their descent, who deny that they are Chinese and have nothing to do with the rituals, practices, and institutions associated with the Chinese” (p. 121). While elegant in its simplicity, the statement does not correspond to common usage of the Chinese Diaspora. Most authors employ the concept of the Chinese Diaspora to group the numerous Chinese communities outside of Mainland China including residents of Taiwan and Hong Kong. Diasporic characteristics are the common bond, though culture and the degree of ethnic ties vary by locality. “To be Chinese anywhere in the world”, McKeown (1999) declares, “was to be a representative of the motherland, to have a stake in the future of China, and to recognize the claims of China and Chinese culture over their loyalty” (p. 326). This grand statement, suggesting a collective and standardized notion of “China and Chinese culture”, belies a quandary so basic to the definition of a Chinese Diaspora, i.e. that of a consistent Chinese identity. The overseas Chinese are not a homogeneous group either culturally, linguistically, or as a social class. Historically, there have been diverse reasons for leaving China and there are no “patterns or conditions of migration" (Skeldon, 2003, p. 53). “Certain flows from specific origins in China are often associated with specific destinations” (p. 58). Most significantly, while an overwhelming number of overseas Chinese can trace their lineages to only two provinces of Fujian and Guangdong, some have re-migrated from areas outside of China, mostly countries in East and Southeast Asia where their ancestors first immigrated (Skeldon, 2003, p. 53). The re-migration, resulting in emotional and familial attachments to “homelands” outside of China, created assorted identities and national loyalties. Assimilation to local cultures and intermarriage with indigenous populations have also added new identities and increased diversity (p. 56). It also cannot be said that overseas Chinese were ever truly exiled in the political sense and there is no specific time or event constituting a beginning of a mass emigration (Skeldon, 2003, p. 52). The “uprooting” (Tololyan 1994, p. 12) in a diaspora sense does not exist in Chinese history and only a very small percentage of people of Chinese descent

Reshaping the Chinese Diaspora: Students from the P. R. C.

239

lives outside of China. And overseas communities continue to maintain regular contact with their homeland, whether the homeland is Mainland China or other localities. Without a clear break from China as a nation or place or a well-defined identity, it is easy to see why, to many overseas Chinese communities, China “symbolizes the guardian of a moral order rather than the outcome of a political process" (Tu, 1994, p. 17), more of a cultural idea than a homeland or a nation-state (Skeldon, 2003, p. 54). Chinese culture is grounded in three interacting “universes”, according to Tu (1994, p. 13). The first is made up of “societies populated predominantly by cultural and ethnic Chinese” (p. 15). Specifically, they are Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore where “life orientation (…) is based on Chinese culture” (p. 15). The second is made up of Chinese communities in other parts of the world. The third comprises intellectuals who are involved in understanding and interpreting Chinese culture “and bring their conceptions of China to their own linguistic communities” (p. 15). The notion of return, an important component of the diaspora classification, is complicated by a nebulous homeland and a non-existent history of exile. As China has never lost sovereignty as a nation, the lack of political obstacles for the return compounds the complexity (Berdichevsky, 2007, p. 2). In fact, China has courted the return of overseas Chinese on several occasions. The invitation has not been accepted with enthusiasm largely because of the economic opportunities outside of China and the perceived repressive nature of the Chinese regime (Skeldon, 2003, p. 56). There is a dramatic difference in rates of return between the Chinese immigrants who entered the U.S. prior to the 1980’s and the recent influx of students since the 1980s. Beginning in the mid-1800s, select Chinese students were sent by their government to study in U.S. universities (Wang, 1994, p. 208). Until the 1980s, almost all of the earlier foreign Chinese students returned home (p. 209). In contrast, students who arrived later were known for their low rates of repatriation (p. 210). Wang attributes the low numbers to their frustrated efforts to westernize China and that “freedom of expression in America (…) was especially attractive for those who had never experienced it” (p. 210).

Globalization and Chinese universities The universities and colleges of China are institutions subject to international influences and the process of globalization. Historically modeled on U.S. colleges and universities, the institutions of higher

240

Frank H. Shih

education are located in major urban centers where the forces of global cultures are most pronounced and where the majority of scholars, business travelers, and diplomats from all over the world are based. The individuals of this study are not only graduates of Chinese universities but, with one exception, have both parents who are college graduates, with a number of them having earned post-graduate degrees. Membership in the educated and intellectual classes by itself grants access to the wide-ranging resources of the university. These resources meet many of the needs of individuals and their family members, including meals and campus housing for entire families. It is significant that some of the students were raised as children on a university campus and are, therefore, from a privileged background. Since a bachelors’ degree is relatively rare in China, the socialization that accompanies higher education is at once a globalized and a marginalized experience. The level of understanding that colleges impart about Western culture and cosmopolitan environments sets graduates apart from the average citizen in China and positions them on the cultural periphery of Chinese society. Similarly, the Chinese university environment fosters a global outlook which promotes and culturally prepares students for overseas study. The university campus, for example, provides access to overseas scholars ,granting the opportunity and encouragement for advanced education in the West. The limited opportunities for post-graduate study and inferior research facilities at home furthers the overseas aspirations in an indirect way. The desire to pursue specialized academic training, world-class research opportunities, and advanced degrees combined with a curiosity for international travel places them in a cultural trajectory that leads to foreign study. In a pattern reminiscent of students in the developed world, foreign students follow their intellectual and personal interests in making decisions about foreign study. This appears rather surprising as one might assume that those from under-developed countries would focus on practical concerns and base the choice of academic areas on the prospect for future employment opportunities. But intellectual interests in an academic topic seem to overshadow the plans for a career. The allure of living in the West, the prestige of attending a U.S. university, and the need for intellectual fulfillment appear to be the main thrusts for overseas study. The above notwithstanding, the search for financial support, one which promises to provide positive cash flow that would support a higher standard of living, is paramount in their planning. Despite their initial scholarly decision to go abroad, acceptance of an offer from a program is

Reshaping the Chinese Diaspora: Students from the P. R. C.

241

determined in almost every case by the level of financial support offered. The scholastic caliber, academic reputation, and curriculum offerings become secondary considerations. Many individuals look forward to tourism as part of the overseas study experience. In China, government restrictions as well as the lack of financial resources present formidable barriers to travel and tourism. The expectation is that foreign study with financial support from host institutions will provide the discretionary income to make this possible.

Overseas experience When students arrive in the U.S., marginalization and alienation from the mainstream is replicated. Opportunities for socialization are very limited. Isolation and loneliness are main complaints and several causes are frequently mentioned. Lacking proficiency in the English language is, of course, the biggest hurdle to socialization. With limited language ability, the tendency is to cluster with those speaking the same language. Because of the large percentage of Mandarin speakers from China with similar lifestyles, socializing is almost exclusively within the group. This fact is frequently voiced as a frustration and dissatisfaction even when it is commonly acknowledged that having close relationships with others from the P.R.C. eases the transition to the new culture. Language ability alone does not account for the social isolation. University living arrangements keep individuals from assimilating. Graduate housing at this university, as in many universities, is located on the fringe of the campus. The residential complex, housing over 1,000 residents, consists of apartments grouped in 12 buildings. Apartments have between one to three bedrooms with a common kitchen, dining and living area. At the time of the field work, approximately 80 percent of the occupants in graduate housing are from abroad and over 25 percent of those from abroad are from the P.R.C. (One-third of the P.R.C. residents are spouses of students.) When residents from Taiwan and other Asian countries are included, roughly half of all inhabitants in this campus living area are of Chinese descent. Another reason for the social isolation and marginality is the minimal interaction among the P.R.C. students themselves. The large number of Chinese students, ironically, deters the urgency to organize a formal support network. The assumption is that the sheer number of students from the same country of origin lessens the need to form close relationships.

242

Frank H. Shih

The demanding schedule of graduate students is another deterrent to socialization. P.R.C. students in graduate programs have time-consuming responsibilities as research and teaching assistants and are accustomed to extended hours in laboratories and in preparation for teaching assignments. The limited social interaction with the mainstream culture have ripple effects that create further distancing. With few occasions to engage with diverse groups on a campus, the opportunities to learn a new culture and progress in English proficiency are few and far between.

Chinese communities The many strands of the Chinese Diaspora are present at this University. A large group from Taiwan, all of whom are Mandarin speakers, reside in the housing complex. In the group from the P.R.C. that I interviewed, I was told that ethnicity and language facility is not enough to bridge the chasm between these two largest cohorts. Social etiquette, economic backgrounds, and political histories are consistently referenced as barriers to interaction beyond casual discourse. According to one student, the distance between Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese is not easy to pin down. "Even though they are Chinese", she says, "we don't treat them like your [sic] own people”. One of the differences often mentioned is the Taiwanese attention to proper social etiquette. "They're more easygoing (...) pretty humble, (…) pretty warm compared with people from Mainland". The economic disparity between the two nations underlies the perception that each of the groups have about the other. “Taiwan more richer than Mainland” (sic) is a commonly heard refrain. I was informed that direct reference to wealth, either personal or about the standard of living of both countries, is seldom discussed between the two groups. Dayto-day finances are matters some P.R.C. students choose to share only with those in their respective groups. The P.R.C. individuals also discussed the differences between themselves and other overseas Chinese from Hong Kong and with Chinese Americans. The Chinese Americans are viewed, in particular, as having little if any Chinese cultural characteristics. There is very little shared identity and little interaction with these groups.

Assimilation As expected, a much wider cultural gulf exists between those from the P.R.C. and the mainstream host population. The most noted characteristic

Reshaping the Chinese Diaspora: Students from the P. R. C.

243

mentioned about Americans is that they are shallow on many levels. Opinions of American society alternate between a fond regard for personality characteristics, such as self-confidence, and a distaste for the superficiality of American culture. The praises for a culture that values self-confidence and independence are therefore tempered by the perceived lack of concern about deeper issues such as family obligations. P.R.C. students, even those with American roommates, seldom have casual interactions with the mainstream culture. The cultural divisions, language deficiency, work hours, academic study load, and the living situation that separates them from centers of campus activity, confines students to simple patterns of socialization and few opportunities for personal interaction.

The foreign student adjustment In this marginalized status, cultural dissimilarity between P.R.C. students and those in the mainstream are more pronounced. Despite the scarcity of social contact, the overseas study experience leaves an indelible impression on these individuals. In the interviews, the students are very articulate in describing changes to their personalities as they adjust to the host environment. Our discussions often centered on contrasts between Chinese and American personalities. The most frequently mentioned feature of the American personality is the predisposition to be direct and open with others. Consequently, one outcome of the years in the U.S. according to the informants is that they have overcome shyness to a large degree and have learned to be more open to new acquaintances. "Becoming American" is not always viewed in positive terms. While acknowledging that acculturation and assimilation to some aspect of the host culture is inevitable, fervent loyalty to Chinese culture and to China is evident. When I asked a post-doctoral student who earned her doctorate at a European institution if she had contemplated the idea of eventually adopting American culture, she blurted: “No, Never! I don't feel that I'll ever feel like another culture than Chinese”. Some students from China find that they are sometimes forced to represent and defend Chinese culture. The fear of being typecast as a foreigner gives rise to self-consciousness and inhibits open expression. In addition, individuals expressed concern about perpetuating the stereotype or feared that they may inadvertently dishonor the image of China and other Chinese. To those who value what Americans think and understand about China and the Chinese this type of experience, rather like ethnic or

244

Frank H. Shih

racial ambassadors, affects their day-to-day lives in subtle but multiple ways and creates another obstacle to assimilation.

Settlement and return Career planning for international students is often a function of geopolitics and global economics. The political economies of China and the U.S. play a large role in decision-making. Practical realities, such as job prospects, salaries, and the opportunity to continue their research interests, are balanced with geopolitical and personal ties to the homeland. Musings about patriotism and nationalism accompany the decision-making process at this stage of their stay. Reflection about nationalism and personal ties to the home country intensifies as individuals approach the completion of their academic programs. This part of the foreign study is emotionally taxing. Making decisions about the future alone produces anxieties. Evaluating career opportunities and assessing the current phase of their educational training while confronting the prospect of returning home can be nerve-racking. The subjects in this study approach future planning in a practical onestep-at-a-time process with very little apparent long-term strategy. Returning to China after completion of the program is not an automatic assumption, in fact it is considered a last resort. Benefits of both extending their stay and returning are weighed carefully. The factors to be considered are fairly clear. The disparity in the standards of living is the primary and most obvious issue. Students are familiar with the wages of their peers who are employed in China and the U.S. The salaries in China, controlled by the government, are low compared to those in America and the currency exchange rate is very favorable to the U.S. dollar. Consequently, an important short-term objective is to increase funds to bring home by maximizing any period of employment, including temporary appointments. Every paycheck represents an unparalleled opportunity to bring back substantially more American currency. The lack of research opportunities in China is a serious concern and impediment to career objectives. P.R.C. students in the sciences have earned their degrees in a major scientific research environment with cutting-edge equipment. Strides have been made in modernizing research facilities in China since the turn of the 21st century. Even so, it is a generally accepted fact that the level of research in world-class laboratories cannot match that in the U.S. Since the science laboratories were not of a high quality to begin with—a reason cited for leaving

Reshaping the Chinese Diaspora: Students from the P. R. C.

245

China—many are deeply disheartened with the realization that research careers will be left behind in the U.S. Aside from inferior research facilities, returning to China would mean the absence of the day-to-day access to scientists who are conducting the highest level of research in their fields. It would also mean not having the same level of opportunities to attend and participate in conferences, or the degree of involvement with professional associations. Missing the level of intellectual stimulation to which they are accustomed, and maintaining connections to these professional activities are significant concerns. According to the subjects in the research, the years in the U.S. tend to taint these academicians among potential faculty colleagues in China. While a degree from an American university is prestigious, the collegiality of graduates from America is questioned. Department chairs are said to be apprehensive that overseas students will not be respectful and may question authority and try to push for changes to departmental policies. On the other hand, American graduates worry that Chinese administrators will favor students who rose through the Chinese programs. Traditionally, the university was a certain means to a position of power, security, and a relatively good salary in a high level (Brown, 1991, p. 464). Despite the traditional respect for teachers, the new economic reforms have substantially altered the status and lowered the income of teachers in Chinese society. The current lower prestige of educators in general, however, is a result of direct government tampering (Brown, 1991). The deprivations of university life in a developing country might be more bearable for students if, as in the past, they led to power and privilege. During the time of this study, complications caused by the political turmoil at home became salient factors in evaluating and formulating plans for life after the degree. The accepted restrictions of life under the Chinese government became more prominent after the events in the spring of 1989. These factors created questions about nationalism and patriotism and were key ingredients in the decision-making process. The violent government reprisals at Tiananmen Square clearly disturbed all Chinese students in the U.S. The immediate reaction of most, if not all, of the students was anger and the desire to distance themselves from the Communist Party. Many expressed outrage at the government and the military. The topic is still an emotional one for those in the U.S. during this time. For numerous members of this population, repatriation hinged on the political climate. The authoritarian rule of the Communist Party has layers of ramifications for academicians. Government restrictions affect job

246

Frank H. Shih

placement, salary, career aspiration, and, of course, academic freedom for intellectuals and scholars. The bureaucracy in university administration makes professional life less manageable than what students are accustomed to in the U.S. Layers of the organizational structure are negotiated with carefully formulaic relationships and adherence to community customs. In contrast, U.S. campus life is much more manageable and less burdensome. Referring to U.S. institutions, a student once told me "It's easy to get things done here”. “For example”, this individual continued, “if I need help in department, secretary would help. In China, you need connection—know people. If you don't have connection, you have to have gifts”. As much as these foreign students may loathe the relatively oppressive and unpleasant professional life in China, they readily admit that China is more culturally “comfortable.” After several years of struggling with the English language and enduring cultural misunderstandings, they express some eagerness to be back at a place where they are familiar with the customs and the language. I spoke to one student who admitted that she fretted daily about being stigmatized as a foreigner. If she were to return to China, these obstacles would not exist. And since the challenges of a career in academia would be less formidable in her home country, there would be minimal uncertainties and, as a result, she would have fewer anxieties. If one wants to forestall repatriation, there is often no choice but to pursue another degree. The decision is made easier for those just completing the masters programs who may continue to a terminal degree. There is also consideration for enrolling in applied degrees, those thought to be more marketable in the private sector where employers are able to apply for special immigration status on behalf of foreign nationals. The option of leaving academia for private industry is tempting also because it offers financial benefits. However, there is a downside: the concern that creativity and personal interest will be suppressed by profit motives and a monotonous research agenda. Despite the negative sentiments about returning home, I did not find anyone who was firmly committed to settling in the U.S. permanently. The reasons cited were similar to the dissatisfactions that were voiced regarding their foreign study experiences—the isolation from the general population and frustration with the inability to assimilate comfortably. Even in cases of cross-cultural and interracial marriage, social isolation still exists and friends from the P.R.C. still form their primary social circle.

Reshaping the Chinese Diaspora: Students from the P. R. C.

247

Conclusion Through the lens of the diaspora paradigm, we can delineate several facets of the Chinese foreign student cohort in this study that situate the population within the Chinese Diaspora while highlighting other aspects that present the group as a distinct dispersed Chinese community. The prominent diasporic aspect is an identity based on Chinese ethnicity and the recognition of mainland China as the homeland. Reinforced by the insular nature of the experience and by a loose association mainly with colleagues from the P.R.C., but also with students from other localities who are of Chinese descent, the cultural perspective builds on and sustains an affinity with overseas Chinese worldwide. Yet, the P.R.C. students interviewed for this research are dissimilar from communities that make up the traditional Chinese Diaspora. The most pronounced differences are based on class, language, and the centrality of Confucian values and traditional customs in their daily lives. In the mid-1800s, after the defeat of the Qing dynasty by Western powers, Hong Kong became a trade center and a gateway for those leaving China. Because of the port’s location, nearly all of the earlier waves of emigrants from China have roots in the villages of the two southern provinces of Guandong and Fujian. Settlements from these provinces are now found in many areas of the world but are concentrated in Southeast and East Asia particularly in Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the former British colony, Hong Kong (Wang, 2000). Without formal schooling, migrants were not fluent in Mandarin, the dialect of government officials, and the educated class but spoke an assortment of local Chinese dialects. This linguistic pattern served to fortify group cohesion (McKeown, 1999, p. 324; Ma, 2003, p. 2). As overseas Chinese communities thrived, they attracted newcomers from their home regions and through ethnic ties. The peasants, artisans and merchants from mainland China arrived even as the settlements became sites from where remigrations to other parts of the world ensued. The overseas Chinese settlements are known for strong Confucian family values and maintain a vibrant Chinese expatriate society through kin networks. Decisions regarding emigration and the selection of overseas settlement and employment are made through ethnic connections and with family endorsement (McKeown, 1999, pp. 317-318; Wang, 2000). The communities became a “self-perpetuating system for the circulation of goods, money, information and people” (McKeown, p. 317). These regional and ethnic associations have not only survived to the present day but are perpetuated through international gatherings (Liu, 1998). When

248

Frank H. Shih

links to China were formally opened in 1978, it was these communities who were the first to invest in their homeland (Cheung, 2006, p. 672). By contrast, students from the P.R.C. are diverse. They come from almost every region of China and are members of the intellectual and educated elite. The class and educational background is evident in their Mandarin proficiency. They are neither dependent on kinship ties nor do they have an organized social network. Decisions about the selection of their overseas destinations are guided by institutional requirements related to their educational aspirations and not by ethnic and business relationships. The research agenda of the diaspora framework is helpful in analyzing the construction of the community’s identity and in making distinctions between overseas Chinese populations who are otherwise connected by ancestry and ethnicity. As the students from the P.R.C. have shown, their place in the Chinese Diaspora is subject to global political forces intertwined with class distinctions and an individualistic outlook. The transnational nature of foreign study, the absence of group solidarity and the purpose of international education as the impetus for their sojourn are characteristics that distinguish the community from other overseas Chinese. The transformation of China in recent decades from a developing nation to a global economic power was fueled by the investments of the Chinese Diaspora (Cheung, 2005; Lever-Tracy et. al, 1996; Tseng, 2002). The lure of future development will influence the nationalism, ethnic identity and the notion of return for overseas Chinese. For established communities in Southeast and East Asian countries, the economic progress will be marked by an enhanced desire to seek out ancestral origins, to recall common traditions and to recount family histories. However, for foreign students with a diasporic consciousness marked by a globalized worldview, the reaction to the development will be individualized and less structured. Immigration status, government policies, and ethnic connections will create tensions as they pursue employment opportunities, academic career options, intellectual interests and acceptable remunerations. The identity of this community will be more fluid and flexible, transcending national boundaries and traditional ethnic roles (Ong, 1996). Commenting on the large immigration flows of Chinese intellectuals and professionals into the U.S., Wang Ling-chi (1994) observes: “Without question the United States has rapidly become an intellectual center for the people of Chinese ancestry” (p. 212). As American universities continue to attract students from China, those with American degrees will have a powerful role in the future of their homeland. Their influence on Chinese

Reshaping the Chinese Diaspora: Students from the P. R. C.

249

populations outside of the mainland will be just as profound. As the identity of former foreign students from the P.R.C. responds to political, economic and social forces intermingled with their own mobility, social adaptability and cultural flexibility as a transnational community, their power and influence will continue to re-shape the contours of the Chinese Diaspora.

References Appadurai, A. (1990). Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy. Public Culture, 2(2), 1-24. Berdichevsky, N. (2007). Parallel Zionisms: Chinese, Greek, Armenian, and Hungarian parallels of nationhood, diaspora, genocide, exile, partition, and aliya. World Affairs, 169(3), 119-23. Brown, H.O. (1991). People's Republic of China. Altbach, P.G. (ed.). In International Higher Education: An encyclopedia. NY: Garland Publishers. Cheung, G.C.K. (2005). Chinese Diaspora as a Virtual Nation: Interactive roles between economic and social capital. Political Studies, 52, 664684. Clifford, J. (1994). Diasporas. Cultural Anthropology, 9(3), 302-338. Glick Schiller, N., Basch, L. & Blanc Szanton, C. (1992). Towards a Transnational Perspective on Migration: Race, class, ethnicity, and nationalism reconsidered. New York: The New York Academy of Sciences. Lever-Tracy, C., Ip, D. & Tracy, N. (1996). The Chinese Diaspora and Mainland China: An emerging economic synergy. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Liu, H. (1998). Old Linkages, New Networks: The globalization of overseas Chinese voluntary associations and its implications. The China Quarterly, 155, 582-609. Ma, L.J.C. (2003). Space, Place and Transnationalism in the Chinese Diaspora. Ma, L.J.C. & Cartier, C. (eds.). In The Chinese Diaspora: Space, place, mobility, and identity. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1-49. Ma, L.J.C. & Cartier, C. (eds.) (2003). The Chinese Diaspora: Space, place, mobility, and identity. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. McKeown, A. (1999). Conceptualizing Chinese Diasporas 1842-1949. The Journal of Asian Studies, 58(2) 306-337.

250

Frank H. Shih

Nash, J. (1981). Ethnographic Aspects of the World Capitalist System. Annual Review of Anthropology, 10, 393-423. Ong, A. (1999). Flexible Citizenship: The cultural logics of transnationality. Durham & London: Duke University Press. Robertson, R. (1990). Mapping the Global Condition: Globalization as the central concept. Featherstone, M. (ed.). In Global Culture: An introduction. London: Sage. Safran, W. (1991). Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of homeland and return. Diasporas: A Journal of Transnational Studies, 1(1), 8399. Skeldon, R. (2003). The Chinese Diaspora or the Migration of Chinese Peoples? Ma, L.J.C. & Cartier, C. (eds.). In The Chinese Diaspora: Space, place, mobility, and identity. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 51-65. Slater, M. (1981). International Migration and French Foreign Relations. Stack, J.F. (ed.). In Ethnic Identities in a Transnational World. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 79-104. Tololyan, K. (1996). Rethinking Diaspora(s): Stateless power in the transnational moment. Diaspora, 5(1), 3-35. Tseng, Y. (2002). From ‘Us’ to ‘Them’: Diasporic linkages and identity politics. Identities: Global studies in culture and power, 9, 383-404. Tu, W. (ed.) (1994). Cultural China: The periphery as the center. Tu, W. (ed.). In The Living Tree: The changing meaning of being Chinese today. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1-34. Wang, G. (1999). Chineseness: The Dilemmas of Place and Practice. Hamilton, G. (ed.). In Cosmopolitan Capitalist: Hong Kong and the Chinese diaspora at the end of the 2oth century. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 118-134. —. (2000). The Chinese Overseas: From earthbound China to the quest for autonomy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Wang, L. (1994). Roots and the Changing Identity of the Chinese in the United States. Tu, W. (ed.). In The Living Tree: The changing meaning of being Chinese today. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 185-212. Worsley, P. (1990). Models of the Modern World System. Featherstone, M. (ed.). In Global Culture: An introduction. London: Sage.

UTILIZATION OF CULTURAL ELDERS IN MODES OF NON-TRADITIONAL EDUCATION VERONA MITCHELL-AGBEMADI

Abstract The article presents the basis of the utilization of cultural elders as a pedagogical tool. The impact of storytelling draws on the wisdom and social structure of African American, Asian (Hmong), Native American Indian, East African (Somali), and Latino elders. Research methodologies of focus groups, pre- and post-measurement by survey tools, assessing the impact of students, and the quality of learning facilitated by elders are examined and reported. Elders serve as primary classroom session instructors transmitting their valuable experiences to students. Elders function as community system navigators for students engaging in community work and cultural experiences.

Introduction Elders are commonly categorized by today’s society as being those individuals who have surpassed a certain physical age. The mid-life years have steadily marched into those of old age. Individuals who have lived long enough to be considered old-aged may receive the title of elder in certain communities. On the contrary, the elders we are talking about in this study do not have to fit into a subsequent age bracket. Here, it is revealed that the title of elders and their roles in the community defy the stipulations and limitations dictated by society. The research methodology reported the findings from focus groups and the survey tools were extended to students and elders combined. As shown henceforth, elders are given the title of elder in certain cultural communities because of their positive role and respected position within that community. Elders operating in community settings also may serve a dual purpose of

252

Verona Mitchell-Agbemadi

community leader. The dual role position, however, is approached singularly in most instances. In the United States, today’s urban landscape is commonly comprised of varying racial, ethnic, socio-economic, and cultural blends of human representation (Schaefer, 2007; Harris, 1998). For this particular study, we used community elders from the African American, Native American, Asian (Hmong), East African (Somali), and Latino communities of the Midwest city of St. Paul, Minnesota. What students experienced is not only a rich cultural contact with diverse elders representing the ethnic groups, but they also developed a foundational base for cultural competency that could not be gained solely via theoretical approaches.

Defining elders, community leaders, traditional healers The working definition for this study is that elders could be those who are mature in age, but also those who have excelled in social status as well as individuals who are highly and positively respected in the community. Specifically, it was discovered that elders are effective in small mentoring circles and in one-to-one relationships. These relationships are laced with the sharing of wisdom through historical recollection and engagement by elders telling about their life experiences to mentor and guide others in the community. Elders within the community did not feel that elder referred to a particular age range. Rather, elders defined their engagement as one who was highly respected within the circle or community. Individuals identified as elders felt that community leaders and traditional healers also served as mentors and guides to help individuals within the community understand the community framework and, when needed, the culture. This cultural and historical perspective was transmitted through a narrative and storytelling delivery model. Elders sometimes develop a keen sense of systems navigation. Systems navigation is defined as the knowledge-base of the social and geographical environment to a particular milieu. A key component of systems navigation is the ability to utilize people and resources in manipulation for positive and feasible outcomes. Elders were instrumental in teaching students where to go for resources and content in building historical perspectives for the community. When describing the interplay of those elders identified as a community leader, it was noted that these particular persons work on behalf of many in the community. The community leader-based elder also serves as one who guides the groups and subgroups within the community. Traditional healer-based elders, similar to community elders, engage

Utilization of Cultural Elders in Modes of Non-Traditional Education

253

individuals on a one-to-one personal level. This element is most essential to their sometimes dual role as spiritual leaders. Unlike those of the other forms of eldership discussed previously, traditional healer-based elders utilize their knowledge of cultural and ritual reflection through medicinal resources and practices. Although the traditional healer often is misunderstood, especially when compared to the practice and physicians of modern day medicine, a traditional healer’s practice encompasses physical, emotional, spiritual healing, and guidance, usually within a culturally distinctive approach.

Methodology The study tracked the engagement of 36 students and 15 elders during a two-year period (2004-2005) in a diverse community setting. The research methodology was administered in three sectors: 1) focus groups prior to physical community engagement; 2) post-research survey; and, 3) interviews soliciting reflections. Two focus groups were formed prior to student engagement in the community setting. Focus groups were comprised of four elders and four students per group. Groups presented hypotheses and formulized pre- and post-research survey questions that would be administered to all of the research subjects. Participants in this study were interviewed after their community experience for the purpose of adding reflections and capturing responses in reference to engagement with community elders.

Elders through cultural distinction Elders in classroom sessions and community settings were able to share their unique cultural and ethnic identities. Asian (Hmong) elders were instrumental in relaying information regarding the hierarchical roles that support the family as the key objective. Yee, as cited in Harris (1998), noted that many Asian cultures are influenced by a Confucian ideology. The Asian male is socialized to be the primary financial provider in the family, while the wife’s socialization is geared toward becoming an obedient, devoted supporter to the husband and the husband’s family members. Hmong elders, like Native American elders, translated information to students regarding the belief in supernatural spirits which diminish and restore health, wellness, and prosperity. Asian (Hmong) elders also demystified the role of shamans in their community. Shamans served as physical healers, spiritual channels, and doctors. Traditional Asian healers,

254

Verona Mitchell-Agbemadi

even those working in an urban context, continue to utilize herbs, natural, and holistic methods of healing. African American elders were effective in teaching students the oral histories of slavery and the progression through the Civil Rights movement to the social and economic struggles (and celebrations) of their communities. Baker, as cited in Harris (1998), contended that African American culture includes African values that stress collectivity, sharing and obedience to authority, spirituality, and a great respect for the elders. Family is second only to the church than to the community. Socioeconomic conditions have forced the African American family formation to change and Harris (1998) notes that over half of the families are lead by the female. Along with Latino elders, African American elders were effective in explaining the varying concepts of family. The Native American Indian elders were capable of sharing essential information on their overall belief in the Great Spirit or Creator, ecology and Earth preservation concepts, and histories. The Native American Indian elders, similar to the Asian (Hmong) elders, utilized within their presentation the use of spiritual guides, often called a medicine-man, witchdoctor or priest, to represent the human connections to spirit, God (gods), sky, earth, and fire and water. Native American Indian elders stressed their belief that society must be educated in the traditional, cultural ways of the tribal community, utilizing appropriate learning tools of the contemporary society and other timehonored cultural systems (Coyhis & Simonelli, 2005). Native American Indian elders were able to emphasize through this conceptual line that, because native cultural ways are different from European methods, this should not mean that their methods are less substantial or effective. The native conceptual lines focus on care for the land and interconnectedness. The conceptual line respects different ways of approaching knowledge, learning, understanding, and remembering (Coyhis & Simonelli, 2005). East African Somali elders served as a valuable educational resource on educating students on Muslim traditions and family life. These elders also were instrumental in becoming living witnesses in relaying historical events and their immigration to the United States. The Somali elders served as expert instructors on the clan system and marriage, their Islamic religion, the declaration of faith, and the intermesh of religion and social life.

Utilization of Cultural Elders in Modes of Non-Traditional Education

255

Pedagogical integration of elders There are two points of educational integration within the relationship between elders and students. The first is the on-campus in-classroom sessions where elders are the cultural instructors to students. The second is the community engagement with the elders serving as system navigators. A key engagement point to set the tone between students and elders was the implementation of the Cultural Artifact/Event (CAE) intercultural communication model (cited in Mitchell-Agbemadi, 2004). The CAE intercultural communication model was implemented in three on-campus classroom sessions prior to the students working and serving in the community. The classroom sessions were designed so that students would have the opportunity to become familiar with the cultural elder, the elder’s history, family life, community, and role within that community. Elders were requested to bring a tangible, touchable item that represented and embodied their story. Oral histories in the course of storytelling, reflection on social community, social connections, and introspection were introduced through the item. Each elder gave presentations and served as course instructor for that particular classroom session. Within the execution of CAE, the elders used tangible items, such as the Bible, pictures, and ethnic carvings, to describe how that item represented culture for them and how they could convey the symbolism to another culture. Each student participating in the classroom session was able to inquire about the item, the culture, and community the item represented. Students also were able to inquire and learn about history from each elder’s cultural perspective. The elders engaged the students through a process of displaying a physical object/artifact, a dialogue diffusion sequencing involving culture, and a storytelling and recollection of historical events surrounding the object. Below the surface of the protected layer of self there are the elements of fear, self denial, self hatred, territorial behavior, and ignorance of the “other.” Through the sharing of the conduit of the artifact, both elders and students were able to engage one another about their culture and their fears of the “other.” Both elders and students became comfortable with talking about the object to the opposite group. When asked to share the object, allowing the opposite group to gain sensation though touch, students showed some resistance. During storytelling about the events that created the symbolism of the object, 69 percent of the students responded that they felt an intimate and personal connection to the story about a particular elder or item, with 20 percent of the students responding that they felt little or no

256

Verona Mitchell-Agbemadi

connection, and 11 percent choosing not to answer. It was noted that 75 percent of the students believed that engagement in the intercultural communication model of CAE prepared them to engage and work in diverse community settings, with 15 percent noting neutrality, and 10 percent of students giving no response. Schudson (1989) noted that the engagement of the storyteller makes the object controlling. The storyteller, in this case the elder, infused force in the relaying of information to the opposite group. As reported by Schudson (1989), the participant’s cultural object was highly effective in relaying cultural symbolism; students who were allowed to touch the object were allowed to dialogue with the elder holding the object. It was noted that the item/event served as a transference tool for human emotion and cultural history. Elders found ease in talking about the object and event. Students also began conversing freely about their experiences to one another. Within student reflections, students stated that they had a greater respect for the histories and experiences of the elders as well as the communities they represented.

Elders utilized as community system navigators Creating and executing a learning community has emerged as a popular mechanism for advancing the quality of the undergraduate experience at an array of higher educational learning institutions (Stassen, 2003). Incorporating community life and experiential learning could be an integral key in the cognitive learning progress for students. Elders play an important role in the learning process as well. Students meeting with elders on a weekly basis in the community were able to function at greater levels of “street-smarts” as well as cultural competency. Elders served as primary instructors and community system navigators meeting with students in support of community work-study and service-learning projects. Lewis (2002) noted that 90 percent of elders desired to pass on histories and life experiences. Elders, together with service-learning students, could gain satisfaction in the opportunity to reflect on their service, both during and after the service process, to share intergenerational experiences, examine their contributions, make enhancements, and integrate the experiences into their lives. Sharing experiential knowledge, by conveying wisdom through narrative stories and histories, enabled students to see how the theoretical concepts presented in classroom are demonstrated in real life. African American elders met with students to provide historical perspectives through storytelling; they involved students in traditional soul-food

Utilization of Cultural Elders in Modes of Non-Traditional Education

257

cooking as well as discussions on the social and family dynamics of today’s African American community network. According to MitchellAgbemadi (2004) and Harris (1998), African Americans are influenced by traditional African values, yet they operate as a hybrid culture. The traditions of collectivity, sharing obedience to authority, and respect for the elders appeared to be lost in the stressed socioeconomic conditions of the African American society. Each elder, respective of his or her racial, ethnic, or cultural background, is viewed as a valuable pedagogical tool. Traditional healers and community leaders acknowledged they had a central role within the family or community, and that they held some sort of community/family agreed status with permission to execute leadership and authority (Harris, 1998). The elders are instrumental in building cultural competency and intergenerational collaborations. Engaging elders as system navigators, in community settings as guest speakers and classroom lecturers, enables students to form a concise picture of the culture and the different frames of perspective for the academic discipline. Utilizing elders within the educational process encourages students to become interested in the histories of the elders and the particular cultural representations. Engaging students and elders supports the cognitive learning process of students as they attempt to explore cultural abstracts. Elders are critical in supporting students as they examine these contemporary roles through the eyes of the community. Students developed, through contact with elders, the skills to interact relationally as well as to interpret and transmit information through storytelling and qualitative delivery modes.

Findings and recommendations Elders were proven to be instrumental for research-driven activities of community engagement. From post-research surveys and interviews, 69 percent of students noted a personal connection to elders’ histories and stories, supporting the proposed hypothesis that storytelling could be used as an academic tool. 20 percent of the students noted minimal to no connection with the elders’ histories and stories, while 11 percent selected not to answer questions regarding research activities involving classroom sessions. The research engaged students and elders in an intercultural communication model to assist in building rapport and relationships. What was discovered was that 75 percent of the students believed that engagement in the intercultural communication model aided them in

258

Verona Mitchell-Agbemadi

engagement and work in diverse community settings, with 15 percent noting neutrality, and 10 percent of students giving no response. All elders, i.e., 15 out of 15 who were engaged with directing and guiding students in their engagement with community, responded that they felt their instruction and delivery method were beneficial to the overall learning process. Research recorded that 10 of the 15 elders participating in the study acknowledged themselves as a valuable extension of the academic establishment, while 14 of the 15 elders reported that they strongly felt that cultural community elders should be utilized when students are engaged in community settings. This research showed that the academic tool of storytelling, when utilized by cultural elders, could be instrumental in the learning process of students in post-secondary educational settings. Data from this study supported the idea that when students are presented with elders as a resource—to aid in exploring and learning culture as well as maneuvering the geographical and social community landscape—the experience becomes an important pedagogical tool in the learning process for students. Community elders are specifically referred to as an academic resource in the creation of empirical experiences for students.

References Coyhis, D. & Simonelli, R. (2005). Rebuilding Native American Communities. Child Welfare League of America, 323 -336. Harris, H.L. (1998). Ethnic Minority Elders: Issues and interventions. Educational Gerontology, 24, 309-323. Lewis, M. (2002). Service Learning and Older Adults. Educational Gerontology, 28, 655-667. Mitchell-Agbemadi, V. (2004). A Common Identity: Moving towards mutual understanding and acceptance between Africans and AfricanAmericans. Proceedings of the Third Annual Worldwide Forum on Culture and Education. Rome, Italy: Worldwide Forum on Education and Culture. Schaefer, R. (2007). Race and Ethnicity in the United States. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. Schudson, M. (1989). How Culture Works: Perspectives from media studies on the efficacy of symbols. Theory and Society, 18, 153-180. Stassen, M.L. (2003). Student Outcomes: The impact of varying living learning community models. Research in Higher Education, 44(5), 581-613.

FIGHTING FOR “DEEP CHANGE” IN THE QUEST FOR DIVERSITY: IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY’S MULTICULTURAL LEARNING COMMUNITY JANE DAVIS AND ANNE RICHARDS Introduction In a world marked by intolerance of difference and by the devastating results of such intolerance, educators have a moral obligation to help create environments that cultivate diversity, create introspection about individuals’ often skewed perceptions of others, and inspire appreciation of difference. Yet, more than 50 years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. the Board of Education decision—a decision widely considered the death knell of segregation in this country—racial and ethnic diversity remains woefully unrealized throughout much of academia, from K–12 through colleges and universities at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Indeed, in outlining the “covenant” such institutions have with the public and in making recommendations for higher education in the 21st century, the Kellogg Commission (2000) in the Future of State and Land Grant Universities emphasized that the need to enhance diversity has by no means been fulfilled: Historically, the covenant between public universities and the American people has been grounded in wide access, excellent curricula, research of value to people and communities, and public governance and financing. Access is an unfinished agenda. Severe racial, ethnic, and economic disparities characterize enrollment in American public higher education (…). Today’s university (…) [should be] one that provides access to success to a much more diverse student population. (vii)

The urgency of these ideas is underscored in the report’s executive summary, which asserts that “The irreducible idea is that we [public colleges and universities] exist to advance the common good. As the new millennium dawns, the fundamental challenge with which we struggle is

260

Jane Davis and Anne Richards

how to reshape (…) [this] historic agreement with the American people so that it fits the times that are emerging instead of the times that have passed” (vii). It is our own conviction that fundamental change, and not the appearance of change, in attitudes towards difference must be a goal of higher education and that diversity initiatives should be a part of the ongoing actualization of a university’s mission and of teachers’ stated goals to be inclusive (Davis & Richards, 2007, passim). As educators go about envisioning and institutionalizing these initiatives, we must bear in mind that true transformation “is deep and pervasive, affecting the whole institution; (…) is intentional; and (…) occurs over time” (Eckel, Hill & Green, 1998, p. 3). True transformation is not achieved through programs that remain marginal on a campus, “quick fixes” provided by symbolic, rapid-cycling initiatives, but is planned systematically and requires both hard work and a commitment to continuous reassessment. The great problem here is a key impediment to transformation that Eckel and colleagues describe as espoused values. “Espoused values are what we say—the articulated beliefs about what is ‘good,’ what ‘works,’ what is ‘right.’ Espoused values are what we say and what we promote, but not always what we do” (emphasis theirs; p. 3). In contrast, “Deep change implies a shift in values and assumptions that underlie the usual way of doing business. (…) Deep changes require people to think differently and act differently” (p. 4). A serious challenge to diversity programs lies in ensuring that administrators and teachers are involved for reasons beyond the desire to hold high-profile positions or to be perceived as spearheading efforts to enact university mission statements. The purpose of this essay is to describe the ways in which Iowa State University’s (ISU) Multicultural Learning Community (MLC) met the challenges it encountered, the aspects of the community that succeeded, and the factors that weakened the community, which ultimately was disbanded. ISU is a Midwestern land grant university located in a region inhabited predominantly by the descendants of Northern European farming families. The fact that the university is overwhelmingly white in terms of students, faculty, and administration made the MLC an interesting litmus test for whether key players at such universities who profess to foster diversity seek deep transformation or a reasonable facsimile.

Diversity programming in transition: From minority access to multicultural awareness The assumptions and goals of multicultural education have, of necessity,

The Quest for Diversity in a Multicultural Learning Community

261

changed over time. Publishing in the Harvard Education Review in 1987, Sleeter and Grant characterized multicultural education as designed for the betterment of people of color. Eight years later, Banks (1995) echoed this assessment by noting that, “Although there are many different approaches, statements of aims, and definitions of multicultural education, an examination of the recent literature written by specialists in the field indicates that there is a high level of consensus” (p. 3) regarding this focus. But, in 1996, Sonia Nieto characterized the assumption that “multicultural education is only for students of color, or for urban students, or for so-called disadvantaged students” as a “misconception” (p. 312). According to Nieto, more current formulations of multicultural education assume that the majority of U.S. students are being deprived of an “honest and complete view of our history” (p. 313) in regard to race, class, and gender. Nieto has not been alone in her rethinking of the multicultural project. One institution that participated in the trend away from relying on minority programming to fulfill multicultural or diversity objectives was ISU. This shift was not surprising given the difficulties concerning the recruitment of students of color to the campus. In the late 1980s, at about the time of Sleeter and Grant’s article, ISU initiated one of its first diversity-focused programs, the Academic Program for Excellence (APEX), “a seven-week summer challenge program designed for selected ethnic minority freshmen” (Office of the Provost, ISU, 2002). Evolving from concerns regarding racial/ethnic imbalances in the ISU student population and unequal access to education, this recruitment/retention program primarily addressed people of color. It was one of many such programs in U.S. postsecondary education that were coterminous with an increase in the percentage of American post-secondary students who were members of ethnic minorities. According to the U.S. Department of Education (2000), the percentage of such students increased from 16 in 1976 to 28 in 1999. Approximately a decade after the inception of APEX, and influenced by Nieto’s (1996) work, two established ISU English teachers (our predecessors) collaborated with colleagues in African American studies, Minority Student Affairs (MSA), and residence halls to propose and to implement the MLC, which was meant to be much more representative than APEX had been of U.S. society in terms of the racial, ethnic, and class identities of students. The MLC was designed to provide curricula and to facilitate living experiences promoting academic achievement and student awareness of a wide range of social, cultural, and racial backgrounds, including those of

262

Jane Davis and Anne Richards

white students. Students took linked courses: 1) first-year composition incorporating multicultural readings; and, 2) “Society and Values in a Changing Nation,” a historically and sociologically focused course. In addition, they lived together in the residence halls. Students also participated in community-wide social activities. Two internal assessments of ISU’s nearly 80 learning communities (Huba et al., 2001; ISU Learning Community Assessment Subcommittee, 2002) found that “overall, the learning community experience did not provide [students] more opportunities [than non-learning-community courses did] to interact with people from different backgrounds” (p. 2), and the MLC was a clear exception to this fact. We considered the MLC focal to the mission of the university because administrators at the highest levels espoused the values of: 1) critical thinking, which depends on student abilities to understand and to analyze alternative arguments, opinions, and standpoints; 2) respect for differences in ways of thinking and being; and, 3) academic excellence through learning communities. And, indeed, the MLC was recognized for its important contribution to institutional culture. In 2002, a fiscal year that saw a $15.4 million shortfall for the university, the MLC received the president’s Outstanding Innovations in Learning Award and was granted another year of funding at a level significantly higher than requested. (Initiated in the 1999–2000 school year, the MLC was initially supported for three years of funding but was granted in excess of $100,000 to continue for another year.)

Multicultural programs: An intersection of espoused institutional values and student needs A university’s official statements regarding diversity are a key component, though not the key component, in any examination of university culture. The extent to which such statements either are translated into actual curricula and programs or remain merely espoused values is an even more crucial issue. By offering students of color a variety of programs designed to help them thrive and graduate, those committed to multicultural education at ISU struggled not to separate “the words that they speak from the life that they lead.” As a politician and erstwhile academician, the author of those words, the late Paul Wellstone, was well aware of how easy it is for powerful interests to fashion from high-minded phrases a bulwark against institutional change. ISU must actively recruit students of color to its campus, which it has done by offering a wide range of options, from need-based to scholarship-

The Quest for Diversity in a Multicultural Learning Community

263

based aid and from minority to multicultural programs. Despite the university’s efforts, only a small percentage of its undergraduates were U.S. citizens of color in 2001 (Office of the President, ISU, 2002); in the United States, ethnic minorities then constituted 19.7 percent of the population. Cultivating a student population representative of U.S. society is a daunting task for ISU, which has come under fire for representing itself in public relations materials as being more diverse, if not more welcoming, of diversity than it actually is. Students of color regularly complain that when campus recruiters come to urban high schools, they either downplay or ignore the challenges that students like them face on this predominantly white campus. David Wallace and Annissa Bell, whose research on racism at ISU in the late 1990s was published in the College English article “Being Black at a Predominantly White University” (1999), described the disturbingly nonchalant response of their black male interviewees to questions regarding the extent of racism in Ames: The interviews most disturbing aspect was the stories that participants told about these racist incidents. Calvin told us of two incidents that had happened the week of his interviews, one in which he was ignored and then patronized by the service staff at a local bar/restaurant and one in which insensitive comments were made about how poorly a Black student from Chicago spoke. Ron told us of being shadowed by clerks in stores and stared at when he arrived at the library with African American friends. Kenneth mentioned being called a “nigger” from a passing truck as “nothing big,” the sort of thing that happens every day. (p. 314–315)

It is likely that the seeming nonchalance to racism suggested by the words of these young men was more a coping mechanism to shield themselves from the hurtfulness of racism, or an artifact of the distant relationships existing between interviewers and interviewees than any indication of emotional reality. A few years ago, an African American friend who had moved to Ames from Puerto Rico told Richards that she and her sister no longer patronized a local department store because of its racist saleswomen. The friend, clearly angry, also described how her sister and her husband, who was white, had been spat upon from a passing truck in ISU’s campus town. Not long after Wallace’s interviews, Charles Lovelady, a 26-year-old African American from Des Moines, about 30 miles south of Ames, was beaten to death by two white bouncers at the Graffiti nightclub when he disputed their invocation of a dress code; the bouncers were subsequently acquitted by an all-white jury. Responding to the verdict in the November 4, 2000, issue of The Des Moines Register, Lovell Beaulieu wrote that,

264

Jane Davis and Anne Richards White people in this city and its suburbs need to understand blacks should not want to come to Iowa with all the racism that exists here. (…) Want anger? Here’s anger. Des Moines is a very friendly racist city. They don’t lynch you with a rope as they once did in Mississippi. They lynch you with a smile that masks a racist inner layer. I’ve faced more racist situations in Des Moines and its suburbs—especially in the area of customer service in restaurants, a computer store and the big bookstores—than in the cities of New Orleans; Columbus, Ohio; Gary, Indiana; and Biloxi, Mississippi, combined. (11A)

The MLC was created two years before the Lovelady incident, at about the time that Yasmin Blackburn (1999) was writing her critique of the dismal circumstances surrounding the lives of students of color on the ISU campus. Blackburn noted how the promotional materials she received from ISU in 1996 had been misleading. She summarized that, in fact, “there were not many minority students and they were not having fun” [emphasis ours]: From my very first visit to the campus for orientation, I was overwhelmed by how few minority students I saw. I also began to worry about how well I would adjust to the environment of Iowa State. The attitude of myself and my fellow minority student peers was at the very least despondent and uninterested in Iowa State. Many of these students felt unwanted and unhappy about being in Iowa. Another prevailing discussion was the betrayal we felt because of our perception of being recruited under false pretenses. A large number of these students absented themselves from Iowa State after the first semester, with a noticeable drop-out rate every semester thereafter. (p. 15)

Teachers can gauge the good faith that exists between institutions and students of color by, first, assessing their own and their institutions’ efforts to adapt to student needs. Where teachers and administrators are indifferent, retaining students will be much more difficult than where steps are taken to promote inclusiveness. Teachers who want to realize, and not merely espouse, the value of diversity might consider how one student of color described his impression of our large, land-grant, Midwestern educational institution: “Coming from a small community, it’s a little intimidating at times. 24,000 students are white. You find prejudice and bias. I kind of wonder if it’s dangerous sometimes for me to say things. You can’t run to your parents if someone does something to you.” The student concluded, however, with the statement that the MLC made “you feel welcome here in college.”

The Quest for Diversity in a Multicultural Learning Community

265

The ISU MLC mission and goals (stated below) were the blueprint by which the MLC steering committee contributed to achieving universitywide diversity goals. As we will describe, the importance of the MLC in student life and in the transition from high school was profound for many of its students. Readers may wish to reflect not only on whether their schools have articulated an appreciation for multiculturalism (the easy part), but whether their administration, their departments, their programs, and they themselves act on this commitment—e.g., through multicultural academic programs, multiculturally informed curricula at all levels, and a commitment to hiring multicultural faculty and appointing multicultural administrators at the highest levels—to do the hard work of making real such lofty goals as appear in strategic plans and mission statements. At times, teachers do act without the support of administration, as colleagues of ours were doing at Clarion University in Pennsylvania. As was pointed out at the 2002 Worldwide Forum on Education and Culture in Rome, Italy, teachers at this institution, a predominantly white institution much like ISU, had, with little or no administrative support, financial or otherwise, created a multicultural program for often-resistant undergraduate education majors—while they themselves continued to teach four courses per semester. We applauded their commitment to multiculturalism, but insist that teachers and students must not be expected to bear the heaviest burdens in institutional and social transformation. It will be our contention that the ISU MLC made strides in creating a means for practicing the diversity that ISU preaches. But we do not intend to paint a rosy picture of our university’s culture. Students quickly recognize that people of color are not represented adequately at ISU. And our own department, English, falls far short of reflecting the lofty phrases of the ISU Strategic Plan. As of 2007–2008, the department (with nearly 60 tenure-line faculty) had an abysmal faculty diversity record: one African American, one Asian American, one American Indian. In addition to these faculty, over the last 10 years there had been a Filipina American and a Latino, both of whom left the university before coming up for tenure. With such low numbers, faculty of color are disproportionately called on to respond to culture-based curricular gaps and “diversity crises” throughout the department. At a recent creative writing meeting, a white faculty member characterized the suggestion that the program seek a person of color for a position in poetry “the dumbest idea” she had ever heard. Not surprisingly, the program’s one faculty member of color (in Blackburn’s terminology) absented ISU soon after. The tenure-track ISU rhetoric and professional communication faculty, one of the largest in the

Jane Davis and Anne Richards

266

nation to our knowledge, has been made up of white members since its creation, with the exception of a Latina junior professor who left after approximately two years. We could say much more. But clearly there is much work that remains to be done in our own backyard, as elsewhere. Nevertheless, ISU’s espoused values concerning diversity are captured in the following documents. ISU’s Statement on University Culture says, “We value, embrace, and reflect human and intellectual diversity, inclusivity, and dignity in the environments we create, nurture, or influence to fulfill our mission and realize our aspiration.” ISU’s Statement on Core Values explains: Mutual Respect: Genuine caring among individuals fosters diverse viewpoints and opinions, and shows that the skills and capabilities of all stakeholders are valued. We value community and continuous learning in the interest of civility, social justice, and upholding shared decisionmaking. Inclusiveness: As a land-grant university, we are committed to the principles of equal access and opportunity. We constantly challenge ourselves to be proactive in protecting and advancing the interests of diverse populations and cultures, disenfranchised populations, and in breaking the barriers due to gender, race, physical abilities, economic level, and social status. We are committed to going outside our traditional constituent populations, to make higher education at Iowa State financially affordable, and geographically accessible.

ISU’s Strategic Plan, regarding key characteristics of its first of three goals, provides for, “Increased student, faculty, and staff diversity, with due regard to breadth of academic and supportive programs.” The ISU MLC mission and goals were intended to provide an action plan for declarations concerning the value of diversity. The basic mission is: ƒ ƒ ƒ

To foster and support a cohesive community of diverse students and staff in their commitment to represent American society at its best; To promote an understanding of the diversity that characterizes American society at large and the differences/commonalities within our own community; To encourage a commitment to academic, social, and community actions that bridge social differences and build on shared experiences.

The specific goals are: ƒ

To provide for a successful transition from high school to university and to ensure the retention and graduation of all participants;

The Quest for Diversity in a Multicultural Learning Community ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ

267

To encourage high academic achievement for all members of the community by providing a comprehensive support structure for academic success; To foster critical thinking skills regarding personal, social, and cultural issues; To encourage strong study skills as an essential component of academic success; To encourage a spirit of cooperation within the learning community and provide opportunities for commitment to the wider community.

The mission of the MLC was designed to enact the university’s mission—that is, to transform the statements from espoused values into actions.

Student responses to multicultural education Student responses regarding the usefulness of the MLC were consistently positive. Student opinions were solicited in 2001–2002 and 2002–2003; assessments incorporated focus group and survey responses. Greater than 70 percent of the student population participated in both studies. These assessments met the requirements for “institutional critique” (Porter et al., 2000) insofar as the assessments addressed learning structures beyond the composition classroom while remaining localized (within a learning community); the assessment also examined “institutions as rhetorical designs—mapping the conflicted frameworks in these heterogeneous and contested spaces, articulating the hidden and seemingly silent voices of those marginalized by the powerful, and observing how power operates within institutional space—in order to expose and interrogate possibilities for institutional change through the practice of rhetoric” (p. 631). Finally, and most importantly, by including recommendations and discussing in subsequent iterations the extent to which recommendations had in fact been applied, the MLC assessment project “actually enact[ed] the practice[s] it hopes for by demonstrating how the process of producing the publication or engaging in the research enacted some form of institutional change” (p. 628). While gathering and considering the assessment data, we bore in mind Richard J. Light’s (2001) call for assessment of diversity programs to take into account “the impact, educationally and personally, on students from all ethnic and racial backgrounds, of attending college with fellow students from diverse backgrounds” (p. 130). Although the data we discuss are mainly positive, and although we presented our findings both positive and

268

Jane Davis and Anne Richards

negative to ISU administrators, we wish to note that these assessments were not conducted for the purpose of aiding general recruitment at our institution. Diversity literature is especially vulnerable to (ab)uses of this type, as one student of color, then doctoral candidate Lucretia Carter, observed in her study of institutional communications at ISU and other post-secondary institutions, which she found to be representing themselves inaccurately to outsiders: Represented through [ISU’s recruitment materials] are images of an atmosphere conducive to academic and personal growth, career preparation, and safety for students [of color]. However, when representing members of subordinate cultures, the minority-specific recruitment packages attempt to portray a utopian college community. (…) Ruth Sidel, a speaker on social policy, might question the degree to which these representations are constructed, noting that they may mask actual discrimination and neglect. (1996, p. 68)

But we found in our assessments of the MLC, and by attending the Worldwide Forum on Education and Culture, that the ISU MLC had once been exceptional both in terms of its support among students and the financial support accorded it by the university administration. By extensively grounding our analysis in data from student surveys and focus groups, and by examining our learning community in its campus context, we hope to give others who are contemplating, or already engaged in, such a learning community some insights into what they might build on and what they should avoid. As mentioned, our assessments of the 2001–2002 and the 2002–2003 MLC elicited both quantitative and qualitative data by means of student focus groups and a survey. (The cohorts were approximately one-third Latino/a and Asian American, one-third African American, and one third white.) Questions were designed to investigate to what extent the community was achieving its mission and goals. 73 percent of MLC students participated in the first assessment, and 72 percent in the second. Answers obtained from the survey were very compatible with answers obtained from the focus groups. To lend student voices to the narrative, quotations representative of a pattern of student responses in focus groups were identified and have been presented throughout this report. The data showed that multicultural education can help ensure students of color do not feel like outsiders abandoned in a hostile world or like unwanted guests in someone else’s home. The importance of the MLC in a student’s adjustment to college was likely most profound for its students of color, a number of whom spoke to the issue in focus groups:

The Quest for Diversity in a Multicultural Learning Community

269

“When I came to ISU I was afraid that it was a big school and I was only one person, a minority. And then the MLC (…) let me know that there are people who are willing to help, that are concerned about your progress and that ISU is not only a white community, and that there are people that I can go to if I have problems. There are people that are willing to help me out.” “Being a black student is kind of weird because the black population is like two percent; [ISU] is a lot of white people. But (…) being in the MLC has made it easier to interact with white people personally. It kind of shows you (… ) can be yourself.” “Knowing that I was coming to a school with a significantly low minority rate, I think [the MLC] has definitely helped the welcoming process and makes you feel like you aren’t the only minority on campus. It gives you a way to meet other people and interact with other people and feel more at home, and it also got me to expand my knowledge of minorities to other races and white culture.” “One thing I liked about the program is that it shows ISU cares about their minorities and they are trying to make a difference as far as their numbers go. By having programs like this, it is a form of recruitment and it shows that they are making progress towards having a better diversity rate. That was encouraging about the program.” “The MLC kind of makes you feel like you are at home. I have to say that it helps you understand other cultures. It gives you a different view. It’s like when you first come here you think that this is a big campus and you are not going to make it, and you are going to be by yourself for all those four years, but then you come into the MLC and (…) get to know people (…) and you just feel comfortable.”

One student of color summarized how the MLC affected his overall impression of ISU as an educational institution in this way: “Iowa State is making an effort to improve the diversity of the campus. They know that every student on this campus is going to feel a little alone but they understand [that this issue] is a little different [for] minorities.”

Multicultural programs can facilitate student appreciation of pluralism We assert that ISU’s professional and financial support of the MLC indicated a degree of institutional recognition and an appreciation of pluralistic society. To the extent that this was so, students recognized

270

Jane Davis and Anne Richards

pluralism as a value of their university. As one white student complained, however, not everyone understood that “multicultural” and “minority” were distinct terms. Although non-members may have misunderstood the MLC mission to be that of serving students of color alone, the community was designed to facilitate the understanding of issues of race and ethnicity in American society by helping both students of color and white students make connections between their own lives and the lives of fellow students. This objective was much more feasible in the MLC than in the typical ISU class or learning community. Iowa State’s 80 learning communities (with one or two exceptions, including the MLC) were discipline-oriented, writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC) programs in which students were likely to meet and to interact exclusively with other white students (Huba et al., 2001). The extent of development, in terms of both writing skills and selfknowledge, accomplished by MLC students was a function of a multitude of factors. By eschewing a writing-across-the-curriculum for a rhetoric curriculum identifying difference as the key issue, the MLC avoided many of the problems identified by Greene (2001) in his study of honors students in a history of science WAC program. Greene found that students tended to struggle with assignments on the basis of perceived inauthenticity either of the assignment or of themselves as writers possessing requisite knowledge. Authenticity, then, cannot simply be a function of immersing students within the disciplinary activity of history and its poststructuralist assumptions. It must also be a function of whether students perceived the writing they were doing as authentic. This recognition calls into question constructivist views of learning that suggest teachers can simply construct authentic situations apart from how their students perceive the work they are doing. The findings from this study also call into question the position that because writing is situated within some activity systems, students will learn genres by virtue of participating in that activity system. (p. 561)

MLC students asked to address issues of their own race, class, and gender always had an “authentic” position from which to write.

Enhanced appreciation of pluralism can lead to intellectual growth for students By intellectual growth, we mean the result of insight and analytical thinking—not merely the mastery of skills in courses, but the broadening of the ability to process what is encountered in life. A number of students

The Quest for Diversity in a Multicultural Learning Community

271

described undergoing such transformation as a result of participating in the MLC. Transformations were linked to students coming in contact with peers and teachers from a wide variety of backgrounds. One white focus group member noted that in the MLC “when you talk to people from different backgrounds (…) then you can sympathize with them and you would compare it to what you’ve gone through, and you can just see, even though you’re from different backgrounds, you have a lot in common.” For awareness of race and ethnicity to be heightened in members of the dominant culture—those who often have an especially pressing need to develop awareness of difference—students of color must not be taken aside and “put in adjustment tanks,” as one student described that timehonored process. The self-knowledge that students gained as a result of participating in the MLC could be difficult to accept at times. This was because “new knowledge is uncomfortable; it takes assumptions, biases, and understandings and changes them, making learners face what they have not seen before” (Freire, 1987, p. 137). A white participant in the focus group stated, “I think that a lot of us, before coming here, and actually being [in the MLC] classified other people by their color. (…) I kind of had a grudge [against] certain people. (…) But after being here, you kind of come to a point where you realize we’re all the same.” Others admitted that before taking part in the MLC they had not believed they were prejudiced, but this assumption changed as a result of their participation. “With the discussions in class, by reading the books,” said one, “I began realizing that I actually did have prejudices against different ethnicities and races. [The MLC] has made me more open-minded.” “I think [the MLC] has made me aware,” said another, “of how many little prejudices I had and (…) didn’t really realize I had until we started talking about these ideas people had [of others] based on physical characteristics.” Such personal reflections arising from readings and from interpersonal experiences outside the classroom inspired conscious re-evaluations of what seemed normative views of fellow human beings, and resulted in what Freire describes as a liberating pedagogy that “teaches us, shapes us, reshapes us (…) strongly helps to clarify, to unveil the situations we are in” (p. 134). Not surprisingly, critical thinking about their own locatedness and patterns of belief and behaviors was at the heart of students’ intellectual change. One student observed that the MLC “made us question ourselves. Like, I’m Hispanic, but I grew up in a mostly white community. So I wasn’t really open to other races. Now I got to know more people and that

272

Jane Davis and Anne Richards

there are certain stereotypes about people.” Students noted, for instance, how valuable the visit of Dr. Faiza Derbel, a visiting scholar from Tunisia, had been to their English class. Derbel discussed her ideas about Islam and feminism in the Arab world. One student stated that this unit “just opened [his] eyes to have more respect for that religion. I had respect for that religion,” he said, “But after September 11 it kind of made it hard (…), [but I] found it very interesting to see how not all people believe in what the fundamentalists believe in. They want peace just like everybody else.” Another student articulated experiencing a crucial stage in the questioning of her own values: I think that as far as ethnicity, race, and gender go, [the MLC] has caused me not only to question other people around me but question issues and the way certain things work. Like the (…) educational systems, the media, and why things are [the way they are] and if that is necessarily the way things should be or if that is right. A lot of times we just take for granted what is on TV and the news and we (…) don’t critique it and see if there is any[thing] behind it as far as race goes. [The MLC] has caused me to question things like that and what we believe in.

Such comments strongly suggest that diversity education can be a catalyst for personal change. If educational institutions continue to develop and expand multicultural programs, the outcome will be, we trust, enhanced understanding across society.

Multicultural education can provide students with challenging and diverse academic opportunities Student attitudes were positive towards the multicultural reading and writing components of their English composition classes. (The courses used such works as American Mosaic, edited by Barbara Roche Rico and Sandra Mano; August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences; Luis Rodriguez’s Always Running; such films as the documentaries Promises, on the abortive attempts at friendship between Israeli and Palestinian children, and Seen but Not Heard, on undocumented workers from Mexico who died in the World Trade Center and their partners’ quests to find out what happened to them.) Students agreed strongly with the statement “My English class deepened my understanding of multicultural issues such as race, ethnicity, class, and gender,” as well as to a linked question: “My English teacher helped me improve my writing.” The positive feedback seemed due, at least in part, to a curricular focus on student analysis and discussion of experiences of multiculturalism, and reinforced the notion

The Quest for Diversity in a Multicultural Learning Community

273

that thinking critically, analyzing new ideas (in this case, ideas pertaining to race and diversity), and developing communication skills do go hand in hand for many students. Indeed, analysis of a pluralistic society seemed to go hand in hand with improving writing and analytical thinking skills. One student stated, “Our teacher wants us always to go deeper [in] our writing. (…) I feel that has helped me personally. (…) In the beginning, everyone was writing blah, blah papers, but he stresses to go deeper and (…) people get deeper in what they’re writing.” A student from the same class said that the teacher “asked questions that made my essays improve.” Another described how the MLC English class had helped him learn to evaluate his own writing: “In my English class, our teacher taught us to analyze things, not just to write things down and (…) just say stuff, but actually think [about] what you’re saying and back [it] up.” “In my English class,” said another, “We had to think about what we were reading and we would discuss it in our English class and our teacher would [say], ‘Why do you think this and how do you think this happened?’ So we learned to critically think.” Critical thinking and self-evaluation are essential aspects of life-altering learning. As a student points out in Making the Most of College, I think that any professor who is able to organize academic work in a way that draws students deeply into the ideas, yet simultaneously invites them to make a connection between abstract ideas and their own real lives, becomes an unforgettable professor. The learning that takes place in such a class transcends what I would call purely academic learning, and is really seared into our consciousness. And I stress how I especially appreciate any professor who does this while maintaining the highest academic standards. (Light, 2001, p. 113)

Freire’s (1987) assertions concerning liberating (as opposed to passive and classroom-bound) education stress that the classroom should lead students to reflect on, and to grapple with, the concerns of daily life. Freireian pedagogy is based on the assumption that the roots of the problems that classrooms discuss should be “beyond the classroom, in society and in the world. Precisely because of that, the context for transformation is not only the classroom but extends outside of it. The students and teachers will be undertaking what includes a process outside the classroom, if the process is to be a liberating one” (p. 33). One student described with what ease this personally meaningful, libratory type of learning could happen in the MLC: The program, she stated, “opened my eyes to a wider array of people (…) and I just [got] to know them and go have fun with them and eat food with them and participate in class with

274

Jane Davis and Anne Richards

them.” Another described taking part in an exciting, informal discussion of multicultural issues as a result of living in close contact with MLC members. “I was studying in the quiet zone [a study area in the dormitory],” she recalled, “And I was hanging out with some of my friends from another culture (…) and I got into deep conversations with them to learn [about] their culture.” Never before, she said, had she lived with people from diverse backgrounds, just “going to class with them, being their friends.”

The centrality of collaboration in creating linked courses to promote higher-ordered thinking Strongly positive student responses regarding linkages between personal and classroom learning were a feature of the MLC. Focus group participants also cited many instances in which they made connections between their English and LAS 150X classes and were able to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate different perspectives on the readings. As in many learning communities, course curricula were coordinated. In preparation for fall 2002, English instructors and the professor for LAS 150X met in the spring and summer of 2001 in meetings organized by Dr. Davis, MLC English curriculum and staff coordinator. During these sessions, instructors discussed ideas for classes and syllabi. The linkage between English composition and LAS 150X was defined as a conceptual one by means of which MLC students would be exposed to information providing multiple perspectives on multicultural issues. With one exception, composition courses and LAS 150X assigned different readings. English instructors planned to use multicultural topics to generate improvements in critical thinking and writing skills. This practice complemented the goal of encouraging students to analyze and to synthesize diverse materials. LAS 150X: Society, Values, and Change in a Diverse Nation, was a large lecture class with once-a-week small-group discussion sections. The readings consisted of such books as Rodriguez’s memoir about gang life in California, Always Running; Ole Rolvaag’s Giants in the Earth, about turn-of-the-century Norwegian immigrants facing the harsh environment and lonely adjustment to an isolated life of poverty in the desolate Dakota prairie; Carlos Bulosan’s seminal Filipino immigrant story, America Is in the Heart; and Pulitzer Prize-winning American Indian author N. Scott Momaday’s memoir The Names. In addition, several lectures were devoted to the changing census data during the 20th century, not only reflecting the

The Quest for Diversity in a Multicultural Learning Community

275

growing diversity of the country but also the sometimes simplistic and changing racial categorizations designated for racial minorities. Similar to the students’ responses regarding attitudes towards English classes, the data regarding attitudes towards LAS 150X were positive. Like the English classes, LAS 150X helped students consider and construct their understanding of historical and personal multicultural issues in an environment that valued difference. One focus group participant stated that LAS 150X “has help[ed] all of us (…) by getting to know ourselves a little bit more. And (…) to know (…) how we identify ourselves (…) [and thinking about] how each one of us sees ourselves in this world with all these cultures around us.” Related to these points were several students’ comments regarding the impact of the professor’s discussion of the distinction between identity and identification. One student stated that understanding this distinction made her better able to understand “somebody based on their identity rather than on their [external categorization] (…) that’s one thing I’ll take with me for the rest of my life.” Another student concluded that “before I had this class, you classified yourself basically [according to what] people told you (…) and this class has helped me (…) identify who I am.” For many students, the impact of LAS 150X carried beyond the classroom. This fact was reflected in the survey data regarding students’ ability to interact with those whose backgrounds were different. It was also reflected in comments made by students during focus groups. “I think,” said one student, regarding the lectures, “[they] showed us not only how we look [at] ourselves but how we judge other people. (…) They made us more conscious of stereotypes.” One student described the interrelated nature of the impact of LAS 150X lectures and recitation sections on students’ lives: “The thing I like [about the lectures is that they give] us historical aspects of multicultural issues and we [are] allowed to (…) apply [those] to the readings and in our discussion groups [and to] see how [they] actually work in our social setting. It kind of [makes] us question why things are in people’s lives and [makes] us question things in our own lives.” Focus group participants noted the level of cooperation between the two academic components of the MLC. “I think our English teacher tries to work around what LAS 150 was talking about,” mused one. “Like when [the courses] started to get into Latinos. (…) We (…) read the book Always Running in both classes and [the English instructor] started to talk about stereotypes and (…) what we learned in the MLC. I think they [English and LAS 150X] tried to work around each other and [tried] to have the same ideas.”

276

Jane Davis and Anne Richards

Faculty efforts to coordinate were recognized and appreciated by many students who were able to draw their own connections between course materials. Regarding analytical reading and writing in English classes, one student stated that it “helped us in LAS because we would think about what we were reading. That way, we improved our essays. We were improving in our English classes, but at the same time we were improving in LAS 150X because of our English classes.” “I just recently learned how to write a research paper,” added one, “And I had no clue how to do that before. I think that the English class is helping us. [In LAS 150, the professor] would pose us with a question, and the English classes are helping us answer the questions a little better because the papers are kind of timed and the topics are what [LAS 150] is talking about in the MLC course.” According to one student, LAS 150X and English complemented each other in teaching “us to think critically and also to open our minds and to gain a new perspective or more perspectives on issues.”

Vulnerabilities of diversity programs: A cautionary conclusion Here we return to a central issue raised in the opening pages of the essay: impediments to true institutional and personal transformation. We write in hopes that our readers may be helped to recognize warning signs of a diversity program in difficulty. At the end of the second year of the MLC, the director of the office of MSA left the university for another position. A replacement did not arrive for over a year, and thus no leader with advanced professional training in Student Affairs ran MSA or participated in the MLC. Instead, an illprepared graduate student was left to take on responsibilities that needed to be handled by an experienced professional: choosing, training, and supervising the peer mentors and developing programs that would work within the constraints of the academic pressures and obligations of the MLC. As a result, MSA events often were ill-timed and disruptive (e.g., an out-of-town shopping trip was planned the weekend before the last week of classes, a time when many major assignments were due). The university’s failure to hire a director of MSA in a timely manner and to “farm out” the work to an amateur was unfair both to the graduate student put in that position and to the MLC. During the period of rudderlessness in the Office of MSA, MLC students were often uncertain about the purpose of the mentoring groups, which they were required to attend once-perweek with peer mentors. Though the MLC Steering Committee recommended that these meetings be study sessions, the inadequate

The Quest for Diversity in a Multicultural Learning Community

277

supervision and lack of training given to peer mentors by MSA made it a hit-and miss proposition. In 2002, for instance, survey participants reflected the previous year’s mixed reaction by indicating, among other things, that peer mentors were most helpful as part of a social support system. Some students felt that the mentors and mentoring sessions were helpful, especially in providing a support group, but comments indicated that most students were uncertain about what to expect from the meetings. Students had a wide range of opinions about their mentors, and much depended on the nature of the sessions as well as on the needs of individuals students. Some students expecting academic help resented having to attend mandatory mentoring meetings that they perceived as “little social gatherings” or “interruptions in study.” Negative feelings about the peer mentoring sessions were reflected in the low rankings in the quantitative part of the assessment as well. The statement, “The group mentoring meetings helped me understand the readings in English and/or LAS 150X,” elicited a mean response of 2.59; the statement, “The group mentoring meetings helped me improve my study skills,” a mean response of 2.69. Representative statements reflecting this problem include one student’s declaration that “I never really came to the study groups because I didn’t have enough time. Sometimes I didn’t particularly feel like coming here until 9 a.m. and staying here until 11 p.m. I’m doing well in the class. It isn’t really helping or hindering me either way. I’m not saying eliminate study groups, but don’t make them mandatory.” This problem with the peer mentoring system was echoed in another student’s remark that, “I heard that some mentors didn’t do the reading and some didn’t attend the classes. Some of the [mentors] didn’t know anything about the content of the course.” The failure to adequately train and supervise mentors, to warn them not to be petty tyrants with first-year students or to pursue unwanted friendships (one male student complained vociferously about sexual harassment by a peer mentor) could certainly have caused worse problems for the program than it did. In an almost surreal incident, it was also highly upsetting to some students when news reports circulated that a student whom some MLC students lived near had died under mysterious circumstances in his room and that his body had been “moldering” for a week. The residence-life aspect of the MLC met with mixed results on other fronts as well. On the positive side, one student described how classroom learning was augmented in the residence halls and, in a sense, depended on the residence environment to help students make sense of what was an very challenging curriculum: “Living with people of all different

278

Jane Davis and Anne Richards

backgrounds, talking to them and getting to know them has made me (…) deal with [them] without judging people. I get to know more in a conversation than I hear in class because I get to experience [diversity.].” Another stated, “You make a whole bunch of connections (…) living with them, going to class with them, being their friends.” As challenging as the process of dealing with, and learning about, other cultures can be, students rose to the occasion, with one student characterizing it as “fun.” “The dorms are diverse,” she said. “I came from a White community so (…) it’s been really fun to be in a situation where everyone is different. (…) It’s just been really fun to just sit down and talk to people and ask questions I’ve always wanted answered because (…) people are (…) willing to share.” On the other hand, several students complained that they felt constrained by being around their fellow MLC classmates all of the time. In this regard, a few black students in focus groups stated that despite the diverse make-up of the MLC, living together in the dorm made them feel somewhat segregated from the larger ISU community, an outcome the opposite of what the MLC intended to achieve, obviously. There was a strong desire that resident assistants on floors with MLC students not be from the general ISU population but be former members of the MLC, and thus be able to give current members informed guidance. In addition, a contingent of students complained that they felt “left out” because many members of the learning community knew each other from the summer multicultural program for incoming first year students, APEX; these students already had formed bonds before the fall semester began. Indeed, the most consistently challenging aspect of our work was collaborating with the non-academic arms of the MLC. This was so in part because, as faculty members in the department of English, we were committed to goals that at times were in tension with the values of our colleagues across campus. The frustration was no doubt mutual. Understandably, student affairs professionals are concerned mainly with promoting social networking and stress relief among students who may at times find life on campus overwhelmingly demanding and lonely. As teachers, however, we held values and priorities that were, by necessity, somewhat different. From our perspective, the primary goal of the MLC was learning, the goal we also considered to be the overriding purpose of the university. Thus, to our minds, learning activities should normally have taken precedence over purely social ones, and we were uncomfortable with the fact that the MSA had begun requiring MLC students to attend “study group” sessions with a social focus that were actually distracting some from studying.

The Quest for Diversity in a Multicultural Learning Community

279

Occasionally, however, we felt that it made sense for the program to allow students time away from school; for instance, in the case of a death in the family. But here, too, we found that our values could be in conflict with those of the fiercely sociability-minded leadership of the MSA. For instance, one student whose relative was killed in a car accident wished to attend the funeral on a weekend when an MSA pumpkin-carving activity was planned, and was required to attend the MSA event. In another instance, a gay student was required to attend an MSA social event instead of attending a meeting on gay life on campus, which he had requested permission to take part in. In 2003, conflicts between the student affairs and academic arms of the program proved irresolvable, and the program was disbanded.

Conclusion Among the undergraduates he interviewed at Harvard, Light (2001) found that “the crux of student observations about learning from people with different backgrounds is that college offers a fundamentally different opportunity from most environments”: [The difference is the] shared value (…) that students will learn not just from professors, but also experiences with one another. Living together. Preparing for classes together. Arguing in classes together. Working together. Playing together. (pp. 132–33)

As this essay has described, a learning community dedicated to the values of pluralism and including students of diverse races and ethnicities has the potential: to help students of color negotiate their transitions to college; to help all students grow intellectually and thrive academically and socially; and, to enhance in all students an appreciation for diversity. While making more real an institution’s espoused commitment to pluralism, programs such as the learning community we have just described can lead to personal growth in students, diminish prejudice in students from a wide variety of backgrounds, contribute to their academic and social successes, and, most crucially, help them develop as critical thinkers and writers. Though a commitment to inclusiveness drove the MLC, to the extent that diversity programs include the histories and concerns of white students in their curricula, the question arises as to how the contradiction between the oppressors and the oppressed, as Freire (1987) frames it, is to be addressed by teachers and students. As perplexing, perhaps, is the question of how diversity programs can be effective, despite or ideally

280

Jane Davis and Anne Richards

because of their engaging with this contradiction, now that such programs are migrating from urban to rural, predominantly white communities such as ISU. Does it make sense to call for the expansion of the role of multicultural curricula at institutions where, given the dearth of teachers of color, the majority of teachers in a vastly expanded multicultural effort would almost certainly be white? The answers to these questions must reside in the conceptualization of pluralism so as to entail the holding of difference and shared humanity in something like a balance. White teachers do well to question their “right to teach” in a classroom concerned with difference, much as the preservice teachers described by Wolf, Ballentine and Hill (1999, p. 136) questioned the right of outsiders to write about other cultural groups. Obviously, the issue of authenticity in regard to teaching about difference in a multicultural setting will arise regardless of the race of the teacher. Like the best authors of multicultural literature, the best teachers of multicultural curricula will possess a degree of authority in regard to their own position and have an imagination sufficient to make profound connections with students from backgrounds different from their own. In our view, a sense of their cultural selves and the compelling need for passionate imagining can help make teachers as well as students among the most vibrant and engaged in multicultural settings on any campus. We will close with an observation by an MLC student whose words sum up what so many of the young people we had the pleasure and privilege of learning with believed about their experience. His words, simple as they are, can be taken to heart by anyone who strives to appreciate difference, value other perspectives, and respect others without restrictions (conscious or unconscious) based on race, ethnicity, nationality, or gender. I think that we need to find some common ground and people can get to know each other and maybe like [another student] said about having a discussion among each other, it brings up tears, and that is good. That means that people are thinking and responding to each other, and I think that we really need to be empathetic with one another to truly [understand] each other.

References Banks, J.A. (1995). Multicultural Education: Historical development, dimension, and practice. Banks, J.A. & McGee Banks, C.A. (eds.). In Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education. New York: Macmillan.

The Quest for Diversity in a Multicultural Learning Community

281

Beaulieu, L. (2000). Angry Response to Bouncer Verdict is Justified. The Des Moines Register, November 4, 11A. Blackburn, Y.A. (1999). Visual Communication of and for Minorities: Interrogating the campus images in Iowa State recruitment/promotional materials. Master’s Thesis, Iowa State University. Carter, L.O. (1996). Visual Considerations When Designing Publications Featuring and Targeting Minority Students: A study of minority representation in college and university recruitment material. Master’s Thesis, Iowa State University. Davis, J. & Richards, A. (2007). Teachers of Multiculturalism as Subjects of Transformative Learning. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 79–95. Eckel, P., Hill, B. & Green, M. (1998). On Change: En route to transformation. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education Center for Institutional and International Initiatives. Freire, P. & Shor, I. (1987). A Pedagogy for Liberation. New York: Bergin and Garvey. Greene, S. (2001). The Question of Authenticity: Teaching writing in a first year college history of science class. Research in the Teaching of English, 18, 525–569. Huba, M., McFadden, M. & Epperson, D. (2001). Final Report of ISU Undergraduate Education Survey 2000: A comparison of learning community participants and non-participants. Ames: Iowa State University. Kellogg Commission (2000). Renewing the Covenant: Learning, discovery, and engagement in a new age and a different world: The Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land Grant Universities. New York: Office of Public Affairs, NASULGC. Learning Community Assessment Subcommittee, Iowa State University (2002). 2001–2002 Report. Ames: ISU Learning Community Institute. Light, R.J. (2001). Making the Most of College: Students speak their minds. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Nieto, S. (1996). Affirming Diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (2nd ed.). New York: Longman. Office of the President, Iowa State University (2002). Strategic Plan for 2002–2005. Retrieved on February 17, 2007, from: www.iastate.edu/~president/2005/plan/cover.html Office of the Provost, Iowa State University (2002). Student Handbook. Retrieved on February 17, 2007, from: www.public.iastate.edu/~provost_info/advising/Handbook/APEX.html

282

Jane Davis and Anne Richards

Porter, J.E., Sullivan, P., Blythe, S., Grabill, J.T. & Miles, L. (2000). Institutional Critique: A rhetorical method for change. College Composition and Communication, 51, 610–642. Sleeter, C.E. & Grant, C.A. (1987). An Analysis of Multicultural Education in the United States. Harvard Education Review, 57, 421– 443. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2000). NCES 2000–062. The Condition of Education. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Printing Office. Wallace, D. & Bell, A. (1999). Being Black at a Predominantly White University. College English, 61, 307–328. Wolf, S.A., Ballentine, D. & Hill, L. (1999). The Right to Write: Preservice teachers’ evolving understandings of authenticity and aesthetic heat in multicultural literature. Research in the Teaching of English, 34, 130–184.

CHAPTER FOUR TEACHING AND LEARNING ACROSS BORDERS IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM

THE INTERNET & THE INNERNET: A PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION IN THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGY LOUIS SILVERSTEIN

The story goes that Mahatma Gandhi, when asked what he thought of Western civilization replied: “It would be a good idea.” Given that Gandhi allegedly uttered these words at a time when “civilized” Great Britain was acting in a most uncivilized manner with respect to its treatment of colonized India, all in the name of bringing “learning” to the unlearned, I would suggest that a similar guarded stance be applied to integrating technology, as exemplified by an Internet gone viral, into the teaching/ learning process. If technology is harnessed in such a manner as to serve pedagogy, that is, being a means to an end, it will assume its rightful place in the learning environment. If the teaching process is made subservient to the technology, however, educators will fall ever more deeply into the technological trance that our modern age is so susceptible to. Such a frame of mind is illustrated by viewing the world through a lens of technological functionality in contrast to a lens of wonder and awe; for example, being in the presence of an earthly treasure known as a tree and looking at this marvelous creation gracing one's life with its very existence, but seeing nothing but lumber and profit, never beauty and wisdom. Although those individuals walk and talk and calculate, they are among the living dead. Contrary to the belief that a technological advancement is in and of itself a positive development in the course of human affairs, technology is inherently amoral, power and control hungry, relentless, and hard. For one to be caught up in the technological trance mindset, whether knowingly or without intent, contains the strong possibility of incorporating such qualities into the character of one's persona. In the case of the famous breakthrough science fiction film 2001 by Stanley Kubrick—and what is science fiction but truth ahead of its time— we have Hal, a supercomputer, created by humans, acting out the fantasies of its creators, not so much out of control as wanting to take total control

The Internet and the Innernet

285

away from the inefficient, feeling humans, willing to sacrifice any humanistic principle as well as any human standing in its way of being the dominant force of the future. In the instance of The Manhattan Project (to develop the first nuclear weapon in World War II), we have scientists and technicians so caught up in the desire to succeed at all costs that they are willing to risk sacrificing the earth and its peoples in order to see if their creation would “work.” Pursuing the possibilities of science and technology to its outer limits, in what is aptly described as an amoral milieu, turned these men of intelligence and reason into headless horsemen, for they were ready to entertain the possibility of a chain reaction of explosions of such scope and force that would set the earth afire. The underlying danger we face as a technologically worshipping and entranced culture is that the utilitarian becomes predominant, and that the humanistic, that which values reflection and thoughtfulness, will come to be viewed as impediments to progress. What are some of the basic issues, concerns, questions, and challenges facing those involved in bridging technology and a humane education? It appears as if the greatest sin of our time is not to avoid giving thought to the nature of one's relationship to self, others, and to the earth and its myriad life forms but, rather, not to be connected, not to be tuned in and online; in essence, not to be continually busy with matters of the external world. More information has replaced to some very large extent more compassion, more love, and more justice as what the world needs right now. What is to be gained and what is to be lost if electronic “expert systems” and other forms of online self-instruction replace the need for live faculty members involved in interpersonal involvement with their students? How does the educational matrix provided by person-to-person contact differ from that obtained through media? I know by virtue of feedback from my students that teaching and learning in my classroom is most effective, the lessons of the day embedded in mind and practiced to a greater extent, when my students and I are “touched” by the physical presence of our bodies, i.e., when more senses are brought into play. The teachers who had the greatest impact on me—the son of eastern European immigrants, one a high school dropout and the other never going beyond third grade, living in a Brooklyn, New York, slum neighborhood, including the one, Professor Bernie Bellush, my City College of New York history professor who caused me to change my professional aspirations from accounting to political science—were those who

286

Louis Silverstein

expressed and took an interest in me as a person as well as a student, with my life outside of the classroom as well as inside of it. I vividly remember to this day, more than 40 years ago, Professor Bellush, placing his arm on my shoulder when I doubted my ability to compete with children from more advantaged backgrounds, as he spoke to me words of encouragement and hope, human to human contact that both served to inspire me and to keep my eyes on the prize. As ever-increasing numbers of the world’s population come online, the state of affairs allow the world’s leading experts to be brought into our homes, classrooms, and workplaces. Does this not create the possibility that such experts would be transformed into gurus who speak the truth and nothing but the truth to become the order of the day? Answers, not questions, taking in the truth not reflection, would become the educational norm. Teaching and learning can be transformed into a telling of the known, with the learner being more a passive recipient than an engaged and contributing participant in the pursuit of knowledge. And let us remember that Socrates was compelled to drink hemlock because he taught his students to question, not because he provided them with answers. Is there not a difference between a virtual institution of higher education and one that is virtuous? Technology is centered on getting the job done, not with whether or not the task being undertaken is a function worthy of being undertaken. Developing systems of mass extermination that work quickly and efficiently might very well allow a university to build and equip laboratories that are of a high order, but are not very likely to result in the fostering of the higher self of its community. Turning our attention to the Innernet, within each of us there exists a source of knowledge and wisdom that can be tapped into in a way that is contrary to the modus operandi of the technological frame of mind. Meditation, for example, a centering and stilling of the self, is not a means of going where you want to go. To the contrary, it places one in a state of higher consciousness, thus fostering a favorable atmosphere for the development of the deeper awareness to which one’s natural being is attracted. As one's sensitivity to the deeper dimension of one's own being develops through the daily practice of centering, one is afforded the opportunity to become aware of the inner teacher which arises at times in everyday activity, thereby enabling the self to become connected to a world not previously perceived, moving toward a fuller level of reality that is always present and in which we are invited to participate.

The Internet and the Innernet

287

Centering is a way of awakening to the deeper reality in which we are immersed. We rarely think of the air that we breathe; yet, it is in us and around us always. In a similar fashion the presence of the inner teacher is always with us. The purpose of centering is to awaken us to what has always been there. Thoughts are like ocean waves. Rising and falling, they see only their own motion. They say, “I am a wave,” but the greater truth, which they do not see is, “I am an ocean.” There is no separation between the two whatever the wave might think. When a wave settles down, then it recognizes that its source, the ocean—infinite still and eternal—was always there. The same holds true for the mind. When it is thinking, it is all activity. When it stops thinking, it returns to its source in stillness. What is the nature of this source? If one were to pick a fruit from an apple tree and split it open to see what is inside, one would find many small seeds. Now, if one were to take one seed and split it open, one would seemingly see nothing. The subtlest essence of this fruit appears as nothing. Yet, despite appearances, it is from nothing that apple trees as well as we originate. Meditation returns us to that nothingness, that stillness where the universe and the self are one and the same—what I call the Innernet. If our mission as educators is to educate the student as a whole person, then accessing the Innernet must be taught along with accessing the Internet and other forms of connecting with what is out there, listening to, and incorporating into, our lives the voice from within as well as from beyond the self. Otherwise we are not teaching the student to value what one possesses as person, the richness within, but serving the student to value what one acquires. Let me close with a little tale that speaks to the essence of what I hope I have conveyed to you. When I returned from a recent sabbatical, my colleagues asked me what I had done with my time? I responded truthfully: “Rest, contemplation, being quiet in nature, my family, and most importantly myself.” Inevitably, with rare exception, my words were followed by this response from my peer: “Yes, but what did you do?”

THE SEVEN LAWS OF TEACHING: NEW METHODS FROM AN OLD PARADIGM BRUCE SWAFFIELD

Introduction Anticipating the future of educational systems and institutions throughout the world is an enormous challenge. Only those academies that have learned from the past will be able to navigate the uncharted seas ahead. By looking back, reflecting on the true art and science of education, we can become more certain of making progress in the decades ahead. At the same time, re-examining the whole process of teaching and learning might allow us to re-discover concepts that we have forgotten—certain universal principles and truths that have not changed even in this period of ever-changing technology. The first step toward assessing where institutions go from here is to remember what brought us to this place in time. What has allowed us, for example, to teach each new generation of learners despite dramatic differences in thought, values, background, and culture? How have we been able to train and educate students whether they lived in India, China, Russia, Brazil, or Western Europe? Where have we been successful and where have we failed? When have we achieved the most for society and, thereby, created a new course for all mankind? Knowing the answers to these simple questions is the key to education in the 21st century. What we can learn about the past will lead us in the right direction in the future, even though we do not know where technology is taking us. “Increasingly, educators are meeting with cable operators; television, publishing, computer and software executives; and an assortment of entrepreneurs and their funders” said Arthur Levine (1999, p. 11A), president of Teachers College at Columbia University. What’s going on is the convergence of the information, education and digital ages in a way that will have a profound and growing impact on U.S. colleges and universities. Higher education must seize the moment or risk marginalization. (p. 11A)

The Seven Laws of Teaching

289

Educators everywhere, in all nations, must approach this era of technology as the dawning of a new age, much like the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution. The use of computers, online courses, teleconferencing, distance education, and the Internet will allow teachers to teach as they have never done before. Revolutionary advances in communication and technology will make the road ahead easier, smoother, because we can now access data from anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds. The greatest problem, however, may be in deciding what to do with all of these tools and devices. How do we employ this equipment and how do we take advantage of technology so that we are not being controlled by our own designs? It is essential, now more than ever, to take time to remember what education is truly all about and what we are trying to achieve in schools everywhere. If colleges and universities refuse to re-examine how they carry out their historic missions of research, teaching and service in a world of changing technology, the possibility of losing control over higher learning is as real as today’s Internet and tomorrow’s wired world. For the sake of meeting the aspirations of a new and expanding body of learners, as well as the nation itself, we simply cannot afford to let this happen. (Levine, 1999, p. 11A)

The challenge that lies ahead of us is how to make the transition from the traditional classroom, with all its personal interaction and energy, to the virtual classroom where professors and teachers never actually meet hand in hand. We must find methods that will give us the opportunity to simulate the sort of active learning we are leaving behind as we move into cyberspace. To do so, we need to understand the basic ingredients of teaching: how learning occurs and what motivates the mind to explore new subjects.

Learning from the past It is imperative for us to understand that the whole process of teaching and learning has not changed substantially through all the many centuries of teachers and students. The purpose of education—the process of imparting or acquiring certain types of knowledge—has been the same since the days of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Only the methods and platforms of education have varied in thousands of years, whether we are talking about the Socratic method of interrelated questions and answers or a threaded discussion in an online course in world masterpieces. The greatest dilemma now facing all of academia is how to plug into the

290

Bruce C. Swaffield

current of constantly changing technology. What might at first seem like obstacles to learning can, in fact, become opportunities in disguise. When we begin to understand the basic principles of teaching, and apply them to this new period of computerization, then the task of getting students to learn how to learn becomes more manageable and effective. The first task of any school should be to teach students how to learn. Whether we use computers, blackboards, or drawings on paper, teaching relies on certain laws or principles that have changed little through time. What was true in ancient Greece or Rome still is true today. We still rely on the same principles and tenets, especially when it comes to education. In The Seven Laws of Teaching, John Milton Gregory (1884) explained that the art of education is a two-fold process: [T]he art of training and the art of teaching. These two great branches of the education art—training and teaching—though separable in thought, are not separable in practice. We can only train by teaching, and we teach best when we train best. The proper training of the intellectual capacities is found in the acquisition, elaboration, and application of the knowledge and skills which represent the heritage of the race. (p. iii)

Gregory, who founded and organized what eventually became the University of Illinois, believed that there were certain laws of teaching “which are present in every instance of true teaching. (…) Teaching has its natural laws as fixed as the laws of the planets or of growing organisms. It is a process in which definite forces are employed to produce definite results and these results follow as regularly and certainly as the day follows the sun” (p. 15). The laws of nature and physics are all around us, yet we overlook the most elementary of principles: that there are certain rules to learning. Aristotle said that we learn through imitation, by watching and observing others. He believed that such mimesis was as natural to life as the science of logic or reason. For each desired effect, there is a fixed cause. “What the teacher does, he does through natural agencies working out their natural effects. Causation is as certain—if not always so obvious nor so easily understood—in the movements of mind as those of matter. The laws of the mind are as fixed as material laws” (p. 15). In other words, teaching is a natural, normal, and holistic process; organically, each element triggers a certain result. By presenting a lesson in a certain way or by using a particular method, the outcome and conclusion are quite predictable. Using Aristotle’s example, we can expect one to learn more about human emotions by watching a Greek tragedy. The elements of pathos and ethos produce powerful feelings, as he noted in Poetics. The same relationships are at work in teaching. If we plan for

The Seven Laws of Teaching

291

students to learn something, we must teach toward that end.

The universal laws of teaching Gregory’s precepts on teaching are as current today as when his book was published more than 100 years ago. His seven laws may, indeed, be the answers we need to unlock the doors of learning in the 21st century. In stating the seven laws as rules, Gregory outlines each one as he first addresses the teacher directly: 1) 2) 3) 4)

5) 6) 7)

Know thoroughly and familiarly the lesson you wish to teach; Gain and keep the attention and interest of the pupils upon the lesson; Use words understood in the same way by the pupils and yourself; Begin with what is already well known to the pupil upon the subject and with what he has himself experienced—and proceed to the new material by single, easy, and natural steps, letting the known explain the unknown; Stimulate the pupil’s own mind to action; Require the pupil to reproduce in thought the lesson he is learning; Review, review, review, reproducing the old, deepening its impression with new thought, linking it with added meanings. (pp. 19-20)

It is essential to note here that there are seven specific factors involved in any act of teaching and learning. Whether we are instructing children in Latin American about their rich Spanish history and heritage, or trying to explain precise principles of accounting to students in Thailand, the practices are the same: there must be a teacher, a learner, a common language, and a lesson (p. 20). In addition, we also must factor in the teacher’s work as well as that of the student. The amount of effort put forth by both the teacher and student will, in large measure, determine the level of success. Finally, there must be a system of constant review in order to make sure the student has learned what the teacher has explained. There is profound truth in the adage that practice makes perfect. The more we study something, the more we understand it. Though all learning culminates in this last step, each of these elements “is a distinct entity or fact of nature. (…) Whether the lesson be a single fact told in three minutes, or a lecture occupying as many hours, the seven factors are all present. None of them can be omitted, and no others need be added” (p. 17). Gregory’s first law, that “the teacher must know that which he would teach”, is primary to the total art of education (p. 33). He explained that

292

Bruce C. Swaffield

knowledge in all of its many forms, from the theoretical to the practical, must come into play whenever a teacher enters the classroom. That we cannot teach without knowledge seems too simple for proof. How can something come out of nothing, or how can darkness give light? To affirm this law seems like declaring a truism: but deeper study shows it to be a fundamental truth—the law of the teacher. (p. 33)

In a time of such rapid and sudden changes—from history to politics to technology to economics—trying to teach any subject is extremely difficult because the pool of knowledge expands and deepens at alarming rates. We are “an information society [that] puts a premium on intellectual capital. (…) Since the half-life of knowledge is shorter than ever, there is increasing pressure to remain at the forefront of knowledge use and production” (Levine, 1999, 11A). Educators in the next decade alone will need to spend more and more time re-educating themselves; they will need to continue learning about advances in their own fields, but they also will have to study what is going on in other disciplines both at home and abroad. At the same time, teachers will need to be working with the modern tools and platforms of technology, exploring innovative ways to use computers and the Internet. What may be ahead is an invisible classroom without walls where teachers communicate all they know— their complete corpus of training and knowledge—through nothing more than a computer. The law of the teacher will be the most primary of all because it will challenge educators to look beyond themselves, into a world they cannot see. We must have vision to envision the future. The law of the learner is the second key element in education. Gregory advocated that “the learner must attend with interest to the material to be learned” (p. 37). Put simply, the learner must be focused on what is being taught. Gregory likened this aspect of education to one engaged in a piece of music or being caught up in the wonderful memory of a past experience. When our attention is directed “upon some object”, then we are wholly engaged. Accordingly, there are three different types or levels of attention that impact teaching and learning. Passive attention is the “primitive, instinctive type of attention—the attention of everyone at some times during the day, especially when one is tired or when one is in a playful mood. (…) One is ‘passive’ because one is letting the forces that play about him control the mental life” (p. 39). Second is active attention, such as when we are aware of the things going on around us and we make a conscious decision where to direct our thoughts and attention. “The essential characteristic of the human mind is that it can control, rather than be controlled by, the forces that surround it” (p. 39). An example might be

The Seven Laws of Teaching

293

working through some problem or difficulty, but not being concerned with what is going on around us. A better illustration is a child who is concentrating so intensely on watching television that she cannot hear her mother calling. Our minds are most active and alert when we are able to block out anything that threatens to distract us from the task at hand. The third type of attention is secondary passive attention, which grows out of both active attention and when we are truly absorbed in some task or study (p. 40). To Gregory, secondary passive attention is critical in teaching. Generally speaking we learn most easily and most economically when we are ‘absorbed’ in our work, when the objects that we are trying to fix in mind and remember permanently really attract us in their own right, so to speak—when our learning is so fascinating that it simply ‘carries us with it’. (pp. 39-40)

The responsibility of the teacher is to lift the student to a level where secondary passive attention can occur. As a professor, I must inspire and engage my students so they are at the place, mentally and physically, where learning can occur most efficiently and effectively. “The duty of the teacher is essentially not that of a driver or a taskmaster but rather that of a counselor and guide” (p. 42). As a facilitator to learning, the teacher is always trying to pass along knowledge. But there is much more to the process than what was once called the have and have-not theory of education. Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, students throughout the United States were receiving what they needed intellectually in order to succeed in life. The professors, who had the wisdom, were putting their knowledge into the heads of these young minds. “The notion that the mind is only a receptacle in which to stow other people’s ideas is entirely incorrect. The nature of the mind, as far as we can understand it, is that of a power, or force, activated by motives” (p. 44). No one can open the mind of anyone and simply fill it with information. There must be a conscious willingness and a desire, as Gregory explained, for learning to occur. Learning always pushes us higher, toward new vistas, but we must want to go there. As future educators think about using computers in the classroom and in online courses, they will have to seek innovative ways to connect with the minds of their students. New methodologies and strategies, incorporating the effects of both visual presentation and critical thinking, must be created in order to challenge students to learn. We cannot expect students to learn simply by using a computer to search for resources and information. The third law is the law of language: “the language used in teaching

294

Bruce C. Swaffield

must be common to the teacher and learner” (p. 54). Writing more than a century ago, Gregory realized that both the student and the teacher must be able to communicate even though the teacher possesses much more knowledge and wisdom. “The vocabulary of the teacher may be many times larger than that of the pupil, but the child’s ideas are represented by his vocabulary, and the teacher must come within this sphere of the child’s language power if he would be understood” (p. 54). Communication is essential for people in all walks of life, but it is crucial in the art of education. In the past 15 years, educational theorists, such as William Bennett, Alan Bloom, and E.D. Hirsch (1988, p. xi), have come to recognize that “common knowledge or collective memory allows people to communicate, to work together, and to live together”. In the 21st century we will face unique problems in communication, not so much because of differences in language or location, but due to the connotation and tone of the words we use. Words can have different meanings and convey certain emotions depending on how they are used. As Gregory pointed out, Words that are poor and weak to the young and untrained may be eloquent with many rich and impressive meanings to the mature, trained mind. Thus the simple word art may mean ‘craft’ to some minds, a mechanic’s ‘trade,’ or even the pretence of a hypocrite; to a Reynolds or a Ruskin it is also the expression of all that is beautiful in human achievement, and of all that is elevating in civilization. It speaks of paintings, sculpture and cathedrals, and of all that is beautiful in nature, in landscape, sky, and sea—all that is noble or picturesque in history and life—all that is hidden in the moral and aesthetic nature of man. Men’s words are like ships laden with the riches of every shore of knowledge which their owner has visited; while the words of the child are but toy boats on which are loaded the simple notions he has picked up in his brief experience. (p. 56-57)

With the advent of e-mail, chat rooms, threaded discussions, and journaling, teachers will have to re-establish a common language not only between themselves and the students, but also among the students themselves, especially if learners from all corners of the world are participating in the same online course. Words, even when translated from one language to another, take on different meanings and nuances because of culture, race, and age. In our schools today, we can no longer assume that students understand what we are saying simply because we live in the same country or have the same vocabulary. It is essential for us to communicate on the same level using the same terms and definitions. In the fourth law, Gregory espoused that all learning must progress by gradual steps based on what the student already knows. “The truth to be taught must be learned through truth already known. (…) [T]he new or

The Seven Laws of Teaching

295

unknown can be explained only by the familiar and the known” (p. 68). That we must build on a certain foundation of knowledge is elementary. Yet, teachers and students often forget what they have already covered and discussed. Past courses and lessons many times are put away as students move on to newer material and information. Gregory contended, however, that, The pupil who has mastered one lesson, half knows the next. (…) But the philosophy of this law goes deeper still. It must be remembered that knowledge is not a mass of simple, independent facts; it is made up of the experience of the race crystallized and organized in the form of facts together with their laws and relations. Facts are linked together in systems, associated by resemblances of one sort or another. Each fact leads to, and explains, another. The old reveals the new; the new confirms and corrects the old. (p. 68)

Today’s learners, more than ever before, do not have a strong grasp of various subjects—literature, history, science, psychology—as they move from one level to the next. Even on the graduate level, students frequently seem to forget everything they learned in a beginning course as they go up the ladder to the next level. Gregory observed that, “Oftentimes past acquisitions are considered goods stored away, instead of instruments for further use” (p. 70). It is increasingly difficult for teachers to lift their students to greater learning because: 1) students do not see the intellectual connections between one course and another even in good liberal arts colleges; 2) we live in the information age where society is constantly being bombarded with too much data; and, 3) modern technology is advancing so rapidly that it has the potential to control our future, especially how it is used in education, if we are not careful. Two centuries ago, teachers in the United States struggled with similar issues—though in much different ways. Gregory commented that, Teachers [in the mid-1800s] frequently fail to place their pupils in the attitude of discoverers. Children should learn to use what they have already been taught in the discovery of new problems. [Another] common fault is the failure to show the connections between parts of the subject that have been taught and those that are yet to come. (p. 80)

With all of the technology we have today, we need to be careful we do not misuse the same tools that can facilitate learning as never before in the history of the world. We must use the Internet, for example, to give students a chance to be pioneers in their time. It is up to teachers to inspire students—to show them how to discover the kinds of knowledge that will

296

Bruce C. Swaffield

make their lives richer and more rewarding. They need to be taught that each step elevates them, but each move forward is predicated on where we have been. In teaching and learning, this element means making connections between the past and present. We must build on what we already know and possess in order to progress toward a new plane. The law of the teaching process is the fifth in Gregory’s list. “Excite and direct the self-activities of the pupil, and as a rule tell him nothing that he can learn himself” (p. 84). The philosophy behind this law is to make sure that teachers create conditions conducive for learning. True teaching, then, is not that which gives knowledge, but that which stimulates pupils to gain it. One might say that he teaches best who teaches least; or that he teaches best whose pupils learn most without being taught directly. (…) The great aims of education are to acquire knowledge and ideals, and to develop abilities and skills. Our law derives its significance from both of these aims. The pupil must know for himself, or his knowledge will be knowledge in name only. (p. 84)

What good does it do, for example, for a person to read three or four newspapers from different parts of the world each day if he does not begin to draw logical conclusions concerning trends in world politics, the differences in cultures, or the similarities in human nature? The Internet can bring the world to us in remarkable ways, but we as educators need to teach students how to use this information, to digest it, so that they can discover more about themselves and others. When the teacher is able to motivate students to learn for themselves, “the pupils become thinkers— discoverers. They master great truths, and apply them to the great questions of life. They invade new fields of knowledge” (p. 102). This special law, then, builds on the previous two: here the student builds on previous knowledge and, at the same time, begins a quest for higher learning—the type of learning that transcends what is already known. “The teacher merely leads the march. Their reconnaissance becomes a conquest. Skill and power grow with their exercise” (p. 102). At this stage, students become empowered; they have experienced the exhilaration of learning for themselves. The sixth and seventh laws deal, respectively, with the overall learning process and the importance of constant review. Both laws are important in their own right, but both have to do with the practical aspects of learning—putting theory into practice, so to speak. The sixth law involves the learning process in that, “The pupil must reproduce in his own mind the truth to be learned” (p. 106). For any real learning to occur, the student has to transfer the theoretical (textbook

The Seven Laws of Teaching

297

knowledge) to the practical (experiential knowledge). Christopher Columbus may have studied charts and maps for years, but he did not become a sailor until he traveled across the Atlantic to discover a new continent more than 1,000 miles away. This great explorer used his limited knowledge of the world and sailing to propel him on a new adventure—a journey that allowed him to learn more about himself by building on truths already known in his day. We are living in an era of artificial intelligence; where people can access all kinds of information on any subject at anytime. They can then repeat or report what they have read. Unfortunately, in such cases no learning has occurred, though it might seem so, because the person has not “reproduce[d] in his own mind the truth to be learned” (p. 109). Computers and the Internet are remarkable tools, but they are only part of the overall course of learning. These are mere resources, similar to books, journals, periodicals, and encyclopedias, that allow us to gather and collect vast quantities of data. It is then up to the wise student to work with and apply the information to some great task. Then, and only then, will learning occur. Knowledge is a vehicle and the student must be guided in how to use it correctly. In the seventh and final law, Gregory stressed the importance of constantly reviewing both what the student knows and is learning. “The completion, test and confirmation of the work of teaching must be made by review and application” (p. 116). The aim of the seventh law is “to perfect knowledge, to confirm knowledge and to render this knowledge ready and useful” (p. 116). But, Gregory cautioned, review is more than a repetition. A machine may repeat a process, but only an intelligent agent can review it. (…) [A] repetition by the mind is the rethinking of a thought. (…) Even in the best-studied book, we are often surprised to find fresh truths and new meanings in passage which we had read perhaps again and again. It is the ripest student of Shakespeare who finds the most freshness in the works of the great dramatist. The familiar eye discovers in any great masterpiece of art or literature touches of power and beauty which the casual observer cannot see. So a true review always adds something to the knowledge of the student who make it. (…) If we would have any great truth sustain and control us, we must return to it so often that it will at last rise up in mind as a dictate of conscience, and pour its steady light upon every act and purpose with which it is connected. (p. 118)

By review, Gregory implied much more than rote performance. The more we repeat a process, the more we understand it. As we become more acquainted with a work of literature, for instance, the deeper we go into

298

Bruce C. Swaffield

the parts that make up the whole. State-of-the-art computers make this final process of review much quicker and more efficient. Like a warehouse, we can store vast amounts of information on hard drives. Still, it is up to us as humans to take what we are gathering and let it drive us ever closer to new worlds of learning. Gregory’s seven laws can help us as we use this new technology, with its marvelous electronic platforms, to deliver education to students today. These are the fundamental guidelines that “are like seven hilltops of different heights scattered over a common territory. As we climb each in succession, many points in the landscapes seen from their summits will be found included in different views, but always in a new light and with fresh horizon” (p. 25). Teaching and learning have never changed because we as humans have not changed since the beginning. Our thoughts, aspirations, and feelings today are much the same as those who lived more than 5,000 years ago. Teaching still requires the same the basic factors and components: a teacher, a learner, a common language, a lesson, the teacher’s work, the learner’s work, and the review work. Using these ingredients, Gregory postulated a parallel between the act of education and the act of farming: “[I]t is obvious that when seeds, soil, heat, light, and moisture come together in proper measure, plants are produced and grow to the harvest” (p. 25). Like seeds, our students need the right materials in order to mature and grow. The delivery systems of today may be vastly different than even five years ago, but students and people are no different. We learn in the same manner. To be sure, we now have PowerPoint presentations rather than blackboards, computers instead of paper and pencils, and online courses as opposed to physical classrooms. The one common denominator is the human mind. Whenever teaching fails, it does so because of the tools used, but mostly because teachers do not know the principles of learning. Comenius said, over two hundred years ago, ‘Most teachers sow plants instead of seeds; instead of proceeding from the simplest principles they introduce the pupil at once into a chaos of books and miscellaneous studies.’ The figure of the seed is a good one, and is much older than Comenius [1592-1671]. The greatest of teachers said: ‘The seed is the word.’ The true teacher stirs the ground and sows the seed. It is the work of the soil, through its own forces, to develop the growth and ripen the grain. (Gregory, 1884, p. 18)

The Seven Laws of Teaching

299

Conclusion As we look ahead to envision the future of education, let us also look back to see where we have been and to re-discover the fundamentals of teaching that have guided us through centuries of learning. We need to examine cautiously the past, present, and future before we can take the first step into the next century. We must scrutinize what we already know as well as what more needs to be known. While facing your pupils, how often have you wished for the power to look into their minds, and to plant there with the sure hand some truth of science or some belief of the gospel? No key will ever open to you the doors of those chambers in which live your pupils’ souls; no glass will ever enable you to penetrate their mysterious gloom. But in the great laws of your common nature lie the lines of communication by which you may send the thought fresh from your mind, and awaken the other to receive and embrace it. (Gregory, 1884, p. 24)

Therein is our greatest challenge in the entire process of teaching and learning. The active experience of education is the essence of teaching. We have to be able to share what we as teachers know and love by recreating the same environment in the minds of the young. The ways we learned best are the same ways that will enable us to teach students today and tomorrow, no matter where they are from or where they live.

References Aristotle (trans. 1911). Poetics. Bate, W.J. (ed.). In Criticism: The Major Texts (1970). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 19-39. Baker, J. (1999). Student Interaction in Online Distance Education: A historical perspective. Center for Christian Distance Education. Bloom, A. (1988). The Closing of the American Mind. New York: Simon & Schuster. Gregory, J.M. (1884). The Seven Laws of Teaching (rev. ed). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. Hirsch, E.D. (1988). The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Levine, A. (1999). Academe Must Plug In: Schools need every technological advantage. The Repository. September 24, 1999, 11A. Canton, OH: Landmark Publications. United States Distance Learning Association (1999). Fact Sheet. Retrieved February 1, 2006, from: www.usdla.org/.

COGNITIVE STYLE AND GLOBAL LEARNING: TEACHING FOR TRANSFER AND UNDERSTANDING ANN WHITAKER

Cognitive style is a hypothetical construct that has been developed to explain the process mediation between stimuli and responses. Witkin (1976) suggests that the term cognitive style refers to the characteristic ways in which individuals conceptually organize the environment. Common to theory and research on cognitive style is an emphasis on the structure rather than the content of thought. The emergence of the development of different cognitive styles is based on the uniqueness of each person. According to Kolb (1981), the following nine aspects of cognitive style are among those most frequently mentioned: 1) active versus passive; 2) assimilator versus accommodator; 3) concrete versus abstract; 4) converger versus diverger; 5) field dependent versus field independent; 6) focusing versus scanning; 7) holistic versus serialistic; 8) reflection versus impulsivity; and, 9) rigidity versus flexibility. Field-dependence and field-independence has been an important element in attempting to understand the relationship between perception, cognition, and personality development. Witkin (1976) points out that those aspects of the field dependence-independence phenomenon have been discovered that pertain to developmental psychology and to the study of sex differences. These findings indicate that: 1) males are consistently more field-independent than females; 2) The absolute value of one’s fieldindependence tends to increase between the ages of eight and late adolescence. One’s relative standing in the population, however, tends to remain constant; and, 3) Field dependence seems highly resistant to change through training. Thus, field dependence-independence was specifically seen as a perceptual-analytical ability that manifests itself pervasively throughout an individual’s perceptual functioning. According to Witkin and Goodenough (1977), field dependenceindependence is seen as an indicator of psychological differentiation and

Cognitive Style and Global Learning

301

reflects individual differences in terms of autonomy of external referents. Field-independent individuals rely more on internal frames of reference. Cognitive restructuring and interpersonal competence are seen as two constructs subordinate to autonomy of referents. Field-dependent individuals are assumed more competent in cognitive restructuring skills. Both cognitive restructuring and interpersonal competency have implications for performance differences between field-dependent and field-independent individuals in learning tasks. Researchers, such as Goldstein and Blackman (1978), Messick (1976), and Witkin and Goodenough (1981) suggest that a useful approach for understanding and describing learning styles is to consider three areas: cognitive, affective, and physiological. This classification may be helpful in understanding the complexity and comprehensiveness of learning styles as these terms are meant to enhance understanding of individual differences. Messick (1976) defines cognitive style as the way a person perceives, remembers, thinks, and solves problems. He distinguishes cognitive style from general cognitive abilities for the following reasons: style focuses on “how I learn” and abilities focus on “what I learn”; style is bipolar or on a continuum, i.e., sequential to global; abilities are unipolar or measured with a single score such as a percentile. Ability scores have a judgment placed on them; style scores or style characteristics are not right or wrong. How do you process experiences and knowledge? How do you organize and retain information? Are you analytical or global? Do you work quickly or deliberately? Do you need to visualize the task before starting? Do you approach learning and teaching sequentially or randomly? These are examples of cognitive style characteristics. Affective components of learning styles include personality and emotional characteristics related to persistence, locus of control, responsibility, motivation, and peer interaction. Do you prefer working by yourself or with peers? Are you competitive or cooperative? How do you respond to verbal or token reinforcement? The physiological component is biologically based and relates to sex differences and reaction to physical environments. Are you a morning, afternoon, or night person? Do you need frequent breaks? Does background music or a snack help you to concentrate while studying or does it distract you? Does a room that is too cold or too warm bother you? Another cognitive/learning perspective can be seen in Perkins’ (1988) "Teaching for Transfer" model. This model involves direct application (DA), sequestered problem solving (SPS), and preparation for future learning (PFL). Transfer is defined as the direct application (DA) of

Ann Whitaker

302

knowledge and measures it in a context of sequestered problem solving (SPS). Sequestered problem solving (SPS) involves people applying their previous knowledge to solve new problems. Preparation for future learning (PFL) focuses on evidence for useful learning trajectories; can show the value of a variety of learning activities; highlights the importance of dispositions that affect future learning (critically evaluate new information and change their views); focuses on the importance of allowing people to actively interact with their environments (learning can improve quite dramatically through feedback received); and can help understand how to maximize a variety of experiences. Perkins (1988) raises three questions toward teaching for transfer: what, where, how? ƒ ƒ ƒ

What might transfer? (What skills, concepts, knowledge, strategies?) To where might it transfer? (What contexts, situations, areas of application?) How might one get the transfer? (What kinds of bridging and/or hugging?)

Perkins (1988) recommends 10 tools for teaching for transfer via hugging (low road) and bridging (high road). Hugging is designed for lowroad transfer and the learning experience is more like the ultimate applications. Learners do and feel something more like the intended applications. The tools for hugging transfer are: 1) setting expectations; 2) matching; 3) modeling; 4) problem-based learning; and, 5) coaching in context. Bridging is designed for high-road transfer and involves making conceptual connections between what is learned and other applications. This is more cerebral, less experiential. Learners generalize and reflect. The tools for bridging transfer include: 6) anticipating applications; 7) generalizing concepts; 8) using analogies; 9) parallel problem solving; and, 10) metacognitive reflection. Fischer’s (2001) research has shown that each learner’s range of development is defined by two upper limits of performance—the functional and optimal levels. Under low-support conditions, students function less skillfully and their highest competence is their functional level, which is their best performance in most everyday performances. When they receive high support, their highest competence is their optimal level, their best performance when a person or the context prompts the key components of the tasks for them. The optimal level develops in spurts

Cognitive Style and Global Learning

303

during certain age periods, which are related to growth in the neural networks in the brain, but the functional level develops more slowly and continuously and varies greatly across domains. Fischer maintains that a primary goal of education is to improve the functional-level performance of students so that they can then produce the skill on their own. What are the implications for teaching and learning cognitive styles in a global world? Is there a connection between cognitive style and the learning brain? Are there ways teachers can accommodate the different learning or cognitive styles of students? Rose (2002) points out that learner differences are connected to the learning brain and its networks—recognition, strategic, and affective. Recognition networks are specialized to sense and assign meaning to patterns we see. They enable us to identify and understand information, ideas, and concepts. Strategic networks are specialized to generate and oversee mental and motor patterns. They enable us to plan, execute, and monitor actions and skills. Affective networks are specialized to evaluate patterns and assign them emotional significance. They enable us to engage with tasks and learning and with the world around us. An implication for teaching suggests that understanding the specialized functions of the recognition, strategic, and affective networks can help us appreciate the unique strengths and weaknesses of individual students. This appreciation can assist teachers in teaching to both field-dependent and field-independent students. Rose (2002) maintains that learning or cognitive styles are overall patterns that provide direction to learning and teaching. In addition, learning styles can be described as a set of factors, behaviors, and attitudes that facilitate learning for an individual in a given situation. There is no one right way to learn or to teach, but there are certain styles more appropriate for a given situation. Thus, when an individual learns, the style may be unique to the task or it may duplicate a previous experience. Additionally, Rose (2002) argues that cognitive styles influence how students learn, how teachers teach, and how they interact. Each person is born with certain tendencies toward particular styles, but these biological or inherited characteristics are influenced by culture, personal experiences, maturation, and development. Style can be considered a "contextual” variable or construct because what the learner brings to the learning experience is as much a part of the context as are the more salient features of the experience itself. Perhaps another implication is that of a culturally relevant learning pedagogy—cognitive style, academic achievement, and cultural competence. Ladson-Billings (1994) argues that teachers need to

304

Ann Whitaker

recognize themselves as cultural beings and understand that student culture is a means of learning. Students come to the educational environment with knowledge and the teacher learns from the students’ culture. Consequently, teachers need to link student learning to student culture and serve as cultural brokers mediating between the school and the student. The evidence is clear that cognitive style is an important variable in the preferences students express globally, and in the choices they actually make at various points in their development when options are available to them. Thus, the extent to which students are field-dependent or fieldindependent plays an identifiable role in their selection of a career and in the vocational choices they make later on. As more becomes known about how students learn and the kinds of people they are, teachers will be in a better position to devise instructional approaches helpful to their mastery of various subjects. For example, Ladson-Billings (1994) suggests teachers consider the creation of individual ethnic-specific global educational theories, each developed by teachers and researchers from a given ethnic community, aimed at a unique unbiased understanding of the educational needs of that community. This approach utilizes the traditional education practices from the student’s own culture. Teachers with learning-style knowledge can plan more appropriate lessons to accommodate different learners. Lessons can reflect an understanding of individual differences by appropriately incorporating strategies for a variety of styles. Understanding theories of style can help teachers become better planners to meet the global learning needs of their students.

References Fischer, K.W. (2001). Webs of Skill: How students learn. Educational Leadership, 59(3), 6-12. Fischer, K.W. & Rose, S.P. (1996). Dynamic Growth Cycles of Brain and Cognitive Development. Thatcher, R., Lyon, G.R., Rumsey, J. & Krasnegor, N. (eds.). In Developmental Neuroimaging: Mapping the development of brain and behavior. New York: Academic Press, 263279. Goldstein, K.M. & Blackman, S. (1978). Cognitive Style: Five approaches and relevant research. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Cognitive Style and Global Learning

305

Kolb, D.A. (1981). Learning Styles and Disciplinary Differences. Chickering, A.W. (ed.). The Modern American College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The Dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Messick, S. (1976). Individuality in Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Perkins, D. (1988). Teaching for Transfer. Educational Leadership, 46(1), 22-32. Rose, D. (2002). What Brain Research Tells Us About Learner Differences. ASCD. In Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal design for learning. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Witkin, H.A. (1976). Cognitive Style in Academic Performance and in Teacher-Student Relations. Messick, S. and Associates (eds.). In Individuality in Learning: Implications of cognitive styles and creativity for human development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Witkin, H.A. & Goodenough, D.R. (1977). The Role of Field-Dependent and Field-Independent Cognitive Styles in Academic Education: A longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 69, 197-211. Witkin, H.A. & Goodenough, D.R. (1981). Cognitive Styles: Essence and origins. New York: International Universities Press.

INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGIES, INFORMATION LANDSCAPES, AND CONSTRUCTIVIST LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS IRIS GUSKE

Abstract By looking at the various components of interactive multimedia products, i.e. their computer, video and textual elements, and the internet, their potential to contextualize learning in authentic environments is evaluated against the background of the requirements of constructivist learning theories spanning the range from Piaget's individualized notion of cognitive constructivism to Vygotsky's social constructivism. If both technology-mediated cognitive tools as well as instructional settings allow for interaction, accommodation and assimilation of knowledge will be fostered, not least when aided by the scaffolding skills of peer tutors in collaborative learning environments. Structuring these will be a teacher's essential task, who goes from "the sage on the stage to the guide on the side" in order to assist students in the learning process and promote selfdirected learning within the zone of proximal development of different learner types. If interactive material is to support the learning environments in which new technologies can unfold their potential best, their design has to follow the rules of cognitive bootstrapping by creating information landscapes to provide the context and structures necessary to engage the students and render them capable of effectively processing the information put in their path. This process of how to tap information may come to enrich traditional notions of knowledge, instead of invalidating them.

Interactive Technologies and Information Landscapes

307

1. Interdependence of interactive technologies and new styles of learning Trying to deal with the question whether interactive technologies support new styles of learning and teaching resembles the task of deciding which was there first, the chicken or the egg. In order to be able to foster new learning environments, the use of interactive technologies should occur in altered instructional settings in the first place but, in reality, it has been largely due to the findings obtained when these technologies were actually put to use within the framework of traditional educational contexts that the necessity for changes in instructional design in general has made itself felt very strongly. So the topic should rather be approached by way of studying to what extent the use of interactive technologies and new styles of learning are interdependent, and how they should mutually reinforce each other in order for effective learning to occur. What is especially noticeable when evaluating educational settings is that while the day of a typical child has changed radically over the last 50 years, his or her school day has arguably remained largely unchanged. And while it may well be questioned if the changes in a child's life have been for the better, the fact that they have occurred has to be acknowledged and accounted for by our schools if they do not want the rift between learning in formal settings and non-school learning to become insurmountable. While pre-school children learn mostly by exploring the world on their own terms as regards the what and how of the exploration of their immediate environment (with more or less guidance by their parents), the learning is largely determined by educators' ideas of what they should be taught and how they should be taught it, i.e. by being first and foremost enabled to read so that they can access the storehouse of mankind's knowledge. Although this is meant to broaden their horizons, since learning cannot be restricted to the exploration of one's immediate surroundings, this reading-based culture of conveying knowledge certainly lacks the element of active involvement on the part of the child. This is what erstwhile education revolutionary Ed Lyell laments when he claims that "children are born learning machines. They have a 'try' attitude: try until they do it. But if you had a school out there today to teach children to walk, one-third of the population would not be walking" (Guglielmo, 1993, p. 1). And this is precisely where new technologies come into play, since they are capable of bridging the gap between pre-school learning and formal education, at the same time bringing the latter in line with the technology-rich environment surrounding the children in their free time.

308

Iris Guske

With the use of interactive technologies, "reading the word" and "reading the world" (Papert, 1993, p. 10) are co-joined and children can thus combine experiential with script-based learning. This is all the more important since learning through direct experience—however worthy it may be deemed by detractors of the traditional education establishment— may not result in real knowledge structures to be built if learning theorists such as Vygotsky are allowed a voice. His idea of the zone of proximal development would involve interacting with the children by way of verbalizing what has been experienced, as well as providing intellectual stimuli by putting new and challenging information in their path, thus cementing a foundation of knowledge on which pillars of information are erected verbally so that new floors of knowledge can be constructed.

2. Instructional interactive multimedia products What then are the new interactive technologies that might help students construct knowledge of the world beyond their immediate surroundings and the learning theories that would accommodate this? By interactive technologies are meant all communication systems which "extend the human senses," allowing "an individual to reach out in space and time, and thus obtain information that would not otherwise be available" (Rogers, 1986, p. 2). Furthermore, they are capable of providing feedback to users, which renders them similar in kind to interaction at an interpersonal level. Since interaction is regarded as "one of the higher order levels of feedback" (Forsyth, 1998, p. 28), it will be educationally relevant regardless of the learning theories favored. When evaluating interactive multimedia products we have to focus on the benefits and/or disadvantages inherent in either or all of the three components any interactive multimedia package is made up of. And in order to link them to accommodating learning environments we have to view them against the background of criticism as expressed by educators, and judge their potential for incorporating respective postulates. Thus, for example, Papert (1993) claims that learning is most effective with the learner at the helm (p. 25), and that in order for an assignment to turn into a true learning experience, it has to become a "personally meaningful undertaking capable of mobilizing intellectual energy" (p. 110). Furthermore, he accuses school of forsaking major learning opportunities by neglecting enthusiastic students' potential for intellectual give and take (p. 44), with peer encouragement figuring as an important variable underlying students' motivation in Martins & Kellermanns (2004), too. These notions, together with the way he approaches the idea of education,

Interactive Technologies and Information Landscapes

309

viz. by claiming that "the kind of knowledge children most need is the knowledge that will help them get more knowledge" (p. 139), will serve to structure this paper.

2.1 Computer elements In the first place, we have the computer elements of any IMM package, which offer linear and non-linear access to various information forms such as databases, graphics, video, and voice. The fact that learners can thus work in their own time and at their own pace "through tutorials/dialogues, drill and practice sequences, simulations as well as models and exploration/problem-solving" (Latchem, 1993, pp. 20/21) has been found to be of great importance to students who need more than one go at a problem, since they can have as many tries as they like with a computer system without anyone (i.e. their peers) noticing, or without anyone (i.e. their teachers) becoming exasperated when being asked the same question several times. According to Lyell, "the computer, because it doesn't care, is in a sense the most caring learning environment" (in Gugliemo, 1993, p. 2). Hence, the use of relevant technologies might prove to be especially beneficial to "minority, disadvantaged and underperforming students" (Latchem, 1993, p. 32). Since they furthermore do not force one way of learning, i.e. the school's way, on children faced with a learning task, their worry of being exposed to the intellectual scrutiny of others and being found wanting can easily be overcome (Papert, 1993, p. 91). Likewise, studies relating to computer-adaptive testing where students may choose their own task levels showed that students opting for the best-fit version in general produced better results. This testifies to the fact that allowing for individual ways of thinking, which are based on "different knowledge sets", will reflect competency more accurately than standardized testing (Cooper & Halkitis, 1995, pp. 1 and 2, and Astleitner & Wiesner, 2004). Moreover, the computer-based elements of IMM systems facilitate learning by "symbolic representations of non-concrete formal constructs and relationships" (Latchem, 1993, pp. 20/21), which is evidence of the fact that the new tools (technology) and signs (semiotic tools) of learning can be incorporated in learning environments (in Harper, 1996, p. 4), and this will be of special value to learners whose information-processing capacities do not accommodate large chunks of text-based information readily. Additionally, feedback is provided in the form of monitoring the learner's progress. Thus, a system may be based on a Socratic dialogue model, in which students can try to find answers to their questions but would also have to demonstrate their progress in coming to terms with the

310

Iris Guske

information presented, while then being put onto a path towards discovery of new sources of information (Latchem, 1993, p. 63). In this context it has been found that, contrary to most expectations, students usually do not choose the easy way out by randomly pressing any key in order to be "told" the correct answer to a question/problem by the computer without giving the matter any further thought, but instead often try out wrong answers after getting it right in the first place, just to have their way of reasoning confirmed by the computer explanation (p. 178). What we have is, in fact, an environment facilitating "deep learning", characterized by a high degree of self-motivation and self-direction on the part of the students (Latchem, 1993, p. 25, and Wagner et al., 2004), who try to develop problem-solving skills in personally meaningful tasks by collecting, manipulating, and analyzing a variety of data.

2.2 Video elements The second components are the video elements of IMM systems which "present authentic, simulated or dramatized behavior, processes, situations and events" (Latchem, 1993, p. 22). While the importance of visual material in education has been acknowledged, its potential is greatly underestimated if it is seen as a motivational factor only, even though it is more closely associated with entertainment than with learning. When asking the question of why the possibility to provide students with multiple representations, such as graphs, maps, narrative sequences and the like, has come to be regarded as indispensable with, we will find that this goes hand in hand with the recent trend to acknowledge that visual thinking plays a more important part in the learning process than has previously been recognized, when greater emphasis was placed on the use of linguistic and other signifiers (McLoughlin, 1997, p. 1). This does not only bridge another gap between everyday life, where visualization, i.e. forming and manipulating a mental image (p. 2), enables people to come to terms with theoretical and abstract concepts, and formal learning, but also facilitates "learner-controlled access, replay and freeze-framing to analyze information that would otherwise be transient" (Latchem, 1993, p. 22). Moreover, in this scenario of "mixed sensory mode instruction" visual experiences will promote higher order thinking by constituting a learning environment which calls for the integration of verbal and non-verbal representation (McLoughlin, p. 2). With higher order cognition increasingly defined as including both "creative (intuitive) and logical reasoning components" (McLoughlin, 1997, p. 3), we can also turn to simulations as an important tool in learning

Interactive Technologies and Information Landscapes

311

and especially in training. Students/and or trainees are thereby enabled to enjoy a hands-on learning experience they might and/or could not be allowed in the "real" world , e.g. due to workplace pressures such as limited funds for travel or the fact that employees cannot be dispensed with for longer periods of time. Hence, even though the initial outlays may be high, decentralizing training with the help of IMM systems is an important cost-cutting feature. Furthermore, companies also benefit from the fact that training, although geared to the individual worker's requirement, can be standardized by the use of IMM systems, thus increasing "the chances of performance being up to a particular standard, giving companies more control over training" (David Hawkridge in Heap et al., 1995, p. 185). Additionally, the nature of the task on hand might preclude workers from simply getting down to it, as it may be inherently dangerous, such as trying to land a plane, working with hazardous substances, or performing medical operations on human beings, for example. Since simulations require the application of theoretical knowledge acquired beforehand, they will constitute the link between knowledge and skills required if employees are to perform well in their jobs (David Hawkridge in Heap et al., 1995, p. 184). In this context, simulations are all the more important as the operation of complex high-tech apparatuses not only requires a combination of the knowledge of the logic inherent in the systems and the skills needed to handle them, but at the same time the ability to subjectively evaluate the performance of the machine, by combining "mental processes with sensual perception to connect with the system" (Bauer et al., 1998, p. 2; my translation).

2.3 Textual elements Thirdly, we will have to look at the textual elements of IMM packages, which "provide the user with the primary symbol system used in scholarship and learning" and which act as signposts for students who are guided through the learning process with the help of contents tables, chapter headings, abstracts, etc. (Latchem, 1993, pp. 22/23). Whether for study or for reference purposes, students may access them in ways that best suit their individual styles of learning, since "the branching structure of hypertext" allows them to "determine their own paths through the medium" (p. 137). Ideally, hypertext links reflect the relationship between the individual pieces of information presented so as to allow the learner to make associations, on the meaning of which their understanding will be based (in Wild, 1996, p. 2). However, if learners are faced with a system

312

Iris Guske

allowing them to choose randomly between options they will not really be in control of the learning process since the option to click various buttons just to be presented with another multimedia gimmick does not constitute interactivity. Therefore, any effective interplay of the individual components of an IMM system would require integrating the "choice and its consequence" (Harper, 1996, p. 9) as components of genuine interactivity. However, we should not only think about interactivity in terms of feedback generated by the computer, but also in terms of feedback obtained from co-learners. And here it has been found that while text, or rather, the verbalization of thought, usually gets a conversation, i.e. an exchange of ideas, off the ground, it is the multiple representations of these ideas that lead to a widening and deepening of information flows. For if we take a telematics classroom (verbal communication achieved via a two-way audio-link; data exchanged between computers via the telephone lines), where learners isolated by geography work together, visual tools are a means of sharing ideas with the intention of exposing them to "multiple interpretations" (McLoughlin, 1997, p. 6). These may be based on slightly different definitions of the problem, i.e. different analogies made on the basis of a different knowledge base, and they may result in a number of hypothetical solutions, which would have to be tested in their own right and for potential implications. In the end, former knowledge would have to be reflected on or even reinterpreted in the light of the new findings produced through "social negotiation" (Harper, 1996, p. 4).

2.4 The Internet Although the answers to the questions dealt with in this article are contained in the character of the individual components of IMM systems as outlined above, we shall, for completeness' sake, have a look at the Internet as an important interactive technology before summarizing our findings. The Internet, although espoused as "humankind's best chance to respect and nurture the most obscure languages and cultures of the world" by ardent proponents on the one hand, is at the same time derided by detractors as a "chimera of unfulfilled promise, which actually works against literacy and creativity rather than promoting them" (both in McMahon, 1997, p. 1). But the danger of taking its potential for the real thing only to find that it has, in fact, been squandered, is actually no greater than in the case of a library, the existence of which is in itself no guarantor of actual learning to occur. Hence, it is the Internet as a library

Interactive Technologies and Information Landscapes

313

access facility that most requires students to be acquainted with the necessary search skills, which will be invaluable in our information society. Moreover, since publishing electronic material is far less costly than printed matter and can easily be kept up-to-date, the requirements of distance learning and open learning modes, for which there is increasing demand, are accommodated especially well by the Internet with such interactive features as chat-rooms or recent Web 2.0 technologies, such as wikis, where asynchronous as well as synchronous learning can occur.

3. Situated versus de-contextualized learning Since the potential of the Internet also includes virtual worlds as facilitators of simulation and modeling experiences, the new interactive technologies provide us with a scenario of situated learning as advanced by social constructivists, who have long lamented the de-contextualization of learning, which precludes learners from applying their knowledge and skills in an authentic environment. Thus, the notion of "cognitive apprenticeship", which emphasizes "active participation in a social context or in authentic practice" (McLoughlin, 1997, p. 4), came up as a model based on its namesake in the crafts. Since computers provide a perfect platform for negotiating one's way through a wide variety of "processes and experiential tasks envisaged by [this] model" (p. 4), the learning theories best supported by interactive technologies are, in fact, those appearing on a cognitive continuum ranging from Piaget's highly individualized notion of cognitive constructivism through Vygotsky's social constructivism to the branching nature of Bruner's contextual learning. And this is the very interface between learning theories and the use of computers in the classroom which we set out to explore. Underlying both, Piaget's and Vygotsky's, theories is the assumption that development is a construction process in which children build ever more complex cognitive structures through their reciprocal interaction with the environment (in Crain, 1992, p. 103). But while Piaget sees these activities as emanating from the child's natural curiosity, Vygotsky speaks of socially meaningful activities mediated by adults or more competent peers. With these resulting in the child's mastery of psychological tools, such as language and gestures, sign systems, visual representations, and the like (in NASP Communiqué, 1997, p. 3), we can easily envision computer-mediated learning environments as supporting cognitive development. For if new technologies, which are capable of offering a variety of psychological tools, are used as "cognitive tools that enhance our cognitive powers" (Reeves, 1997, p. 1), and these are then applied in

314

Iris Guske

constructivist learning environments which allow for interaction to take place with the environment as well as with the system itself, they will stimulate the kind of learning needed to "generate the cognitive conflict that can promote the accommodation and assimilation of new knowledge" (Ring et al., 1997, p. 1), as postulated by Piaget and Vygotsky. Moreover, it is such a system, in which "technology is part of a larger social context that shapes, constrains, and enhances how information is processed and used" (Hannafin, 1997, p. 6), that would accommodate Bruner's criticism that learning has been de-contextualized by schools, regardless of the fact that the learning process as such is public, with the learning of meaning taking place within a well-defined cultural space and its meaning being shared in the process (in Forsyth, 1998, p. 17). Thus, using computers in the classroom may help to "re-contextualize" learning while at the same time facilitating the sharing and negotiating of meaning in collaborative learning environments, which are ideally supported by computer-based learning systems. After all, it is in group learning situations that multiple interpretations are encouraged, which can only be identified and then reconciled if learners are motivated through the relevance of the task and are actively involved and goal-directed in trying to develop problem-solving strategies through a "deliberate and structured collaborative process" (Kaye in Heap et al., 1995, p. 195; Wilson, 2001). A good example of this is the "Jigsaw Method" designed to integrate Piaget's and Vygotksy's ideas. Here, each child is assigned one part of a task that has been split into various sections, and s/he has to work independently on it before the results are then joined together like the pieces in a jigsaw in a combined effort, with each child turning from an "expert" in one specialized field to a knowledgeable student in the overall structure (in Smith & Cowie, 1991, p. 364). In this context, the advantages of peer tutoring as stressed by Vygotsky appear to be especially beneficial, since this does not only foster the required problem-solving skills but has the additional benefit of being more individualized in that it is tailor-made to the needs of the less knowledgeable of two learners, for example. For the "expert" may not be that far ahead of the "novice" and still remember well how s/he managed the task herself/himself and be more able to impart that knowledge than a teacher who seldom operates in such one-to-one learning situations and thus runs the risk of not assessing the student's zone of proximal development properly (p. 362). This zone of proximal development has been defined as "the distance between the child's actual developmental level and his or her potential level of development under the guidance of more expert adults or in collaboration with more competent peers" (p. 352). Working within the

Interactive Technologies and Information Landscapes

315

ZPD will enable less capable participants to perform in interactions that would be beyond their competence if they acted alone. This testifies to the fact that performance precedes competence in cognitive development, and this process of processing information or mastering skills is certainly supported in a computer-based learning environment where students often start working from hypotheses, the testing of which will then lead to new understanding. As Papert (1993) says, "the learner can begin by knowing something in a very fumbly sort of way before it becomes established" (p. 64). Compared to the teacher in a typical classroom situation peer tutors, moreover, may have little difficulty in scaffolding effectively, i.e. they will enable the tutees to reach higher levels of understanding by constructing the scaffolding in such a way as to accommodate the individual learner's ability to progress to the next stage with the help provided. After all, based on their own experiences, they may find it easier to appraise the tutee's existing knowledge and combine this with an assessment of the levels deemed attainable (in Smith & Cowie, 1991, p. 357). The notion of scaffolding and the role of structure in learning, on the other hand, can be seen as concepts mutually reinforcing each other, for knowledge structures are as important as representational modes. Since Bruner uses the term structure to denote the "concepts of a discipline—relative and related to the needs of the learner" (p. 356), this implies the introduction of authenticity into the learning environment, which will in turn engage the interest of learners in the form of personally meaningful tasks. In this context, Papert (1993) derides efforts by teachers to make educational contents relevant by, for example, pretending to be shopping as a pretext for having pupils add numbers (Smith & Cowie, 1991, p. 25). But if we look at the Global Lab program, for example, a science network for American high school students, we will see what really constitutes relevance of a subject and/or task. In their studies of mostly environmental topics, classes participating in the project usually gather data which are then posted on the Global Lab network in order to be compared with the findings obtained and posted by other classes around the world. In that way students "perform genuine scientific tasks that are plainly relevant to their lives" (Leslie, 1993, p. 1). In the same vein, when Papert (1993) describes examples of computer use in the classroom where students collaborate on programming projects, he establishes not only the advantages computer-based environments offer in the form of a multi-disciplinary approach through a combination of, for example, mathematical and artistic skills, which will lead to a combination of talents inherent in students who would otherwise not unfold their true

316

Iris Guske

potential, but more importantly, we are shown classrooms in which mathematics can be experienced like a foreign language abroad rather than being taught and acquired in a traditional setting. The term "Mathland" which Papert coined for this environment allows the students to make their way through a new domain—which, like most academic and, in fact, reallife domains, is complex, i.e. multi-dimensional, in nature—by a kind of trial and error approach. This fits in naturally with his postulate that "logic is on tap, not on top" (p. 167), since he deems formal logical thinking as an artificial construct as opposed to intuitive thought. And it is in this process that students will encounter a teaching paradigm not previously encountered, i.e. programming's inherent bias "toward evaluation not by 'is it right?' but by 'where can it go from here?'" (Papert, 1993, p. 173) And while constructivism as such does not deny the existence of an incontestable reality, our efforts at deciphering the truth 'out there' will at best result in approximation based on a best-fit model of what we perceive the world to be like and reality in a closely-defined context (in Gruba & Lynch, 1997, p. 2). Moreover, while traditional educational efforts are aimed at arriving at precise results, "cybernetics creates an epistemology of 'managed vagueness'" (Papert, p. 185), where students will have to find ways of approximating a solution by continuously adapting to the exigencies of a world that can—in all its infinity—never be wholly predictable, and thus they will be faced with the task of putting limited knowledge to optimal use making, much the same as they are forced to do in "real" life. This relativity of constructivism which is caused by its inherent subjectivity means that multiple and complex representations of knowledge—deriving from the fact that cognition is not only a variable of the individual, but also of the situated nature of learning (Jones in Heap et al., 1995, p. 257)—will be produced in such learning environments, and are then likely to converge through "social negotiations and reflection upon individual practices" (Gruba & Lynch, 1997, p. 2).

4. New styles of learning warranting new styles of teaching Although it may be stating the obvious to say that new styles of learning warrant new styles of teaching, the nature of these adaptations may not be quite as obvious. While we have stressed the advantages of hypermedia "in supporting students in determining their own learning routes and making their own discoveries" (Latchem, 1993, p. 140/141), we have not yet dealt with problems that might arise from this approach of student-centered learning. Students lacking the "motivation and

Interactive Technologies and Information Landscapes

317

metacognitive skills of a self-regulated learner" (Harper, 1996, p. 1) might easily be disoriented by the mass of unstructured material thrown their way, and get lost in the maze of information so that they would need someone, in this case a teacher, to put them on the right path again by mapping the territory for them, i.e. by structuring the learning environment as a whole and, more specifically, the material to be accessed, so that students can "organise [their] understanding of what is going on" (Latchem, 1993, p. 145). Thus, for example, where the Internet is used to convey multi-layered information, knowledge structures underlying individual chunks of information need to be made visible (in Wild, p. 2), for knowledge will only be constructed if the meaning of the association is understood. In short, teachers will have to perform "a shift from didactic approaches to a constructivist approach" (Harper, 1996, p. 2). Thus, instead of "teaching by telling", teachers will have to guide their students through the learning process, not least by fostering and coordinating peer tutoring in group learning environments. Encouraging "productive learner dialogue, interchange of ideas and negotiation of solutions" through the selection of appropriate learning experiences to be reflected on by students through interaction with their peers will exploit the potential of collaboration to the fullest (Oliver et al., 1997, p. 2). Hence, as Jason Ohler, director of the University of Alaska's educational technology program, put it: "The teacher goes from the 'sage on the stage' to the 'guide on the side'" (in Leslie, 1993, p. 3). In the wider context it is crucial to the success of new technologies in schooling that the changes mentioned above actually take place, if the gap between students living in a "multimediated literate culture" and teachers mired in a "book culture" is to be closed (Russell, 1998, p. 2). The education establishment, therefore, has to acknowledge the necessity to do away with "cyberspace aliens" in their midst, even if this requires far more than turning them into "teachers tourists", i.e. those who are not capable of exploiting the full potential of the Internet, but instead use it only as an electronic library (pp. 1 and 4). In the same vein, Khoo & Lou (1995, p. 1) warn of equating the provision of technology-rich learning with good teaching, as it takes "the creative balance and integration of technology coupled with proven educational theories" to turn a lesson into a stimulating learning experience. And while it may be difficult for teachers to view learning as an active, creative and socially interactive process (Harper, 1996, p. 1), the recognition that knowledge, instead of simply being transferred, is something to be constructed by the learners themselves may be even more difficult to arrive at and account for. Acknowledging that there are more ways of learning than just their own, teachers can no longer assess their

318

Iris Guske

students' performances in terms of the learning path followed; instead, the possibility of non-linear navigation through the material leaves room only for one legitimate question to be asked in this context, viz. whether the goal pursued was actually reached. This may be even harder to accept since "it is possible to be eclectic and build schemata of knowledge that do not conform to an expert or teacher's view of the world" (Forsyth, 1998, p. 17), and the only test they will have to stand is whether the learner can actually apply them in the situation for which they have been constructed. Thus, teachers, instead of concentrating on learning contents will have to concentrate on learning processes in order to help students acquire the information-handling skills needed to be able to succeed in resource-based learning environments (Guri-Rosenblit, 2005, pp. 16-19), i.e. those in which "open-access, self-directed learning from a large information source" takes place (Taylor & Laurillard in Heap et al., 1999, p. 237). For the danger inherent in such learning environment is that students will have no sense of direction, unless the task assigned to them is put in an appropriate context, unless concrete aims are spelt out, and unless they are steered towards these by being blocked off from information irrelevant to the task, without actually being limited in their freedom to find their own definitions of the problem, problem-solving strategies and hypothesizing on solutions (pp. 245/246). In short, "it is the job of the constructivist teacher or interactive technology to hold learners in their zone of proximal development, by providing just enough help and guidance but not too much" (Strudwick, no date, p. 4; Azevedo et al., 2004). Teachers aware of this new role would also be the ones to serve their students as models as far as the paradigm of lifelong learning is concerned, for where—until the more recent past—they were often left to their own devices when employed in small, rural schools, for example, they can now profit from the new technologies not only by retrieving information from data banks and the like themselves, but, perhaps as importantly, by exchanging subject-related information with colleagues scattered all over the world and thus being part of specialist virtual communities managing an up-to-date body of knowledge (in Leslie, 1993, p. 5).

5. The information society—issues of equality and fairness Although it has just been shown that new technologies are capable of supporting new styles of learning and teaching, far-reaching societal changes, which are already under way, will be reinforced and should not be overlooked. After all, the transformation process toward an information society thus starts very early on and has come to encompass ever larger

Interactive Technologies and Information Landscapes

319

parts of society. And in this context it has to be asked whether some of the trends are really to be welcomed or should not rather be countered, if, and this is really a big "if", this is still an option for anyone of us to exercise and we are not already mere objects manipulated by technological developments on which we as members of a society which is undergoing radical change no longer have any grip at all. Thus, for example, we should not neglect the danger that children might suffer an overkill of "virtual" information which in turn might stifle their curiosity with regard to the "real thing", since it is arguably more comfortable to watch farm animals, say, in the coziness of one's room rather than in nature. However, this is where the educational system might step in by trying to prepare "people in the skills necessary to systematize the selection process (...) which might help students become more discriminating judges of 'literature' available on the system" (Baldwin et al., 1996, p. 385). This task may be all the more pressing not only in view of ensuring quality material to be extracted as opposed to junk, but rather in view of the fact that in order to avoid information overload we may have to limit our use of information tools by accessing pre-selected and customized information only, i.e. information that caters to our preferences and fits in with our world views. Thus, students who are envied by previous generations for being able to tap into the world's resources of wisdom at the push of a button, might, "in the midst of plenty, become more narrow than [they] are now" (p. 385). By the same token, virtual communities might come to replace real interpersonal encounters and, while these may have their benefits as regards the effective exchange of information, their ability to foster social learning, which should not be overlooked as an important aspect of learning in general, might be questioned. For while research studies have shown that technology-mediated communication is often socioemotionally laden (Rogers, 1986, p. 53), "socio-emotional messages" might rather serve to construct "a vehicle for the transmission of taskrelated content" (p. 209). And it is not only through learning which increasingly takes place outside the realm of personal encounters, but also due to the fact that "the civilizing role of the arts and humanistic approaches to learning [may be] overshadowed by the scientific, rightwrong, computational areas of thought" (Mason in Heap et al., 1995, p. 179) that problems of de-identification may arise with a concomitant renunciation of personal accountability and societal norms (Webster, 1995, p. 99). After all, "in cyberspace, when speaking anonymously or misidentifying oneself, the usual ethical and moral values are not enforced" (Connell in Baldwin et al., 1996, p. 391). Thus, children's

320

Iris Guske

development might come to lack components essential to their physical and mental well-being and social functioning, unless we can ensure that the virtual communities thus established take over some of the functions of human contact, such as giving and receiving respect and empathy (p. 396). And precisely this last point should also be borne in mind when discussing the educational implications of interactive technologies, for questions of access and equality certainly must be addressed. In dealing with these, the picture painted of the future of our society is usually a dismal one, since it may come to be characterized by an enormous discrepancy between those who have access to technology-mediated information and those who don't (Baldwin et al., 1996, p. 393), to be found in all age groups and all forms of education and training. Thus, while people might contend that schools provide equally for children of lowincome families, these will almost invariably fall behind those students who grow up in a technology-rich environment (p. 393). Likewise, their parents will be outdone in their jobs by colleagues who are able to meet the exigencies posed by the call to arms as incorporated in the slogan "lifelong learning". What is even more disconcerting in this context is the fact that "the gap between the best informed and the least informed" is bound to increase very rapidly as those in possession of knowledge and with access to more information will continuously avail themselves of these resources, a fact which is certainly reinforced by the ever shorter half-life of information, and which will be responsible for the creation of an "information underclass" (p. 392). What should be equally worrying in this respect is that the same holds true for the worldwide community. The fact that information is not distributed equally across the globe is pointed out by Nordenstreng & Kleinwächter who say that although "the rights to information and communication are fundamental human rights, more than 70% of the world's population are not able to enjoy this human right" (in Asante & Guddykunst, 1989, p. 88), with the language gap further disadvantaging them, since 80% of the world's information stored on computers is in English.

6. From an information-rich environment to an educated citizenship However, the sting of some of these charges may be alleviated somewhat by pointing out potential benefits of tailor-made interactive technology applications for the disabled or for people whose geographic location would have meant their being cut off from formal education

Interactive Technologies and Information Landscapes

321

before the advent of new technologies. If we take vision-impaired people, for example, we have to acknowledge the fact that their lives can certainly be greatly enriched by the development of special applications. While access to printed text in the form of audiobooks and Braille versions has long been assured, albeit at a high cost and in limited quantities only, independent and speedy non-linear access for reference purposes and notetaking has only recently been introduced in the form of hyperbooks compatible with screen reading techniques and compact disc technology incorporating a speech interface. Vision-impaired students are thus enabled to reclaim control over the learning process by not having to rely on others for the selection of what these deem appropriate material. Since, moreover, only a few additional hard- and software items are needed for regular CD-ROM based encyclopedias and newspapers to be converted into material accessible by vision-impaired people, equality of access to topical and affordable material can be achieved (in Vincent and Taylor in Heap et al., 1995, pp. 224-236). In the same vein, the example of specially designed courseware for minority indigenes or developing nations shows that, if dimensions of cultural variability are taken into account, other cultures need not be swamped by Western-style instructional products in what might be seen as a new colonization wave, but can instead be provided with culturallysensitive and culturally appropriate learning material that will actually deliver what it promises. Thus, courseware has "to incorporate design features that provide students with the means to control the matching of their academic learning tasks with their cultural and individual ways of learning" (Latchem, 1993, p. 171). In the example given of a program designed for paraprofessional teachers in the north of Queensland, Australia, "current-traditional informal learning patterns" were accommodated not only by the structure in which the content was presented, but also by a number of multi-sensory elements, such as "simplistic animations", "bright colours" as well as "culturally specific music, language and images" (pp. 175 and 176). These two examples have shown the importance of the appropriate design of courseware in individual cases, but we also have to deal with overall design requirements to be met if interactive material is to support the new learning environments in which interactive technologies can unfold their potential best. One requirement to be met if a constructivist approach is pursued, is to enable students to "see complex interrelationships and dependencies, by crisscrossing the 'landscape of contents'" (Strudwick, no date, p. 4). This, however, entails the sequencing of information, which means establishing what learners need to know,

322

Iris Guske

before fresh information can be assimilated (Forsyth, 1998, p. 53, and Shute & Towle, 2003), and what knowledge they already possess to which this new knowledge can be linked. This has been called "cognitive bootstrapping" (Latchem, 1993, p. 84), and would, in turn, mean providing learners with "a concept map of information" so that they can remain focused on their original task without losing their orientation in the mass and maze of learning material available (Forsyth, 1998, p. 54). In this context, the term "information landscape" was coined, "which provides context and supports structures" (Harper, 1996, p. 8), so that the potential disadvantages of pure constructivist environments for students, viz., the need for strong metacognitive skills, can be overcome by incorporating "cognitive support tools" (p. 5) to provide for a learning environment acknowledging the advantages of the cognitive apprenticeship model. Since this is based on situated learning we would be well advised to account for an emotional factor which plays an important part in learning, viz., motivation. Thus, IMM courseware should be designed to provide for maximum stimulus in the beginning to engage the students by conveying a sense of the relevance of the topics studied (Latchem, 1993, p. 68), for only then will the learners be capable of effectively processing the information put in their path. Motivation should then be upheld by allowing them to monitor their progress and finally by providing them with a sense of achievement. In short, "instruction should provide contexts (...) that will help the learner make sense of the computer-generated environment as it is encountered" (Strudwick, no date, p. 3, and Monahan, 2002). This can, for example, be achieved by deciding on narrative as a unifying factor providing direction and coherence through its scaffolding abilities, thus turning the learning process into a more holistic experience in which the various features incorporated in IMM systems are combined so that they can best unfold their potential (in Bearman,1997, p. 1). However, since instruction provided with the help of interactive technologies frequently fails to incorporate the findings outlined above, we are often faced with a situation not unlike the advent of the Xerox machines which enabled students to photocopy library material, thus freeing them from the timeconsuming task of taking notes. Although new information-processing tools facilitate access to potentially unlimited information in contrast to a traditional library, there seems little difference in photocopying or downloading material, the effect in both cases being that large chunks of information can be "taken home". And it is precisely here that alarm bells should start ringing, since the mere possession of information-rich material does not constitute learning,

Interactive Technologies and Information Landscapes

323

although students often tend to cling to the illusion that it does, happily surrounding themselves with stacks of papers the information content of which, however, is not accessed and processed at all and will thus not be transformed into knowledge. Hence, what we often have is a student body that is in fact unable to avail itself of the true learning opportunities provided by the new technologies. What must be seen in perspective with both, the photocopying machine and information-processing tools, is the fact that although both free time from tiresome tasks, such as note-taking or locating information sources, this time should then not be wasted on photocopying ever larger paragraphs out of books or on downloading ever more computer files as a way of soothing one's bad conscience, but should instead be used to actually "sit down and study", i.e. convert information into knowledge. And this is what some postmodernists such as Roszak lament when criticizing the information society for viewing information in qualitative terms only by not differentiating between "data, knowledge, experience and wisdom" (Webster, 1995, p. 25). When he furthermore "insists that the 'master ideas' which underpin our civilization are not based on information at all" (p. 26), we should realize that when we assess "information in nonsocial terms" (p. 28), we might in fact be exposing our children to a mass of symbols that no longer signify. Thus, especially young people who undergo a process of establishing their identities, in which sets of culturally learned and culturally shared symbols play an important part, might be disoriented, since truth has been replaced with a "plurality of truths" (p. 185), while "performativity criteria" have invaded the educational sphere, favoring knowledge of how to tap information sources over classical views of knowledge (p. 186). Thus, educators would be well advised to acknowledge the importance of new technologies by using them as vehicles in pedagogically structured and content-rich learning environments, while seeing to it that the medium does not become the message.

References Asante, M.K. & Guddykunst, W.B. (1989). Handbook of International and Intercultural Communication. London: Sage. Astleitner, H. & Wiesner, C. (2004). An Integrated Model of Multimedia Learning and Motivation. Journal of Educational Mutimedia and Hypermedia, 13(1), 3-21.

324

Iris Guske

Azevedo, R., Cromley, J. & Seibert, D. (2004). Does Adaptive Scaffolding Facilitate Students' Ability to Regulate Their Learning with Hypermedia? Contemporary Educational Psychology, 29, 344-370. Baldwin, T.F., McVoy, D.S. & Steinfeld, C. (1996). Convergence: Integrating Media, Information & Communication. London: Sage. Bauer, H.G. et al. (1998). Erfahrung-Machen als Methode. Seelze: Berufsbildung. Crain, W. (1992). Theories of Development: Concepts and applications(3rd ed.). London: Prentice-Hall. Forsyth, I. (1998). Teaching and Learning Materials and the Internet (2nd ed.). London: Kogan Page. Guri-Rosenblit, S. (2005). Eight Paradoxes in the Implementation Process of E-Learning in Higher Education. Higher Education Policy, 18, 5-29. Heap, N., Thomas, R., Einon, G., Mason, R. & Mackay, H. (eds.) (1995). Information Technology and Society: A Reader. London: Sage. Khoo, C. & Lou, D. (1995). Electronic Teaching, Learning and Presentations at University: Pedagogical dream or nightmare? Proceedings from the Australian Computers in Education Conference. Perth, Australia. Latchem, C., Williamson, J. & Henderson-Lancett, L. (1993). Interactive Multimedia: Practice and promise. London: Kogan Page. Martins, L.L. & Kellermanns, F.W. (2004). A Model of Business School Students' Acceptance of a Web-Based Course Management System. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 3(1), 7-26. Monahan, T. (2002). Flexible Space and Built Pedagogy: Emerging IT embodiments. Inventio, 4(1), 1-19. Papert, S. (1993). The Children's Machine. Hemel Hampstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Rogers, E.M. (1986). Communication Technology: The new media in society (2nd ed.). New York: Macmillan. Shute, V. & Towle, B. (2003). Adaptive E-Learning. Educational Psychologist, 38(2), 105-114. Smith, P.K. & Cowie, H. (1991). Understanding Children's Development (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell. Wagner, G.D. & Flannery, D.D. (2004). A Quantitative Study of Factors Affecting Learner Acceptance of a Computer-Based Training Support Tool. Journal of European Industrial Training, 28(5), 383-399. Webster, F. (1995). Theories of the Information Society. London: Routledge.

Interactive Technologies and Information Landscapes

325

Wilson, B.G. (2001). Sense of Community as a Valued Outcome for Electronic Courses, Cohorts, and Programs. Paper presented at VisionQuest PT Conference held in Denver, July 2001.

WWW Documents (retrieved Feb. 15, 2005) Bearman, M. (1997). Narratives and Cases: Implications for computerbased education. Paper given at the Ascilite Conference, December 710, Perth, Australia: www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth97/papers/Bearman/Bearman.html Cooper, C. & Halkitis, P.N. (1995). This Test is for You: Standardized testing is a communal rite of passage. Computer-adaptive testing is about to make those rites very individual. Wired Magazine, Issue 3.01 www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.01/adaptive_pr.html Gruba, P. & Lynch, B. (1997). Constructivist Approaches to Communication Skills Instruction. Paper given at the Ascilite Conference, December 7-10, Perth, Australia www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth97/papers/Gruba/Gruba.html Guglielmo, C. (1993). Man with a Plan. Wired Magazine, Issue 1.06 http://wired-vig.wired.com//wired/archive/1.06/lyell.html Hannafin, M.J. (1997). The Case for Grounded Learning Systems Design: What the literature suggests. Paper given at the Ascilite Conference, December 7-10, Perth, Australia: www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth97/papers/Hannafink/Hannafink.html Harper, B. (1996). Using Cognitive Tools in Interactive Multimedia. Paper presented at the AUC Academic Conference 'From Virtual to Reality' at the University of Queensland: http://auc.uow.edu.au/conf/Conf96/Papers/Harper.html Leslie, J. (1993). Kids Connecting. Wired Magazine, Issue 1.05 http://wired-vig.wired.com//wired/archive/1.05/kids.connecting.html McLoughlin, C. (1997). Visual Thinking and Telepedagogy. Paper given at the Ascilite Conference, December 7-10, Perth, Australia: www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth97/papers/Mcloughlin/Mcloughlin.html

McMahon, M. (1997). Social Constructivism and the World Wide Web— A paradigm for learning. Paper given at the Ascilite Conference, December 7-10, Perth, Australia: www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth97/papers/Mcmahon/Mcmahon. html NASP Communiqué (1997). Psychology Applied to Education: Lev. S. Vygotsky's approach, 25(2), 12-13. www.bgcenter.com/Vygotsky_Appr.htm

326

Iris Guske

Oliver, R., Arshad, O. & Knibb, K. (1997). Creating Collaborative Computer-based Learning Environments with the World Wide Web. Paper given at the Ascilite Conference, December 7-10, Perth, Australia www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth97/papers/Oliver/Oliver.html Reeves, T.C., Laffey, J.M. & Marlino, M.R. (1997). Using Technology as Cognitive Tools: Research and praxis. Paper given at the Ascilite Conference, December 7-10, Perth, Australia www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth97/papers/Reeves/Reeves.html Ring, G., Jadav, A. & Pagram, J. (1997). Electronic Delivery of Interactive Multimedia Courses for Distance Education. Paper given at the Ascilite Conference, December 7-10, Perth, Australia www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth97/papers/Ring/Ring.html Russell, N. (1998). Information Technology Invades our Classroom: Implications for teachers and classroom practice. Griffith University, Queensland, Australia http://apng.edu.tw/whatsnew/Neil-Talk.html Strudwick, J. (date unknown). Behaviourist and Constructivist Approaches to Multimedia. School of Education, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia http://scs.une.edu.au/StudentFiles/StudentsPapers/JanS.html Wild, M. & Arshad, O. (1996). Developing Educational Content for the Web: Issues and ideas. Paper given at AusWeb96, Second Australian World Wide Web Conference, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW, Australia http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw96/educn/wild/paper.htm

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION PROGRAMS THAT DEVELOP MULTICULTURAL CAPACITIES THROUGH TECHNOLOGY AND EMPATHIC FIELD EXPERIENCES ELIZABETH LANDERHOLM AND CYNTHIA GEHRIE

The programs reported on here were completed with the support of an Even Start Grant from the Illinois State Board of Education, a Teacher Quality Enhancement (TQE) grant from the U.S. Department of Education, an Early Reading First Grant from the U.S. Department of Education, and a COR grant from Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU).

Abstract To develop multicultural perspectives, both teachers-in-training, and in-service teachers need a wide variety of experiences with diverse people and situations. They also need to balance their professionalism with an empathic capacity. As part of either coursework or professional development, they should enter field situations that push the boundaries of their comfort zone. Nearing the turn of the century, the Early Childhood Program faculty at NEIU, with the help of a Teacher Quality Education grant (Illinois Professionals Learning Partnerships), set out to adapt teacher preparation for the 21st century in a global world. This direction was shaped by revisions in accreditation guidelines by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, which emphasized the importance of fieldbased experiences prior to student teaching. The Early Childhood Education Program at NEIU began to make changes focusing on two goals: 1) increasing technology and writing skills across the curriculum; and, 2) developing reflective skills and understanding of diversity (special needs, multicultural, and international cultures). The resulting field

328

Elizabeth Landerholm and Cynthia Gehrie

experiences stressed working in collaborative partnerships through cocreative structures including parents, teachers, community members, community agency staff, university professors, students from special education, graduate/undergraduate partnerships, and clinical/student teaching partnerships. Our TQE grant itself had a partnership structure that worked to revise teacher preparation across five universities, and a wide range of community colleges, public schools, and community organizations. The objective was to forge collaboration in a new network where program innovation could be shared, coordinated, and evaluated.

Technology and digital technology In addition to computers, a variety of digital technology is available for children, teachers, and families. In this context, children are “digital natives” (Prensky, 2005-2006) while teachers, like immigrant parents whose children are born in America, are learning digital as a second language. Parents, too, are second-language learners. Landerholm (1994, 1995, 1998, 1999) describes how parents and teachers learn the new the language of the computer to set up educational programs for parents and children using technology. For children, the “digital natives,” the computer itself is basic. They have moved on to scanners, MP3 players, digital cameras (still and video), and camera phones to export digitized images into the computer. Computer software enables students to converge sound, video clips, and photographs with text and graphic information formats. Digital cameras enable children, parents, and teachers to record field trips and classroom experiences, and play them back or print them out for immediate feedback. Children, parents, and teachers explore the web, seeing and hearing video images from across the world. This immediate information becomes interactive when they respond by e-mail to people they encounter on screen. In a parade of innovative formats, people globally are using the Internet to describe their life and experiences to the world, seeking to dialogue with “others” who find their messages floating in the virtual sea. Tapscott (1999) describes the current generation as the “Net Generation.” He says that children of the net generation are surrounded by digital media, and to them digital technology is no more intimidating than a toaster. Lewin (1999) describes children who improve their reading by using the World Wide Web. Landerholm (1999) and Pastor and Kerns (1997) describe how children and parents use digital photos and digital video to document experience. The Hundred Languages of Children (Edwards, Gandini & Forman, 1998), which describes the Reggio Emilia

Early Childhood Programs that Develop Multicultural Capacities

329

(Italy) approach to education, stresses the importance of observation of real experiences and objects, and the use of photography to document those experiences. In the Reggio Emilia approach, documentation of experiences through photography, drawings, and journal writing is seen as being very important for children because it boosts memory, helps guide thinking, helps children become more aware of experiences, and better able to articulate what they see. If teachers are going to help children learn this approach, they first need to experience this documentary learning themselves, as students. Gehrie, Landerholm and Valverde (2008) describe workshops with Early Reading First teachers who are experiencing the Reggio Emilia documentation process first-hand. This approach is consistent with the philosophy of the ECED program which is based on Piaget’s theories (1954), and the current practices of the Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997; Hohmann & Weikart, 1995). Today’s digital natives are busy using new digital tools all the time which they master easily as part of their first language. We, as teachers in our second language, will never master these languages with the same skill. Calculators, computers, MP3 players, or camera phones are “extensions to our children’s brains”, and cell phones, not computers, are the new most important tools (Prensky, 2005-2006; LaFraniere, 2005). According to Prensky (2005-2006), programming is the most important difference between the 20th and 21st centuries, and the key to skills for the 21st century. Programming involves the creative process of creating original documents or personalizing a digital tool, by downloading a song or ring tone, conducting a Google search, capturing and inserting a picture in a document, developing a PowerPoint. Technology is a new world language that children are using to communicate with other children across all physical and cultural boundaries. Technology is itself multicultural, involving multiple viewpoints and diverse cultural expressions.

Reflective thinking and multicultural awareness Reflection as a specialized form of thinking has long been recognized as a factor in improving the quality of teaching (Dewey, 1933; Cruickshank, 1987; Bowman & Stott, 1994; Grimmett, 1988; Hernandez, 2001). Reflection is also a multiple perspective skill and involves multicultural awareness. Research on effective teaching indicates that more effective teachers are more often reflective thinkers (Korthagen & Wubbels, 1991; Eby, 1992). Reflection as an ability to assess situations and make thoughtful, rational decisions seems essential in facilitating

330

Elizabeth Landerholm and Cynthia Gehrie

movement toward increased developmental appropriateness. The cultivation of reflective practitioners has become a major goal of many teacher education programs (Benson, 2000). Multicultural awareness involves reflection and being able to see another person’s viewpoint. Multicultural awareness can be developed from study-abroad experiences, experiences with international teachers, seeing videotapes of other cultures and studying how other cultures educate their children (Landerholm, 1995; McAdams, 1993; Stevenson, 1992; Tobin, Wu & Davidson, 1993; Tanaka, 1990). Multicultural awareness is also fostered through collaborative projects where students have experiences in collaboration with community agencies and people from many different roles in the community (Landerholm, Gehrie & Jennings, 2004; Landerholm, Karr, Hao & Mushi, 2004). A number of strategies have been developed and used in teacher preparation programs to encourage reflection during student teaching. Strategies such as journals, staff meetings, case consultation, supervisory feedback, and problem-solving conferences have been found effective in assisting the development of higher levels of reflection (Bowman, 1994). Recently, the use of technology to facilitate students’ reflections and collaborations has received support from teacher educators who have incorporated electronic mail journals into university classes in teacher preparation programs (Bennett & Pye, 1998; White, 1995; Zimmermann & Greene, 1998; Benson, 2000). Benson (2000) found that electronic journaling promotes the development of a supportive learning community and encourages open communication between university students and instructors. In such a collaborative learning environment, a student’s ability to reflectively think of the classroom environment and teaching practice is fostered.

A context for developing multicultural capacity NEIU’s Early Childhood program initially added digital cameras to take photos and insert the photos into text. Students were given assignments in all their classes to do field observations, take photos, and reflect and write up field experiences. We discovered that most classes can easily add assignments requiring field observations, such as to attend a conference, visit a museum, interview a teacher/parent/child from another culture, observe a special-needs classroom, visit a daycare center, eat at a restaurant from another culture, shop in a cultural district, or attend a holiday celebration from another culture. Over time, these short

Early Childhood Programs that Develop Multicultural Capacities

331

assignments provide a range of real experiences as distinct from only reading about similar experiences. A technology clinical class was added to the curriculum. This class introduced digital photo and cameras, and a wide variety of computer skills to students in a weekly seminar with 50 hours of practice in an early childhood classroom over 15 weeks. Students learned the technology skills, and then taught them to children. This was a more intense experience than classroom visits and observations had been before visual documentation was collected. Even Start parents also received training with computers and digital cameras. They began to reflect on photos of their children, which gave them writing practice using computers, and documented their children’s literacy activities. This spread into the Parent Club, where they created an Even Start directory to which all parents contributed an essay on their goals and plans for job training and employment. This information was used to develop a job fair, and to bring recruiters from a variety of job training and placement programs. It was exciting to celebrate with parents as they earned certificates and found jobs through this process. Graduate and undergraduate students worked with this parent project through the Even Start grant and, thus, gained experience working with parents and seeing the effect of photo documentation on the learning of the parents and children (Landerholm, 1998, 1999).

Reflective skills and understanding diversity: Clinical experiences Clinical experiences were added in different types of early childhood programs and with populations from different cultural backgrounds, different age levels (toddler, pre-school, primary,) and for children with special needs. NEIU’s Early Childhood Education Program now requires four clinical classes (technology, infant-toddler, multicultural, and special education) of about 40 hours each, over three semesters. Clinical placements are in different schools with diverse cultural backgrounds, three different age-levels and one experience with special-needs children. These precede a semester of student teaching. The clinicals give the students more exposure to many cultures under the tutelage of an experienced teacher and a university supervisor. Seminars provide a way to share experiences with classmates and the university supervisor, and to reflect on cultural viewpoints. The clinicals provide a series of sustained experiences and exposures to multiple points of view.

332

Elizabeth Landerholm and Cynthia Gehrie

Reflective skills and understanding diversity: Study-abroad experiences Study abroad for a few weeks, a semester, or a year provides an intensive way to experience other ways of living. It also builds empathy for second-language learning, as the student struggles to communicate in another language and figures out how to buy groceries, make a phone call, and do basic, simple, ordinary living tasks that are suddenly really difficult. NEIU’s ECE program developed several options of two-week summer programs: to England, China, Korea, and Jamaica. The Jamaica experience has been ongoing for five years and was expanded to include teachers from Jamaica visiting NEIU in Chicago, a teacher from Chicago volunteering for a year in Jamaica, a student from Jamaica coming to NEIU to finish a bachelor’s degree, and ongoing teacher email exchange projects among Jamaican and Chicago teachers. This kind of long-term project, which builds on relationships over the years, provides a wonderful climate for students to make friends from another culture, share ideas, and develop multicultural perspectives. These changes reflect big changes in higher education over the past decade. Accrediting agencies such as NAYCE have required that teachersin-training work in classrooms before they begin student teaching, and that this work will prepare them to teach in classrooms that are ethnically diverse. Higher education is also moving toward a global perspective. This was first noticed as an increase in foreign students. In the 21st century, there is a growing acceptance that higher education should include experiences abroad to more fully prepare students for employment in a global economy, and to develop a global perspective and strategies that support multicultural collaboration.

Grant projects Over the years, the authors have worked on a variety of grant projects funded by public and private institutions for many reasons: to help teachers, students, and/or parents develop literacy skills with children, to develop new curriculum with teachers and parents, to help students complete bachelor’s or master’s degrees at their daycare center, to help teachers work with parents, to develop new techniques for teaching and learning, and to develop multicultural experiences for teachers, parents, and children. Over the years, as the grants got bigger, the larger grant project guidelines required collaboration among many partner institutions that included universities, community colleges, public schools, community

Early Childhood Programs that Develop Multicultural Capacities

333

pre-K and child care centers, and family service centers. Parents, teachers, students, professors, directors, and community members began to work together, building multicultural networks serving families from many cultures. In each of these experiences, it was important to learn new perspectives. For example, learning to understand what it is like to be a parent when you are a young student or teacher without children, or learning what is it like to be a teacher when you are a parent. The authors came to this work with a background including experiences with literacy projects, special education and therapy projects, projects with environmental organizations, school garden projects, ethnographic methods, arts integration in schools, and the Reggio Emilia approach. At NEIU they collaborated in developing and implementing the Even Start project (funded by the Illinois Board of Education), the Illinois Professionals Learning Partnership (IPLP) Early Childhood Cohort (funded by the U.S. Department of Education), an Early Reading First (ERF) project (funded by the U.S. Department of Education), and a variety of small COR projects (funded by NEIU). The Even Start project was a family literacy in a public school. The IPLP project was a Teacher Quality Enhancement partnership to improve teacher pre-training. The ERF project was an in-service teacher literacy program in community childcare centers. Through these projects, a variety of new techniques were developed to help pre- and post-service teachers gain multicultural perspectives and integrate new techniques with time-tested teaching methods.

Use of photo documentation and videotaping The Reggio Emilia Program, an early childhood program in Italy, developed an application for photo documentation, taking photos of children’s work and children’s participation in learning activities, and using these photos to evaluate and understand learning (Edwards, 1993, 1998). The authors used this strategy in all three projects, the IPLP project, the Even Start project and the Early Reading First project, by providing students, teachers, and parents with cameras, training, and models for reflection, assessment, and student projects. When parents and teachers documented their children’s learning with a camera, they paid closer attention to what the child was doing. Teachers, parents, and other staff members were able to provide more extensive evaluation and reflection on children’s learning in a small group evaluation interview when they were shown photos of the children’s work throughout the year, rather than when they were interviewed without the photos. Teachers who had the

334

Elizabeth Landerholm and Cynthia Gehrie

experience of working on art projects that were documented with photos appreciated their experiences and were able to transfer the use of photography into their teaching. Several teachers became master photographers, and their classrooms were enhanced by powerful panels that demonstrated student work. As parents and teachers reflected on these experiences, they automatically expressed new understanding of another culture where the role of parent, child, or teacher might be different.

Publishing digital books Co-creating digital books using photography is another strategy which developed multicultural perspectives. When children were given cameras on a field trip and told to take pictures, it was very surprising to see the pictures that each child took. One of the graduate assistants in a project found a book about the Catholic school in Hawaii, where children took pictures of what they saw as God, and then wrote their thoughts. She tried this with her children. One took all huge close ups, one took food, etc. The teacher began to realize how different each child’s viewpoint was once the children had a chance to take their own pictures. With the digital camera, photos can be printed immediately and multiple copies made. The children’s words can be typed into a photo. Some copies can be sent home; some kept in the classroom library. They discovered that children love to read their own words, and look at pictures of themselves.

Use of team planning Team planning and co-creation are wonderful strategies to develop empathy for other viewpoints, and also provide the opportunity to discover missing pieces of the puzzle. The team as a whole takes on the task of cocreating the program. As team members’ strengths, interests, and passions are identified, the tasks of the grant can be divided up into smaller teams, and everyone can benefit from the tasks being developed and implemented in an easy, flexible way. In the Even Start grant, the authors developed a Tuesday and a Thursday teacher team who planned the Even Start afterschool program activities for either Tuesday or Thursday after school programs. They also developed a testing and evaluation team who did the children’s testing, a parent recruitment team, who called parents to come to the program, and developed and implemented the parent activities. A drama club team planned and implemented the drama club, which evolved into a literacy strategy. All the teams met once a month for planning,

Early Childhood Programs that Develop Multicultural Capacities

335

which they did in their small teams and then reported back to the whole group. In the IPLP grant, several early childhood professors and students cocreated research mini-projects for technology, reflection, and collaboration. The smaller teams were flexible and could be customized for each team’s individual interests. For more comprehensive planning, such as aligning the scope and sequence for courses in the program, faculty met as a group in two retreats a year, and tracked results with monthly follow-up meetings. In the Early Reading First project, there was a leadership team for all the centers, and smaller leadership teams at centers to develop local projects such as lesson plan formats and testing protocols.

Collaboration of several institutions and overlapping resources The Even Start, IPLP, and ERF grants involved NEIU and public schools and community agencies (Chicago Public Schools, Children’s Center of Cicero Berwyn). Having students work on grants is a way for them to see different educational environments and experience a variety of perspectives. Seeing their professors working with directors, principals, teachers, and parents provides authentic models of collaboration. In the Even Start project, the parents in the program volunteered or worked with the teachers, student teachers, and professors. As the parents became comfortable with the teachers in Even Start, they approached and asked questions of those same teachers while in their regular classrooms. Other parents then learned how to ask questions and work with teachers as they watched the Even Start parents as models.

Food, fun, and freebies The grants provided new materials, equipment, and excitement for all staff. New learning occurs when there is energy, collaboration, new materials and equipment, and a sense of discovery and enjoyment. This aspect was provided in all the grants and was a wonderful strategy for new viewpoints. Using resources from the different institutions and overlapping grant resources made the resources go much farther, and provided another opportunity to recognize multiple viewpoints.

336

Elizabeth Landerholm and Cynthia Gehrie

Choices of professional development Everyone in the grant projects needed professional development. Having choices added to collaboration within the project, parents and teachers both attended conferences and workshops. In addition, parents, teachers, student teachers, and professors presented at workshops and at conferences. Presenting at a conference was a wonderful strategy for professional development and a great way to reinforce multiple perspectives. Staff from one project might present a workshop to staff from another project. Besides attending conferences, staff went on field trips, interviewed other teachers, visited community agencies, taught other staff how to use different equipment, participated in a research project, and developed their own idea of what they needed for their own professional development. In all of these projects, the participants collaborated on joint articles and book chapters which were published.

On-site university classes Sometimes, the professional development included class credit so that a parent, teacher, or student teacher could obtain a certificate or a degree. The Even Start grant provided a few classes, but the funding was limited. From the start, the agency director at The Children’s Center of CiceroBerwyn insisted that teachers work toward degrees, not just take workshops. These were linked to promotions and increases in salary. The Early Reading First grant provided classes for undergraduates toward their bachelor’s degree, and for graduate students to receive their master’s degree and certification. The classes were offered on site. This was an excellent strategy, not only for students to gain credit, but it strengthened a link between coursework and classroom practice.

Literacy coaches The Early Reading First grant provided literacy coaches who were professors or teachers with literacy and ECE training. They visited teachers in the classroom and provided feedback. This combined with photo documentation and ELLCO assessment of the classroom literacy environment, provided teachers with immediate feedback from another professional about what they saw in the classroom and the children’s learning. In this strategy, the teachers see their classrooms through the coach’s eyes, and vice versa. Out of these shared perspectives, new teaching practices can be identified, modeled, assessed, and modified.

Early Childhood Programs that Develop Multicultural Capacities

337

International/cross cultural ideas In all of the grants, there was the excitement of starting a new project and developing new ideas. Many ideas were gained from reading about other cultures such as the Reggio Emilia Early Childhood Program in Italy, and collaboration through NEIU international projects, such as the Jamaica project, Korean project and England project. In addition, there are international faculty and students at NEIU—one of the most diverse universities in the midwestern United States. The ECED program is the most diverse program in NEIU’s College of Education where there are tenure-track international faculty from Tanzania, Nigeria, and China, and students from all over the world. This provides everyone with a global perspective. Over the years and through a variety of grant projects, NEIU’s Early Childhood Program developed a wide range of strategies and experiences to help pre-service and in-service teachers become more skilled and empathetic teachers. In return, the collaboration of the university with the community agencies has helped the university become more sensitive to the community and to develop better education and training for future teachers.

References Bennett, L. & Pye, J. (1998). Technology: Creating a community of thinkers. Proceedings of selected research and development presentations. National Convention of the Association for Education Communications and Technology. Benson, M. (2000). Student Teachers’ Reflections and Collaborations through Electronic Mail Discussions. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 21(2), 123-127. Bowman, B.T. & Stott, F.M. (1994). Understanding Development in a Cultural Context. Mallory, B.L. & New, R.S. (eds.). In Diversity and Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Challenges for early childhood education. New York: Teacher College Press. Buckleitner, W. (1994). What's Hot for Computer-Using Tots? Technology and Learning, 14(5), 14-18. Bredekamp, S. & Copple, C. (eds.) (1997). Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Early Childhood Programs (rev. ed.). Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Cruickshank, D.R. (1987). Reflective Teaching: The preparation of students of teaching. Reston, VA: Association of Teacher Educators.

338

Elizabeth Landerholm and Cynthia Gehrie

Dewey, J. (1933). How We Think. Chicago: Henry Regnery. Eby, J.W. (1992). Reflective Planning, Teaching, and Evaluation for the Elementary School. New York: Merrill. Edwards, C.P., Gandini, L. & Forman, G. (1998). The Hundred Languages of Children. The Reggio Emilia Approach: Advanced reflections (2nd ed.). Greenwich, CT: Ablex. Gehrie, C., Landerholm, E. & Valverde, G. (2008). Case Study Two: Creative Contexts for Literacy—A Reggio Emilia Approach Using Art and Documentation. DeBruin-Parecki, A. (ed.). In Effective Early Literacy Practice: Here's how, here’s why. Ypsilanti, MI: High/Scope Press, 143-162. Grimmett, P.P. & Erickson, G.L. (1988). Reflection in Teacher Education. New York: Teachers College Press. Hernandez, H. (2001). Multicultural Education. Columbus, OH: Prentice Hall. Hohmann, M. & Weikart, D. (1995). Educating Young Children. Ypsilanti, MI: High/Scope Press. Korthagen, F.A.J. & Wubbels, T. (April 1991). Characteristics of Reflective Practitioners: Towards an operationalization of the concept of reflection. Presented at the American Educational Research Association. Chicago, IL. LaFraniere, S. (2005). Cell Phones Catapult Rural Africa to 21st Century. The New York Times. Retrieved on August 25, 2007, from www.nytimes.com Landerholm, E. (1996). Early Childhood Education in Japan. Early Child Development and Care, 124, 33-47. —. (1994). Computers in the Kindergarten. Early Childhood Development and Care, 101, 13-22. —. (1995). Early Childhood Teachers’ Computer Attitudes, Knowledge, and Practices. Early Childhood Development and Care, 109, 43-60. —. (1998). Computers in Even Start. The School Community Journal, 8(1). —. (1999). Integration of Old and New Technology: Computers, photography, and video technology in an Even Start Family Literacy Project. The School Community Journal, 9(2), 84-97. Landerholm, E., Karr, J. & Mushi, S. (2000). Collaborative Approach to Family Literacy Evaluation Strategies. Early Child Development and Care, 162(1), 65-79. Landerholm, E., Gehrie, C. & Hao, Y. (2004). Education for the 21st Century. Early Child Development and Care, 174(7-8), 593-603.

Early Childhood Programs that Develop Multicultural Capacities

339

Landerholm, E., Karr, J., Mushi, S. & Hao, Y. (2004). Collaborative Evaluation of the Use of Drama and Technology to Improve Literacy in a School/University Partnership Program for Family Literacy. Davis Lenski, S. & Black, W.L. (eds.). In Transforming Teacher Education through Partnerships, Wales: Edwin Mellen Press, 251-268. Lewin, L. (1999). ‘Site-reading’ the World Wide Web. Educational Leadership, 56(5), 16-20. Pastor, E. & Kerns, E. (1997). A Digital Snapshot of an Early Childhood Classroom. Educational Leadership, 56(3), 42-45. Piaget, J. (1954). The Construction of Reality in the Child. New York: Ballantine. Prensky, M. (2005-2006). Learning in the Digital Age. Educational Leadership: The best of educational leadership 2005-2006, 20-23. Stahlhut, R.G. & Hawkes, R.R. (February 1997). An Examination of Reflective Thinking through a Study of Written Journals, Telecommunications and Personal Conferences. Presented at the Association for Teacher Educators. Washington, D.C. Stevenson, H. (1992). Learning from Asian Schools. Scientific American, 70-76. Tanaka, M. (1990). The Development of ‘Pro Social Behavior’ among Children II: An analysis based on sex differences. Bulletin of the Institute of Women's Culture,11. Tokyo: Showa Women's University. Tapscott, D. (1999). Educating the Net Generation. Educational Leadership, 56(5), 6-11. Tobin, J., Wu, D. & Davidson, D. (1989). Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China and the United States. New Haven: Yale University Press. Weikart, D. (1989). Young Children in Action. Ypsilanti, MI: High/Scope Press. White, C. (1995). The Place for Technology in a Constructivist Teacher Education Program. Technology and Teacher Education Annual, 290293. Charlottesville, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. Zimmermann, S. & Greene, M. (1998). A Five Year Chronicle: Using technology in a teacher education program. Proceedings of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference.

UNIVERSITIES IN DIALOGUE IN A WORLD WITHOUT DISTANCE MARIA AMATA GARITO

Introduction The globalization processes we are witnessing have a deep impact on the world of production, on labor, on financial and economic markets, but also on the transfer of knowledge and the acquisition of information and, consequently, on educational offers available in our society. Thanks to the Internet, millions of people speak to each other using telecommunication networks in a multicultural way: they transmit needs and desires, they buy products, receive information, attend training courses, and socialize with groups of people of different cultures. The Internet is unveiling a new continent; it connects interactively, in a synchronic and diachronic way, users of different countries of the world. It brings about significant change as far as the de-materialization of the production and knowledge worlds is concerned, and it promotes dialogue between universities across the world that can jointly create new knowledge to be fed into telecommunications networks. Today, thanks to the new technologies, anybody, anywhere, if he has the appropriate technological tools and materials, can build a space to set up individual training and self-learning environments. Museums, cultural centers, cyber-cafés, etc., are the new places where knowledge is disseminated in the local area, but they are also the points to access knowledge worldwide. The new technologies allow delivery directly from the university to the user’s desk—items such as lessons, multimedia products, databases, auto-evaluation systems, organisation of exams—by means of a simple personal computer (PC). In so doing, they promote collaborative learning processes inside dynamic virtual spaces. In virtual classrooms, it is possible to reproduce teaching and learning activities as they occur in real classrooms, but it is also possible to increase the amount of information significantly and start up multiple interactions in real time among individuals who belonging to different cultures, are

Universities in Dialogue in a World without Distance

341

embedded in different traditions, or have diverse educational backgrounds reflective of their respective country’s structures. Physical distances are eliminated and global communication systems are truly drawing people and cultures together. Our way of life, our ways of learning and thinking are being transformed. In this context, the very idea of education and training is changing, and this requires specific public policies. The communication of knowledge in this society without distances gives rise to a new reality that is characterized by the fact that the amount of information available outside “school and university structures” results in knowledge and skills acquisition also taking place outside traditional educational and training structures. Anybody can learn from those who feed the information networks. The process, enhanced by telecommunication technologies, tends to create a pedagogical society inside the knowledge society and develop a new market: the market of educational contents. Many initiatives related to e-learning are creating a knowledge industry that is going to have a significant impact worldwide. All over the world, universities could become the protagonists of this market. Therefore, it is necessary that, besides a new model of social ethics, it is now necessary to establish new systems, new public policies, and also new organisational models for universities at a local, national, and international level, which can integrate presence with distance. Universities should be enabled to meet the complex educational needs of the people of the 21st century. Actually, the 21st century citizens should not only acquire specific, but also critical and creative skills; higher education should supply the tools that will enable them to solve complex problems, and create models and development systems suited to each individual regional setting, but they should also be related to international ones. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate knowledge which meets international, national, and local needs in curricula which transmit new values and new attitudes with regard to labor and production. They should develop language learning and learning about cultures of different countries, as well as learning respect for cultural differences, but they should also master new technologies and their languages. In the 21st century we ought to be able to combine professional skills and competencies in order to be able to experience complexity. People should “learn how to learn” by using the new cognitive technologies in order to develop the ability to select, to master, to assimilate information, and to use it quickly and effectively. Therefore, the problem is no longer if education reproduces social inequalities or not, but today the question, asked by universities worldwide, is how to adapt to this system and create,

342

Maria Amata Garito

in the framework of a globalized economy, systems that can develop integrated teaching and learning processes, since they use different languages to communicate knowledge. They should also be open processes as there should be no spatio-temporal limits. University systems should develop educational and training spaces “intra muros” and “extra muros” so as to give students the possibility to attend university in periods of residency and by distance-learning arrangements. I think that universities, which have always been the centers where knowledge is created by means of research and communication of information through teaching, should guide this process. This could be achieved by engaging in constant dialogue with a variety of educational environments since the entire world is presently undergoing great change.

Distance universities in new settings In this new environment, a distance university is not an alternative to the traditional university; rather, it represents a new way of allowing traditional universities to carry out their teaching and research functions, and make them gain new momentum in the cognitive society which is characterized by the specificity of the technologies involved in processing knowledge and facilitating its transfer. Today, a distance university can help traditional universities to develop products, processes and system innovations. The growing number of disciplines, the increasingly international dimension, the development of the new technologies—all of these create conflicting pressures and partnerships, not only with the other universities, but also with different institutions. Italy's positive experiences with the model distance university, NETTUNO—Network Università Ovunque, and, later with the International Telematic University, UNINETTUNO, have had a profound impact. The problem we were facing when we designed these didactic models was to create a distance education structure that, meeting the educational needs of the cognitive society, would take into account both the development of information technologies and the results of psychopedagogical research that represents the theoretical foundation of the entire distance teaching and learning process. The proposed distance university model is based on the idea that distance teaching should be grounded in traditional universities; they must re-organize to respond to changed qualitative and quantitative demands in connection with educational needs, flexibility, and the diversification and internationalization of teaching and learning processes.

Universities in Dialogue in a World without Distance

343

NETTUNO's experiences show that a university can meet these challenges and can become an engine of innovation, which offers new content matter and new models of communicating knowledge based on new technologies and new organizational structures, which are completely different from the traditional ones. Today two models coexist in the same university: one is still characterized by traditional teaching methods, traditional classrooms as physical spaces where the face-to-face teaching processes take place, and where the teacher still has a central role. The other model is based on the use of new technologies that allow us to modify not only the teachinglearning process, but also the physical structures where this process takes place; classrooms are replaced by open structures, the “technological pools,” where technologies allow the setting up of flexible training processes and facilitate self-learning. The NETTUNO organizational model, which is based upon a consortium of traditional universities and telecommunication business companies, enhanced the success of the initiative allowing us to bring the education world closer to the production world and to better meet the strategically important need of continuously re-training human resources. The International Telematic University UNINETTUNO, too, is based on close collaboration with traditional universities not only with the Italian ones, but also in other parts of Europe and the Arab World. At present, we are concluding new agreements with universities in the United States, Latin America, China, Russia, and Africa. The combination of university settings throughout many countries worldwide allows us to supply wider and more diversified provision in terms of teaching staff, subjects, and study contents. Distance education, grounded in traditional institutional functions, allowed students to enroll in the same course, to follow the same study program, to get the support of the same teachers and the same kind of degree as face-to-face students. It is the same training staff that normally divide their time between internal and external students. With regard to distance students, university teachers carry out all the functions that are required by regular students, besides those that are typical of a distance teacher’s functions. Teachers, who do not belong to one university but to all partner universities, coordinate all didactic activities; this is certainly the main aspect that guarantees the quality that can be achieved with this model of distance teaching, in which the teachers of many universities in many countries are involved. They jointly design and implement the new teaching and learning model.

Maria Amata Garito

344

Our distance teaching model questioned the idea of mass production and the industrialization of educational processes and, at the same time, it allowed us to offer equal educational opportunities to masses of users. In a few years, NETTUNO has succeeded in responding to qualitative and quantitative demands, to the demand for flexibility and the diversification of teaching and learning, and has succeeded in furthering the internationalization of teaching and learning processes. A drive towards internationalization of the NETTUNO model was the result of the success achieved by Med Net’U—Mediterranean Network of Universities-Project, which was funded by the European Commission within the EUMEDIS Programme and supervised by NETTUNO— Network Università Ovunque. It saw the participation of 31 universities and training institutions of 11 Euromediterranean countries. This experience highlights the fact that, in spite of the diversity of political and cultural settings, it is possible, irrespective of the differences, which are respected, to put into practice a co-participation process to create a Euromediterranean Area of Higher Education that is able to: ƒ ƒ ƒ

ƒ

Open the way to the creation of new multicultural and multiethnic identities; Promote the active participation of its actors in the globalization process; Make the stakeholders of institutions in countries with different political and cultural settings answer the needs for the internationalization of university and vocational training systems, and help the students acquire the competencies which are most demanded by global labor markets; Create new knowledge networks with the support of many partners, not only to promote the world’s cultural heritage, but also, and predominantly, to promote the process of globalization communicating different types of knowledge by using new technologies.

With Med Net’U Project we have implemented a technological network, which is based on a Euromediterranean satellite network that connects 11 production centers and 31 technological pools of the Mediterranean universities which are partners in the Project, and a learning environment on the Internet via satellite in Arabic, Italian, French, and English and the delivery on RAI NETTUNO SAT 1 of video lessons given by professors from several universities in the Arab world and in Europe. Besides the technological network that allows all partners

Universities in Dialogue in a World without Distance

345

to produce, broadcast, and receive educational contents, we created a network of people—minds—that are able to connect and share their knowledge. Professors from different cultures cooperated by jointly developing and disseminating new knowledge. The governments of the partner countries supported the development of Med Net’U from a project to a system. Actually, the ministers of higher education of different Mediterranean countries signed a joint declaration in which they looked forward to “strengthening the distance learning system, by expanding the results attained through the Med Net’U Project, in order to encourage the widest possible access to education and training in a perspective of lifelong learning” through the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO. Students from different countries and different cultures can enroll through the Internet in UNINETTUNO— International Telematic University courses as distance-learning students. Connecting to a specific learning environment on the Internet (http://www.uninettunouniversity.net), they can decide to attend distance courses in the language they prefer: in Arabic or Italian, in English or in French, and they will be supported by professors/tutors from the technological pools of the university—the one nearest to where they live that is connected to the Telematic University UNINETTUNO international site in Rome by telematic networks. With this university model, the students of the Middle East are able to study and learn our culture, and the students of Western Europe are able to get acquainted with the best teachings of the Arabic academic culture. Both are free from prejudices, as they share the single aim of enhancing their knowledge and pursuing in-depth studies. Thanks to new technologies, European and Arab professors are cooperating in the creation of a single international pool of knowledge; together they have established a single great university in which the best professors of the European and Mediterranean universities teach in the different faculties, including engineering, economics, psychology, cultural studies, international law, and communication sciences. Each university and each professor is the proponent of a new educational process: they design curricula and select the teachers entrusted with the distance courses, and they put together the video lessons and didactic materials. Thus, a new didactic-psycho-pedagogic model was developed, which allows us to: 1) Open, also in a distance mode, new communication relationships between students and professors using a specific Internetbased platform, a shift from unidirectional communication (typical of the first distance teaching models) to a bi-directional communication, also in real time; and, 2) Use through the Internet, via satellite, the PC as the focal

Maria Amata Garito

346

point of a system in which the contributions of the various media converge. This model allows direct conveyance from the university to the student’s home or to the workplace such things as lessons, multimedia products, databases, tutoring support, practice work, and evaluation systems.

The Internet as a teaching and learning site The main didactic tool is the Internet-based learning environment known as www.uninettunouniversity.net, the first portal in the world where teaching and learning is carried out in four languages. From this learning environment it is possible to access an area that is called didactic cyberspace. In the didactic cyberspace, students find the pages of professors and tutors; from there it is possible to access video lessons that are digitized, including bookmarks facilitating hypertextual and multimedia links with books, selected bibliographical references, texts, exercises, virtual laboratories, as well as lists of websites selected by the professors. These particular staff pages are considered to be at the center of didactic activities, and they are structured according to different learning environments that guide students along their learning paths. According to this model, students can build their own learning paths based upon their learning needs and skill-levels, and they are at the center of the learning process, guided by the new profile of the professor as a telematic tutor, whose role it is to supply the tools needed to facilitate the networked learning and communication process in a synchronic and diachronic way. The proposed activities allow the shift from: ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ ƒ

transfer of knowledge to the creation of knowledge; passive and competitive learning to active and collaborative learning; the simple to the complex (video lesson and intelligent library); theory to application projection (learning by doing in the virtual laboratory); guided exercises to research on the Internet; and, individual study to interactive dialogue between professors and students (on the Internet).

Universities in Dialogue in a World without Distance

347

Digitized video lessons The video lessons are digitized in order to be used on the Internet via satellite. What characterizes this digitization model is: 1) modularity of contents that allows the students to access a specific skill level; 2) indexing of subjects which favors hypertextual navigation; indexing has the function of providing a cognitive map and guiding the students on different didactic paths; and, 3) bookmarks, icons that blink during the video lesson and lead the student to the hypertextual materials related to the video lesson, such as texts, exercises, virtual laboratories, bibliographical references, lists of websites, and on-line tutoring. Using the digitized video lessons, the student has the possibility not only of setting up symbolic-reconstructive learning processes linked to a classical linear teaching mode but, thanks to the modular structure of the contents, as well to subject indexing and bookmarks, the students can develop hypertextual and multimedia processes that allow them to enrich and enhance their metacognitive strategies, and to favor the customization of learning paths, allowing for the development of active, constructive, and interactive learning processes. In connection with the video lessons, students find practice work and virtual laboratories. The virtual laboratory looks like a true learning environment where the student can put into practice the abstract principles learned in the theoretical lessons; by setting up a “learning by doing” process, they can virtually develop abilities virtually and integrate theory and practice. The human mind works better on concrete and specific cases rather than on abstract data; besides, learning by doing enhances the learning process and facilitates the solution of problems. Virtual laboratories are essential tools for acquiring specific professional skills and are frequently used in vocational training courses, where the method most used is the virtual simulation of operational procedures and abilities. In this environment, the student plays an active role, but s/he is always guided by the intelligent system or by an expert tutor who, through the telematic networks, follows the student’s learning process. This leads us to another important aspect: the abolition of space and time constraints. Thanks to the telematic network, the same virtual environment can be shared at the same time by several users, i.e., teachers and students from different places around the world.

348

Maria Amata Garito

Online tutoring This is the true interactive synchronic section of the portal. In this section, real tutors/professors support the students by chat, including audio and video, revise the assignments, guide them to overcome difficulties— not only those problems related to learning but also the psychological ones resulting from distance study. The online tutoring is structured in classes with an advanced “agenda system” capable of recognizing each student/user and, thus, customizing the functions by selecting the most interesting events. This system enhances interactivity among professor/ telematic tutor and users/students. An advanced profiling system, where the user is recognized unequivocally, allows constant monitoring of the learning process of each individual user/student, realizing a true learning process that is interactively guided. The professors as telematic tutors play the role of professor-director; they design learning scenarios and cooperate with their students to create learning paths that take into account the different learning styles. Not only does this provide the students with theoretical and conceptual tools, but also offers tools that transform knowledge in practical skills and, therefore, into professional comptencies; it favors the integration of knowing how to be and knowing how to do.

Learning models As regards the development of learning, it is important to note that the study strategies set up during the use of the digitized video lessons allow the set up to be a learning process, where it is the student who masters time. Actually, the students, besides having the possibility to customize all their study paths, can interact with different materials and implement a multimedia and hypertextual study strategy: they can organize the knowledge stored by using different registers such as text, sound, and pictures; they can interrupt viewing the video lessons to consult databases or texts available in the virtual library; they can try practical activities in the laboratory to see if they can transform their theoretical knowledge into practical abilities; they can navigate the Internet to enrich the subject with information that can come from different cultural and linguistic settings; or they can interact with other students and experts on the subject by means of forums and chats (Garito, 1998). In particular, hypertextual learning takes place. Many authors, particularly those who pursue a cognitive and connectivity approach, agree on defining hypertextual technologies as tools capable of fostering a new

Universities in Dialogue in a World without Distance

349

kind of learning. These technologies are closer to the natural ways of working of the human mind. This is the case because there is a substantial analogy between the network of links typical of a hypertext and that of the workings of the human mind, if seen as a neural network. Hypertextual learning guides the students in their explorative dynamics by offering a non-linear type of knowledge that is made up of plots and connections among nodes. Besides, hypertextual learning engenders autonomy and allows students to become authors of their knowledge, as they are given the opportunity to create their own navigation paths among the nodes of knowledge proposed, and may also choose the detail and learning level they wish to attain. Basically, students are provided with a learning environment that stimulates exploration and discovery, i.e., tools to “learn how to learn” in order to develop new learning strategies. In addition, the inclusion of the virtual laboratory into didactic cyberspace allows for the development of new learning models that tend to shift human cognitive working from the symbolic-constructivist mode to that of perceptive-motor working. Learning linked to the perceptive-motor is related to the primary mode of acquisition and, therefore, turns out to be largely independent of differences in age, education, cultural background, etc.

The new roles of professors and students The new distance universities offer the possibility not only to update teaching and learning methods, but also to update the roles of teacher and of student. The new cultural setting requires, above all, a revision of the traditional function of the teacher who was seen as the absolute repository of knowledge, the sole transmitter of knowledge, and the solitary protagonist of the educational process. The teacher should abandon the role of “sage on the stage” to take over the softer, but more crucial, role of “guide.” The new role that takes shape is one of a teacher-director who designs learning scenarios and cooperates with his or her students to jointly create a training path that takes into account the different learning styles. The new teacher should be able to use the new technologies of the mind to transmit knowledge, but also to share and develop new kinds of knowledge. This new teaching style, one that implies that “the teacher wears again Socrates’ cloak” and becomes a guide favors, consequently, the appearance on the pedagogical stage of a new student who can manage his or her own learning process. The old student, no longer a passive receiver of knowledge and an isolated observer of the expert performance of the

350

Maria Amata Garito

teacher, yields to the new student, who is an active constructor of his or her own knowledge as well as an independent actor in the process of applying the knowledge previously learned. Therefore, teaching and learning—by means of television, telecommunications networks, the Internet with its Forums, chats, and e-mail—transform traditional didactics into an open system that is capable of updating itself and organize an ever increasing and diversified amount of knowledge.

Universities in dialogue develop knowledge networks UNINETTUNO can make us reflect on the role that a university can play within the knowledge society. In fact, universities, as the only placeswhere production and transfer processes coexist, can acquire a significant and crucial role in the production of contents to be put on telecommunications networks. But to make this happen it is necessary to change their roles and the system, and to create new international alliances as well as new real and virtual spaces. Common knowledge spaces need not be homogeneous or uniform. One should not group with others to clone or even to “McDonald-ize” education and training systems, but to guarantee a new balance between unity and diversity: the unity of values and traditions as well as the diversity of cultures and languages. Through UNINETTUNO, the European and Mediterranean countries can make their ancient cultures interact and offer to the world the immense cultural heritage they cherish: from art to music, from history to literature, from technological to scientific knowledge. These treasures are the world heritage of Europe and of the Mediterranean Basin. They are the tools with which to create new wealth. The best universities can offer to everybody, in an open and democratic way, the teachings of scientists and of the best intellectuals of the world. We may thus build, in a virtual way, a model of the university that allowed the birth of the European culture: the medieval university. In medieval universities, the curricula were the same in each university; students did not belong to one university, but could attend the courses of all the existing universities. They moved from one university to another by travelling on foot or on horseback in order to follow the lessons of the best professors; for instance, a law course at Bologna University or a theology course at Paris University. The professors also travelled from one university to another. The best were called by the universities because their presence ensured a certain prestige and power but, most of all,

Universities in Dialogue in a World without Distance

351

because they attracted a great number of students and young people from the whole of Europe. The new technologies allow for the mobility of ideas and the physical circulation of professors and students and, of course, their virtual circulation. The virtual university that allows for the interaction between professors and students of diverse universities of the world may really and rapidly give an adapted answer to the needs of internationalization of the academic systems; this is necessary in order to prepare the skills required by the new labor markets and the products required by the new knowledge markets. The model of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO can meet the requirements of the new knowledge markets and help traditional universities to move away from an isolated system, divided into classrooms and subjects as well as predefined repetitive knowledge, to open systems, able to update themselves, to integrate all the knowledge available on the web, and to facilitate knowledge exchange at the global level. Pondering our common roots today also means realizing that similarities and convergences are far greater than perceived differences. The defining characteristic of this region of the world is that of having been at the crossroads of many encounters and exchanges—peaceful and hostile. Even if borders still demarcate countries, new technologies and communication networks can overcome the barriers that separate people. However, as far as the dissemination of knowledge and the advance of culture is concerned, borders have always been negligble. The world lived and lives under open skies from the north to the south, from the east to the west, so frontiers can become the site of continuity and not of conflict. The International Telematic University UNINETTUNO is willing to engage in permanent dialogue with other universities and create a single great university that moves under opens skies, without frontiers, that helps us to internationalize culture and knowledge, to create new knowledge, but also to seek new values and to respect differences.

352

Maria Amata Garito

References AA. VV. (2007). Boonen, A. & Van Petegem, W. (eds). European Networking and Learning for the Future. Antwerp-Apeldoom: Garant. —. (2003). Liestøl, G., Morrison, A. & Rasmussen, T. (eds). Digital media revisited: theoretical and conceptual innovation in digital domain. Cambridge: MIT Press. —. (1993). Harry, K., John, M. & Keegan, D. (eds). Distance Education: New Perspectives, London: Routledge. De Kerckhove, D. (2001). The Architecture of Intelligence. Boston: Birkhäuser. Garito, M.A., Anceschi, G. & Botta, M. (2006). L'Ambiente dell'Apprendimento—Web Design e Processi Cognitivi. Milano: Mc Graw-Hill. Garito, M.A. (2005). Towards the Euro-Mediterranean Distance University. LlinE—Lifelong Learning in Europe—European Adult and Continuing Education Journal, 11(1), 47-49. —. (2004). NETTUNO—The University to Watch, Browse and Surf on. Die Rolle des Telelearning: Europäische Erfahrungen, Materialien, 87 (July), 141-149. Bauhaus Universität Weimar. —. (2004). La Perspective Internationale. Une collaboration Europe-Pays de la Méditerranée. Savoirs, 5 (November), 97-103. Paris: L’Harmattan. —. (2004). Zmierzajac ku Wirtualnej Edukacji. e-Mentor, 1, 51-53. Warsaw: Warsaw School of Economics. —. (2003). The Euromediterranean Distance University. Public Service Review: European Union, Autumn 2003, 129-132. Newcastle-underLyme (UK): Public Service Communication Agency Ltd. —. (2003). Going the Distance with e-Learning. Public Service Review: European Union. —. (2001). The University for the New Market of Knowledge. World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution, 57(4), 373-393. London: Taylor & Francis. —. (2000). Globalizzazione e Innovazione: Le Nuove Opportunità di Istruzione e Formazione. Viaggio tra i Perché della Disoccupazione in Italia, 177-196. Milano: Giuffré Editore. —. (1999). La Universidad del Futuro. Hacia un Proceso de EnsenanzaAprendizaje Integrato y Abierto. Global Networking into the Future, 69-77. Veracruz: FESI Mexico.

Universities in Dialogue in a World without Distance

353

—. (1998). La Télévision dans les Processus d'Enseignement et Apprentissage. Images and Scientific Education in Europe-European Science and Technology Forum. Paris: CNRS. —. (1997). Tecnologie e Processi Cognitivi: Insegnare e apprendere con la multimedialità. Milano: Angeli. —. (1997). The Creation of the Euro-Mediterranean Information Society: Communication, education and training, research. Firenze: Giunti. —. (1996). La Multimedialità nell’Insegnamento a Distanza. Roma: Garamond. Harry, K., John, M. & Keegan, D. (1993). Distance Education: New perspectives. London: Routledge Landow, G. P. (1992) Hypertext: The convergence of contemporary critical theory and technology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Lévy, P. (1994). L’intelligence Collective: Pour une antropologie du cyberspace. Paris: La Découverte. Perriault, J. (1996). La Communication du savoir à distance: autoroutes de l’information et télé-savoirs. Paris: L’Harmattan. Rheingold, H. (2000). The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier. Cambridge: MIT Press.

LEADING ACROSS BORDERS: PREPARING THE NEXT GENERATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION LEADERS GWEN LEE-THOMAS AND J.L. KEMP

Introduction Higher education institutions in the United States have been faced with developing effective strategies necessary to educate students for a global society. Although preparing students for a changing environment is not unique to higher education, the challenge arises when American youth operate with a distorted perception of their country’s role in a global environment. For example, the World Series—a baseball playoff— consists only of teams from the U.S. and Canada. World history courses in secondary schools focus mainly on countries whose activities have impacted the U.S. and Western Europe. Given this national selfaggrandizing (as opposed to healthy national pride) it is inevitable that the concept of “the world” or a “global structure” posits America as the world’s center around which all else is peripheral. As the world moves more rapidly toward mass education (Altbach, Berdahl & Gumport, 2005), there is a need to prepare American youth to not only appreciate cultural differences, but more importantly, learn how to deconstruct conceptualizations in order to think more critically and informatively about how they will work productively with others from around the world. Concomitantly, students desiring to become leaders in institutions of higher education will clearly need to perform at a level of cognitive development that will lead to becoming culturally competent in a global environment. To demonstrate the serious need for preparing American youth for global citizenry, this essay will first examine how Thomas Friedman’s (2005) triple convergence theory provides explicit indications of why higher education institutions must work more proactively in preparing future leaders—specifically in higher education leadership. Second, this work will provide an example of how one professor of psychology worked

Leading across Borders: Preparing Higher Education Leaders

355

with undergraduate students utilizing cognitive constructs to engage in critical and higher order thinking as a starting point to becoming culturally competent. This example with students will also provide strong implications for faculty with regard to helping students demonstrate a level of cognitive development that is necessary in order to recognize non-U.S. populations as global colleagues (Currie & Newsom, 1998; Breton & Lambert, 2003; Wood, 2006; Bok, 2005). The third and final section of this article provides implications for higher education institutions, particularly colleges of education that are preparing aspiring higher education leaders of today and the future.

Background Although American higher education has experienced historical changes that have shaped and reshaped its purpose and focus since developing its first institutions in the 1600s, this is the first time that technology, culture and values, fiscal accountability, and quality of education have all converged on a global scene with countries that were not traditional contenders in mass higher education (Marginson, 2007). For instance, from 1998 to 2004, the Chinese higher education system realized an 18-20 percent increase in undergraduate enrollment as a result of the Chinese government’s decentralization of higher education (Lee & Gopinathan, 2003; Zha, 2007). Another example is that the country of Mexico has implemented more scientific and engineering type disciplines in their colleges and universities over the past 30 years to increase their students’ global competitiveness (De Vries, Cabrera & Anderson, 2007). These examples are not unique, and changes such as these are occurring all over the globe as more countries move toward massifiction of higher education; more than 50 percent of the college-aged population are enrolled in degree programs or have higher education degrees (Altbach et al., 2005). What is interesting is that the very reason the U.S. has served as an “example” of how mass higher education works and benefits one’s country is also the reason the U.S. may no longer be the leading choice among the 2.7 million students who choose to study abroad. Many institutions from around the world have referred to American higher education as a way of understanding how to move from an elite system to a mass system. As these various developing countries become more proficient in increasing enrollments, identifying financial resources, and establishing quality-based curricular programming, students from around the world will realize viable

356

Gwen Lee-Thomas and J.-L. Kemp

choices for postsecondary education outside of the U.S. In order to understand how these global trends can serve as indicators for American higher education institutions, Friedman (2005) introduces the triple convergence theory in his book The World is Flat. Much of Friedman’s explanation is provided through the lens of business and industry, but there are clear implications for higher education as well. Within the next decade, it is a foreseeable possibility that a student will be able to sit at her computer in Sri Lanka and take courses in countries such as Latin America, North America, Cairo, China and India, complete an internship in New Zealand, and obtain a degree from any one of the representing institutions or even a hypothetical Global Institute of Higher Education. How will higher education institutions prepare their current students to lead or even be competitive in this environment? Whether in a home country or abroad, students of higher and further education from anywhere in the world will be able to enroll in classes anywhere in the world.

Convergence 1: The 10 flatteners The concepts or explanations provided in Friedman’s triple convergence theory offer an understanding of what higher education leaders are facing and will face in the very near future. For instance, the first of the three convergences is called “the ten flatteners” (p. 176). These include: 1) the collapse of the Berlin Wall; 2) the creation and use of Netscape; 3) workflow across geographical boundaries; 4) outsourcing of jobs and intellect; 5) offshoring; 6) open sourcing; 7) insourcing; 8) supply chaining; 9) informing; and, 10) wireless technology. Each of these flatteners, although isolated occurrences, all converge to enforce one another making the first convergence a multiplex phenomenon in itself. Friedman (2005) posits that the convergence of the ten flatteners took root and changed the way we do business causing a “tipping point around the year 2000” (p. 176). Friedman further asserts that, The net result of this convergence was the creation of a global, webenabled playing field that allows for multiple forms of collaboration—the sharing of knowledge and work—in real time, without regard to geography, distance, or in the near future, even language. No, not everyone has access yet to this platform, this playing field, but it is open today to more people in more places on more days in more ways than anything like it ever before in the history of the world. This is what I mean when I say the world has been flattened. It is the complementary

Leading across Borders: Preparing Higher Education Leaders

357

convergence of the ten flatteners, creating this new global playing field for multiple forms of collaboration. (pp. 176-177)

This statement clearly provides insight and strong implications for higher education leaders as they seek to remain accountable and responsive to the needs of their constituency groups inside and outside of the U.S. For example, the flatteners associated with technology (numbers two and ten) have easily positioned institutions to offer courses and full programs to nearly 500 million people in virtual classrooms, via the Internet, and via satellite (Parry, 2007). Although many institutions are choosing to offer online, video-streaming, and synchronous and asynchronous classes and degree programs, there is a need for leaders to examine and remain accountable for the quality of instruction. This measure of accountability is often accomplished through the accreditation process which includes a review of program inputs, processes, and outcomes by peer faculty from across the U.S. Specifically, the regional accrediting agencies in the U.S., along with many discipline-specific accrediting bodies, are constantly revising and discussing ways to enhance and maintain the academic quality of educational programs through these delivery modes. Another aspect of responding to technological delivery of knowledge and instruction is that residential institutions are critically considering strategic ways to gain a piece of the online degree market and become competitive with for-profit institutions. Although the basic mission of these residential campuses does not have to change, identifying additional funding sources and increasing enrollments via distance education is an attractive addition. Although these are plausible potentials, technology proficiency, quality of delivery and reception of information, and clarity regarding whose laws of ownership of information apply to courses transmitted to another country, serve as a few of the challenges that institutions must be willing to overcome (Altbach et al., 2005). Higher education leaders must not only be knowledgeable of the latest technology to become competitive in this mode of course and degree delivery, but must also have an entrepreneurial spirit, be cognizant of, and sensitive to, other cultural perceptions of education, and understand the influences and confluences of international law. To become proficient in transnational distance education, leaders will also need to understand how to encourage faculty to engage in pedagogy conducive to distance education as well as innovatively advocate on behalf of faculty particularly with regard to the effects this can have on the tenure and promotion process. The convergence of flatteners two and ten affect other flatteners as well, particularly those associated with forms of sourcing. For instance,

358

Gwen Lee-Thomas and J.-L. Kemp

open-sourcing consist of “self-organizing collaborative communities” (Friedman, 2005, p. 81). This process refers to the notion that many who have the expertise and knowledge of programming instruction can make a piece of software work then let anyone who has something to contribute improve it as well as let millions of others download the “community of knowledge” information for their own use for free (p. 82). A good example of this is Wikipedia. Wikipedia is the largest multilingual freecontent encyclopedia on the Internet with over seven million articles in over 200 languages. The content is entered, evaluated, and critiqued by those who are experts in the various fields that are included in the virtual encyclopedia. What is happening in many colleges with regard to student access to literature, research, and scholarship is that many students are using Wikipedia as a source that faculty are less willing to accept as authentic research. However, as more “scholars” contribute to the “knowledge flow” of Wikipedia, it will become more difficult to determine what is considered scholarly based solely on whether or not the information was acquired through Wikipedia or some other scholarly online journal. Even with the literacy information standards set by the American Library Association, it is certainly foreseeable that information from Wikipedia will even meet these standards which are designed to help students discriminate the information to determine what is appropriate for scholarly research and what is not. Other considerations regarding the ten flatteners include recognizing how other countries are demonstrating dedication and commitment to increasing enrollments and improving measures of accountability in their higher education programs. For example, Singapore and Hong Kong revamped their higher-education quality-assurance systems of their program in the mid- to late 1990s in an effort to become more competitive with institutions in the U.S. and other countries (Mok, 2000). This was done mainly as a response to the massification of higher education in China. In addition, the nations of the European Union, consisting of 25 countries with distinct and separate personalities and languages, have voluntarily come together more collectively in politics, law, commerce, and economics in a form of interdependence unprecedented in the history of the world. The future of higher education in a globally competitive environment is being shaped by changes and mass education in the European Union, the U.S., China, and other countries. Youth of American colleges and universities are coming of age in a world where these changes will be the norm rather than a transition—they must be prepared to be competitively successful and collaborative in this unprecedented environment.

Leading across Borders: Preparing Higher Education Leaders

359

For the most part, the flatteners have resulted in countries around the planet determining who teaches what, how it is taught, to whom it will be taught, how to measure the effectiveness of what is taught and learned, and whether or not what is being taught and measured is appropriate and effective. These decisions are being addressed (or at least discussed vigorously) around the world with implications for American students of higher education.

Convergence 2: How we do business Convergence two is the result of what the 20 flatteners have caused, which is “new ways of doing business” (Friedman, 2005, p. 177). New technologies, apparatuses, knowledge, or measures alone do not result in doing business differently—even though these are quite necessary. What must also accommodate these tools is understanding and proficiency in utilizing them to promote global collegiality among both students and faculty of higher education institutions. As the various flatteners converge to strengthen each other interrelatedly, higher education leadership programs must move from activities and expectations that are now marginal to the educational process and make them more integral to their programs. For example, study-abroad and international internship experiences must become activities that are interwoven in the education process rather than options or electives that are tangential elements of the educational experience. From 1975 to 2005, the number of students who chose to study abroad increased from 600,000 to 2.7 million, respectively. Another consideration regarding international internship and studyabroad experiences is highlighted in Brustein’s (2005) work Paths to Global Competence: Preparing American college students to meet the world. In this work, Brustein proposes that internships and study-abroad opportunities are viable avenues to prepare U.S. students to acquire and demonstrate global competence. However, these programs as stand-alone, tangential, sporadic occurrences cannot realize the true viability of the opportunity. More specifically, Brustein proposes four crucial steps that enhance the study-abroad or internship prgram to be an integral learning experience. The steps include: 1) integrating relevant learning-abroad opportunities into the degree, minor, or program; 2) incorporating critical thinking skills of knowledge, comprehension, analysis, synthesis, explanation, evaluation, and extrapolation into the learning experience; 3) assessing or evaluating global competence as outcomes; and, 4) aligning the area or international studies concentration to a disciplinary major. Other opportunities include DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch

360

Gwen Lee-Thomas and J.-L. Kemp

Dienst, a.k.a. German Academic Exchange Service), which is a publicly funded independent organization of higher education institutions in Germany designed to provide information as well as financial support to over 50,000 highly qualified students and faculty per year for international research and study. Finally, faculty should consider partnering with colleagues in other countries to develop rigorous research experiences for themselves as well as their students (Lee-Thomas, 2006). The Educational Policy Institute conducted a study of 15 countries— all of which are members of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)—and measured average affordability and accessibility of each country’s higher education institutions (Usher & Cervenan, 2005). The findings from The Global Higher Education Rankings 2005, revealed that of the 15 countries, Sweden, Finland, and The Netherlands were ranked as the top three countries with affordable higher education while Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom ranked as the three least affordable countries. The U.S. ranked 13. With regard to accessibility, The Netherlands, Finland, and the United Kingdom ranked as the top three countries with greater accessibility for students while Austria, Belgium, and Germany ranked as the least accessible. The U.S. ranked fourth. These rankings suggest that as millions of college students seek bachelor and graduate degrees, their choices are becoming continuously global. Whether the students enroll by physically going to another country or via distance education, no higher education leader can arguably view competition without considering global ramifications. Just as other countries have revamped, reorganized, and implemented more stringent measures of quality and improvement of education, the U.S. recently engaged in a conversation on the future of higher education via the Spellings Report (2007). As a result, the report highlighted six areas that should be addressed by U.S. higher education. The six areas outlined in this report include access, cost and affordability, financial aid, learning, transparency and accountability, and innovation. Although criticism and critical analysis of the report occurred around the country, the conversation, nonetheless, is very necessary to America’s future in the global educational economy. The report correctly pronounces that “colleges and universities must continue to be the major route for new generations of Americans to achieve social mobility. And for the country as a whole, future economic growth will depend on our ability to sustain excellence, innovation, and leadership in higher education” (para. 1). Regardless of what innovations or measures of education quality foster accountability and responsiveness to society-at-large, or ways of educating citizens of the globe through multiple modes of delivery, the convergence

Leading across Borders: Preparing Higher Education Leaders

361

of the ten flatteners have resulted in different ways of doing business in general and higher education is critical to this phenomenon. Another aspect of convergence two is the combining of specialties for a better product that can increase demand among users. For example, U.S. universities are developing satellite campuses across the globe in response to the foreign country’s need and the university’s area of specialty. Bollag (2006) highlights several U.S. higher education institutions that have “exported” American higher education. “In 2003, the State University of New York at Buffalo opened a branch campus in Singapore where 250 students are enrolled in bachelor’s and master’s programs in business and communications” (para. 2). Although the concept of overseas educational institutions or programs is not a new idea or practice, these programs and satellite campuses now have a technological infrastructure that did not exist previously. All students may not have to attend classes face-to-face, which will impact directly on whether or not classes have to be taught on the ground at the satellite campus or via distance education technology at the home institution in the U.S. Convergence two has resulted in a clear implication for how education can be delivered to the campuses and to the students in other countries. Leaders of higher education institutions will need to make strategic decisions about what this means for their institution in terms of mission, accessibility, accountability, and affordability. One final method of extending higher education to the global community is through online institutions. The most common example is that of the University of Phoenix. Wilson (2001) indicates that the "University of Phoenix has become the fastest growing university and one of the largest by focusing on providing convenient, commodity-level education in high-demand areas and making access easy and schedules flexible. In this, Britain’s Open University paved the way decades earlier" (p. 204). Like the University of Phoenix, the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom offers web-based online degree-programs at both undergraduate and graduate levels worldwide. At this point in the history of higher education, students have a viable choice as to whether or not to travel to foreign lands to take advantage of the degree programs outside of their home country. This transnational higher education system is shaping up as more than a phenomenon or blip in education, but is causing landbased institutions to view their competition from a world view rather than a regional perspective. As countries around the world establish new colleges and universities and students decisions become more global, measuring the quality of education is becoming more international. The Council for Higher

362

Gwen Lee-Thomas and J.-L. Kemp

Education Accreditation (CHEA) was established in the U.S. “exclusively devoted to advocacy for quality assurance and improvement through accreditation” (Altbach et al., 2005, p. 268). Its mission is to “affirm that the standards and processes of the accrediting organization are consistent with the academic quality, improvement and accountability expectations that CHEA has established, including the eligibility standard that the majority of institutions or programs each accredits are degree-granting” (International Quality Review, 2007). Although CHEA began its recognition function in 1999, today it has several statements in conjunction with other international accrediting agencies. In 2001, CHEA issued a statement on the International Principles for U.S. Accreditors as a framework for reviewing non-U.S. organizations outside the U.S. However, by 2005, CHEA had issued a joint statement with the American Council on Education (ACE), the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), and the International Association of Universities (IAU) titled “Sharing Quality Higher Education Across Borders: A Statement on Behalf of Higher Education Institutions Worldwide” and another statement in 2006 titled “Sharing Quality Higher Education Across Borders: A Checklist of Good Practices.” CHEA has a membership of 3,000 degree-granting institutions, and recognizes over 60 institutional and programmatic accrediting organizations; ACE has approximately 1,600 institutional members representing nearly 70 percent of all colleges and university enrollments in the U.S.; AUCC represents 92 Canadian public and private not-for-profit universities and university-degree level colleges; and IAU has nearly 570 international members with representation from every continent. The statements on quality assurance from these organizations will have a profound impact on higher education. These collaborative efforts will need to be recognized and, in many cases, understood by tomorrow’s leaders of higher education.

Convergence 3: New players on the playing field From a demographically statistical perspective, in 1985 Freeman’s (2004) ‘“globally economic world’ comprised North America, Western, Europe, Japan, as well as parts of Latin America, Africa, and the countries of East Asia” (p. 182). Demographically, the number of people representing these countries was about 2.5 billion. However, by 2000, “as a result of the collapse of communism in the Soviet Empire, India’s turn from autarky, China’s shift to market capitalism, and population growth (…) the global economic world expanded to encompass 6 billion people” (p. 182). This growth results in a 1.5 billion increase in the global

Leading across Borders: Preparing Higher Education Leaders

363

workforce of people who not only can have access to technology, but can theoretically have access to educational opportunities as well via distance education. From a more realistic standpoint, only about 10 percent of this new workforce actually has “the education or connectivity to collaborate and compete at a meaningful level” (p. 183), the reality still remains that as technology becomes more accessible through the Internet via desktop computers, iPods, cellular phones, and video streaming, and wirless technology, it is not a stretch of the imagination to expect that the presence of this growing population will be realized in colleges and universities all over the world. Their physical presence will include their cultural realities and that will also influence the educational process. Given the reality of this growing number of potential college-goers, there are some higher education institutions that are making a concerted effort to meet their needs. This is being done by making education available technologically and establishing campuses worldwide. For instance, The Chronicle of Higher Education has published articles such as “Oasis in Iraq: Universities Flourish in Kurdistan,” “Islamic Universities Spread through Africa,” and “America's Hot New Export: Higher Education Colleges Rush to Open Degree Programs Overseas.” These articles are indicative of the vast spread of higher education opportunities across the planet. Higher education institutions around the globe that have survived over the past five centuries have been required to make deep structural or cultural changes as a result of economic changes, costs, external demands, and student expectations (Altbach et al., 2005). Yet, as higher education becomes more competitive and global consumers become more selective, accountability, cultural competence, and educational quality will become even more critical. Today’s college students—particularly in America— are keenly aware of these realities, and are choosing to seek out studyabroad opportunities on their own even without having it as a requirement for their programs of study (Brustein, 2005). These three convergences occurred over the course of two decades, suggesting that their influence would have an impact on various areas of society, yet only certain industries responded to the realities of these convergences by preparing for the challenges. Particularly, the business industry has been measuring and identifying best business practices over the past few decades (Friedman, 2005; Schuster & Copeland, 2006). In addition, the convergences have caused a shift in power players on the political scene, countries have shifted from insular autonomy to global competitiveness and, except for a few study-abroad experiences (in comparison to all students internationally), most educational institutions

364

Gwen Lee-Thomas and J.-L. Kemp

have not fully realized the significance of this convergence on students’ abilities to be prepared for the realities of a global existence. If students are going to become future leaders in this flat world, then their ability to work productively as global citizens cannot be overstated. In order to do this, they must be prepared as culturally competent leaders.

Cultural competence in leadership preparation The conceptual definition of cultural competence that is most frequently cited is “a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or amongst professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations” (Cross, Bazron, Dennis & Isaacs, 1989, p. iv). More specifically, cultural competence addresses attitudes, knowledge, skills, and behaviors that play out when a person encounters another culture. In terms of its intersection with leadership, Karim’s (2003) work provides a platform for utilizing the development progression model for intercultural consciousness which is designed to help aspiring leaders understand the cultural dynamics that are embedded in effective leadership. This work suggests that: a) leadership and cultural competence must exist as complementary skill sets; b) intercultural consciousness and leadership exists as a metaconcept; and, c) training for intercultural consciousness includes personal characteristics such as “style, communication, empathy, motivation, respect, tolerance for ambiguity, and self-confidence (…) [which are] important for improving cross cultural success” (p. 36). In order for students to engage in activities that will foster cultural interactions at a level that will challenge their ways of communication, motivation, respect, and tolerance, there has to be a conscious effort on behalf of the institution or faculty member who supports and assesses students’ intercultural experiences. Gurin, Dey, Hurtado and Gurin (2002) contend that the "impact of racial/ethnic diversity on educational outcomes comes primarily from engagement with diverse peers in the informal campus environment and in college classrooms” (para. 9). In addition, Gurin et al. suggest that effective cultural competence or diversity is rooted in cognitive development according to social psychology theory. Therefore, prior to being able to demonstrate cultural competence, students must be able to demonstrate a level of cognitive development as a prerequisite (Wilson, 1993). An example of how important it is for faculty to work proactively in the cognitive development of students as a way of preparing them to be

Leading across Borders: Preparing Higher Education Leaders

365

culturally competent is illustrated in a quasi-experiment conducted by a faculty member with psychology undergraduate students.

An experiment: Preparing students to become culturally competent through cognitive constructs Past research indicates that if students are to become global citizens, they must become culturally competent, which suggests that educators need to construct learning environments that deal effectively with crosscultural data. This idea was quite challenging and required scrutiny of our existing pedagogical styles which took at least one semester to assess and evaluate. During this process, four questions were explored: a) what knowledge base will students bring to the table about other cultures; b) will they assimilate and accommodate new information to think critically about other cultures; c) will they achieve a satisfactory level of cultural competence as a result of this new information; and, d) what measures will be used to assess whether or not students had become culturally competent. At the end of two years, research had pointed us in the following direction.

Introduction If research that suggests that knowledge is social in nature is true, then a technique that might enhance student learning would be as simple as providing a student with an interaction that involves a person from a different country. However, it is clear that this component alone does not guarantee that an individual will become culturally competent. As defined by Eggen and Kauchak (2004), social constructivism, which is strongly influenced by Vygotsky’s (1978) work, suggests that knowledge is first constructed in a social context and is then appropriated by individuals (Bruning et al., 1999; Cole, 1991). According to social constructivists, the process of sharing individual perspective—sometimes called collaborative elaboration (Van Meter & Stevens, 2000)—resulted in learners constructing understanding together that wouldn’t be possible alone (Greeno et al., 1996, p. 281). To that end, a teaching strategy that incorporated a collaborative elaboration (students spending one-on-one with the instructor and individual time with a person from another country) was selected in an effort to facilitate learning at the formal operational level (ability to think abstractly).

366

Gwen Lee-Thomas and J.-L. Kemp

Piaget’s (1972) research posits that during adolescence thought processes tend to move from the concrete to the formal which suggests that an individual is able to utilize deductive and inductive reasoning abilities when thinking about abstract concepts. His theory suggests that college students have reached the formal operational stage and, as such, are capable of thinking in terms of the abstract. Thinking at the formal operational level requires the ability to examine, evaluate, and understand information in a careful and systematic manner in order to arrive at a logical conclusion that tends to accurately assess the phenomenon, specifically if the data are abstract (Piaget, 1972). This level of thinking seems to coincide with Shiraev and Levy’s (2004) definition of critical thinking which states that “critical thinking involves forming reasonable inferences, judgments, and conclusions; identifying and questioning underlying assumptions and beliefs (…)” (p. 95). Whaley and Davis (2007) provided a comprehensive definition of cultural competence from the psychological perspective (…) as a set of problem-solving skills that includes (a) the ability to recognize and understand the dynamic interplay between the heritage and adaptation dimensions of culture in shaping human behavior; (b) the ability to use the knowledge acquired about an individual’s heritage and adaptational challenges to maximize the effective of assessment, diagnosis, and treatment (…). (p. 565)

This definition suggests that formal operational thinking is a necessary skill that facilitates cultural competence. As a result of these research findings, it became increasingly clear that if students are to become global citizens, they must master the ability to think at the formal operational level. To that end, the current researchers designed a semester-based social interaction classroom activity that consisted of a collaborative effort between: a) student and professor; and, b) student and an interviewee from another country to foster development of the student’s formal operational thinking skills, thus attempting to facilitate cultural competence. It was hypothesized that culturally competent students will be able to demonstrate critical analysis of a cultural experience utilizing psychological theoretical constructs through writing and conducting a power point presentation. The work produced by the students as a result of this cultural experience would not only demonstrate critical analysis, but also demonstrate reflective thinking in terms of “lessons learned” which is clearly evident of higher order thinking (Smith, 1999).

Leading across Borders: Preparing Higher Education Leaders

367

Methodology Twenty-nine students enrolled in a 200-level psychology class at a small Midwestern liberal arts college volunteered to participate in the study—five students were released from the study because they missed more than one scheduled meeting with the professor. The resulting participants included 17 females (16 Caucasians and 1 African American) and seven Caucasian males with 60 percent of their ages ranging between 19-20 years. In addition, nine of the 24 students had at least one prior class with the instructor. The study was conducted over the period of one semester (approximately 16 weeks). The measures used in this research were based on the student’s ability to demonstrate theory conceptualization via a paper/essay and the student’s ability to conduct a classroom presentation. The professor was also the researcher. In addition, the student’s proficiency level of 85 percent was measured, based on pre-established criteria and rubrics that represented demonstration of formal operational thinking. Evaluation of the measures included three parts with criteria for each: Part 1 covered interpersonal criteria; Part 2 included performance criteria; and Part 3 included written criteria. The interpersonal criteria consisted of the students interviewing a non-native-born American between the ages of 5 to 20 years. Each interviewee was asked a series of questions regarding relationships with mother, father, siblings, significant others, significant events, and any other information the interviewee might have volunteered. The data gathered from the interviews were organized into a 15-page paper that included background information, cultural information, and theory analysis. First, the background information consisted of data received from the interviewee regarding relationships. Second, students conducted research on the interviewee’s country of birth and/or residence prior to coming to the U.S. in order to acquire data regarding culture. Third, the students chose three of the six theories taught by the professor during the course in order to provide a theory analysis. The purpose of conducting the interviews was to provide the students with a knowledge base on which to assimilate/accommodate their schemata and facilitate cultural competence with regard to the interviewee’s country. In order to successfully complete Part 1, participants volunteered to spend at least 15 minutes per week (beginning the fifth week of class) for approximately six weeks with the professor to develop their writing style and theory conceptualization skills. (The time spent was outside the regular classroom hour on an assigned date chosen by the participant.)

368

Gwen Lee-Thomas and J.-L. Kemp

To facilitate the assignment, students were instructed to review an example of an essay and PowerPoint presentation that was downloaded from Blackboard (a Web-based course-management system designed to allow students and faculty to participate in classes delivered online or use online materials). In addition, students were expected to listen to the professor’s weekly instructions, and attend the individual scheduled meeting time. Topics discussed during the meeting times were as follows: week one’s discussion was background information consisting of the interviewee’s background (questions focused on relationship with mother, father, siblings, significant others, and significant events). The week two discussion consisted of adolescent data for interviewees between the ages of 13 and 20. Discussions during week three were specific to cultural information regarding the country (information centered on history of country, statistics, economics, gender issues, customs, and any other relevant information). Finally, weeks four through six delineated the theory analysis section (explanation of the data utilizing at least three psychological theories). Each week participants engaged in an open critique of their analysis which fostered their formal operational thinking skills leading to synthesis of information that could potentially improve their cultural competence. Afterward, it was time for questions, answers, and reflections. Possible score for Part 1 ranged from zero to 100 percent, with 85 percent as the threshold, to determine if the student demonstrated formal operational thinking which suggests a basic level of cultural competence. Part 2 consisted of an assessment of each student’s ability to present their data to their student peers in a logical sequential manner. The timeline for all students to give their presentations occurred over the course of four weeks with each student giving a 20-minute summary. Each presentation ended with a question and answer section which, again, provided data for the instructor to assess the student’s understanding of the data and reflective skills. Possible scores for Part 2 ranged from zero to 100 percent with 85 percent and above as the measure of formal operational thinking. Part 3 consisted of a two-hour essay final examination in which students were provided background information about a person from another culture and asked to write the analysis incorporating conceptualization of theories and knowledge of the country. Possible score for Part 3 ranged from zero to 100 percent with 85 percent and above as the measure of formal operational thinking as the prerequisite for becoming cultural competent.

Leading across Borders: Preparing Higher Education Leaders

369

Results and discussion This quasi-experimental study included a teaching strategy that consisted of collaborative efforts aimed at enhancing formal operational skills in order to facilitate cultural competence. It was hypothesized that students who demonstrate formal operational thinking as a requirement to become culturally competent would meet the criteria at a cumulative level of proficiency of 85 percent to 100 percent on the interpersonal, performance, and written criteria. The data were analyzed utilizing descriptive statistics. Results indicated that 96 percent of the participants met the proficiency level of 85 percent or higher. Of the five students who did not participate in the study, one received an incomplete, three received less than 85 percent, and one received a grade of B which is equivalent to 85 percent proficiency. Limitations of this study were as follows. First, there were no controls for bias with the professor as experimenter. The professor was also the grader which might have been a factor in the success rate of the students regarding demonstration of formal operational thinking. Second, if this study were repeated, there would be at least one other trained grader allowing for inter-rater reliability. Third, this current study did not gather data regarding participants’ grades with other professors to find out what effects, if any, this learning experience has had on other courses; however, at least 11 of these students took an additional three classes with the professor and improved in their writing skills, theory conceptualization, and classroom participation. At least 70 percent of the grades did not fall below the 85 percent proficiency level in subsequent classes with the same professor. One inference of the current findings suggests that if students are to become culturally competent, the apparent difficulty experienced by professors when trying to meet the needs of participants in a group setting can be minimized when the students are given one-on-one attention as indicated in Hogan and Pressley (1997). It appears that individualized time spent with each student enhanced formal operational thinking skills which may facilitate cultural competence. Second, the participants in this study imitated an example of an essay that would result in a grade of an “A” (proficiency above 85 percent) according to the faculty’s criteria, and gave a PowerPoint presentation based on a template provided on Blackboard. In addition, the students were able to respond to the critiques of the professor and completed an essay examination. It is important to note that when students reach the formal operational thinking level, they are able to induce as well a deduce

370

Gwen Lee-Thomas and J.-L. Kemp

information (Piaget, 1958) which might be a possible result of their learning by imitating as indicated by the results of this study. According to Cole, John-Steiner, Scribner and Souberman (1978), Vygotsky posited that “Children can imitate a variety of actions that go well beyond the limits of their own capabilities. [By] using imitations, children are capable of doing much more in collective activity or under the guidance of adults” (p. 88). It appears that this idea of the power of imitating to learning beyond one’s capability is a viable variable that needs to be studied further as a technique to improve student’s conceptualization skills. Finally, the results of their final examinations exceeded the expectations of the professor, yielding 96 percent of their overall final grades as a “B” or better, which strongly suggests that the hypothesis can be accepted.

Summary The criticality of this work cannot be overstated. Research indicates that students need encouragement, support, and proactive activities of engagement in order to experience diversity as an initial step to becoming culturally competent (Gurin, Dey, Hurtado & Gurin, 2002). More specifically, Gurin et al. make reference to social development psychology with regard to cognitive readiness to engage in diversity-type experiences during their college years. (…) [P]sychologist Erik Erikson (1946, 1956) introduced the concept of identity and argued that late adolescence and early adulthood are the unique times when a sense of personal and social identity is formed. Identity involves two important elements: a persistent sameness within oneself and a persistent sharing with others. Erikson theorized that identity develops best when young people are given a psychosocial moratorium—a time and a place in which they can experiment with different social roles before making permanent commitments to an occupation, to intimate relationships, to social and political groups and ideas, and to a philosophy of life. (para. 8)

As higher education becomes more accessible and affordable, students from the U.S. will find themselves working more closely and collegially with other students from other countries. Also, jobs/careers will not be bound to U.S. borders, suggesting a need to think critically about how to navigate appropriately in other countries among different cultures (Downey, Lucena, Moskal, Parkhurst, Bigley et al., 2006).

Leading across Borders: Preparing Higher Education Leaders

371

Implications for higher education leadership programs As higher education institutions in the U.S. prepare their graduates to be leaders of the future, it is imperative that they think carefully about the realities of the world their graduates will encounter. Specifically, colleges of education will need to include cultural competence as a proactive and concerted effort when measuring other competencies of their graduates, such as scholarship, research, critical thinking, and content. While all of the “good practices” for cross-border higher education that are outlined by CHEA, AUCC, and IAU have implications for cultural competence; three of the practices, in particular, include language such as “strive to contribute to the broader economic, social, and cultural well-being of communities”, “strengthen developing countries’ higher education capacity in order to promote global equity”, and “strive to instill in learners the critical thinking that underpins responsible citizenship at the local, national, and global level”. If these organizations representing thousands of academicians and institutions, many accrediting associations, and every continent on the globe, then it is not a far stretch to realize these practices as the basis for future accrediting standards that will become part of the academic programming for institutional accreditation over the next few decades. Higher education will continue to be a necessity as the credentials for the world’s workforce become more technological, scientific, informational, and mathematical. Students from all over the globe will continue to enter higher education institutions in their home countries as well as abroad, degree-programs will be offered within and outside of host countries, satellite campuses in foreign countries will be established all over the world, and where an education is attained will transcend geographical boundaries much more readily than today. Leading in this environment is different, and preparing higher education leaders for it is imperative. The future demands it and those who embrace the changes and prepare feasible and strategic ways of existing in a different environment will survive, and those who do not will be left behind.

References Altbach, P.G., Berdahl, R.O. & Gumport, P.J. (2005). American Higher Education in the 21st Century: Social, political, and economic challenges (2nd ed.). Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins Press.

372

Gwen Lee-Thomas and J.-L. Kemp

Bok, D. (2005). Our Underachieving Colleges: A candid look at how much students learn and why they should be learning more. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Breton, G. & Lambert, M. (eds.) (2003). Universities and Globalization: Private linkages, public interest. Paris, France: UNESCO. Bruning, R.H., Schraw, G.J. & Ronning, R.R. (1999). Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill. Brustein, W.I. (2006). Paths to Global Competence: Preparing American college students to meet the world. Institute of International Education Networker. Cole, M. (1991). On Cultural Psychology. American Anthropologist, 93(2), 435-439. Cole, M., John-Steiner, V., Scribner, S. & Souberman, E. (eds.) (1978). L.S. Vygotsky Mind in Society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Cross, T.L., Bazron, B.J., Dennis, K.W. & Isaacs, M.R. (1989). Towards a Culturally Competent System of Care, (vol. 1). Washington, D.C.: National Center for Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health, Georgetown University Child Development Center. Currie, J. & Newsom, J. (eds.) (1998). Universities and Globalization: Critical perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. De Vries, W., Cabrera, A. & Anderson, S. (2007). Being Job Satisfied: What contribution does a Mexican university make? Presented at the Association for the Study of Higher Education Annual Conference, Louisville, KY. Downey, G.L. et al., (2006). The Globally Competent Engineer: Working effectively with people who define problems differently. Journal of Engineering Education. Eggen, P. & Kauchak, D. (2004). Educational Psychology (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Friedman, T.L. (2005). The World is Flat: A brief history of the 21st century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Greeno, J.G., Collins, A.M. & Resnick, L.B. (1996). Cognition and Learning. Berliner, D. & Calfee, R. (eds.). In Handbook of Educational Psychology. New York: Macmillan, 15-46. Gurin, P., Dey, E.L., Hurtado, S. & Gurin, G. (2002). Diversity and Higher Education: Theory and impact on educational outcomes. Harvard Educational Review, 72(3). Hogan, K. & Pressley, M. (eds.) (1997). Scaffolding Student Learning: Instructional approaches and issues. Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books.

Leading across Borders: Preparing Higher Education Leaders

373

International Quality Review (2007). Council for Higher Education. Retrieved November 9, 2007, from http://www.chea.org/international/ Karim, A.U. (2003). A Developmental Progression Model for Intercultural Consciousness: A leadership imperative. Journal of Education for Business, September/October, 34-39. Krieger, Z. (2007). Oasis in Iraq: Universities flourish in Kurdistan. The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 17. Lee, M.H. & Gopinathan, S. (2003). Centralized Decentralization of Higher Education in Singapore. Mok, Ka-Ho (ed.). In Centralization and Decentralization: Education reform and changing governance in Chinese societies. Springer Press: New York. Lindow, M. (2007). Islamic Universities Spread Through Africa: The institutions, some supported by foreign funds, provide hope of upward mobility to sub-Saharan Muslims. The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 6. Marginson, S. (2007). Global Flows and Global Field: A theoretical framing of worldwide relations of power in higher education. Presented at the Association for the Study of Higher Education Annual Conference, Louisville, KY. Mok, Ka-Ho (2003). Centralization and Decentralization: Education reform and changing governance in Chinese societies. Springer Press: New York. Parry, G. (2007). Democratization and Diversion in American and English Higher Education. Presented at the Association for the Study of Higher Education Annual Conference, Louisville, KY. Piaget, J. (1972). Intellectual Evolution from Adolescence to Adulthood. Human Development, 15, 1-12. Schuster, C.P. & Copeland, M.J. (2006). Global Business Practices: Adapting for success. Mason, OH: Thomson Higher Education. Shiraev, E. & Levy, D. (2004). Cross-Cultural Psychology: Critical thinking and contemporary applications (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education. Smith, M.K. (1999). Reflection: Informal education. The International Association of Universities. Retrieved on August 13, 2007, from http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-reflect.htm U.S. Department of Education (2006). A Test of Leadership: Charting the future of U.S. higher education. Washington, D.C. Usher, A. & Cervenan, A. (2005). Global Higher Education Rankings 2005. Toronto, ON: Educational Policy Institute.

374

Gwen Lee-Thomas and J.-L. Kemp

Van Meter, P. & Stevens, R.J. (2000). The Role of Theory in the Study of Peer Collaboration. The Journal of Experimental Education, 69(1), 113-127. Whaley, A. & Davis, K. (2007). Cultural Competence and Evidence-Based Practice in Mental Health Services: A complementary perspective. American Psychologist, 62(6), 563-574. Wilson, A.H. (1993). Conversation Partners: Helping students gain a global perspective through cross-cultural experiences. Theory into Practice, 32(1), 21-26. Wilson, J.M. (2001). The Technological Revolution: Reflections on the proper role of technology in higher education. Altbach, P.G., Gumport, P.J. & Johnstone, D.B. (eds.). In In Defense of American Higher Education. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins Press. Wood, V.R. (2006). Globalization and Higher Education: Eight common perceptions from university leaders. Institute of International Education Networker. Zha, Q. (2007). Diversification or Homogenization: How governments and markets have combined to (re)shape Chinese higher education in its recent massifiction process. Presented at the Association for the Study of Higher Education Annual Conference, Louisville, KY.

THE SOCIAL JUSTICE IMAGINATION: A BETTER WORLD AS POSSIBILITY MICHAEL ERNEST SWEET

A.C. Benson (1917; 1967), in his essay The Training of the Imagination, said it best nearly a century ago when he claimed “Imaginative sympathy, that is to be the end of all our efforts” (p. 50) when referring to the aims of education. Earlier in the same essay Benson says: I am persuaded that when future generations come to survey our methods and processes of education, they will regard with deep bewilderment the amazing fact that we applied so careful training to other faculties, and yet left so helplessly alone the training of the imaginative faculty, upon which, as I have said, our happiness and unhappiness mainly depend. (p. 41)

Although one might make many coherent and sensible arguments which implicate the imagination in the quest for social justice, I aim to establish one specific claim—that sympathy moves us to act in aid of others in need and, that in doing so, we must engage our moral faculties to make a choice that is socially just. I will establish a link between the imagination and both increased sympathetic and moral sensibilities. Essentially, I argue that when we disregard the imagination we begin to fail to connect our perceptions with our emotions, a primary task of the educated or trained imagination, and, although we may ‘see’ the suffering of others, we will fail to ‘feel into’ the suffering; we will fail to be ‘moved’ to act to prevent or ameliorate it, and we will ultimately fail to bring about a better world. Additionally, I claim that when we do act we must imagine the consequence of our actions, we must deliberate that which is yet to be; that which could possibly be so. It is this deliberation, within a strong moral framework, which will give birth to more socially just decision-making. It is with the fostering and development of the imagination in public schooling that we can move people to both truly feel the suffering of

376

Michael Ernest Sweet

others—to genuinely sympathize—and to make moral decisions in relation to a course of action.

Social justice: Pinning down an elusive term Pinning down a concrete definition of social justice is indeed a difficult task. In fact, the concept should be seen as what philosopher’s call ‘an essentially contested concept’. It is a concept that is arranged and rearranged by different groups for different purposes, and a concept that is also necessarily in flux due to, and like, its very subject—society. Thus, social justice necessarily becomes a philosophical problem also. Many scholars writing in areas concerned with social justice don’t even bother to set down a concrete definition of the term, rather, they engage it loosely and haphazardly splash it about from page to page, time and again. I wish to break this seeming tradition and proceed from the outset with an unambiguous, albeit somewhat personalized, definition. I believe social justice, fundamentally, to be about caring for people, indeed caring deeply about human lives. Although I recognize more technical definitions of social justice such as those connected with the distribution of resources, for example, I remain firm to the belief that in the end we are calling for an acute attentiveness, a profound caring, for human dignity. This definition is one which embraces ideas such as human rights and equality, notions which are often connected with global perspectives of social justice—the making of a just world (Reference.com, 2007). Blades and Richardson (2006) make an argument that conceiving our actions in a global perspective is in itself a moral imperative, since the survival of humanity requires an immediate response to global problems. They assert that the “imaginative space of the public sphere [must be widened] to encourage the development of what Hannah Arendt (1968) calls an ethic of ‘care for the world’” (p. 116). The essential claim here is that our fates, as humans, are bound and therefore social justice must encompass humanity, not societies. Social justice must be concerned with the care and flourishing of people because they are people. This is the definition I embrace and the one with which I move forward.

The criticism The most likely criticism of social justice comes from moral relativists (such as the Sophists) who would claim that there is no objective standard of social justice (Reference.com, 2007). Although one should recognize the difficulties presented by moral codes such as the Universal

The Social Justice Imagination: A Better World as Possibility

377

Declaration of Human Rights, it can also be argued that generalizing what promotes the flourishing of a human life and what does not is a useful conceptual framework. Nussbaum (1995) claims that in our compassionate response to others we are indeed able to generalize about “what is serious damage to a life and what is not” (p. 7). Therefore, my concept of social justice is one which takes into serious account, on a global level, which human actions damage other lives and which do not. Caring deeply about protecting the flourishing of human lives is, to a much greater extent, difficult to criticize from a relativist point of view. In caring deeply for others we will heed to actions which promote the flourishing of lives and avoid those which ultimately damage lives—such as gross unequal distribution of resources, which inevitably leaves many to suffer the dire circumstances of poverty such as hunger, for example. In order to care deeply for others, to recognize what damages a life and what does not we must imagine each other as fully human, as more than Whitman’s “dreams or dots”. Thus, in moving forward with this definition of social justice I necessarily implicate the human mental faculty of imagination. The imagination will come to aid us in what will ultimately unfold social justice throughout human populations—the extending of ‘natural’ human distaste for the suffering of known persons outward to include the sufferings of those who are foreign.

A brief history of the imagination What is the imagination? How can we possibly come to link such a vague and elusive, arguably rightly unintelligible, concept such as this to concrete ideas about human rights and equality? As Egan (1992) points out, trying to sketch even the briefest history of the imagination is an exigent task because of the centuries of ideas, not always in agreement, which have folded into the concept. In fact, Furlong (1961) perhaps articulates it best when he states, “A philosopher surveying the territory defined by the term ‘imagination’ finds it a dense and tangled piece of country” (p. 15). My purpose here, however, is to merely illustrate, and make some accounting for, how we arrive at an understanding of the imagination as a productive faculty capable of novelty and which implicates our emotions in our thinking; a mental faculty which permits us to think of things as possibly being so. This is the notion of imagination that I call upon to help us in our quest toward a socially just world; it is the concept of imagination that I maintain aids us in fostering sympathetic and moral sensibilities.

378

Michael Ernest Sweet

Imagination and classical thought Classical thinkers such as Aristotle and Plato both conceived the imagination as a reproductive force rather than a productive one. They interpreted the imagination as a faculty of mind that merely copied that which was already in existence in the world (Kearney, 1988). Accordingly, conceived this way, the imagination could not produce anything new, anything novel, in short, their conceptions essentially blocked notions such as Egan’s which claim it capable of allowing one to think of things as possibly being so; of things which do not exist. In short, it blocks us from entering imaginatively into the lives of others. Thomas Hobbes (1651; 1962) also writes of the reproductive nature of the imagination in his book Leviathan. Hobbes likens the imagination to an ocean wave claiming that when we see something, using our senses, it rolls on in the imagination after we cease actually sensing it like a wave after the wind breaks. It would be nearly 150 years before the imagination would gain newly-found power—creativity.

Romantic thought: An awkward adolescence During the romantic period just about every tenet of the Enlightenment was challenged and imagination as merely a reproductive force was no 1 exception. Coleridge , among others, essentially took the imagination as a reproductive faculty and split it up, not denying this ability to present images to the mind’s eyes of things that already exist, but also bestowing upon it the power to ‘dissolve and dissipate’ these images and transform them within the conscious imagination to create that which is not yet— creativity (Egan, 1992). A closer reading of Coleridge’s thoughts from Biographia Literaria might, however, present some metaphysical contortions. That is, in splitting the imagination into a reproductive force (one which retains and re-presents sensory images to the mind) as well as a productive force (one which constitutes novelty and creativity) the Romantics, such as Coleridge in this case, constructed an understanding of the imagination that is essentially contradictory. The imagination seems to be at once reproductive and productive, presenting images of what the mind has seen 1

However, I do wish to acknowledge the work of Maguire, M. W. (2006) which traces a distinct link between what would become know as the exalted imagination and the writings of post-revolutionary French philosophers Pascal, Rousseau, and Tocqueville.

The Social Justice Imagination: A Better World as Possibility

379

in reality and also that which is yet to be. The Romantics, in essence, ran with the primary and secondary notions of imagination, as per Coleridge, and tangled them into a sort of philosophical knot. In essence, the Romantics opened the ontology of the imagination, but did so in a somewhat uncritical manner. It would take another 100 years or so to work this knot loose enough to gain a grasp on the imagination’s true potential, as a constitutive power, in any lucid way.

Modern thought: Exalting the imagination More contemporary scholars such as White (1990), Warnock (1976), Sartre (1972), Greene (2001), and Egan (1992) have exalted the imagination to a powerful mental faculty. They have labored to make metaphysical sense of the concept and to unchain it from image and realign it closely with creativity, novelty, and invention as well as with understanding, sympathy, and compassion. In the end, we have a concept of the imagination which might best be succinctly articulated by using Greene's (2001) description as not only the power to form mental images, but “the power to mold experience into something new, to create fictive situations (…) the power—by means of sympathetic feeling—to put oneself in another’s place” (p. 30). Egan (1995) would add that it should be seen now not merely as a “distinct function of the mind, but is rather a particular flexibility which can invigorate all mental functions” (p. 36). Although the contribution of these philosophers to the evolution of imagination is complex, extensive, and not entirely in agreement, it is not my purpose here to unfold a detailed account of how the exalted 2 imagination came to be or to justify its philosophical coherence. Rather, my intent is to elucidate how we might come to make use of this generally accepted modern interpretation of the imagination—as exalted—our journey toward a socially just world. Therefore, I move forward with Greene’s definition in hand.

Imagination, sympathy, and morality Before we speak of what I will call the social justice imagination, understanding the connections among the imagination, sympathy, morality, and emotion might be prudent. Emotion is tied, at a basal level, to the image-forming capacity of the imagination. Egan (1992) explains 2 For a comprehensive discussion on the evolution of the exalted imagination, see Maguire (2006).

380

Michael Ernest Sweet

that “when we imagine something we tend to feel as though it is real or present, such that it seems our ‘coding’ and ‘access’ to images is tied in with our emotions” (original emphasis, p. 4). Now, let us imagine that we are considering the lives of others, of the poor, for example. Not only should we call up images of our understanding of poverty, we should also stir emotions and these emotions, more often than not, will lead us to a deeper understanding and ultimately, hopefully, action—sympathetic action. In A Treatise of Human Nature, Hume implicates the imagination in acts of both sympathy and morality. He claims that individuals assess the circumstances of others by imagining themselves in the other person’s situation. Philosopher Emery Hyslop-Margison in a contemporary revisiting of Hume’s theory cites the following passage from A Treatise of Human Nature to elucidate the point: For supposing I saw a person perfectly unknown to me, who, while asleep in the fields, was in danger of being trod on by horses, I should immediately run to his assistance; and in this I should be actuated by the same principle of sympathy. (2006, p. 26)

We may agree with Hume, yet wonder if such action can be increased or decreased in incidence and effectiveness/intensity by way of training and fostering imaginative development. That is, will people necessarily act in such a way, or do such actions depend on a person’s imaginative capacity to enter into the lives of others in a genuine and poignant way? I think a close reading of Hume, in a contemporary context, might suggest the need for a highly developed imaginative capacity. The essential problem with calling upon Hume to substantiate such a claim is articulated by White (1990) when he argues that, “Hume’s own actual use of the concept of imagination and the words ‘imagine’, ‘imagination’ and ‘imaginary’ was both exactly the same as our contemporary use and yet at variance with his theory of imagination” (p. 42). Remaining faithful to the exalted concept of imagination, I move forward with the assertion that imaginative capacity must be trained to elicit such a response consistently and effectively in terms of frequency and intensity. The question now becomes how we might go about training the imagination for this type of sympathetic and moral human response. How might we train someone to enter into the life of another and have a morally appropriate and genuinely heartfelt response?

The Social Justice Imagination: A Better World as Possibility

381

The role of literature The role of literature is paramount in the training of the imagination. Although literature may be implicated in a multiplicity of ways, I will focus on a twofold account. As Hyslop-Margison (2006) points out, Adam Smith added an additional component to Hume’s account of sympathetic response. Smith’s claim involved the reasoned evaluation of the emotional response. Hyslop-Margison elucidates with the following example: If we encounter someone crying helplessly on the street corner, in all probability most of us would be somewhat emotionally moved by the event. If we subsequently discover that the person is emotionally distraught because s/he unintentionally dropped a penny through a drain hole cover, the feelings of sympathy rapidly dissipate as the circumstance does not warrant the observed reaction. (p. 27)

So where does one acquire the rational insight to evaluate such a situation. Do we have a moral code which tells us not to be distraught over certain events? No, but what we do have is literature and, more loosely, stories. Stories fill our lives almost from the moment of birth right through to the very end. It is through stories, whether they be embedded in formal literature or not, that we collect a stock of moral situations. It is from this moral stock that we draw guidance when confronted by emotional response—real or imagined. This is the first way in which literature helps to inform our imagination in the task of sympathetic activity. Secondly, literature can act as a gateway into situations otherwise unknown to us. That is, we may come to have heartfelt emotional responses to situations that we have not witnessed or experienced. In this way, literature can bring us into the lives, imaginatively, of others to acquire a deeper, more meaningful, understanding of ‘what others suffer’—a capacity with unmistakable social justice significance. HyslopMargison (2006) observes that both Hume and Smith assess sympathy as an outcome of imagination—as we do not have access to other minds. In order to understand each other, to ‘feel into’ the lives of each other, we must rely on our imaginative capacity to act as a gateway to the hopes, dreams, fears, emotions, and thoughts which would otherwise be nothing more than Whitman’s ‘dreams or dots’.

The social justice connection and pedagogical implications Returning to my conception of social justice as caring deeply about human lives, it is almost self-evident why the capacity to enter,

382

Michael Ernest Sweet

imaginatively, into the thoughts and feelings of others in a meaningful way, is paramount. By training the imagination in schools we enable students to enter into the lives of others, whose circumstances they may be unacquainted with, and develop a moral and emotional union. This connection will undeniably be of benefit when such students are confronted with civic decisions and social choices. For example, following the recent debate about wearing the hijab in Quebec youth soccer leagues, many of my sport etude students approached me with forthright support for the young lady who was ultimately expelled from her game. In acting to support and defend this young girl my students, categorically Italian and largely unfamiliar with fist-hand Islamic experience, uncovered, by way of entering imaginatively into her situation, their sympathetic and moral connection to someone with life experiences unlike their own. My students imagined what it was like to be this young girl of a different religion within her marginalized context. Through invoking the imagination in this way, they opened up possibilities, vistas for change in public policy; they uncovered new ways of thinking about others; ways of accepting and ultimately erasing ‘otherness’ altogether. Calling upon the imagination in such a way, my students were able to break the myopic constraints of their narrow world view and enter into the perspectives of other cultures; such could extend to other ages, geographic locations, religions, and so on. In this way, the imagination is unrestricted by the essential poverty of direct experience. There needs to be a shift in education to make it more humane— socially just. Education alone, when consisting of rational thinking and decidedly bent on abstractions, is not enough. As Elie Wiesel once noted the “designers and perpetrators of Auschwitz, Dachau, and Buchenwald— the Holocaust—were heirs of Kant and Goethe, widely thought to be the best educated people on earth” (Orr, 2004, p. 7). The problem with their education, as Wiesel expands, was that it “emphasized theories instead of values, concepts rather than human beings, abstraction rather than consciousness, answers instead of questions, ideology and efficiency rather then conscience” (p. 8). Although neither Wiesel nor I are likening the Holocaust to social injustice, the quote poignantly illustrates the notion of education as potentially manipulative and/or insufficient in terms of protecting and promoting the flourishing of human life. Education must be designed with care and, it seems to me, with a reverence for the mystery of human life—with careful heed to the human predicament. Instrumental rationality will ultimately come in short of generating human emotional response to a world of suffering children, desperate and destitute mothers, and the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of sickening poor. This is

The Social Justice Imagination: A Better World as Possibility

383

reminiscent of a particular scene from Dickens’s Hard Times in which character Sissy is reacting to the presentation of statistics in relation to starving deaths by her utilitarian teacher. The claim is that in a town of a million inhabitants only 25 are starved to death in the streets each year. This of course is the ‘speak’ of pure, hard, and cold reason. Sissy responds by saying, “It must be just as hard upon those who were starved, whether the others were a million, or a million million”. Clearly Sissy has a reverence for the human predicament embodied in her imagination of what it must be like to be those who starve. Clearly, she has imagined what it might be like to be starved. Sissy’s teacher, I would claim, on the other hand, is not the type of educator who is likely to forward a genuine pedagogy of social justice. The teacher is stuck in a vacuum of instrumental rationality—stuck in a place void of imagination, void of the ability to think of things as possibly being so. Imagination and possibility; imagination and emotion, imagination and “thinking of things as possibly being so” are contemporary understandings of imagination which ultimately become indispensable to notions of social justice. The imagination, as Maxine Greene (1995) asserts, is what will ultimately enable us to: Conceive a better order of things (…) to become able to break with what is supposedly fixed and finished, objectively and independently real. It is to see beyond what the imaginer has called normal and “common-sensible” and to carve out new orders in experience (…) [we] may become freed to glimpse what might be, to form notions of what should be and what is not yet. (p. 19)

In conclusion, returning to the words of Benson (1917, 1967), “Imaginative sympathy, that is to be the end of all our efforts”, we see a true understanding of why he uttered such a claim. Education can be a reproductive or transformative social force; it is in our hands, as educators, to decide its ultimate aim. Should we decide to teach to the imagination and allow, indeed encourage, our students to think beyond the here and now, to break through the taken-for-granted, we may at once permit them to conceive a better order of things—to see a better world as possibility.

384

Michael Ernest Sweet

References Benson, A.C. (1917; 1967). The Training of the Imagination. Benson, A.C. (ed.). In Cambridge Essays on Education. New York: Books for Libraries Press. Degenhardt, M. & McKay, E. (1988). Imagination and Education for Intercultural Understanding. Egan, K. & Nadaner, D. (eds.). In Imagination and Education. New York: Teachers College Press. Egan, K. (1992). Imagination in Teaching and Learning: The middle school years. University of Chicago Press: Chicago. Greene, M. (1995). Releasing the Imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc. —. (2001). Variations on a Blue Guitar: The Lincoln Center Institute lectures on aesthetic education. New York: Teachers College Press. Hanson, K. (1988). Prospects for the Good Life: Education and perceptive imagination. Egan, K. & Nadaner, D. (eds.). In Imagination and Education. New York: Teachers College Press. Hobbes, T. (1651; 1962). Leviathian. London: Dent. Hyslop-Margison, E.J. (2006). Smith, Hume and the Moral Imagination: Sympathy and social justice. Pastoral Care, 24(4), 26-30. Kearney, R. (1988). The Wake of Imagination. London: Hutchinson. Maguire, M.W. (2006). The Conversion of Imagination: From Pascal through Rousseau to Tocqueville. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Nussbaum, M. (1995). Poetic Justice: The literary imagination and public life. Boston: Beacon Press. Orr, D.W. (2004). Earth in Mind: On education, environment, and the human prospect. Washington: Island Press. Reference.com. (2007). Social Justice. Retrieved on June 11, 2007, from: http://www.reference.com/search?q=social%20justice. Sartre, J.P. (1972). The Psychology of Imagination. London: Methuen. Warnock, M. (1976). Imagination. London: Faber. White, A. R. (1990). The Language of Imagination. Oxford: Blackwell.

TEACHER EDUCATION: PREPARING 21ST CENTURY CULTURALLY PROFICIENT GLOBAL TEACHERS FOR THEIR ROLES AS PEACE AND CHARACTER EDUCATORS REYES QUEZADA AND EDWARD DEROCHE

Introduction The Golden Rule: Do not do to others what you would not want others to do to you (Confucianism). This is the sum of duty: do naught to others which if done to thee, would cause thee pain (Hinduism). Hurt not others with that which pains yourself (Buddhism). Treat others as thou wouldst be treated thyself (Sikhism). In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you (Christianity).

As the title of this article suggests, it is our intention to describe characteristics of “culturally proficient global teachers” by connecting the cultural aspect of teaching with 21st century teachers who are thrust into primary and secondary schools. We are convinced that peace- and character education teacher preparation programs should be the impetus in preparing candidates to be culturally proficient global peace- and character educators. We believe that current and future global culturally proficient teachers have responsibilities to balance both the focus on children and youth academic development along with attention to character development. Thus the challenge falls to teacher educators and primary and secondary schools_ personnel to prepare the young academically, emotionally, and socially. It is clear, however, that in elementary, middle, and secondary schools in the U.S. students continue to be isolated from people who are different from them and are not developing respect for differences or the comparative skills they need to contribute effectively to a sustainable local and global society. This phenomenon is not unique to schools in the U.S. In actuality, this statement applies to other less diverse countries in the world. As Omoregie (2007) states, “issues are becoming

386

Reyes Quezada and Edward DeRoche

global rather than national and they demand global rather than national attention. The belief is that a globally competent teacher is that teacher that is adequate and fit to teach globally. He not only is an effective teacher in his nation but in other nations of the world” (p. 3). According to Lamy (1982), “Teachers teach what they know most about and no matter how critical diversity is to the development of competent citizens, teachers will avoid these issues if they do not have materials and appropriate background training” (p. 210). That is why focusing attention on preparing 21st century culturally proficient global teachers for their role as peace and character educators is imperative. To begin to provide the appropriate tools, we must first take a look at our existing models.

A model For the purpose of setting the stage we find that a cultural proficiency model developed by Lindsey, Robins and Terrell (1999) is appropriate as it provides a theoretical framework and suggestions for teaching practices that will help individuals, schools, and organizations to “interact effectively in a culturally diverse environment” (p. 21). A central component of the model is an emphasis on an “inside-out” approach to assessing individuals and institution’s ability to work with difference. This means focusing “on those of us who are insiders to the schools, encouraging us to reflect on our own individual understandings and values” (p. 25), to think about the school’s culture in relation to difference. By taking a self-reflective approach, the cultural proficiency model relieves those “outsiders” from “the responsibility of doing all the adapting” (p. 25). The inside-out approach encourages educators and others to assess where they and their institution are positioned with respect to dealing with peace and character education as well as cultural differences. The cultural proficiency model provides a useful framework to guide that reflective assessment (Quezada & Osajima, 2005). The cultural proficiency continuum represented in the diagram below defines six “unique ways of seeing and responding to difference” (p. 31). These six unique points can help define how individuals, groups, and organizations can develop along the continuum to become culturally proficient 21st century global teachers and teacher educators for their roles as peace and character educators.

Preparing Teachers for their Roles as Peace and Character Educators

387

Cultural Proficiency Continuum 1) Cultural destructiveness

3) Cultural blindness

5) Cultural competence

2) Cultural incapacity

4) Cultural pre-competence

6) Cultural proficiency

Along the continuum, cultural destructiveness refers to attitudes, policies, and practices destructive to cultures and individuals within a culture. Culturally destructive acts include nations, states, and organizations that use military/terrorist tactics to kill and maim without exploring peace options. It includes genocide, death squads, and torture chambers, while the victims include innocent citizens, children, and families. Such policies, enacted with the highest frequency, can and do reverberate nationally and at the local level. In these situations, negotiations to attaining peace are not an option. Schooling and education are not supported, thus causing illiteracy among the entire population. The next stage, cultural incapacity, describes “an organization or individuals that show extreme bias, believe in the superiority of the dominant group, usually themselves, and assume a paternal posture to so-called lesser groups” (p. 34). The authors note that at this point, nations, states, organizations, or individuals often hold rigid stereotypes and fears, and severely limit opportunities for change. In war and conflict, peace education negotiations are a possibility, but the killing continues. The use of print/media is allowed but is used more as a scare tactic then as a tool to reveal the inhumanness of the atrocities inflicted on the non-dominant group. Schooling and education are allowed but are used as a breeding ground to teach negativism and intolerance against each other cultures, languages, and religious beliefs. Moving onto the next level of the continuum, cultural blindness is the “belief that color and culture make no difference and that all people are the same” (p. 35). The authors suggest that this is the most vexing point on the continuum in that culturally-blind educators’ well-intentioned beliefs make it more difficult to recognize the persistence of problems linked to cultural and racial differences. Moreover, as Bonilla-Silva (2003) points out in his book Racism without Racists, color-blindness is an ideological position that is quite dominant among whites, leading them to deflect attention, often in a defensive manner, away from structural racism. For these reasons, it is likely that a significant portion of a school’s staff will find themselves at this point in the continuum (Quezada & Osajima, 2005). Peace education teaches that war and conflict are wrong, but excuses are found to substantiate reasons why they are taking place. Print

388

Reyes Quezada and Edward DeRoche

and media are used to educate the population regarding the reasons why war and conflict are being conducted. Cultural pre-competence is an “awareness of the limitations in crosscultural communication and outreach” (Quezada & Osajima, 2005, p. 36). People in this category believe in the fair treatment of others, but are often unaware of the range of options available. As we move further along the Cultural Proficiency Continuum we may find that the leaders of nations, states, and organizations are more open to negotiations especially in this category. In schools, curriculum on peace and character education is evident and integrated in various subjects. With regard to the cultural competence point on the continuum, school personnel and others accept and respect differences, carefully attend to the dynamics of difference, continually assess their own cultural knowledge and beliefs, continuously expand their cultural knowledge and resources, and make various adaptations of their own belief systems, policies and practices. (Quezada & Osajima, 2005, p. 37)

In schools, peace education is manifested through an approved curriculum and specific courses in peace and character education, including conflict-resolution, ethical decision-making, and problemsolving. At the elementary, middle, high school, and higher education levels, partnerships are formed and the community is invited to participate in school efforts to teach aspects of peace and character. Finally, culturally proficient ways of responding to difference include educators and other personnel who unabashedly support culturally proficient practices in all facets of the learning environment. They function effectively in different cultural contexts and, when presented with new groups and situations, know how to gather research and resources to help them learn about the newly presented cultures (Quezada & Osajima, 2005, p. 37). Culturally proficient educators seek to make cultural knowledge the norm and actively institutionalize attendant practices into the fabric of the school. They possess cross-cultural communication skills needed to articulate their vision to all students, parents, community members, and other school personnel. They take proactive steps to involve a wide variety of people in educational decisions. In schools, peace and character education concepts and principles are not just a theoretical part of the curriculum, but practiced through social action and finally embedded into the curriculum. In elementary and middle schools, servicelearning projects are essential in supporting the concepts and principles students are expected to learn as they address matters of character and

Preparing Teachers for their Roles as Peace and Character Educators

389

issues of personal and social peace. At the high school level, peace and character education are often offered in the social studies program. Also, prevention programs captured under a school’s character education umbrella include such programs as violence prevention, alcohol and drug prevention, and social-emotional programs. Many higher education institutions distinguish between the terms “peace studies” and “peace education.” Peace studies is the operative term in most higher education institutions offering graduate degree programs, undergraduate majors and minors, and certificates. At all levels of education, culturally proficient peace and character educators and others can use the inside-out reflective approach and the cultural proficiency continuum to assess their readiness, willingness, and starting point in order to move themselves and the institutions in which they work toward greater cultural proficiency. We believe that attention paid to assessing the levels of cultural proficiency with regard to peace and character education globally, nationally, locally, in higher education institutions, teacher education programs and in school districts or at a school site is the first step to increase knowledge, create team-building opportunities, expand leadership roles, and, most importantly, open meaningful dialogue among all constituents. Such activities will also increase the willingness and commitment of culturally proficient teachers to work with students from globally diverse backgrounds. Thus, one of the first tasks of 21st century culturally proficient global teachers and other educators is to reflect on their own position and, of course, that of their institution regarding peace and character education on the Cultural Proficiency Continuum (Quezada & Osajima, 2005). In addition to taking an inside-out approach, various questions emerge from the need to address violence and equity issues come from society, of which three central questions stand out: What is peace and character education? What is the role of P-12 schools and institutions of higher education in support of peace and character education? And finally, what is the role of teacher educators in infusing the concepts, principles, and practices of peace education, character education, and social justice in a culturally global and multicultural curriculum? In this article, we examine some possible answers to these questions. Schools and higher education personnel may hold widely varying positions in relation to multicultural education. Thus, it is important to define the concepts—multicultural, peace and character education—so that as you read you will be able to follow our views and ideas.

390

Reyes Quezada and Edward DeRoche

Culturally proficient peace and character educators— defining terms I have a dream, that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character..—Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is abundant information available on peace and character education and multicultural educational theory and practice that can help educators meet the needs of culturally diverse student populations. But abundance and availability of information does not, in itself, guarantee that teacher educators, teachers, and administrators will work effectively with students and families from culturally diverse global backgrounds. What is needed is for educators to be able and willing to match cognitive knowledge with a strong commitment to implement practices suited for culturally and linguistic diverse students. Bridging the widening achievement gap, and addressing the character development needs of students, requires that teachers and administrators be willing and able to learn about each student’s cultural and linguistic background that may differ significantly from their own, and transform that knowledge into effective peace education, character education, and multicultural educational practices. The Character Education Partnership, a coalition of organizations and individuals advocating for the character development of children and youth, noted that character education is a national movement encouraging schools to create environments that foster ethical, responsible, and caring young people. It is the intentional, proactive effort by schools, districts, and states to instill in their students important core, ethical values that we all share such as caring, honesty, fairness, responsibility and respect for self and others.

Multicultural education in the U.S. includes these basic principles: the theory of cultural pluralism; ideals of social justice, and the eradication of racism, sexism and other forms of prejudice and discrimination; positive affirmations of culture in the teaching and learning process; and visions of educational equity and excellence leading to high levels of academic learning for all children and youth (Bennett, 2002). By combining all the definitions, we can summarize by suggesting that the goals of peace and character education in multicultural schools and training institutions are to nurture people, of good character capable of love and work, who are educated in good schools that are caring, civil, and

Preparing Teachers for their Roles as Peace and Character Educators

391

challenging, and will contribute to the responsibilities of building a society that finds systemic solutions to its problems and promotes democratic ideals for each of its citizens (Lickona, 1998, p. 78).

Review of peace education and character education In a multicultural society like that in the U.S. new and current citizens find their roots in the founding documents of the country—the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution—in the historical culture, in symbols and slogans, and formatively in the country’s promise to create one nation, indivisible, with justice, with equality, with freedom for all. These roots guide personal and civic behaviors similarly to other countries that have their own historical and cultural mores for educating the young to be good, to be life-long learners, to know and practice the common virtues, to be peacebuilders, and to develop prosocial and emotional skills for successful and rewarding living. It is our intent here to provide a historical snapshot regarding the origins of character and peace education within a multicultural context in the U.S. Each country has its own history of the culture and circumstances that captures the thrust to teach the young the universal virtues of being good citizens. The U.S. timeline below omits much, but is intended to provide snapshots of growth and interest in peace and character education. ƒ 1700s: The Declaration of Independence and the preamble to the Constitution are clear statements that the Founding Fathers believed that moral values and virtues were essential to democracy. In colonial times, character education (as it is called today) meant moral education and moral education meant religious education, usually the responsibility of families and the small communities with strong religious traditions. ƒ 1800s: The McGuffey's Readers were the primary literacy and moral education books of the time. These readers provided stories about children who successfully learned to live good virtues in their everyday lives. It was during this decade that peace groups formed such as the American Peace Society and the Universal Peace Union. Women peace societies also began to evolve and took an active role in promoting peace education. Two prominent leaders at this time were Elihu Burritt, publisher of The Advocate for Peace, the journal of the American Peace Society, and Horace Mann, who believed that schools should teach virtue before knowledge because knowledge without virtue posed its own societal concerns and that

392

Reyes Quezada and Edward DeRoche

education of the young underscores the thrust for a peaceful nation. ƒ 1900s: With the immigration explosion and other cultural changes, schools were charged with the responsibility of providing the social discipline essential to life in an emerging urban environment. By 1918, all 48 states had enacted legislation requiring compulsory school attendance. Peace advocates focused on citizenship education as part of the character development of the young. John Dewey, America's chief philosopher of education, became a critic of military training in schools and promoted his view of moral education that emphasized reflective thinking rather than moral lessons, promoting the process-oriented approach rather than a content-oriented approach to character education. The Character Education Association (1911) was formed and proposed Ten Laws of Right Living: 1) self-control; 2) good health; 3) kindness; 4) sportsmanship; 5) self-reliance; 6) duty; 7) reliability; 8) truth; 9) good workmanship; and, 10) teamwork (McClellan, 1999, p. 50). The American School Peace Leagues developed a peace education guide and recommended that students explore peace through projects. Also prominent during this decade was the report from a commission on the Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education which recommended a common core of courses for schools that included health, command of fundamental process (the three R's), worthy home membership, citizenship, and ethical character. In the post-World War II years, education was viewed as the ticket to a better life. The launch of Russia’s Sputnik satellite, funding from the federal government, and other social factors (the Cold War) moved to narrow the focus of education to preparing students with solely the academic skills (math and science) needed for higher education and international competition. Schools continued to teach citizenship, but there was a decided de-emphasis on moral/character and peace education. “The subtle decline was not the result of a concerted attack on moral education but rather the product of a gradual shift in educational priorities” (Mc Clellan, 1999, p. 72). Theodore Lentz (2007), in his study of peace curricula, found that educators must include group dynamics and strategies that address resolving conflicts peacefully. His findings and writings led to the implementation of conflict resolution programs in classrooms across the nation. Peace education efforts began focusing on four major programs: nonviolence, global education, world order education, and conflict resolution.

Preparing Teachers for their Roles as Peace and Character Educators

393

Through the work of Maria Montessori, peace education began to find its way back into the classroom, particularly in the social studies curriculum, highlighted by four major themes: valuing diversity, recognizing the interconnectedness of the modern world, gaining knowledge of the current world, and developing the capacity for strong working relationships. Her work led to the creation of a peace task force that established an accreditation process called Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (MCATE). The purposes of Montessori’s thrust for a “science of peace” include using the accreditation as a programmatic model, developing peace education curricula for schools, developing teacher training programs and parent education efforts, and promoting an awareness of the need for global peace and peace concepts in schools and society. Sen. John F. Kennedy, in a speech in 1960, challenged the students at the University of Michigan to serve their country in the pursuit of peace. Eventually, the Peace Corps was formed as an agency in the federal government to answering the challenge. McClellan (1999) noted that “three dramatically new approaches to moral education emerged in the years between the mid-1960s and the 1990s” (p. 79). The “values clarification" approach was one, another was the work of Lawrence Kohlberg, a Harvard University researcher, which focused on cognitive development (moral reasoning) and developed stages of moral development. A third was the “feminist approaches” focusing on the role of caring (pp. 87-89). In the 1980s and 1990s, several factors began shaping school reform efforts and the education of the youth. With immigration at its highest since the 1920s, and technology heavily infiltrating mainstream culture, those years saw a major shift from an industry-based to a technologybased society and an increase in youth violence and drug use, otherwise known as a “me-first” attitude with the young. As social studies curriculum transformed into a place to house the teaching and learning of global and peace education issues with the study of character through stories and events, four major themes emerged and were captured in words like values, diversity, recognition, and interdependence of the modern world. Developing a capacity for effective working relationships and gaining knowledge of world conditions became extremely valuable with regard to current trends. In the mid-1990s, the U.S. Congress unanimously adopted a resolution. This resolution supported character education and designated a week in October as “National Character Counts Week.” From that time to the present, federal funding has become available to states to begin

394

Reyes Quezada and Edward DeRoche

implementing character education programs. Henceforth, most states pass education codes and laws mandating character education instruction in all public schools. Most elementary and middle schools have implemented character education (including peace topics) programs. In contrary, the process has been slower in secondary schools and has, in some cases, been seen as impinging on the academic preparation of students. A cottage industry of character and peace education materials appeared on the market ranging from books and curriculum guides to videotapes, buttons, cups, posters, and pennants. The first issue of the Journal of Research in Character Education sent a message of the importance of assessing character and peace education efforts.

Teacher preparation programs: Resistance and reluctance Data suggest that more than 50% of teachers leave the profession because of poor student behavior. What we have failed to provide in the professional training of teachers is a realistic understanding that control and compliance will not of themselves create a climate of academic attainment. (Bartholomew, 2007, pp. 593-598)

There are three ways for teachers to be exposed to information and best practices about multicultural education, peace education, and character education—first, teach themselves; second, obtain it in their teacher preparation programs; and third, learn it by practice while teaching by participating in in-service programs, or attending conferences on these topics. The focus of this section will be on college and university teacher training programs. We have built upon extensive research on character education to frame the following comments and try to answer the following question: Why have teacher preparation programs been reluctant to infuse peace and character education into the curriculum? In answering this question we make the assumption that the findings addressing this reluctance also apply to the absence of peace education in teacher preparation programs. Berkowitz (1998) posed this question: “Why is there so much cultural and professional emphasis on character education yet so little professional training in character education for future teachers?” (p. 1). In the article, Berkowitz suggested possible obstacles, along with definitions of character and character education: 1) teacher educators have no common language about the two concepts; 2) teacher educators lack knowledge about character education experts and resources; 3) many if not all state teacher preparation requirements do not require course work in character

Preparing Teachers for their Roles as Peace and Character Educators

395

education; 4) teacher educators, in general, may be ambivalent about the appropriateness of educating for character; and 5) their views about the effectiveness of character education programs in schools (p. 1). It would be easy to add peace education to these obstacles and make a case for each factor. Similarly, Jones, Ryan and Bohlin (1998) conducted a nationwide study of 600 deans and department chairs to determine the state of character education in teacher preparation programs. They noted that eight themes emerged from their study: 1) deans and department chairs overwhelmingly support the tenets of character education (and we assume they would do the same for peace education); 2) character education (and peace education) are not high priority topics in the teacher preparation curriculum; 3) there was a lack of consensus about what character education (and peace education) is and how it should be taught; 4) a caring community and service learning was seen as the essential part of the character education (and peace education) content in teacher preparation program; 5) process-oriented approaches appeared more likely than did content-based pedagogical approaches; 6) when character (peace) goals were found in mission statements there was more programmatic emphasis on character (peace) education; 7) religious colleges and universities “are more likely to describe their character (peace) education program efforts as ‘central’ to their programmatic mission and goals” (p. 24); and, 8) there was guarded support for making character (peace) education part of a state's certification requirements. It is interesting to note that while peace education is struggling to take hold in primary and secondary schools, the term peace studies is flourishing in institutions of higher education. In the chapter “A History of Peace Studies in the U.S.,” Daniels (1999) describes three waves of development. The first was the development of the science of peace resulting from research and graduate offerings. The second wave focused on the interdisciplinary aspects of the field with the subject being defined as the “systematic, interdisciplinary study of the causes of war and the conditions of peace” (p. 103). In the 1980s, the third wave represented a rapid increase in the peace studies program and the undergraduate and graduate level offering degrees and certificates, and the creation of the national Peace Studies Association and the U.S. Institute of Peace. Even with the increase in programs, it is apparent that something is missing in the training of future teachers in schools of education to prepare them for their 21st century charge to teach the young about character and peace concepts, principles, and practices. There appear to be several ways to teach those in training about character development and peace education;

396

Reyes Quezada and Edward DeRoche

for example, create degree or certificate programs, create courses in existing programs, and/or infuse peace and character content into the existing teacher preparation curriculum.

Teacher preparation—some examples If we agree that teaching is a moral and ethical act (Tom, 1984; Noddings, 1984; Goodlad, Soder, & Sirotnik, 1990), then we must also include that future and current teachers should be educated regarding the moral instruction of youth and the ethics of the profession. “The prevailing view of teacher education is that it consists of ‘content plus methodology,’ but perhaps that should be broadened to “content plus methodology plus values” (Finn, 1984, p. 57). Several examples may be informative and instructive. In a journal article, Luckowski (1997) described how she uses a virtuecenter approach using case studies to help teachers-in-training to be more reflective about their ethical thinking and practices and to gain “familiarity with moral principles and rules” (p. 270). O’Sullivan (2005) notes that there is a lack of character education in teacher training programs, and in her article she makes the case for its inclusion. She describes how the faculty integrated character (peace) education into the teacher preparation program at Azusa Pacific University in California. At the university, all seniors enroll in a senior seminar. In the teacher education program, one of the seminars offered to elementary teacher candidates is titled “Character Education through Children’s Literature.” O’Sullivan says “teacher education programs must take seriously their role as nurturers of teachers and begin to infuse their technician-based classes with more profound topics. We may call these morals, ethics, character education, or any number of other terms, but we cannot neglect it” (p. 8). Quezada and Romo (2004), in an article on peace education, explain that justice and multiculturalism illustrate how teacher education programs can infuse character-topics into their teacher preparation program. They described how a teacher education program was successful and transformed using six character-related themes—reflection, values, service, technology, social justice, and diversity. They reported that students in the program also learned about the goals of character education “with a focus that includes building a democratic, inclusive, caring classroom community” (p. 7). Benninga (2003) describes the need for pre-service and in-service teachers to examine codes of ethics for the profession, and to explore

Preparing Teachers for their Roles as Peace and Character Educators

397

teaching strategies that will enhance their moral sensitivities and motivation. He states, “It would seem that this is developing into an area of greater interest to the profession” (p. 4), which provides an excellent summary of the foundations for moral and character education, and offers three examples of exemplary teacher education programs: Boston University, CSU-Fresno and the University of St. Francis. Benninga concludes by adding: “moral and ethical issues, including character education, are slowly becoming part of the teacher education programs. (…) It’s now up to the profession to ensure broader and deeper implementation” (p. 7). While these examples show what could be done, it is apparent that until standards have been developed and certificationlicensure requirements include peace and character content, changing current teacher preparation programs will be a piecemeal process. The question is this: how can teacher educators provide future teachers with a vision of their moral and ethical responsibilities along with the charge to promote peace, character development, multiculturalism, justice, and social equality in the classroom?

Review of peace and character education, and social justice concepts Current research supports the correlation between exposure of violence in print, media, and entertainment to student behavior (Morrison, 2002). Many students have themselves been victims of violent verbal and physical assaults in various contexts and situations. How can future teachers and their teacher preparation programs be convinced that it is essential to promote peace, character development, multiculturalism, justice, and social equality in schools and classrooms? How can teacher training programs include the skills, concepts, principles, and best practices that are imbedded in peace and character education into their curriculum? Many P-12 schools have adopted mediation and conflict resolution programs, but at times fall short of the implementation phase. For the most part issues of multiculturalism, peace education, justice, and equality seem to permeate the U.S. school curriculum during the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, and in California during the recognition of the life of Cesar Chavez, and during other celebrated holidays (Quezada & Romo, 2004). Internationally, conferences and the United Nations continue to provide many forums and opportunities for students and teacher candidates to study peacebuilding efforts. Many institutions of higher education have degree programs that further the research of peace education, conflict resolution, and mediation.

398

Reyes Quezada and Edward DeRoche

Characteristics of peace education and character education According to Harris (1996), peace education is an instructional effort that can create better citizens in this world. It is both transformational in process as well as an embedded philosophy that supports and teaches nonviolence as a means of caring for the environment and for life itself. It provides alternatives by teaching about causes of violence and informing students with knowledge of the critical issues of peace education: peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding. It seems that elementary and secondary schools have programs that support all three critical issues. At the peacekeeping level many schools have rules and regulations to deal with students who engage in acts of violence. Many schools employ security guards and/or hire or house school police at both the district and schools themselves. In many schools peacemaking has now infused into the curriculum through the adoption of peacemaking programs that promote instructional strategies in conflict resolution, mediation, conflict management, cultural awareness, and inclusive education. Programs, such as Peacebuilders and Tribes, can support classroom teachers in promoting peace education efforts in their classrooms. “As a classroom teacher, my experience-based belief is that, unless we teach our children peace, someone else will teach them violence. Yet we graduate students every year as peace illiterates” (Colman, 2005, p. 20). Finn (1984), in a report titled “Peace Education and Teacher Education: A State of the Art,” documents her thoughts regarding peace education and teacher education. She states that If peace education is to become a lasting and well integrated part of our schools’ curriculum, as many believe it now must, it will be helpful if departments and schools of teacher education provide their students with instruction in curriculum methods of peace education. (p. 53)

Theodore Roszak, in Colman’s book (2005) explains: “The usual pattern seems to be that people give nonviolence two weeks to solve their problem and then decide it has ‘failed’. Then they go on with violence for the next one hundred years and it seems never to ‘fail’ or be rejected” (p. 22). Peacemaking programs in our schools can assist in decreasing the experiences of verbal and physical abuse, disruptions, aggression, vandalism, fighting, insults, and injuries. They can provide a sense of belonging to students, increase social competence, and the ability to enhance cooperation. They can also help reduce incidences of intolerance of other people and to support acceptance. Peacemaking can provide an

Preparing Teachers for their Roles as Peace and Character Educators

399

opportunity for positive dialogue and communication, and develop resiliency in young people (Inland Agency Community Peace Program, 2002). Peacebuilding, however, has been the most difficult to assess since it deals with changing individual attitudes towards violence and racism. Peacebuilding fosters students’ self-assessment of their own bias. The purpose of peacebuilding is to promote and seek peace in positive forms that contribute to cooperation, trust, and open communication as a means of operating in a global society. Institutions of higher education and teacher preparation programs can be the impetus by preparing teachers with the knowledge and skills needed to promote peace education and character development in their classrooms in order to build peaceful classrooms with students who value peace education and justice for all students. By supporting efforts by the United Nations and UNESCO regarding peace education and non-violence, one can build a more peaceful world (Morrison, 2002). Teaching students to think critically and act positively requires teacher preparation that fosters a positive social role for schools and a nonpositivistic view of knowledge, one that recognizes and includes values. Peace education, whether of nuclear war or global perspectives variety, proposes to do just that. (Finn, 1984, p. 58)

In short, social-emotional, peace, and character education will likely reduce individual and group violence in our society.

Peace education and character education degree programs According to the Robin’s Directory of Colleges and Universities, there are over 200 Peace Studies institutions worldwide that grant degrees with an emphasis in Peace Studies Education and other similar emphases. There are both international and national peace centers or institutes, many granting degrees at all levels as well as certificates and minors (Robins, 2002). Most programs are housed in colleges of arts and sciences or within an institute or a center. An Internet website search found only one degree program housed in a school of education. Further, the Peace and Justice Studies Association, a national group based at the University of San Francisco, reports that as many as 300 undergraduate and graduate programs are in place. Majors, minors, and concentrations are offered. In 1970 only one college offered a major in peace education, Manchester College in Indiana. But the peace studies movement was energized in October 2004 when philanthropist Joan Kroc died and left $50 million to

400

Reyes Quezada and Edward DeRoche

peace programs at Notre Dame and the University of San Diego (Colman, 2005). Throughout the world the focus of each program differs depending on the political environments and the cultural values they support. Common themes addressing violence in all its forms unify each program. A comprehensive world curriculum may include human rights, environmental, international, conflict resolution, and a developmental education component (Robbins, 2002). There are a variety of education curriculum and curricular materials available for educators who seek it out. What is missing is the training of future teachers in promoting peace education, character education, and social justice. Many schools of education promote peace education and social justice within character education degree programs. In other schools, matters of peace, equity, social justice, and multicultural education are stand-alone courses or infused within the curriculum. McGivern (1975) cited Paolo Freire's model of social action as one form of raising consciousness, school learning and action regarding peace, character, and justice. A similar model can be replicated in schools of education and in restructuring education curriculum to include content in global awareness, structural violence, conflict resolution, and future studies. As it happens, teacher education is in a unique position to foster the value, skill, and knowledge objectives of peace education. Teacher education can serve as a link between colleges and universities where new knowledge on the causes and consequences of war, peace, and world change processes is generated, and the schools where this knowledge can be translated into cognitive and affective education for the young. (Finn, 1984, p. 58)

Culturally responsive teaching through peace and character education There have been many social movements and incidents that have sparked various educational responses for primary and secondary teachers and students as well as an academic field of multicultural education. The destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and the shootings of students at Virginia Tech and Columbine High School are only a few recent events that have provoked our societal and educational consciousness again to move us toward re-thinking the mission of education in schools, and what their roles are in improving society. Education has been and continues to be a sometimes fragmented, yet significant, vehicle to promote societal peace and justice in primary and

Preparing Teachers for their Roles as Peace and Character Educators

401

secondary schools. The basic principles of multicultural education in the U.S. are: the theory of cultural pluralism; ideals of social justice and the end of racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice and discrimination; affirmations of culture in the teaching and learning process; and visions of educational equity and excellence leading to high levels of academic learning for all children and youth (Bennett, 2002). Multicultural education themes may be analyzed and synthesized by programs and efforts into four genres: curriculum reform (historical inquiry, detecting bias in texts, media, and educational materials, curriculum theory); multicultural competence (ethnic group culture, prejudice reduction, and ethnic identity development); equity pedagogy (school and classroom climates, student achievement, cultural styles in teaching and learning); and societal equity (social action, demographics, culture and race in popular culture) (Bennett, 1990, 2002; Chavez-Chavez, 1995, 1997; Smith, 2000; Quezada & Romo, 2004). Other approaches to promoting peace and justice through primary and secondary education can also be found in the research conducted by various social justice activists. For instance, Ladson-Billings’ (1994) definition of culturally responsive teaching relates to all four genres. Culturally responsive teaching serves to empower students to the point where they will be able to critically examine educational content (curriculum) and process (instruction) and ask what its role is in creating a truly democratic and multicultural society (fair, just, and inclusive). It uses the student’s culture to help create meaning and understand the world. The social and cultural success is emphasized by culturally relevant teachers, not just academic success. According to Quezada and Romo (2004) another way of thinking about promoting peace and character education through multicultural education is to follow Leonard and Patricia Davidman’s (1994) six guidelines for culturally responsive teaching, which were expanded to include a seventh: linguistic diversity (Rios, 2000). These guidelines may serve as a constant reference for primary and secondary teachers regardless of the content subject. We believe that they are also useful for professors in teacher education programs. Culturally responsive goals and practices include: 1) focus on educational equity; 2) empower students and their caretaker(s); 3) promote inter-group harmony; 4) expand the cultural knowledge base; 5) develop a multicultural perspective; 6) value cultural pluralism; and 7) respond to linguistic diversity. Considering these goals in terms of curriculum (what) and instructional strategies (how) is helpful and offers new and experienced teachers

402

Reyes Quezada and Edward DeRoche

concrete ways to be more culturally relevant. These guidelines also align with the four genres. Curricular reform relates to goals four and five. Multicultural competence relates to goals two, three, five, six, and seven. Equity pedagogy relates to goals one and seven. Finally, societal equity relates to all seven goals, if applied towards societal outcomes. Banks (2001) developed a model that further provides educators with a guide on how to approach curriculum reform with a multicultural context. He stated that multicultural education is an idea or concept, an educational reform movement, and a process. The concept is that all children have a right to equal education in all schools regardless of their racial, gender, ethnic, cultural, or language background. We know that some institutional practices continue to favorably serve some students and not others. Students are still tracked in watered-down curricula while others are tracked in advance placement courses. We know many students begin at the same point in the primary years, but by middle school and high school the academic achievement gap has widened and it is difficult to close the gap (Haycock, 1997; The Education Trust, 1998). True multicultural education reform occurs when there is a systemic change through institutionalization reform. It includes the community, school support staff, teachers, students, parents, and not just curriculum or curriculum integration. As a process, multicultural education is ongoing. It is not a concept or idea we celebrate once per year as holidays approach (Nieto, 2002; Romo & Salerno, 2000). Multicultural education is evident when all avenues have been researched in order to improve the academic achievement of our culturally, linguistically, and ethnically diverse school population. Multicultural education in teacher preparation should also occur as a process, and as a reform movement based on ideas and concepts that support a multicultural curriculum imbedded with issues of peace and character education and social justice. Only then can teacher preparation programs move from a model of isolation to a model of inclusiveness.

Conclusion We believe that an appropriate conclusion to this chapter is to list the key principles in Manifesto 2000, a document drafted by a group of Nobel Peace laureates. We believe that the principles serve as a guide to the development of culturally proficient global teacher educators, primary and secondary school personnel, and the entire community as they go about their work of teaching the young to be respectful, responsible, tolerant, courageous, and other virtues and skills that make for competent,

Preparing Teachers for their Roles as Peace and Character Educators

403

resourceful, and contributing citizens. We believe that the principles address the content and process of a multicultural education framed within an education for character and peace. Respect Life: Respect the life and dignity of each human being without discrimination or prejudice. Reject Violence: Practice active nonviolence, rejecting violence in all its forms—physical, sexual, psychological, economical, and social. Share with Others: Share time and material resources in a spirit of generosity to put an end to exclusion, injustice and political and economic oppression. Listen to Understand: Defend freedom of expression and cultural diversity, giving preference always to dialogue and listening without engaging in fanaticism and defamation. Preserve the Environment: Promote consumer behavior that is responsible and develop practices that respect all forms of life and preserve that balance of nature on the planet. Rediscover Human Solidarity: Contribute to the development of community with the full participation of women and respect for democratic principles, in order to create together new forms of solidarity. (UNESCO 2000)

In summary, peace and character education should be the goals of schools and training institutions in a multicultural society in order to nurture people—with good character, capable of love and work—who are educated in good schools that are caring, civil, and challenging. Further, the goals contribute to the responsibilities of building a society that finds systemic solutions to its problems and promotes democratic ideals for each of its citizens. (Lickona, 1998, p. 78). We believe the skills and competencies discussed are needed for 21st century culturally proficient teachers, teacher educators, and teacher education programs.

References Au, K. (1998). Social Constructivism and the School Social Constructivism and the School Literacy of Students of Diverse Backgrounds. Journal of Literacy Research, 30(2), 297-319. Banks, J. (2001). Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Bartholomew, B. (2007). Why We Can't Always Get What We Want— Motivation may be more important for student success than even the teacher’s knowledge of the content being taught. Phi Delta Kappan, (April), 593-598.

404

Reyes Quezada and Edward DeRoche

Bennett, C. (2001-2002). Genres of Research in Multicultural Education. Review of Educational Research, 71(2), 171-217. Benninga, J. (2003). Moral and Ethical Issues in Teacher Education. ERIC Digest, (ED482699), 1-9. Berkowitz, M. (1998). Obstacles to Teacher Training in Character Education. Action in Teacher Education, 20(4), 1-5. Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, research, critique (rev. ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Bonilla-Silva, E. (2003). Racism without Racists—Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Lanham, CO: Rowman & Littlefield. Burnaford, G., Fischer, J. & Hobson, D. (eds.) (2001). Teachers Doing Research: The power of action through inquiry (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Associates. Chavez-Chavez, R. (1995). Multicultural Education in the Everyday: A renaissance for the recommitted. Washington, D.C.: American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. —. (1997). A Curriculum Discourse for Achieving Equity: Implications for teachers when engaged with Latina and Latino students. Working paper. Las Cruces, NM: New Mexico State University. Colman, M. (2005). Can peace be taught? The Humanist, May/June, 65(4), 19-22, 46. Daniels, M. (1999). Peace Is Everybody’s Business. Huntingdon, PA: Juniata College Press. 91-121. Davidman, L. & Davidman, P. (2001). Teaching with a Multicultural Perspective: A practical guide. New York: Longman. DeRoche, E. & Williams, M. (2001). Educating Hearts and Minds: A comprehensive character education framework. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Finn, M. (1984). Peace Education and Teacher Education. Peace and Change, 10(2), 53-69. Goodlad, J.I., Soder, R. & Sirotnik, K.A. (eds.) (1990). Places Where Teachers are Taught. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Harris, I. (1996). Peace Education in a Postmodern World. Mawah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Haycock, K. (1997). Achievement in America. Washington, D.C.: The Education Trust. Heifetz, R. (1994). Leadership without Easy Answers. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Inland Agency Community Peace Program (2002). Program Brochure.

Preparing Teachers for their Roles as Peace and Character Educators

405

Jones, E.M., Ryan, K. & Bohlin, K. (1998). Character Education and Teacher Education: How are prospective teachers being prepared to foster good character in students? Action in Teacher Education, 20(4), 11-28. Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The Dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Lamy, L.S. (1982). Teacher Training in Global Perspectives Education. Theory into Practice, 21(3), 206-212. Lickona, T. (1998). Character Education: Seven crucial issues. Action in Teacher Education, 20(4), 77-83. Lincoln, Y. & Guba, E. (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. London: Sage. Lindsey, R.B, Robins, K.N. & Terrell, R.D. (1999). Cultural Proficiency— A manual for school leaders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Luckowski, J. (1997). A Virtue-Centered Approach to Ethics Education. Journal of Teacher Education, 48(4), 264-270. McClellan, B.E. (1999). Moral Education in America: Schools and the shaping of character from colonial times to the present. New York: Teachers College Press. Morrison, L.M. (2002). Peace Education in Theory and Practice. The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 69(1), 10-14. Nieto, S. (2002). Affirming Diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education. New York: Longman. Noddings, N. (1984). Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral education. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Omoregie, N. (2007). The Globally Competent Teacher in Secondary Level Education. Education, 128(1), 3-9. O’Sullivan, S. (2005). The Soul of Teaching: Educating teachers of character. Action in Teacher Education, 26(4), 3-8. Purcell-Gates, V. (1995). Other people’s words: The cycle of low literacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Quezada, R. & Osajima, K. (2005). The Challenges of Diversity: Moving towards cultural proficiency. Hughes, L. (ed.). In Current Issues in School Leadership. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Associates. Quezada, R. & Romo, J. (2004) Multiculturalism, Peace Education & Social Justice in Teacher Education. Multicultural Education, 2(3), 211. Rios, F. (1996-2000). Teacher Thinking in Cultural Contexts. Albany: State University of New York Press. Romo, J. & Salerno, C. (2000). Toward Cultural Democracy: The journey from knowledge to action in diverse classrooms. Boston: HoughtonMifflin.

406

Reyes Quezada and Edward DeRoche

Ryan, K. (1997). The Missing Link’s Missing Link. Journal of Education, 179(2), 81-90. Smith, G. P. (1998). Common Sense About Uncommon Knowledge: The knowledge bases for diversity. Washington, D.C.: American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. The Education Trust (1998). Thinking K-16, 3(2). Tom, A. (1984). Teaching as a Moral Craft. New York: Longman. UNESCO (2000). Manifesto. New York: United Nations. Retrieved on February 15, 2008, from www.unesco.org

TEACHING AND LEARNING DEMOCRACY IN THE WAKE OF SEPTEMBER 11 ELISABETH JORGENSEN

Shortly following the September 11th attacks, New York City Deputy Chancellor for Instruction Judith Rizzo cited these tragic events as evidence that “we have to do more to teach the habits of tolerance, knowledge and awareness of other cultures,” noting that only through cultural understanding can peace between diverse cultures be achieved. She was quickly chastised by Lynne Cheney, former U.S. Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, who accused her of “impl[ying] that the events of September 11th were our fault (…) that somehow intolerance on our part was the cause.” Cheney went on to argue that our real “failure (…) is lack of commitment to this nation’s history” (Associated Press, 2001). Within weeks, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) issued a report declaring the faculty of U.S. colleges and universities the “weak link in the war on terrorism” and accusing faculty and administration of anti-Americanism.1 This report represents yet another volley in the academic “culture war,” frequently characterized as a tug-of-war between the Judeo-Christian or Euro-Western tradition and a diverse body of theories and practices which are often lumped together under a variety of monikers such as cultural studies, multiculturalism, deconstruction, and postmodernism. Moral traditionalists such as Cheney hold that movement away from the “best that is known and thought” (Arnold, 1961, p. 257) and toward analysis of power relationships represented by such texts, as well as study of alternative literatures, histories, and language conventions—that is, the practices of counter-traditionalists—have resulted in excess intellectual liberty, diminished literacy, and moral decline. At the heart of their arguments is defense of a grand narrative of U.S. moral superiority which serves to define the virtuous citizen. However, as this narrative stems from 1 ACTA’s founders include U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Lynne Cheney; advisors include Cheney and former U.S. Education Secretary William Bennett.

408

Elisabeth Jorgensen

three competing traditions in the narrative of rational liberalism, it results in an incommensurate and incoherent construct of the individual which diminishes citizen agency and severely constrains democracy and liberty.

Aristotle: The determinate self In the first tradition, the Aristotelian, justice is said to aim for excellence, an overarching human telos, a predetermined purpose or end which is defined by the good that it pursues. Justice as excellence is maintenance of the best social order, principles regarding the best way to resolve conflict, and reduction of social ills so as to maximize what is best. Telos is determined by a pre-existing order which governs both the natural and social worlds. Society is a part of nature, a physis (something which is), rather than apart from nature, a nomos (something we create) (MacIntyre, 1988, p. 14). The aim of inquiry is to understand this physis so that individuals may behave according to its dictates and so model society in accordance with its laws. Justice is a themis, something laid down prior to society, which transcends society and is universally applicable in all times and places (p. 14). Justice as excellence is thus metaphysical in that it corresponds to a cosmic order, divine law, or some other foundation that is stable, ahistorical, transcendent, and universal, existing as metaphysical truth. In Aristotelian thought, the practice which embodies justice as excellence is politics and the polis (Greek city-state) is the institutional site of this practice. Far more than a place of mass habitation, the polis “constitute[s] a higher-order integrative form of activity,” a tightly ordered lifestyle in which humans seek their telos, “not this or that good, but the good and the best as such” (MacIntyre, 1988, p. 44). Defined by Aristotle as eudaimonia, “the state of being well and doing well in being well, of a man’s being well-favored himself and in relation to the divine” (MacIntyre, 1981, p. 148), this telos is not achieved “at some future point, but in the way our whole life is constructed” (p. 175). The self is defined by determinate roles which maintain this way of life. Virtues are simply “qualities which enable an individual to do what his or her role requires” (MacIntyre, 1988, p. 15). As this lifestyle is best to fulfill one’s roles is to act not only in the interest of the polis but in self-interest; even a slave justly serves both community and self by being an excellent slave. Hence, distributive justice maintains social, i.e., cosmic, balance by awarding goods according to what the actions of each citizen merit in accordance with the metaphysical order and what each deserves by way of his role—merit gauged by “how important the role (...) and how well he

Teaching and Learning Democracy in the Wake of September 11

409

has performed in it” (MacIntyre, 1988, p. 107). Practical rationality is no more or less than understanding and acting upon the order of things, the proper roles of individuals in given contexts, and the merit and desert accorded each role. As premises for reasoning are “good reasons for action for anyone whose telos is the good and the best” (p. 45), justice—a condition of ethics—and practical reasoning—a condition of epistemology—are one and the same (Marcuse, 1966, p. 125). Corrective justice serves to facilitate practical reasoning by educating the polis in “the good and best as such” and in the virtues their roles require. In all respects, injustice is “failure in respect of the metaphysical, political, and psychological order” (MacIntyre, 1981, p. 157), which as personal vice is taking more or less than one merits and deserves. Yet as the determinate self does not so much choose a course of action as identify the right course by what she knows of the transcendental order, she surrenders her agency to the demands of her role. She does not employ reason to independently “interpret (...) influence, change, or redirect” (Ewald & Wallace, 1994, p. 343) events according to her needs or desires, but to provide a stable form to which she may subordinate her impulses and desires. This lack of self-determination stands in stark contrast to the defining principles of liberalism, which has been historically linked with justice as effectiveness.

Locke: The autonomous self Unbound by community agreement as to what is good or what human telos consists of, justice as effectiveness is reduction of conflict and social ills simply to maintain order, to solve problems in light of competition for external goods. It is therefore limited to material distribution and protection of property and persons, consisting of principles of negotiation and contract, and to adjudication of competing self-interest. The boundaries of justice as effectiveness are much more clearly drawn than those of excellence because “a perfectly just person is no more and no less than someone who always obeys the rules of justice” (MacIntyre, 1988, p. 39)—anything goes as long as the law is not broken. Justice as effectiveness ascribes to the rule of law (p. 39), lacking the certitude of metaphysical truth, depending instead on human convention. This rule of law is the foundation upon which the second of these competing traditions, the liberal, is built. Indeed, in light of the failure of political negotiation and rational theology to resolve persistent conflict, 17th century thinkers came to believe that “any agreed conception of the good for human beings”

410

Elisabeth Jorgensen

(MacIntyre, 1988, p. 209) is impossible. The resulting focus on human competition and conflict paved the way for “the individual” to become “one of the fundamental (…) categories of social thought and practice” (p. 210). Identity and individual capacity come to be held “apart from and prior to (…) membership in any particular social and political order” (p. 210). No longer could the individual be defined by roles which uphold a particular telos nor could “good reasons for accepting and valuing the constraints imposed (…) by the social and political order” be limited to those in concert with “some teleologically understood, divinely legislated order” (p. 210). Imbued with full agency in her personal realm, the self became autonomous, free to determine her own telos, to ascribe to any of a number of teleological doctrines, or to abandon the notion of telos altogether. This tradition was first fleshed out in the philosophy of John Locke wherein he posited a state of nature prior to society in which men “lived together according to reason, without a common superior on earth, with authority to judge between them” (Locke, 1970, p. 307). In nature, he argued, humans are free to do as they wish so long as they observe the laws of nature, primarily the law that “no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions” (p. 309). Above all, each individual was henceforth “his own boss (…) free to be good, bad (…) moral, immoral (…) tolerant, intolerant,” to “act properly or improperly” whether “he gets away with it or not”. All that matters “is that he has his own way” (Dietze, 1985, p. 8). Political theorist Gottfried Dietze (1985) names such freedom “liberalism proper” (p. 1). With no common telos to fulfill and no way to appeal to a metaphysical or divine order, practical reasoning thus appears to be no more than cleverness in politics; it is rhetorical rather than philosophical, argumentative and persuasive rather than in pursuit of transcendent truth. As such, reasoning pertains only to external goods, “cooperation with others demands recognition of their reasons for action as good reasons for them, not as good reasons as such,” in turn requiring “the creation of a framework for bargaining” (MacIntyre, 1988, p. 45). Virtue exists in addition to practical reasoning, its function to balance the interest of the community with self-interest. So, as one may be quite effective without virtue, allegiance to effectiveness often raises charges of moral relativism—the very charge moral-traditionalists level at countertraditionalists. Yet while liberty “can mean freedom of the stronger to do down the weaker,” it can also mean “effective freedom of all to use and develop their capacities” (Macpherson, 1977, p. 1). As “the latter freedom is

Teaching and Learning Democracy in the Wake of September 11

411

inconsistent with the former” (p. 1), liberty must be bound to maintain the initial premise of equality. Liberalism proper must become proper liberalism (Dietze, 1985, p. 1). Yet restriction must likewise be limited so as to maintain the initial premise of liberty. Since liberalism can “never be totally replaced by propriety (…) we turn to (…) an ethical minimum, the law” (p. 13). Beyond the law, the individual is free to determine her own morality. “I want, I need, I believe” serve as “statements of a reason for action”, as “premises for practical reasoning” (MacIntyre, 1988, p. 338). What is needed, therefore, is some means by which to ensure that the autonomous, self-serving individual behave virtuously toward the common good. As a solution, 17th century thinkers turned to reason, conceived as rigorous method, initiating a move away from modes of reasoning concerned with “the oral, the particular, the local, and the timely” (Toulmin, 1990, p. 30).

Descartes: The rational self The first premise of this rationalist vision is that truth can be achieved only by extracting inquiry from the messy context of human affairs. Indeed, the common narrative, that was taught in school and once presupposed in the study of Modernist ideas, tells us that Modernism began in a time of prosperity and material comfort in which literacy had become “as widespread in the prosperous laity as it had earlier been among priests, monks, and other ecclesiastics” (Toulmin, 1990, p. 14). Lay scholars, so schoolbooks say, insisted on reading and thinking for themselves and so reserved the right to reject church doctrine and free the human mind from the tyranny of superstition, tradition, and theology to pursue “pure” inquiry unhindered by human concerns which cloud the mind and distort understanding. But, in fact, the 17th century was a time of great suffering and conflict throughout Europe. Near the turn of the century, Spain was defeated by England, ending her European dominance; religious disputes divided France and Germany; and England teetered on the brink of civil war. Economic depression and the Little Ice Age set in before the end of the century’s second decade; the Thirty Years’ War began; and, as the century passed, periodic recurrences of plague struck both England and France. Contrary to the standard narrative, scientists and “other intellectual innovators” (Toulmin, 1990, p. 19) experienced intensified theological pressure from both the Papacy and Protestant reformers. Given such circumstances, perhaps the very contexts from which rationalist philosophies have sprung challenge this initial premise.

412

Elisabeth Jorgensen

This internal contradiction is just one of many which shake the foundations of liberal reason. Among other things, the self-concept of Enlightenment rationalism paradoxically both culminates in, and denies, the fundamental premises of liberal autonomy. For on the one hand, if one is to doubt all received wisdom, inquiry must proceed in intellectual isolation; one must be free of outside influence to question anew. On the other, if knowledge gained by rational inquiry is certain, then freedom to entertain one’s own beliefs is illusory; it is nothing less than madness to deny certain knowledge. Despite these contradictions, rationalism does indeed provide the foundation upon which liberalism is built. The second premise of the Enlightenment thinkers is that such reasoning must begin by doubting all one knows. In a nutshell, Enlightenment rationalists conclude that human emotion and its accompanying prejudices, traditions, and superstitions interfere with our rational capacity to apprehend the good; thus, reason must subordinate the emotions that the will may act wisely. Yet this concept of the will is not drawn upon a clean slate, but is presupposed by the dominant Christian theology of 17th century rationalists; and so, another contradiction emerges. Descartes follows the example of Augustine, arguing that our reason, modeled on the mind of God, is perfect; error belongs to the will. Error ceases to be equated with a failure of passion or reason as the will comes into being as a faculty subject to either reason or passion—a crucial distinction being that emotion acts upon us while the will is ours to use— for good or evil, for truth or error. Intellectual error is thus a misuse of the will as applied to understanding (Bordo, 1987, p. 79) rather than a failure of reason itself. In this way, judgment is distinguished as an act of will independent of reason (p. 79); that is, while reason leads us to understanding, the will determines how we act upon our understanding. In place of the belief that the will must be brought under submission prior to reason comes to rest the belief that reason can master desire so that the will may resist temptation. The certainty and stability of reason become the virtues of the rational self by which the autonomous self may be directed to righteousness and truth. Yet despite theological underpinnings, 17th century rationalists saw the church and political authorities as primary sources of intellectual error. As they saw it, nature rather than ancient textual authority provides certain evidence of God’s law. Unlike the truths of books which are written in obscure language, they maintained, the truths of nature are simple, selfevident, and easily accessible to the natural capacities of the mind—should one but use the right method. By these lights, as each individual is made in

Teaching and Learning Democracy in the Wake of September 11

413

the image of God, each possesses agency to become her own authority as “the power of distinguishing the true and the false (...) what is called good sense, or reason, [being] by nature equal in all” (Descartes, 1910, p. 5). In brief, the assumption of rational equality subverted the sovereignty of traditional authorities, paving the way for both epistemological and political liberty. Indeed, the Enlightenment rationalists sought a new source of first principles that would stand the test of infinite time. To arrive at these principles would require new “reliable procedural guides for inquiry” (Descartes, 1910, 41). As words deceive, a new language was needed to represent thought directly. So, as nature exemplifies God’s perfect plan, and as the “Book of Nature is written in mathematical symbols” (Galileo in Toulmin, 1990, p. 74), mathematics and geometry came to be viewed as the perfect model of the precision, clarity, and certainty needed for knowledge and language. One need only divide subjects “into as many parts as possible” in order to “commence with objects the simplest and easiest to know” then move “step by step, to the knowledge of the more complex” (Descartes 1910, p. 18)—each new truth serving as “a rule available in the discovery of subsequent ones” (p. 19). So reducing the process of reasoning to a linear calculus, this model of rationality assumes that all individuals in all circumstances essentially think alike. The argument is simple: since humanity is part of the divine plan, mental operations are subject to natural law; thus they, too, are analogous to mathematics. All I need do to convince someone else of my conclusions is to take her through my chains of reasoning much as I would take her through a mathematical formula; by explicitly testing my deductions against the natural mirror of another’s mind, I may examine my knowledge for absolute certainty. Cognitive process and human motivation are thus seen as stable and permanent; knowledge as “a conceptual ordering of the thinking mind” (Crowley, 1990, p. 5)— “sequential (...) accurately inscribed in memory,” and reproducible “upon demand” (p. 12). From this view, knowledge is not regarded as the result of cultural interplay, but as awaiting discovery, within nature and within the individual human mind. This vision of rationality thus abandons the chaotic, public world in favor of a world of personal vision and concrete, testable scientific truths. Banished are relational modes of thinking which account for time, place, and the needs and claims of diverse individuals. What is left is a vision of reason which “conflates moral reflection with scientific knowledge” (Young, 1990, p. 4) and mistakes claims for “theorems to be demonstrated in a self-enclosed system” rather than pleas,

414

Elisabeth Jorgensen

“claims upon some people by others” (p. 5). Above everything else, Enlightenment rationalists believed the new method of scientific inquiry to be applicable to all humanity is capable of knowing. Anything to which it cannot apply came to be seen as outside the scope of human knowledge, residing in the “kingdom of darkness” (Spragens, 1981, p. 45). The choice was clear: “absolute certainty or epistemological chaos” (Bordo, 1987, p. 17); either apply this method to the “moral sciences” or plunge humanity into absolute relativism. To the rationalists’ way of thinking, just as method would allow humanity to understand nature, it would fortunately “unveil the good” (Spragens, 1981, p. 69). Henceforth, “the enlightened individual could be expected to discern his self-interest with careful reference to a felicific calculus and to behave accordingly” (p. 6). On this account, much of the Enlightenment project in philosophy, like the Classical, is an attempt to identify and articulate the ideal political order, a political telos, called by philosopher Steven Toulmin the cosmopolis, “a comprehensive account of the world” which can “bind things together in ‘politico-theological,’ as much as in scientific or explanatory terms” (1990, p. 128). In a stark move away from the Aristotelian tradition, the natural state of humanity comes to be identified as “apart from civil society” (Spragens 1981, p. 102), a condition prior to prejudices, superstitions, and traditions. Rationalists come to believe that by logically calculating from this imagined ideal state, human governance, while not attaining the status of a physis, could nonetheless rise above nomos by modeling the physis, the perfect plan of divine cosmology. Political stability could now be assured because loyalty is no longer a matter of fickle emotional bonds, but of unfailing rational adherence to the themis represented, on the one hand, by nature; on the other, by a method which emulates the order of nature. In sum, Enlightenment rationalists both adapted and rejected church doctrine and political authority. They adapted the doctrine of free will to support political freedom. They embraced the theological necessity of certainty and stability but looked to nature rather than books for evidence of divine law, thereby undermining traditional authority to declare individuals free and equal. They nonetheless argued that true belief is certain and stable, in a word, rational. So while rationalists declare individuals free to determine their own good, their own telos, they insist upon a vision of the Good, a rational human telos to which all must supply their allegiance. Their point hinges upon their understanding of practice. Simply put, they believed that through correct practice, i.e., rational method applied to inquiry, free people must eventually come to agreement.

Teaching and Learning Democracy in the Wake of September 11

415

In their minds, freedom of thought would lead to correct thought; disagreement and conflict would cease. As a consequence, their insistence on rational method undercuts the autonomy and liberty they hope to attain for all. But such thinking binds us in a paradox. For while rationalism, like liberalism, is grounded in a calculative paradigm which treats all goods as though they are commodities in the marketplace, rationalism also claims to transcend mere effectiveness by arriving at the correct and appropriate calculation, operating from first principles known by “insight” and “selfevidence,” truths recognizable “by everyone of sound mind who understood the terms in which they were stated and (…) had not been subverted by false doctrine” (MacIntyre, 1988, p. 223). In the first instance, modern rationalism appears to ally with justice as effectiveness in the midst of competition—any notion of human telos appears abandoned to power and control. Distributive justice is governed by legal rather than moral constraints as the effective individuals who win the competition exercise their power to minimize regulation. And, as the rational methods of the market obscure the real contexts of people and resources, profit and/or economic growth serve as primary measures of effectiveness. In the second instance, rationalism claims alliance with justice as excellence, paradoxically evoking the determinate self and so negating the autonomy which circumscribes both the liberal and rational self-concepts. Simply, if humanity is, on one hand, subject to material, mechanical nature but, on the other hand, above nature due to the causal ability of human reason, it seems to follow that, as in nature, the abilities of some creatures must be greater than those of others. Some individuals, “by attaining scientific truth,” must be capable of freeing themselves “from the grasp of deterministic nature that swallows the unenlightened” (Spragens, 1981, p. 106). Such men emerge to become our rational leaders, offering infallible solutions to human problems in clear language to the natural, though inferior, reason of all individuals everywhere. Society comes to be divided in two—those whose scientific truths allow them to escape nature and those who do not possess these truths (p. 107). The former rise above contingency and partiality; rather than “being radically determined beings (...) they are radically self-determining” (p. 108). The latter are “artifacts (...) characterized by their immanence, their passivity, their manipulability, their bondage, their ‘drivenness’—in a word, by their blind determination by outside forces” (p. 107). The former possess not only agency, in the sense of volition, but mastery. The latter possess only minimal volition subject to forces beyond their control.

416

Elisabeth Jorgensen

As in the Aristotelian narrative, practical rationality and the virtues which attend it are no more than understanding what is required of one’s role; hence, social inequality can be dismissed with the argument that social disturbances arise from the indiscretions of willful, irrational subjects—agency run amok. Under this construct, the depth and breadth of liberty and democracy hinge on a distinction between what Bowles and Gintis (1981) call “choosers” and “learners.” Liberty “is held to apply to rational agents (choosers) but not to others (learners), and the norms of democracy are held to apply to the actions of choosers in the public realm alone” (p. 17).

Rational autonomy and capitalism Given that liberalism assumes that the state of nature is defined by competition and rationalism assumes that nature is itself rational, as are humans, it follows that the conditions of competition are rational. Moreover, as human nature is essentially mental, thus capable of controlling material nature, it follows that the most rational humans are those who obtain the greatest amount of material resources. By virtue of their rationality, they are entitled to these resources; resources are property. Thus, rational liberalism assumes property rights to be as fundamental as life and liberty. Upon this foundation, politics is reduced to marketplace power. The logic is linear: rational conquest of nature leads to productivity, productivity reduces human misery, therefore, industriousness and productivity are the rational virtues of the liberal individual. As human nature is thus assumed to be grounded in economic activity, rational liberalism assumes that the surest of the human sciences must be economics. Here in particular it is not “the causal tangle of motives or feelings behind real human choices” which are of concern, but “the rational choices of ‘ideal’ producers or consumers, investors or policymakers” (Toulmin, 1990, p. 125). Economic patterns are taken as a part of the natural order, accorded a rationality of their own; all that is needed to maintain constant economic progress is greater understanding of the natural laws of artificial markets. In the guise of science, politics becomes “prudence in the service of homo economicus—the solitary seeker of material happiness and bodily security” (Barber, 1984, p. 20). Thus to follow these economic laws should be to attain material success. Again, the reasoning is linear: rationality applied to human effort results in productivity; productivity culminates in property; therefore, a rational government exists to protect property. So operating on the premise

Teaching and Learning Democracy in the Wake of September 11

417

of rational self-interest (if I respect the property of others, they will respect mine), virtue, which once directed humanity toward the public interest, is replaced by productivity and acquisitiveness. The public good is served only incidentally as my rational ability to anticipate threats to my private interests reveals to me that only mutual cooperation and respect for the private interests of others can protect my own. As wealth thus comes to be seen as material evidence of enlightened self-interest, it likewise is seen as material evidence of rational superiority. And as humans are also equal in passion, the ills that beset some individuals and, through them, society, must be due to willful emotions carrying them away; these folks must lack some quality, some virtue, which enables reason. In the interest of the community, therefore, the political, ethical realm must be ruled by a few objective experts, individuals whose superiority in “knowledge, will, and power” (Spragens, 1981, p. 108) affords them “omniscience”, “detachment”, and the “god-like” potential for creating social harmony (109). Under such premises, power rightly falls to men of property, as “those who have something to lose would act more rationally and responsibly than poor firebrands (...) homo economicus thinks rationally” (Dietze, 1985, p. 231). Such individuals are men of the public, while the majority are consigned to their own private realms so as not to unduly influence policy. Liberty is ensured by narrowing the public space, by excluding most activities of most individuals from public consideration. Democracy is (at least minimally) ensured by the right to choose from among competing experts in the designated political realm. In fact, the limitation of democracy in the service of economic interests goes well beyond government into the workplace, schools, and even social and family life. Evidence lies in the “hierarchical system of authority; centralization of decision making; division of labor and specialization (...) and increasing reliance on expert knowledge” (Wolin, 1994, p. 36), which characterize labor, education, social and family policies in government as well as in the private economic sphere. These characteristics of modern administration severely constrain the agency of citizens to become meaning-making subjects in academics, the workplace, and culture at large. Under such conditions, it is not the convergence of liberty and democracy, nor the actuality of democracy which ensure the loyalty of subjects to the state, but the ideas of liberty and democracy. And this is where the university steps in.

The university and national ethos As I have discussed, the ideal citizen constructed by rational liberalism

418

Elisabeth Jorgensen

is both autonomous and unerringly calculative of self-interest—free to define excellence on her own terms and excellent in pursuing the satisfaction of material needs and desires—under rationalist assumptions, to the benefit of both self and community. But as rationalism assumes that such an ideal is attainable only by an elite few, some means must be devised by which to gain the loyal cooperation of the masses. Either an alternative image of the citizen must be constructed—a citizen willing to transfer power to an elite, who knows her place in the order of things—or the masses must be persuaded to embrace a national narrative in which the common citizen may rise among the elite. This issue of citizenship ties the emergence of the modern university to the rise of the nation-state. In the first place, the rational, liberated individual will subject herself to governance only if governance proceeds from values she shares—as political revolution persistently demonstrates. As liberalism assumes a significant degree of pluralism, the values of the state cannot adapt to the individual. The individual must therefore be adapted to the state, must become “the bearer of a meaning that is only accessible as part of a collectivity,” enunciated as a “subjective ‘we,’ as in the phrase ‘we, the people’” (Readings, 1996, p. 46). This adaptation has been, in part, the responsibility of public schooling. It has also been taken by some to be the central mission of humanities and literacy education throughout post-secondary schooling. In the second place, while freedom from government intrusion and protection from the whims of others serve as mechanisms to ensure loyal cooperation, these mechanisms ultimately prove insufficient given that they particularly ensure economic liberty and protection. That is, should persons of power and wealth employ their liberty and advantage to exploit the less fortunate for greater power and wealth, the resulting imbalance of power risks dissatisfaction among the masses, so threatening subject loyalty to the state. Hence, an additional mechanism is necessary to ensure loyalty, some sort of shared belief system which serves to rationalize such inequity to the satisfaction of the narrowly enfranchised citizen. Toward these ends, ideology, that is national ideology, embodied in the notion of culture, comes to be viewed as a legitimate mission of the university in the U.S. Lacking the bond of religion as well as the bond of common ancestry, “for America the problem was one of finding a surrogate for religion—a secular bond (…) conceived of as a civil religion” (Aronowitz, 2000, p. 43). The premises of this religion are familiar to anyone educated in U.S. schools. Our story is “unparalleled in human history” due to “liberty’s achievements (...) progress and the victory of aspiration over history” (p.

Teaching and Learning Democracy in the Wake of September 11

419

45). Even negative narratives, which emphasize the hegemony of the few over the many, tell a “unique story whose chief player is liberty and whose chief antagonist is the past, history itself” (p. 45). The story is simple: America is the land of opportunity where everyone is free and equal to overcome the limitations of the[ir] past and pursue happiness (read “property”). In this vein, the history of Western civilization comes to be a story of human progress toward its culmination in U.S. democracy while the earmarks of liberal capitalism—industry, acquisition, consumption, and political dominance—take on a moral force which, it is claimed, underwrites democracy. Against this background, English and, ultimately, American literature come to be seen as a fitting means to teach the values embodied in this story. Based on a presupposition that the ideals of Greece and Rome were “inherently bound up with the grammar and etymology of the languages in which [Classical] works were written” (Graff, 1987, p. 29), literature in the English vernacular likewise comes to be considered “essentially national” (p. 29). Hence, “many members of the founding generation” of English studies saw literacy education as a means to foster “between the social classes, the cultivation of ‘larger sympathies,’ the instillation of national pride and the transmission of ‘moral’ values’” (p. 12). Moreover, because it is embodied in a heritage which “throws off the shackles of tradition through revolution” (Readings 1996, p. 84), the American literary tradition makes the canon “appear to be the object of democratic choice rather than the sheer burden of heredity” (p. 12). In fact, although the American narrative has always been contested and although the view of literature as a moral instrument has not been universal within or without English studies, both the belief in a national literature and the belief that English studies were founded for this mission, have come to take on the proportions of myth. It is upon this myth that moral-traditionalists establish their arguments for preservation of the canon as well as their arguments against counter-traditionalist theory and practice. Likewise upon this myth, counter-traditionalists denounce the canon as an artificial and discriminatory emblem of national ethos, rejecting the claim of a unifying American vision and calling for a new canon inclusive of the viewpoints of minorities and women. In short, on both right and left, the myth that English studies came into existence to impart a national ethos has become institutionalized. The former see themselves as guardians of this institution, while the latter hope to deconstruct, if not reconstruct, this institution. In either case, the discipline of literature has become analogous to a museum—“a linear map of a particular account of a history of art, offering a unified account of linear

420

Elisabeth Jorgensen

development and a generalized system of classification” (Readings, 1996, p. 73). The contemporary conflict surrounding and within English studies is often no more than an argument over which roads will be drawn on this map. Rarely is it considered that the American, much less the human, narrative resists linear mapping. Typically, it is thus the proportions and details of this myth that are contested rather than the myth itself. The first consequence is that the practices embodied in the myth, rather than actual human practices in real contexts, become the focus of literacy education; practices become institutions. Texts, and the qualities of texts, come to be studied as passive objects that embody static universal truths, rather than the creations and idiosyncrasies of living subjects in response to specific cultural circumstances. Under the traditionalist model, literary criticism takes on “the task of combining the Hebraic rigor of religious ‘light’ with the Hellenic grace of poetic sweetness, uniting knowledge and meaning in what Matthew Arnold calls a ‘national glow’” (Readings, 1996, p. 78). Under the alternative or multicultural model, literary criticism often takes on the task of problematizing, deconstructing, or even rewriting the myth, often imparting a moral “glow” to alternative narratives and readings. In either case, criticism becomes “textual exegesis” of the “truths” embodied in the text rather than “ethical commentary” (Green, 2001, p. 277) on the places and circumstances toward which the author addressed his work. In this way, a work of literature, what was mind—a human response to circumstances which can never be fully understood or explained—becomes body—a static and eternal institution, a canon or museum, which imparts so-called universal truth to those able to see. Under the moral-traditionalist construct in particular, the canon, as material body, is thus accorded the unity and order of a singular entity with the result that difference and conflict within are elided. Aristotle tends to be taught as though his work simply progresses from, or builds upon, the work of Plato, as Thoreau progresses from Jefferson—when in fact these authors conflict and contradict in myriad ways. This assumption that the literary tradition is unified and cumulative, which is indeed traditional, accepted, and prevailing at least through secondary education, teaches that the history of knowledge is paradoxically both progressive and static—that expression of unchanging truths is movement toward a telos beneficial to all humanity. Indeed, to attain the alleged “lost organic unity” (Readings, 1996, p. 80) of the grand American narrative, an author’s resistance must be eclipsed by readings which more favorably align him with the desired grand narrative. As an example, the struggle of Walt Whitman as a gay man in a hostile culture is not only pushed aside as

Teaching and Learning Democracy in the Wake of September 11

421

irrelevant to understanding his work, it is just the sort of thing moraltraditionalists condemn as serving a political agenda. Alternately, efforts to use his struggle and reflection to assist students in coming to grips with contemporary hostility towards gays and lesbians is condemned as therapeutic rather than educational. At the same time, counter-traditionalists err when they reject the canon as just so much imperialist dogma. To do so is to forget that Shakespeare played to the people, that Homer traveled among the people, that great poets, thinkers, and leaders, indeed, some of them white, male and privileged, have risen from the people. Such rejection is also paradoxical—for it can only be grounded in the moral-traditionalist assumption that the canon is unified. If anything, the Euro-Western canon is certainly marked by controversy and debate, even hostility. Moreover, to attribute some sort of organic unity to the voices of the disenfranchised is simply to supplant one set of universal claims for another. Likewise, to attribute some form of guileless integrity to the disenfranchised is to negate the integrity of canonized authors just as it is to deny the guile of those on the margins. Meanwhile, language practices are also regarded as progressive yet static. Each newly canonized author develops the form, creates new usages in both vocabulary and structure, yet somehow upholds the formal standards of what we call literature. And while Homer, Plato, and Aristotle did not write in English, they too are part of the American story and classic examples of eternal beauty. Likewise, translations of these authors are thought to uphold standards of both content and form, although translators convey the meanings, vocabularies, and structures of each in radically different ways. So materially objectified, literature becomes an object of consumption, rather than creation. Literacy education becomes the study of, rather than creation of texts; authors become others and the uses to which students envision putting their writing becomes merely instrumental. At best, this creates literary critics rather than authors; at worst, it creates non-writers, non-makers of meaning. Moreover, given that a traditional mission of literary study is cultivation of taste—somehow a moral, as well as aesthetic, quality, a distinction emerges between high and low language uses. Literary writing is high, an unattainable model of perfection available for students to consume for spiritual nourishment and set apart from utilitarian purposes. Meanwhile, despite obscure criteria for merit, not all fiction or poetry is high. Popular fiction is low, considered trash or propaganda, little more than “an exercise in consciousness-raising, trashy sentimentality and elevated sentiment” (Bloom, 1987, p. 64).

422

Elisabeth Jorgensen

Moreover, the kind of functional language students will employ in their future as workers is low, subject to instrumental standards determined by the task toward which it is put. The language students bring with them to the classroom is similarly low. In need of remediation, the language that colors their identities is thought to demonstrate, in the best light, intellectual and moral underdevelopment; in the worst light, intellectual and moral incapacity. Moreover, as the language spoken in the university best resembles the language of the propertied elite, children of affluence and privilege arrive on campus advantaged while the insights of the less-privileged majority are silenced by disapproval of and/or embarrassment about their mode of self-expression. The second consequence is that, when treated as material body, as nonliving matter, the canon becomes essentially dead, a corpus, a corpse. Attempts to write into the history of America previously overlooked perspectives of women, slaves, Native Americans, and other oppressed people are called revisionist and condemned. Literature which resists the accepted narrative and shatters formal standards is shunned by canonpreservers. Meanwhile, under the moral-traditionalist construct, composition studies is reduced to attempts at emulation of historic and standard forms, content provided by canonized experts in their respective fields. Following this line of thought, we do not invite students to use their language to question the terms of their occupation nor the measures of success and standards which define educated, that is, to independently determine whether the practices of their industry or the institutions in which these practices are housed, are truly excellent. In the realm of industry, they must emulate high writing to prove their worth, but use it for the low purposes to which their occupations constrain them; they must emulate excellence for pragmatic effectiveness—typically defined as the bottom line. Writing becomes limited to routine documentation and correspondence within administrative systems that render public writing private. That is, writing which may be publicly consequential, typically workplace or occupational writing, becomes a neutral techne, “a technique of information processing” (Miller, 1992, p. 59), rather than a praxis, a doing, a social action upon something. Their public language becomes a mere instrument of their industry as they become instruments of the industry of others. Writing, and writers, become mere tools by which to exploit commercial opportunity. At the same time, keeping alive the myth of opportunity for ourselves as well, we paradoxically teach them that writing is a means selfexpression, equated with self-determination. We thus encourage students

Teaching and Learning Democracy in the Wake of September 11

423

to see themselves as “choosers” (Bowles and Gintis, 1981, p. 17)— rational agents who possess socially consequential power or at least empowerment—rather than “learners” (p. 17). But given the purposes to which their writing generally is put, this self-image of chooser is likely little more than illusion. In the first place, by arguing that the messages delivered through our models of expressive writing are somehow universal, we imbue these authors with a greatness of soul that makes a student’s insight and need for expression trivial and petty by contrast. Against such a background, students come to not expect their expressive writing to be public—at least until they rise above themselves to attain that elusive virtue of universality. Hence, the student often ceases to envision herself as someone who knows something worthy of public expression. Expressive writing is left to the private realm—personal correspondence or a private exercise of emotional purging. Hence, real praxis is confined to superior others—the intellectual elite. In short, when subjected to an education which makes such distinctions between high and low usages, students come to believe that writing may be literary and expressive and thus the public practice only of an elite, or it may be instrumental and routine, aimed only at institutional effectiveness; should the teacher propose to make writing social and political, she is stepping out of line. In the second place, as self-expression is interpreted in terms of liberal values, students often fail to understand that expression means expression to someone—with paradoxical results. What the author feels becomes more important than what the audience needs for understanding and empathy. Misunderstanding becomes an audience deficiency and guidance from peers and/or teachers becomes impossible. Yet emphasis on authorial expression rather than relationship with audience may also reinforce the notion that personal readings of the canon which vary from prevailing scholarship reflect their deficiency. The self-expressing student is thus at once master of her own texts—which may be neither excellent nor effective—and mastered by the texts of self-expressing others—often presented as excellent in ways yet beyond her comprehension. Unfortunately, by helping to transform our students into passively determinate selves who believe themselves self-determined due to narratives of opportunity and free expression, English studies has come to serve the very commercial forces which threaten our alleged mission. Students have been reduced to consumers of the American story, a story they are, on the one hand, expected to place themselves within, but on the other hand, not expected to create. Merging the concepts of liberty and equality, this story tells us that not only are individuals equal, but that the playing field is equal as well. All things being equal, then, we are utterly

424

Elisabeth Jorgensen

self-determined; all things out of our control stem from our deficiencies. While clearly flawed, this principle of individual agency commands loyalty, for without it no individual could attain socially consequential power, or preferably, agency or empowerment. In fact, both denial and acceptance of the equality assumption (with its attendant myths of opportunity and merit) lead to a narrowing of the public sphere: denial by claiming the public realm for those few whose truths allegedly allow them to rise above personal concerns; acceptance by perpetuating the notion that lack of personal agency stems from allowing private concerns to intrude on public judgment. In this scenario, equating power with economic gain, students often confuse having and choosing. Meanwhile, as moral-traditionalists and counter-traditionalists battle over the right to indoctrinate students, the university each desires is being dismantled from within by an increasingly corporate paradigm which feeds on public conflation of having and choosing. That is, bolstered by American narratives of opportunity and merit, corporate interests which threaten the intellectual independence of the university have taken advantage of internal disciplinary debates to discredit both traditional and critical views and locate their values in the rift we have created. In short, in the midst of disagreement, by establishing our grounds upon the same collective myth, we work together to construct passive and fragmented subjects ideally suited to the administrative hierarchies of the transnational corporations which increasingly exploit them.

The fragmented self In literally abandoning the physical boundaries which comprise nations, transnational corporations (which often hold great sway over governmental policy) have likewise abandoned the ethical boundaries marked out by these nations. No longer loyal to national interests, the transnational corporation requires a different subject, a subject with shallow, manipulable loyalty to the state and, if not loyal to the company, at least self-interested enough to maintain the bottom line. This selfconstruct forcefully draws on liberal and rational assumptions to produce a subject which is, at bottom, largely determinate in significant ways. This fragmented self is defined not as a participating citizen but, as compositionist Gwen Gorzelsky (2002) points out, as professional, client, and consumer. As a professional, the fragmented self possesses a “disciplinarily grounded authority” (Gorzelsky, 2002, p. 308) which proves Janus-faced. From one view, her profession provides both economic security and a

Teaching and Learning Democracy in the Wake of September 11

425

sense of personal authority which facilitates her identification with the elite. From the other view, her “authority to make judgments is confined to a narrowly defined vocational sphere” (p. 308) which limits her ability to question the determinations of others. Rather than possessing full authority for, as well as full knowledge of, the outcomes of her industry, she provides, and is aware of, but a fragment of the whole, discernment of which is limited to the few who possess ultimate power for judgment and decision-making. So mistaking economic security and disciplinarily grounded authority for socially consequential power, the fragmented self is doubly pacified (even passivized) as she congratulates herself for being both economically and authoritatively higher in the pecking order than her less-educated subordinates. Yet confined to her narrow realm, she is nonetheless determined by the demands of her occupation and industry— demands which she is under-equipped to examine and which often result in fundamentally undemocratic consequences both within the workplace and within the greater society. In short, her self-image as a member of the professional elite serves not only to undermine her admission to the power elite, but also to reinforce her perception that elite power is justified. Meanwhile, as a client of other professionals, the fragmented self is “subject to their direction” (Gorzelsky, 2002, p. 308) due to the perceived limitations of her expertise. For example, Gorzelsky cites the top-down authority of a managed-care plan to deny recommended cancer treatment in the effort to save money (Kolker, 1996). In both contrast and correspondence, she further cites the use of controversial, “expensive, toxic procedures” for cancer treatment by which “for-profit health care exploits a desperate patient market” (p. 313 cf. Linden, 1996). While the latter example may at first blush seem to justify the authority of the former, both instances illustrate the ways in which “authority as a topdown channel (...) not only offends clients’ dignity but also infringes on their rights to participate in decisions that affect their lives” (p. 308). Likewise, top-down authority may prevent co-workers in disparate disciplines from participating in decisions which may affect not only their lives but the public good. In the meantime, the fragmented self is subject to the top-down authority of government agencies little accountable to the demos. As her interest in government is predominantly limited to personal benefits and advantages, the fragmented self can here be said to be a client, rather than citizen, of government. Finally, the fragmented self as consumer is pacified by material comfort through its erroneous identification with social agency. Moreover, in the U.S., this fragmented individual is a proud consumer of the very myths which associate liberalism, capitalism, and calculative rationalism

426

Elisabeth Jorgensen

with American moral pride. Associating U.S. material dominance—from which she benefits and with which she complies—with the values of democracy and equality, the fragmented American feverishly defends the former as the latter. Thus, the fragmented self is economically liberal. She believes that a minimally regulated market produces global material benefits that competition culminates in human progress. She equates material comfort with social agency, even consequential power, and she perceives global economic dominance as moral dominance. Possessing rational agency only in limited spheres, she believes in opportunity and merit, equates her professionalism with (at least potential) membership in a rational power elite, and perceives her authority over subordinates, i.e., workplace inequality, as well as material and social inequality, justified in light of her rational self-determination. Thus, by a cultural paradigm she herself accepts, the fragmented self is unwittingly transmogrified into a creature determined by the demands of the market. Hers is a circular reasoning culminating in a self-enclosed system of ethics in which ethics is reduced to balancing what she thinks is good for her against what you think is good for you. Her dominance over you is merely evidence of the rightness of her dominance. Even when motivated by seemingly non-individualistic ethics, this individual engages in a costbenefit analysis in which the expense of her altruism is measured, not against the benefits conferred upon others but toward the goodwill or spiritual reward reflected back upon the giver. Even notions of a greater morality come to be reduced to a profession of faith guaranteeing a place in the afterlife. Taken to its extreme, so long as these individualistic circles of ethical reasoning (which begin and end at oneself) do not intersect, ethics are indeed irrelevant. The fragmented self thus harbors no concept of ethical responsibility to the non-human living world which sustains her. And, in fact, this non-ethic is often taken to just such an extreme—as our water, air, even our stratosphere, are perpetually poisoned to meet the needs of the individual or collective me. Meanwhile, the individual’s sense of duty is satisfied so long as she behaves as expected, so long as she believes herself to possess the virtues which manage the human foundation which supports this status quo. Liberal education, therefore, must confront the contradictions of the fragmented self. And we cannot do so without understanding the source from which it stems. Moreover, we must make an effort toward restoring the agency of citizens by engaging them with the public sphere. In English studies and throughout the humanities this means examining the social and ethical consequences of texts, in both historic and contemporary contexts.

Teaching and Learning Democracy in the Wake of September 11

427

We must also drive home the understanding that the purposes of writing are public and as such the documents each of us creates have public consequences. Of course, this means engaging our scholarship and teaching with the world outside the ivory tower, for only thoughtful discourse offers an alternative to weapons of war. Democracy, after all, is an agreement to talk.

References American Council of Trustees and Alumni (2001). Defending Civilization: How our universities are failing America and what can be done about it. Retrieved from: http://www.goacta.org/publications/reports.html Arnold, M. (1961). The Function of Criticism at the Present Time. Culler, A.D. (ed.). In Poetry and Criticism of Matthew Arnold. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, p. 257. Aronowitz, S. (2000). The Knowledge Factory: Dismantling the corporate university and creating true higher learning. Boston: Beacon Press. Associated Press (2001). Veep’s Wife Champions Curriculum. Retrieved from http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/541191/posts Barber, B. (1984). Strong Democracy: Participatory politics for a new age. Berkeley: University of California Press. Bloom, A. (1987). The Closing of the American Mind. New York: Simon and Schuster. Bordo, S. (1987). The Flight to Objectivity: Essays on Cartesianism and Culture. Albany: State University of New York Press. Bowles, S. & Gintis, H. (1986). Democracy and Capitalism: Property, community, and the contradictions of modern thought. New York: BasicBooks. Crowley, S. (1990). The Methodical Memory: Invention in currenttraditional rhetoric. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. Descartes, R. (1910). Discourse on the Method. New York: Collier. Dietze, G. (1985). Liberalism Proper and Proper Liberalism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Ewald, H.R. & Wallace, D.L. (1994). Exploring Agency in Classroom Discourse or, Should David have told his story?” College Composition and Communication, 45(3), 342-368. Gorzelsky, G. (2002). Ghosts: Liberal education and negotiated authority. College English, 64(3), 302-325. Graff, G. (1987). Professing Literature: An institutional history. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Green, D. (2001). Abandoning the Ruins. College English, 63(3), 273-287.

428

Elisabeth Jorgensen

Kolker, A. (1996). Thrown Overboard: The human costs of health care rationing. Bochner, C.E. & Bochner, A.P. (eds.). In Composing Ethnography: Alternative forms of qualitative writing. Walnut Creek, CA: Sage Publications, 132-59. Linden, R.R. (1996). The Life Boat is Fraught: Reflections on ‘thrown overboard’. Bochner, C.E. & Bochner, A.P. (eds.). In Composing Ethnography: Alternative forms of qualitative writing. Walnut Creek, CA: Sage Publications, 160-171. Locke, J. (1970). Two Treatises on Government (2nd ed.). Laslett, P. (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. MacIntyre, A. (1981). After Virtue. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. —. (1988). Whose Justice? Which rationality? Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. MacPherson, C.B. (1977). The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy.Oxford: Oxford University Press. Marcuse, H. (1966). One-Dimensional Man. Boston: Beacon Press. Miller, T. (1992). Teaching Professional Writing as Social Praxis. Journal of Advanced Composition, 16(3), 57-72. Readings, B. (1996). The University in Ruins. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Spragens, T.A. (1981). The Irony of Liberal Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Toulmin, S. (1990). Cosmopolis: The hidden agenda of modernity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Wolin, S.S. (1994). Norm and Form: The constitutionalizing of democracy. Eben, P., Wallach, J. & Ober, J. (eds.). In Athenian Political Thought and the Reconstruction of American Democracy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Young, I.M. (1990). Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

CONTRIBUTORS

Mark Cronlund Anderson Dr. Anderson is associate professor of history at the University of Regina and Coordinator of Interdisciplinary Studies at Luther College, University of Regina. He presently teaches Latin American Revolutions, the Frontier Myth in Hollywood Film, DIAL 911 (An Exploration of the Significance of September 11), and Imperialism in Latin America. He has published three books, a monograph, and two edited collections. The former, Pancho Villa’s Revolution by Headlines (Oklahoma UP, 2001), explores print media and propaganda operations during the Mexican Revolution. The latter two volumes, co-edited by linguist Dr. Irene Blayer of Brock University, include Latin American Narratives and Culture, Selected Readings (2004) and Interdisciplinary and Cross Cultural Narratives in North America (2005). Nikki Ashcraft Dr. Ashcraft has taught English as a second/foreign language in the United States, Mexico, and Kuwait. She was an assistant professor of applied linguistics/TESOL at the United Arab Emirates University in 2004-2007. She is currently serving as Director of the Academic Support Center onboard The Scholar Ship. Recent publications include: ƒ Ashcraft, N. (2007). UAE national preservice teachers’ motivations for entering the field of TESOL. In Stephenson, L. & Davidson, P. (eds.). Teacher Education and Continuing Professional Development: Insights from the Arabian Gulf. Dubai: TESOL Arabia, 27-41. ƒ Ashcraft, N. (2006). Overcoming language barriers in content-area instruction. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives 3(1). Zayed University Center for Teaching and Learning. Dr. Ashcraft is currently editing a volume on how to teach listening for the international association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). This volume forms part of TESOL’s Classroom Practice series.

430

Contributors

Lorna Bell-Shaw Dr. Shaw is director of institutional effectiveness at American InterContinental University in Weston, Florida. She completed postdoctoral work at Harvard University in management and leadership in higher education and has worked in academic administration as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Lynn University and as founding chair of the Department of Communication Arts also at Lynn. Dr. Shaw was associate professor in intercultural and international communication in the College of International Communication before returning to university administration. She specializes in intercultural communication research studying whiteness as a social construct in the public and private spheres. She has written extensively on the nature of social and public discourses, especially discourses around language, culture, and ethnicity. Dr. Shaw divides her research time between global and cultural issues and higher education administration concerns. She is active in national and international forums in both of her research areas, presenting “One Step, Two Step, Three Step, Four: Sufficiency of women’s work in leadership in Higher Education Administration” at the Oxford Round Table, University of Oxford, 2006. Shaw is currently working on a comparative cultural analysis of the meaning of love from Asian and American student responses and innovative ways to teach whiteness in university classrooms. Roberto Bergami Mr. Bergami has over 20 years of experience in the manufacturing industry, primarily within the pharmaceutical sector. He has held a number of roles in finance, sales, marketing, customer service, and logistics, all with an international focus. Mr. Bergami’s teaching spans two decades with experience in higher education, TAFE, and private education providers. A full-time member of staff at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia, since 1998, Mr. Bergami has a Master in Education and Master of Business by Research (Applied Economics), and is currently pursuing a doctorate. He is currently a senior lecturer in the School of Applied Economics and associate researcher of the Institute for Community, Ethnicity and Policy Alternatives. Mr. Bergami has maintained his involvement with industry though a number of peak associations where he enjoys various grades of senior level membership. In 2002, he received the State of Victoria Quarantine Award for his efforts in educating students in quarantine matters.

Education Landscapes in the 21st Century

431

Lucia Buttaro Dr. Buttaro is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education at Adelphi University. Recent publications include: ƒ Buttaro, L. (2008). Decolonizing Pedagogy in the American Classroom: Social Justice in Urban Settings. Benin, L., Linne, R. & Sosin, A. (eds.). In Organizing the curriculum: perspectives on teaching the American labor movement. Sense Publishers. ƒ Buttaro, L. (2005). Culture Shock and Language Stress of Adult Latinas in New York. Klein, H.E. (ed.). In Creative Teaching Act. Madison, WI: Omni Press. Her personal statement: “The field of TESOL (Teaching English as a second language) is a fascinating one. It took me a long time to move from a level of ethnocentrism to cultural relativity. I am still learning and I share all the experiences of having lived, worked, and studied abroad with my students. My challenging phrase to my students is always: ‘Lift it off the page and make it work.’ Theory is important but it needs to be connected with practice as well.” Jesús Castellón Mr. Castellón is a doctoral student in the Urban Education Doctoral Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His research interests are teacher ideology, mathematics education, bilingual education, and critical pedagogy. He is also a founding member of Advanced Language and Academic Studies (ALAS) High School, a public bilingual teacher’s cooperative. He teaches mathematics, psychology, film analysis, and media literacy. Mary Ann Clark Dr. Clark is an associate professor in the Department of Counselor Education at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where she has served as the coordinator of the school counseling program. Prior to her career in higher education, she was a school counselor and administrator in the Department of Defense Dependent Schools in the United Kingdom, where she worked with students of U.S. military and civilians serving abroad. Dr. Clark has co-authored a book and instructor’s guide on Character Education, and is the co-author of the third edition of Managing Your School Counseling Program, both with Dr. Joe Wittmer. She has written articles for a number of peer reviewed journals and also authored book chapters on student assessment, counselor leadership, family-school collaboration, and school safety, and violence prevention. Her research interests include male underachievement in public education,

432

Contributors

examining educational success factors for minority students, cross cultural comparisons of student educational success, and family/school/ community/university collaboration. Gregory J. Cramer Mr. Cramer is a doctoral student in urban education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His research interests are bilingual education, adolescent literacy, arts education and critical pedagogy. He is a teacherleader and founding member of the Advanced Language and Academic Studies (ALAS) High School, a public bilingual teacher’s cooperative. He teaches Latino Studies, Contemporary American Authors, Introduction to Latin Jazz, and Popular Literature. Jane Davis Dr. Davis is an associate professor at Iowa State University. Her research interests are literary and artistic responses to 9/11; black literature and culture of America and Africa; place and memory in American culture; contemporary American novel; and contemporary memoir. She was a Mellon Fellow in the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University, and is the author of The White Image in the Black Mind: A study of African American literature (Greenwood, 2000). She has recently co-authored an article for The Journal of Excellence in College Teaching that focuses on the experiences of faculty involved in two diversity initiatives at ISU. Multicultural teaching heightened her awareness of the importance of the need for educators to engage in self-analysis of the attitudes they bring to their classes as a result of their own racial and ethnic backgrounds, and the experience underscored the essential nature of promoting pluralism “in our classrooms, in our lives, and in our students’ lives.” Edward F. DeRoche Dr. DeRoche joined the University of San Diego's School of Education as dean in 1979 and returned to the faculty as professor and director of the Center for Character Development in 1998. He has been an elementary and junior high school teacher and principal, a member of a public school board of education, and has served on several private school boards. Dr. DeRoche is the past president of the California Association of Teacher Educators, past vice president of the San Diego Council on Literacy, and a former member of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. He also served as a member of the National Commission on Character Education for the Association of Teacher Educators. Dr. DeRoche has

Education Landscapes in the 21st Century

433

published over 50 articles in education journals and many articles in daily newspapers. He has authored or co-authored 13 books on education topics. He is a national consultant and speaker on educating the "hearts and minds" of children and youth. All of his publications are focused on character education, education administration and supervision, and teacher education methods. Maria Amata Garito Dr. Garito is rector of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO and professor of Teaching and Learning Technologies at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in the Psychology Faculty. Recent publications include: ƒ Garito, M.A. (2007). Content Sharing between NETTUNO and the Italian and Mediterranean Universities. Boonen, A. & Petegem, W. (eds.). In European Networking and Learning for the Future. The EuroPACE Approach. Antwerpen-Apeldoom: Garant. ƒ Garito, M.A. (2007). Un Modello di Cooperazione a Distanza tra i Paesi EuroMed nella Formazione di Competenze per l’Occupazione: da Med Net’U all’Università Telematica Internazionale UNINETTUNO. Cooperare nello Spazio Euro-Mediterraneo. Rivista Trimestrale del Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione: Studi e Documenti degli Annali della Pubblica Istruzione n. 113/2005114/2006. Firenze: Le Monnier, 95-118. Cynthia Porter Gehrie Dr. Gehrie creates research, evaluation, and public education projects as an urban ethnographer using holistic observation techniques and video documentation. Currently, she is combining staff development and video documentation/evaluation for three early childhood literacy grants with Hull House Association, a Chicago Community Trust grant through Northeastern Illinois University, and a Department of Education Early Reading First grant through Northeastern Illinois University. She was external evaluator for Arts Impacting Achievement, Beacon Street Gallery—a research grant documenting the impact of arts integration on student achievement. In December 2007, a video was released on ecological restoration of prairies featuring Dr. Robert F. Betz with the Save the Prairie Society (2007). She is lead author in a case study included in the anthology Effective Early Literacy Practice: Here’s How, Here’s Why (2008). She is founder and director of Video Documentation Partnership.

434

Contributors

Mingyue Gu Dr. Gu has recently completed her doctorate at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests are discourse analysis, interaction, secondlanguage learning motivation, and sociocultural theory. Recent publications include: ƒ Gu, M. (2008). Identity Construction and Investment Transformation: College Students from non-Urban Areas in China. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication. ƒ Gu, M., Huang, J. & Cheung, E. (eds.) (2006). Research Studies in Education, Volume 4. Hong Kong: Faulty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. ƒ Gu, M. (2005). Imagined Communities, Identity and English Language Learning in the PRC. Katyal, K., Lam, H.C. & Ding, X. (eds.). In Research Studies in Education, 3, 22-33. Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong. Iris Guske Dr. Guske is the director of the Kempten School of Translation & Interpreting Studies, with applied linguistics at the heart of her teaching and professional activities. She has authored and co-authored coursebooks for distance-learning students of English at all levels and recently written Saussure and Halliday: Meaning-Making in the First and the Last Quarter of the 20th Century. The bulk of her research work, however, reflects her interest in socio- and psycholinguistics, e.g., Convenient Tools in Public Service Interpreting: Using Minority Children as Language and Culture Brokers or Characteristics of the Police Occupational Culture: Implications for the Everyday Experience and Well-Being of Minority Officers. Lately Dr. Guske has increasingly focused on developmental and intercultural issues and written the book Attachment, Trauma and Identity Formation in the Kindertransport Context: German-Jewish Child Refugees' Accounts of Displacement and Acculturation. So she especially values the interdisciplinarity and interculturality of the annual Worldwide Forum on Education and Culture, which has given rise to this publication.

Education Landscapes in the 21st Century

435

Frank Harris III Dr. Harris is a professor and chair of the Journalism Department at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. He is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists; a member of the Connecticut Association of Black Communicators; and a columnist for the Hartford Courant, America's oldest, continuously published newspaper. Dr. Harris has written for more than 50 publications over the past 25 years, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, New Haven Register, Northeast Magazine, and USA Today. He currently writes a weekly column for the Hartford Courant. He is an award-winning columnist for the New Haven Register where his column appears each Sunday. He is the author and publisher of The Craft of Quoting and In My Own Words as well as co-author of The Media: Freedom and Power. Mihaela Alexandra Ionescu Dr. Ionescu is a senior lecturer at the National School for Political Studies and Public Administration, Faculty of Communication and Public Relations, Romania. She teaches courses on organizational culture, organizational behavior, semiotics, language theories, and human resources management. Her research interests revolve around the role of metaphorical representation as a vehicle for transmitting significance in organizational settings, occupational stress, organizational culture, and behaviour, e-learning, education, and work culture. Dr. Ionescu has authored books and articles on organizational phenomena, corporate culture and behaviour, organizational change, communication, education, internal brand engagement, and e-learning. She is one of the editors of the Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations. Recent publications include: ƒ Simion, D., Ionescu, M.A. & Stanciu, St. (2007). Profit din comunicare. Comunicarea în practica managerială [Profit from Communication. Communication in Management Practice]. Bucuresti: Printech. ƒ Ionescu, M.A. & Stanciu, St. (2007). Abordarea metaforică—un nou aer metodologic în studiile organizaĠionale [Metaphor Approach—A New Methodological Current in the Organizational Studies]. Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations, 9, 149157.

436

Contributors

Virginia E. (Ginger) Jones Dr. Jones is a Huie-Dellmon endowed professor at Louisiana State University at Alexandria, where she teaches minority literature. She has authored book chapters and journal articles about ethnic and other minorities in Louisiana, e.g., From Bella to Belle: The Southern/Italian Woman and Whose South Is It Anyway: The Impact of Ethnicity on Creativity. As a Fulbright Scholar she lectured at the University of Montenegro on American Literature: Influence and Identity. Dr. Jones' academic and creative work has been published in The Xavier Review, Critical Survey of Poetry, Southern Humanities Review, The Sheridan Awards Review, The Atlanta Review, and Science and Literature. Beth Jorgensen Dr. Jorgensen obtained her doctorate in rhetoric and professional communication from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, United States, in 2002, receiving awards for outstanding teaching and research. An award-winning amateur nature photographer, she is currently writing a book, Drink, which explores the global politics of water and features her photography. Her research interests include classical rhetoric, multicultural education, pedagogical theory, and environmental rhetoric. Pursuing these interests, she has led a student canoe expedition into the Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota and participated in numerous Iowa river cleanups. A 15-year classroom veteran, Dr. Jorgensen has taught at Iowa State University and Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, and is currently an assistant professor of professional and technical writing at Saginaw Valley State University in Saginaw, Michigan, where she mentors in the Afro-American Cultural Technical Science Olympics (ACT-SO), sponsored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). J.L. Kemp Dr. Kemp is an associate professor of psychology at McKendree University. Her teaching philosophy is to provide students with an educational experience that will enrich their personal lifestyles, increase academic knowledge, and promote professional growth. Recent presentations include: “Enhancing student learning by accommodating your pedagogical style: a Vygotskian approach” at the Sixteenth Annual Teaching Academic Survival Skills Conference in West Palm Beach, Florida, sponsored by the University of Cincinnati.

Education Landscapes in the 21st Century

437

Kuldip Kaur Kuwahara Dr. Kuwahara is an associate professor of English at North Carolina Central University. A British Council Scholar at the University of Edinburgh and an NEH Fellow at the University of California Santa Barbara, she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Images of Women in World Literature, Contemporary Multi-Ethnic Literature, and Postcolonial and Diasporic Studies. Dr. Kuwahara is the author of Jane Austen at Play, and has published in Persuasions, Journal of the American Studies of Turkey, and the Journal of the Jungian Society, among others. Her work in Enlightenment and Empire includes a re-examination of 19th, 20th and 21st century literary texts from a postcolonial perspective. Her ongoing research is on “Peace through Literature: Exploring Connections between Literature” and “Peace Studies in the Fiction and Non-Fiction of Maxine Hong Kingston.” Elizabeth Landerholm Dr. Landerholm is a professor of early childhood education at Northeastern Illinois University where she teaches graduate and undergraduate classes. She is principal investigator of an Early Reading First grant from the Department of Education, Project ROLL, Roots of Language and Literacy, and also is in charge of credit classes on site at the Children’s Center of Cicero- Berwyn for ROLL. Dr. Landerholm has implemented grants, such as Even Start and Illinois Professionals Learning Partnership from the Department of Education and is on the planning committee of a Fulbright grant for teachers in Jamaica. Her research interests include early literacy, parent involvement, technology, and international education. She has published articles with Early Child Development and Care (UK), School and Community Journal, Life Long Learning, Division of Early Childhood and book chapters in Effective Early Literacy Practice: Here's How, Here's Why, published by HighScope Press in 2008; and Transforming Teacher Education through Partnerships, published by Edwin Mellen, United Kingdom, in 2004. Gwen Lee-Thomas Dr. Lee-Thomas is an assistant professor of higher education, Darden College of Education, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia. Her primary responsibilities include teaching various graduate courses in the Higher Education Leadership programs; other responsibilities include graduate student advising, dissertation committee service, program development and evaluation, and research in change management, cultural competence, and leadership transition models. Dr. Lee-Thomas' areas of

438

Contributors

specialization are cultural competence in consultation; cultural diversity and cognitive differences; application and analysis of assessment techniques; program evaluation; and reciprocal learning. Selected publications include: ƒ The Questions of Academic Library Assessment in Indiana Libraries, a professional journal published jointly by the Indiana Library Federation and the Indiana State Library. ƒ Cooperative Education Objectives Nestled in ABET EC2000 Criterion 3: A Handbook for Research in Cooperative Education and Internships, published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Judith Lessow-Hurley Dr. Lessow-Hurley is a professor in the Elementary Education Department at San José State University in San José, California. She taught in bilingual classrooms in New York and Colorado, and has been involved with professional development for teachers in California, Colorado, New York, and Texas, as well as abroad. Dr. Lessow-Hurley also worked with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to establish standards for teachers who work with second-language learners. Her book The Foundations of Dual Language Instruction, published by Longman (2000), is used in teacher preparation programs nationwide. In addition to her work in bilingual education, Dr. Lessow-Hurley has taught courses in multicultural education and has been involved in research and program development related to religious diversity and public schooling. Yingchun Li Dr. Li obtained her doctorate at the School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of Exeter, United Kingdom, and will soon commence her career as an associate professor in English language teaching at the Southwest University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China. She is currently a member of IATEFL, of the Research Special Interest Group members in IATEFL, and of the Ohio TESOL organization. Recent publications include: ƒ Jiang, X., Li, Y., Allen, M. & Whong-Barr, M. (2006). On the Chinese Learner. IATEFL 2006 Harrogate Conference Selections. Canterbury: IATEFL. ƒ Li, Y. & Yang, M. (2001). Chinese thinking patterns and discourse organization vs. Western thinking patterns and discourse organization. School of Foreign Languages Journal in Shandong Normal University, 6 (1), 18-45.

Education Landscapes in the 21st Century

439

Richard Mapstone Dr. Mapstone is currently associate professor at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi where he teaches courses in organizational behavior and management. He has previously worked at universities in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Europe. His main research interests have explored organizational change and behavior and its impact in a multi cultural context. Dr. Mapstone's writings have included studies of policing and the role of the state in ethnically divided and conflict ridden societies, and studies of the manner in which organizations embrace cultural and ethnic division as a positive factor in the change process. Declan McCrohan Dr. McCrohan has long held a strong interest in social networks and international cross cultural issues. As a student at university, he was involved in a federal government sponsored overseas exchange program which enabled him to study part of his business degree in Thailand. This flowed through into his dissertation studies where his doctoral research examined the impact of overseas students’ social networks on global trade flow patterns. Dr. McCrohan went on to spend a number of years working in Thailand, linking Australian and American universities with their counterparts throughout Asia. Dr. McCrohan has taught economics/ international business/statistics subjects at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Australia, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates, and his primary research interests include international education issues, social network analysis, culture and entrepreneurship issues, and international trade flow modeling. He is currently working as an assistant professor at Zayed University in Dubai, UAE. Verona Mitchell-Agbemadi Ms. Mitchell-Agbemadi directs the work of the Bethel University Frogtown/Summit-University (FSU) community partnership of St. Paul, Minnesota. She has procured and sustained over 20 inner city, urban, civic, grassroots, and social service agencies in administering service learning initiatives, cultural exchanges, and immersion experiences for both FSU community residents, as well as Bethel University students researching and working in the community. She teaches courses in race, ethnics, and peacemaking within the College of Arts and Sciences and Graduate School at Bethel University. Ms. Mitchell-Agbemadi's humanitarian interests are socio-economic, political, and personal empowerment of women. Along with certification in Women as Public Leaders, Ethical Policy Forum from the College of St. Catherine

440

Contributors

Leadership Institute in St. Paul, Minnesota, she holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in organizational leadership, with emphasis on cross-cultural and global leadership, from Bethel University. Ms. Mitchell-Agbemadi resides in Woodbury, Minnesota, with her husband and children. Sandra Liliana Pucci Dr. Pucci is an associate professor of bilingual education at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. She directs the bilingual education program and also teaches in the Urban Education Doctoral Program. Her research interests are heritage language maintenance, second-language acquisition, language policy, and the development of biliteracy. Dr. Pucci is the recipient of several federal grants to work with bilingual teachers, and is an active member of the public education community. Reyes L. Quezada Dr. Quezada joined the University of San Diego in 1999 where he is currently an associate professor in the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, Learning and Teaching Department. He has been a professor at the University of Redlands and at various California State Universities. He holds community college credentials in counseling, supervision, psychology, and a California Multiple-Subjects Bilingual Emphasis Teaching Credential in Spanish. His degrees include a B.A. from San Jose State University, M.Ed. from the University of San Diego, M.A. from San Diego State University, and a doctorate from Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona. Dr. Quezada's publications include journal and chapter contributions in bilingual/multicultural education, peace education, homeschool community involvement, teacher certification, international teacher education, and adventure-based education and counseling. He is the president of the California Council for Teacher Education and is on the editorial board of Teacher Education Quarterly, Issues in Teacher Education and a reviewer for various educational journals. Anne R. Richards Dr. Richards is an assistant professor of English with Kennesaw State University, where she teaches with the Master of Arts in Professional Writing program. She regularly speaks and publishes on multicultural topics. During a Fulbright Fellowship in Tunisia, she delivered a paper with colleague Iraj Omidvar on the topic of Lady Goshasp, the heroine of an ancient Persian epic poem, as well as a paper on the subject of music, transtextuality, and orientalism in the film Casablanca. Dr. Richards has recently published, with Faiza Derbel, an article titled “Infusing a

Education Landscapes in the 21st Century

441

Postcolonial Component into English Language Teacher Education Curricula for a Global Century” for the journal Radical Pedagogy and, with Jane Davis, an article titled “Teachers of Multiculturalism as Subjects of Transformative Learning” in the Journal on Excellence in College Teaching. Sharon E. Rush Dr. Rush is the Irving Cypen Professor of Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where she also is co-founder of the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations and an associate director of the Center for Children. She received her B.A. and J.D. cum laude from Cornell University. She practiced with the New York firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft in their D.C. office before starting her teaching career at DePaul University in Chicago. She joined the University of Florida faculty in 1985 and teaches Constitutional Law, Federal Courts, the Constitution and Schools, and the Fourteenth Amendment. Dr. Rush's research focuses on issues of racial equality, particularly for children. She is the author of numerous articles and the book, Loving across the Color Line (2000), which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Her most recent book, Huck’s “Hidden” Lessons: Teaching and Learning across the Color Line, was published in March 2006. Annamarie Schuller Ms. Schuller has been teaching business subjects in the VET sector since 1994 and is currently employed at Chisholm Institute in Melbourne, Australia. Her main areas of teaching specialization include: law, business management, marketing, human resources management, and occupational health and safety. She has a bachelor of education from Melbourne University and is currently pursuing a master of education by research at Monash University. Ms. Schuller's prior industry experience spans over 17 years within the transport, education, pharmaceutical and food sectors, where she held a number of roles, including customer service, marketing, and management. Her main area of academic research interest focuses on teaching and learning practices, the development of communities of practice, and teacher placement in industry. Frank H. Shih Dr. Shih is the dean of students at the City University of New York School of Law, in New York City. Prior to his present position, he served in administrative positions at Stony Brook University. He received his master’s and doctorate in anthropology from New School University with

442

Contributors

research focus in transnationalism and globalization, and its impact on international education. A former social worker and community advocate in New York City, Dr. Shih has written and presented widely about the experiences of Asian and Asian American students. He serves on the board of directors of the United Way of Long Island, the Asian American and Asian Research Institute (CUNY) and on the Advisory Council for Nassau Suffolk Law Services, Inc. and Literacy Suffolk, Inc. Dr. Shih resides in Long Island, New York, with his wife, Alice. He enjoys leisure time with his three children, a daughter-in-law and a granddaughter. Louis Silverstein Dr. Silverstein is professor of liberal education at Columbia College in Chicago. He is a transcendental philosopher and practitioner, multicultural and multi-consciousness educator, writer, and social activist. His areas of special interest are: peace and social justice; planetary consciousness; spirituality; psyche-delos; love and relationships; parenting; death and dying; and curriculum and pedagogy. Dr. Silverstein presently teaches courses in peace studies, death and dying, education, culture and society, and social problems in American society. He has also served as dean of the college, chairperson of the Department of Life Arts & Liberal Education, and president of the Columbia College Faculty Association. Dr. Silverstein is the author of An Oral History of Columbia College, Volumes I-V. Currently, he is working on a book titled Encountering Life’s Ending: If You Love Someone Set Them Free. ùtefan Stanciu Dr. Stanciu is professor at the National School for Political Studies and Public Administration, Faculty of Communication and Public Relations; University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania. He teaches courses on organizational behavior, human resources management, and work ethics. His research interests revolve around organizational behavior, human resources management, e-learning, and entrepreneurial education. Dr. Stanciu has authored books and articles on organizational behavior, organizational change, communication, education, and e-learning. He is active in the educational field; among other positions, he was director in the Department of Higher Education in the Ministry of Education and Research, Romania). Recent publications include: ƒ Stanciu, St. (2007). Work Ethics in Organizations in Romanian Primary and Secondary Education. A Human Resources Management Approach. Review of Management and Economical Engineering, 6(6), 324-329.

Education Landscapes in the 21st Century

ƒ

443

Stanciu, St. & Ionescu, M.A. (2005). Cultură úi comportament organizaĠional [Organizational Culture and Behavior]. Bucureúti: Comunicare.ro.

Nadežda Stojkoviü Dr. Stojkoviü is a lecturer for English at the Faculty of Electronic Engineering, University of Niš, in Serbia. Her research interests include the relationship between language and identity as expressed in contemporary literature and theory, and English for specific purposes. She is involved in Language and Literature, a joint project of the Serbian Ministry of Science and the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences (SANU). Dr. Stojkoviü is the author of the textbook Written and Spoken Communications in English for Science and Technology, University of Niš, Faculty of Electronic Engineering; and a co-author of Identity and Difference published by Peter Lang AG European Academic Publishers, Bern, Switzerland. Bruce C. Swaffield Dr. Swaffield is the founder and director of the Worldwide Forum on Education and Culture, which meets annually in Rome, Italy. In addition to being a professor of writing, literature and journalism at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia (United States), he writes a monthly commentary on international issues for Quill magazine, published by the Society of Professional Journalists. His work also has appeared in several international journals produced by the University of Bucharest, University of Szeged and Associated Colleges of the South (U.S.). He is a member of Associazione Italiana di Studi Nord-Americani, European Association for American Studies and International American Studies Association. In 1988, he received his doctorate from the University of Miami (Florida) and has taught at colleges in Florida, Ohio, and Virginia. He is currently at work on a volume about the origins of Romantic poetry, a non-fiction novel, and a book of devotions. He is married, has two children and three grandchildren. Michael Ernest Sweet Mr. Sweet is a writer, who has received awards for his journalism and poetry, such as the International Ultra-Short Finalist Award from the University of Maine. His writing has appeared in Poetry Canada, The Binnacle, Bywords Quarterly Journal as well as Canadian Teacher and Education Review. He teaches at Lester B. Pearson High School where he is the chair of the Fine Arts Department as well as the founding director of

444

Contributors

Learning for a Cause, an organization of educators, artists, and community leaders who aim to increase the moral and social sensibilities of students through the invoking of the literary and artistic imagination. The organization has coached more than 400 high school students to publication. The organization and its projects were a finalist selection in the 2006 Quebec Entrepreneurial Awards and have been featured on CTV, CBC, in the Canadian Teacher, The Link, and The Suburban. Dale Taylor Ms. Taylor is an international educator who has worked in the field of education for 15 years. She has taught at international schools in Thailand, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Germany. She is currently teaching at United Arab Emirates University in the Abu Dhabi Emirate. Ms. Taylor received her B.A. from McGill University and her B.Ed. from The University of Alberta. She earned an M.A. in education at the College of New Jersey, and she is currently completing a doctorate of education at the University of Bath. Ms. Taylor’s research interests include gifted and talented education, the psychology of learning, and cross-cultural perspectives in education. Ann Whitaker Dr. Whitaker teaches at Northeastern Illinois University in the Educational Leadership and Development (Educational Foundations Program) in the College of Education. The courses she teaches (Philosophical and Historical Foundations of Public Education, Education and Individual Differences, Psychology of Instruction and Learning) are required for students seeking their state teaching certification. Other courses she has taught include Social Work, Introduction to Sociology, Sociology of Urban Life, Social Problems, and Introduction to Social Casework. She has an M.S.W. (Masters Degree in Social Work) from the University of Illinois (Champaign, Illinois), a M.A. in human development (behavioral science) from the University of Chicago, and a doctorate in education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr Whitaker's research interests and publications include father-child interaction, cognition and learning, the impact of brain development on learning, field-dependence and fieldindependence, connection between occupation and college major, global education, teaching for transfer, cultural differences, and black women in the workforce.