Writing Together: Reclaiming Dialogue Journals as a Mutually Humanizing Teaching Practice

Abstract

This article builds on the work of adult literacy scholars to explore how dialogue journals might be used to enact a mutually humanizing pedagogy within adult English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classrooms. The researcher extends the discussion of using dialogue journals to consider not only how they can be used to meet the ends of specific class and language learning goals but can be utilized by teachers and researchers as a humanizing practice in a context historically and contemporarily dominated by the dehumanizing of adult immigrants through popular and political discourse. Through a review of literature and data from a practitioner inquiry study, the researcher revisits research on dialogue journaling and offers a reclaiming of dialogue journals as a mutually humanizing practice, using the discussion to interrogate what humanizing practices look like in a contemporary adult ESOL classroom.

“Are you Gonna Help us with Writing?” Empowering Writers though Dialogue Journaling

“…This may have been because they felt a stronger sense of self‐efficacy when writing about familiar situations. This process helped Leah to “understand students' language and literacy histories” (Schwab, 2019, p. 115).…”

“…Linares noticed that, through this process, a focus student in their study became more confident with each dialogue journal entry. One challenge mentioned in the literature concerning dialogue journaling is the tendency for teachers to write shallow, brief responses due to the time it takes to respond to many students (Schwab, 2019). Figure 1 shows an example of a dialogue journal (See online supplement for typed versions of journal entries.…”

“…When dialogue journals are shared between a student and a teacher, the teacher responds to each of the student's entries with a personal connection, question, or genuine encouragement (Gambrell, 1985; Thorpe, 2004). These moves promote “caring relationships” between the teacher and student (Schwab, 2019, p. 115) and a safe space for sharing because the student is in control of what is shared (Linares, 2020; Schwab, 2019). Other valuable aspects of dialogue journaling are that the student has an inherent audience in the reader/respondent, which gives the writing authenticity and purpose.…”

Literacy at Work: Korean Adult Immigrants’ Lived Experiences

“…To understand adult immigrants’ language and literacy practices in the workplace in depth, I adopted an ethnographic case study approach (Creswell & Poth, 2016; Street, 2016). Rogers and Street (2012) recommend this approach to explore participants’ language and literacy practices in specific social contexts because the emic approach is useful for immersing the researcher in the culture and allowing them to gain epistemic insights (Runcieman, 2018). Through the collection of observational and interview data, I aimed to explore the language and literacy practices of a Korean American immigrant family at a dry cleaning business.…”

“…While there has been emphasis on adult literacy since the publication of Improving Adult Literacy Instruction: Options for Practice and Research (National Research Council, 2012), research in this area remains limited compared to K-12 or young learner settings. Some studies have examined instructional approaches, learners' identities, and engagement in community-based adult language and literacy programs (Chao & Mantero, 2014;Cun et al, 2019;Pettitt, 2018;Schwab, 2019). These studies primarily focus on adult English language learners who are immigrants or refugees.…”