Agency and contingency in the language learning of refugees and asylum seekers

Telling Stories of Violence in Adult ESL Classrooms: Disrupting Safe Spaces

“…Many of the ESL teachers working with war refugees who participated in Magro's (2006Magro's ( /2007 study "commented on the importance of creating a 'safe haven' where students felt valued and included" (p. 73). Another pertinent example is Baynham's (2006) study of adult English language classes for refugees and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom, which found that some teachers "actively worked to insulate the classroom interaction from the vicissitudes of these external pressures [such as racism and poverty], creating a safe space for students, a respite from pressure" (p. 38).…”

“…First, despite ESL teachers' efforts to maintain a safe space for their students, including those with refugee status, inevi-VOLUmE 33, SpECiAL iSSUE 10, 2016 tably the kinds of external pressures described by Baynham (2006) encroach on classrooms. Research reported by Bettencourt (2001) documents the wide range of violences faced by Canadian newcomers (e.g., poverty, police harassment, racism and discrimination, and traumatic premigration experiences such as genocide).…”

“…Research reported by Bettencourt (2001) documents the wide range of violences faced by Canadian newcomers (e.g., poverty, police harassment, racism and discrimination, and traumatic premigration experiences such as genocide). Baynham (2006) also points to the inevitability of such violent experiences intruding into the language classroom and shows how the urgency of refugees' life experiences in particular, often experiences of violence (e.g., racism, poverty, homelessness), create conditions that "bring the outside in" (p. 25) and produce messier, but more dynamic, agentive, and contingent pedagogical spaces. In contrast to framings of newcomers as marginalized and disempowered, he views these encroachments of life into the classroom "in terms of the agency of student protagonists, who interrupt the orderliness of classroom discourse to bring the outside in and the contingency of teacher responses to such 'interruptive' moments in the classroom discourse" (p. 25).…”

“…Because safe space "is always contested and ambiguous dis-28 mONiCA wATERhOUSE cursive terrain" (Stengel & Weems, 2010, p. 507), it becomes necessary to question the teacher practice of defining safety on behalf of students (Barrett, 2010). For example, teachers and students expressed competing views regarding what is considered violent and unsafe content in classroom discussions in both Horsman's (2005) study of the impacts of trauma on women's literacy learning in Nova Scotia and in Baynham's (2006) study of ESL classes for refugees and asylum seekers. As an alternative to teacher-defined safe spaces, Horsman (2001) advocates for devoting the time necessary to engage in participatory practices to collaboratively define spaces that are considered safe for everyone.…”

“…As an alternative to teacher-defined safe spaces, Horsman (2001) advocates for devoting the time necessary to engage in participatory practices to collaboratively define spaces that are considered safe for everyone. Baynham (2006) signals a similar participatory approach in the ESL context by proposing a move "from the notion of the authoritative teacher permissively creating space … towards one where the classroom is a site of dynamic pushes and pulls, with teacher and student agendas robustly shaping interaction, claiming space" (p. 38).…”