The Politics of Unpredictability in a Reading/Writing/Discussion Group With Girls From the Caribbean

Henry, Annette

doi:10.1207/s15430421tip4003_6

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It became clear to me through their group conversations and dialogue journals that the young women were negotiating their own Black female identities against societal, cultural, and patriarchal expectations. The research findings (Henry 1998b;2001) corroborated that students need texts that are meaningful and relevant to their lives and that one's literacy evolves in these contexts (Freire, 1970;Pappas & Tucker-Raymond, 2011;Staples, 2012). One noteworthy outcome was that a child labeled as a "nonreader" by her teachers was reading, writing, and participating fully in discussion.…”

Section: Variations On a Culturally Relevant Themementioning

confidence: 64%

“…I wanted to examine the kinds of strategies that the teachers set forth at the intersections of their race, gender, language backgrounds, and culture. That is, I wanted to examine the cultural and linguistic practices that fostered not only the academic achievement of their students, but also the emotional and social aptitudes to live in Canadian society as fully informed bicultural and often multicultural citizens (Henry, 1996b(Henry, , 1998a(Henry, , 1998b(Henry, , 1998c(Henry, , 2001. The multilayered biographies and rich vernacular practices in this setting provided opportunities to reshape curriculum and pedagogy in ways that were relevant to students' lived experiences.…”

Section: Variations On a Culturally Relevant Themementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Culturally Relevant Pedagogies: Possibilities and Challenges for African Canadian Children

Henry

2017

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background/Context Ladson-Billings's concept of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy for African American children has been widely reinterpreted in various contexts for racialized students. In this reflective essay, I consider its challenges in Canadian contexts. Focus I use my early ethnographic work to illustrate important aspects of culturally relevant pedagogies, to raise cross-cultural differences, and as a springboard to engage with newer theorizations. Research Design These studies took place in a majority Black K–5 school; in addition, I conducted two studies in Illinois. I argue that the goals of culturally relevant education for Black students within the formal mechanisms of Canadian schooling are impeded by the official policy of multiculturalism that frames the Canadian imaginary and does not include Black people. Conclusions/Recommendations In the quest for pedagogies relevant to students’ lives, I call for fuller conceptualizations of Blackness that complicate notions of culture, transnational relationships, and global migrations. Lastly, I call for teachers to embrace the nexus of issues that students negotiate in their daily lives as part of any potentially transformative pedagogy.

show abstract

Section: Variations On a Culturally Relevant Themementioning

confidence: 64%

Section: Variations On a Culturally Relevant Themementioning

confidence: 99%

Culturally Relevant Pedagogies: Possibilities and Challenges for African Canadian Children

Henry

2017

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Caribbean language dialects, or Creoles, represent multiple combinations of the different ethnicities and cultures that have populated this region, including native Ameri-Indian, African, Asian and European languages, with the language of European colonizers-primarily English, French, and Spanish-dominating the Creolized language of particular Caribbean countries (Allsopp & Rickford, 2012). Henry's (1998Henry's ( , 2001 work with a group of Creole speaking African Caribbean girls (from Belize and Jamaica) at a U.S. urban school offered nuanced understandings about how youths' negotiations with language are in part propelled by desires to achieve academic success as defined by those in institutions of power such as school that privilege an idealized standard English language and white-speaking subject (Flores & Rosa, 2015). As Henry (2001) described it, the "adolescents .…”

Section: Language and Literacy Practices Of Black Immigrant Youthmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Racial, Transnational, and Immigrant Identities, Literacies, and Languages Meet: Black Youth of Caribbean Origin Speak

Skerrett

Omogun

2020

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background/Context Immigrants are described as somewhat fixed in their geographical locations and activities in the world, having made a permanent move from their nation of origin to a new homeland. In contrast, transnational people are defined as those who live their lives across two or more nations and hold strong, multiple attachments to their nation-states. Frameworks of race are often centered in studies of the language and literacy practices of immigrant youth while transnational theories are typically prioritized in studies of transnational youths’ language and literacy practices. Research Questions/Participants This article explores extant research on the language and literacy practices and experiences of Black immigrant and Black transnational youth of Caribbean origin for whom the U.S. is a home. The purpose is to uncover similarities, differences, and nuances that may exist between the language and literacy practices and experiences of these populations. Research Design The extant research was analyzed through theoretical concepts such as micro-cultures, ethnoracial assignment and ethnoracial identity, raciolinguistics, and language and literacy as social practices. Findings Literacies prominent for both Black immigrant and Black transnational youth include reading, writing, the performing arts, and digital literacies. Analysis found that Black immigrant and Black transnational youth, through their language and literacy practices, undertake significant work in deconstructing Blackness as a monolithic racial category. The youths’ motivations for language and literacy use and transformation are conceptualized as efforts to make visible multiple ethnoracial identities and micro-cultural practices within an overarching racial category of Blackness. Analysis further found that Black immigrant and Black transnational youths’ experiences with racial, cultural, and linguistic discrimination lead many to subsume their original linguistic and literacy practices beneath the language and literacy practices of dominant ethnoracial groups in their new nations. In the case of Black transnationals, analysis found that they hold thick bonds to their countries of origin and new nations. Further, some transnationals have opportunities to spend extended time and employ their culturally influenced languages and literacies to a fuller degree in nations that hold appreciative perspectives on these repertoires. Such circumstances appear to promote Black transnationals’ abilities to continue developing and valuing their unique ethnoracial identities and ethnoculturally diverse language and literacy practices. Analysis further found that the multiple language and literacy practices of many Black immigrant youth are motivated by their longings to belong to diverse communities and connect to multicultural groups. However, these desires of youths’ were not oriented solely toward their new nation-states. Rather many Black immigrant youth actively seek out connection and consolidation of their homelands of origin and their new nations through language, literacy, and cultural practices. Analysis confirmed that this is a primary motivation for language and literacy development and use in transnational youth. Conclusion This article challenges the binary categories of immigrant and transnational using the cases of Black youth of Caribbean origin and their language and literacy practices. Its findings call for a more dynamic reconceptualization of the relationships among racial, immigrant, and transnational youth identities, literacies, and languages. Given the similarity of goals in the identity, language, and literacy practices of Black immigrant and Black transnational youth, this analysis argues that literacy research knowledge about Black immigrant youth can be enhanced by applying transnational as well as racial frameworks. Likewise, the article proposes that given the similarities of language and literacy goals, practices, and experiences, including racial and ethnic discrimination, shared by Black immigrant and Black transnational youth, future literacy research can undertake more explicit investigations of transnational youth's experiences through racial frameworks. The article suggests that knowledge of this kind can support scholars and educators in theorizing and designing educational spaces and curricula that enable all youth, notwithstanding their self- or other-assigned racial or sociopolitical categorization as native-born, immigrant, or transnational, to actualize while critically analyzing, the full range and diversity of their identities, languages, and literacies.

show abstract

“…Within each of these studies, prescribed reading and discussion roles were assigned to the students, and the curricular focus was to improve the literacy, as shown through student test scores, of the students. Studies have also shown other types of improvements, such as Henry's () work with Caribbean girls in a book club that had positive effects on their social relationships with one another. Similarly, Johnson () found that girls who were silenced in whole‐class discussions were able to voice their thoughts within an all‐female book club.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scaffolding and Inequitable Participation in Linguistically Diverse Book Clubs

Lewis

Zisselsberger

2018

Reading Research Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The authors illustrate ways that diverse linguistic repertoires were constrained within a set of classroom book club discussions among sixth-grade students and their teachers in a public school setting. The study took place in a U.S. Mountain West middle school with a majority population of Latinx students, many of whom were emerging bilinguals (EBs). In these book clubs, 21 students and two teachers read one of four mystery novels. The groups comprised both native and nonnative English-speaking students and were grouped according to reading ability/level. Using discourse analysis strategies, the researchers analyzed the participants' talk across the book club discussions. The authors found that although a primary purpose of a literature discussion group is to provide more equitable participatory opportunities for EBs, in this case, the linguistic and discursive practices of the teachers and the native English speakers did not fully honor EBs' contributions. These practices led to EBs' ultimate withdrawal from discussions. Therefore, the implications suggest a cautionary tale for educators working with EBs to critically analyze and identify ways in which generic methods for English as a second language and "good" teaching practices may position EBs as incapable. Moreover, the authors suggest that teachers should develop more critical linguistically and culturally responsive practices that acknowledge the linguistic repertoires of EBs and (re)position EBs as communicatively competent.

show abstract

The Politics of Unpredictability in a Reading/Writing/Discussion Group With Girls From the Caribbean

Cited by 8 publications

References 14 publications

Culturally Relevant Pedagogies: Possibilities and Challenges for African Canadian Children

Culturally Relevant Pedagogies: Possibilities and Challenges for African Canadian Children

When Racial, Transnational, and Immigrant Identities, Literacies, and Languages Meet: Black Youth of Caribbean Origin Speak

Scaffolding and Inequitable Participation in Linguistically Diverse Book Clubs

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About