If Anything Is Odd, Inappropriate, Confusing, or Boring, It's Probably Important

65 Pages·2001·0.34 MB·English

“If Anything Is Odd, Inappropriate, Confusing,
or Boring, It’s Probably Important”:
The Emergence of Inclusive Academic Literacy through
English Classroom Discussion Practices
(cid:1)
LESLEY A. REX
University of Michigan
DAVID MCEACHEN
Santa Barbara (CA) High School
In this study we describe the role of class discussion and a teacher’s particular discourse moves
in the development of an inclusive learning culture in a high school English literature course
with a rigorous academic curriculum. The course included previously tracked gifted and tal-
ented (GATE) and general students, together for the first time. The analysis of eight seg-
ments of classroom interaction over the first 21 instructional days reveals a relationship
among constructing a social culture, acquiring an inquiry-based reading approach, and trans-
forming students’ identities. The study focuses on how, given the asymmetry of academic
knowledge and status between the GATE and nonGATE students, the teacher discursively
transformed both groups’ understandings of what counted as being a reader while negotiating
their collaboration. Inclusion is depicted as a tenuous classroom cultural norm with which all
students sustain a risky relationship as they learn new discursive ways of making knowledge.
If teaching and learning are not orchestrated to facilitate students’ entry into the
domains of conversation that constitute a curriculum, we will have changed the
labels but not the substance of education.
—Applebee, 1996, p. 101
At the end of their year together I value most from this class the great ani-
studying a literature curriculum de- mated discussions we had. It taught me how
to develop my opinions and my ideas about
signed for gifted and talented students,
something. Also, many of the ideas during
Kora and Maralyn felt theirs had been a
discussions were very sophisticated so it
substantive learning experience: showed me how far you can reach, no limit
ERmEeSrEgAeRncCeH o fI NIn TclHuEsi TveE ALCitHerIaNcGy OF ENGLISH • VOLUME 34 • AUGUST 1999 6655
to your age. It was the teacher’s attitude, the Study Focus and Questions
students’ attitudes, and the air of thinking
In their large-scale study of classroom
literary problems through together. The
instructional discourse in 112 eighth-
excitement in everyone of learning and
thinking. [Kora, a student with a history of and ninth-grade English classes,
general College Preparatory English classes] Nystrand and his colleagues (1997)
reported on pervasive monologic rather
What I will take and value most from this
than dialogic organization and the con-
class is the resurrection of my incentive to
learn. Last year many teachers and classes sistent contrast between tracked and
left me unchallenged and uninterested, but untracked conditions. As an example of
this class has helped me remember what I their preferred but rarely observed
do well and would like to improve upon.
dialogic style, they profiled Mr. Kramer,
[Maralyn, a student with a history of gifted
a teacher whose approach bore remark-
and talented (GATE) English classes]
able similarities to Dave’s. Like Dave,
These two students found success Mr. Kramer began by modeling a way
through transformative discussions in a of reading and stating exactly what was
classroom distinguished by discourses expected, practices that encouraged
that called for and supported rigorous critical reflection by foregrounding the
reading and writing practices. Kora, a text as what Nystrand et al. call a
student unfamiliar with gifted and thinking device. Nystrand et al. argue that
talented curriculum, grew in her aca- at the heart of the respectful reciprocity
demic literacy and confidence, and in Mr. Kramer’s classroom was a method
Maralyn, a bored and disaffected stu- of culture building that established a
dent from gifted and talented classes, code of behavioral rules or norms to
rekindled her intellectual curiosity. The guide group interaction (see Yalom,
interactional ethnographic (Castenheira, 1995, cited in Nystrand et al. ). Nystrand
in press) study reported here investi- et al. conclude that it was the teacher’s
gated the why and how of Kora and proactive decentering of his voice in
Maralyn’s experience. the early weeks of the class and his focus
The report emerged from a joint on culture building and group mainte-
effort by the authors to study Dave nance activities that was instrumental in
McEachen’s English Literature classroom establishing a dialogic classroom. This
and from discoveries that continue to strategy established the teacher’s right
affect Dave’s practice and Lesley’s re- to make evaluative commentary with-
search. In this article, I, Lesley, take the out setting him up as the authority who
lead to write about particular elements owns the knowledge produced in the
of Dave’s teaching. I do so from my classroom. In this study, by analyzing
stance as co-researcher and classroom Dave’s discourse moves over the first
participant-observer and from the as- three weeks, we describe how contex-
sumption that through discourse stu- tually and emergently he decentered
dents and teachers can act upon powerful his voice and foregrounded individual
social and institutional conditions by student voices in the building of an
co-constructing new expectations. inclusive literate classroom culture.
66 RESEARCH IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH • VOLUME 34 • AUGUST 1999
These descriptions are based upon initiate and respond to students’ dis-
previous analyses of ethnographic data course acts and so provide particular
(Rex, 1997a; Rex, Green, & Dixon, opportunities for constructing the what
1997) that led to the following three and the how of rigorous academic
interrelated assertions about the expe- English literacy (Ryle, 1949)? (3) How
riences of students in Dave’s classroom. did students take up and reconstruct
First, those students institutionally des- opportunities for their own learning
ignated gifted and talented (GATE) had and for their teacher’s further participa-
extensive experience with GATE lit- tion (Alton-Lee & Nuthall, 1992; Lerner,
eracy practices before entering English 1995; Tuyay, Jennings, & Dixon, 1995)?
Literature; some nonGATE students and, (4) What was the relationship
had experienced a range of GATE between the teacher’s actions of hand-
classrooms from de facto tracked to ing over and the students’ actions of
inclusive; and at least two nonGATE taking up and the building of academic
students had little if any previous expe- literacy (Rex, 1994)?
rience with English GATE discourse A sociocultural perspective guided
practices. Second, the mix of GATE our application of these questions dur-
and nonGATE histories in this class ing retrospective data analyses so as to
positioned students differently to ac- foreground issues relevant to detracking
quire knowledges and values about and inclusion.
what counts as rigorous academic En-
glish literacy. And third, in this class- Conceptual Background
room, over time students were re- Detracking and Inclusion,
positioned as individual learners and as a Key Distinction
group members to acquire new social In research on tracking, detracking is
and academic understandings. most often characterized as making
It was not within the design of the changes in institutional sorting struc-
original study to determine whether tures that provide students with physi-
classroom discussions were the leading cal access to classrooms previously re-
factor in students’ academic accom- served for select groups (Oakes, 1985).
plishments. However, because the ma- By that definition the English program
jority of class time was taken up by in this high school was detracked.
teacher-led discussions of the readings Students could self-select at any point
or of related texts, for this study we into any of the GATE designated
investigated how teacher and students’ English classes. However, we wish to
discussion interactions may have con- make an important distinction between
tributed to students’ repositioning. We detracking and inclusion as inclusion is
looked for repositionings guided by currently being conceptualized. Our
four interrelated questions: (1) What data revealed that while all English
counted as academic literacy in this classes in this school were physically
classroom? (2) How from the first mo- detracked, only some were experienced
ments of class did the teacher’s actions as or regarded by students as detracked.
Emergence of Inclusive Literacy 67
Other classrooms were de facto tracked, In particular, this study is informed
primarily for two reasons. One reason by researchers who conceptualize ac-
was that students from other tracks re- cess and inclusion as realized in and
experienced failure in their attempts to through classroom interaction. Although
understand or accomplish the academic there are few naturalistic studies of
tasks expected in those classrooms sup- classroom inclusion realized through
porting the dominant perception that discourse, a few have established the
these students were incapable of per- approach as usefully informing.
forming well in those settings. A sec- Gutierrez and Stone (1997), for ex-
ond reason was that students chose not ample, took a cultural-historical ap-
to enroll in classes where conditions proach to study classroom interactions
would not provide opportunities for between a teacher and individual stu-
them to learn, leaving the classrooms dents with learning disabilities. They
solely inhabited by their original popu- described how the social organization
lations. In contrast, based upon knowl- of instruction organized productive
edge from family and peer cultures, learning opportunities. Their discourse
students did choose classrooms, like the analyses revealed how the learning of a
one in this study, where they believed student with disabilities was constructed
they could be successful. These classes from the interactive intellectual re-
we call inclusive. sources of the individual and the group.
We are applying the concept of Jordan, Lindsay, and Stanovich (1997)
inclusion originated by scholars who studied nine teachers’ interactions with
study the integration of students with students who were exceptional or at
disabilities into general classrooms (see risk of academic failure. They observed
discussion of this issue in Grant, 1997). how teachers who saw themselves as
The term inclusive is being used more instrumental in effective inclusion en-
broadly by scholars in the United gaged in academic interactions. Their
Kingdom and the United States to study found that teachers, in the way
mean successful participation by all they talked with students, challenged
students in the generation of greater them to extend their thinking com-
educational options (see for example pared to teachers who held contrasting
Ainscow, 1993; Skrtic, Sailor, & Gee, views. Jordan et al. show how se-
1996; Slee, 1993, 1997). The arguments quences of interactional discourse be-
made by these and other scholars inter- tween teachers and at risk students can
ested in integrating all currently differ- positively affect their cognitive engage-
entially sorted students call for a ment and performance. Studies of other
reconceptualization of why and how marginalized groups (e.g., English sec-
successful classroom integration can be ond language students) have applied
achieved (see Bos & Fletcher, 1997; ethnographic and discourse analytic
Forman & McCormick, 1995; Keogh, methodologies to show the construc-
Gallimore, & Weisner, 1997). tion of learning communities. These
68 RESEARCH IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH • VOLUME 34 • AUGUST 1999
studies describe how mutually benefi- In acquiring these tools, students are learn-
ing to participate in a variety of socially
cial, reciprocal social relationships
constituted traditions of meaning-making
among classroom participants enhanced
that are valued in cultures of which they are
intellectual inquiry linked to acade- a part. These traditions include not just
mic performance (Green & Yeager, concepts and associated vocabulary, but also
1995; Kyratzis & Green, 1996; Santa rhetorical structures, the patterns of action,
that are part of any tradition of meaning-
Barbara Classroom Discourse Group,
making. They include characteristic ways
1992a). of reaching consensus and expressing dis-
agreement, of formulating arguments, of
Analytical Framework providing evidence, as well as characteris-
tic genres for organizing thought and con-
In my analysis of Dave’s teaching, I
versational action. In mastering such tradi-
interrelated three theoretical perspec- tions, students learn not only to operate with
tives to construe what constitutes lit- them, but also how to change them. (p.9)
eracy knowledge, how through
Other literacy scholars have con-
discourse it is constructed, and how
tributed to the study of language arts
through the construction of literacy
classrooms as ecological and ideological
knowledge perceptions of appropriate
cultures. They have argued that there
situated performance are made. Through
are no unified, prespecifiable practices
these three lenses I observed how
that count always and only as academic
inclusion may be thought of as the
reading and writing (e.g., Baker &
renegotiation through interactional dis-
Luke, 1991; Barton, 1994; McHoul,
course of asymmetrical power relation-
1991). Rather, there are readings- and
ships.
writings-in-a-classroom that continu-
ally and actively reconstitute language
What Counts as Academic arts subject matter (e.g., Heap, 1991;
Knowledge? Lin, 1993; Santa Barbara Classroom
Applebee (1996) articulates a vision for Discourse Group, 1992a). What counts
English curriculum as classroom con- as literate academic English knowledge
versation—as knowledge-in-action, rather is under continual historical and local
than the traditional view of English reconstitution as knowledge is brought
subject matter knowledge as knowledge- to, acted upon, and reconstructed in
out-of-context. This view of English classrooms.
knowledge is predicated on aV ygotskian Who decides what counts as knowl-
(1978) negotiation between individual edge and how it comes to count is at the
minds and the social and cultural tradi- center of determining whether teach-
tions within which they are constituted ing and learning practices supporting
and which they, in turn, reconstitute. inclusion and rigor are efficacious. A
For Applebee, literate traditions are way of thinking about the competing
“culturally constituted tools” for un- diverse views of what counts as knowl-
derstanding and reforming the world: edge in a classroom and the asymmetry
Emergence of Inclusive Literacy 69
between various knowers was for- Whole class discussion interaction is
warded by Heap (1985), who pointed the crucible of social as well as aca-
out that demic inclusion. Like subject matter
knowledge, the rules for what counts as
what counts as knowledge is dependent
discussion discourse knowledge are also
upon the purpose for which it matters . . .
situated within the culture of the class-
and that dependency is assured by the dis-
tribution of recognized rights and obliga- room. Three interrelated dimensions
tions to decide and enforce what counts as of this discourse knowledge are par-
knowledge in the setting where orientation
ticularly pertinent to this study.
to that purpose is obligatory or rewarding.
First, classroom English discourse
(p. 248)
is a kind of academic code knowledge
Whoever in a classroom has the right to whose dominant purpose and applica-
decide the purpose to which knowl- tion is the learning of academic literacies.
edge is put and the kind of knowledge For example, in this English Literature
that may be applied holds the power to classroom, in order to appear academi-
decide inclusion and exclusion. cally literate, students had to know
Knowledge is subject matter what it means to make a case, to make
knowledge if it is adequate to carry on cases for all their readings in and
some academic activity, some literate through all their writings and speakings
purpose. The need for subject matter about texts, and to be able to speak
knowledge during a classroom discus- about their own and others’ case-
sion is quite practical, as classroom making performances. Because literate
members need it in order to act liter- knowledge building occurs during
ately. When members act, the macro group discourse, teacher mediation is
knowledge from the past that members required for students to have occasions
of a culture may count as the subject to employ purposefully and thus learn
matter of English language arts, as well the code.
as the microversions of that knowledge Second, discourse for learning En-
brought by teachers into classrooms, are glish subject matter can also be viewed
transformed as teachers and students as participation contexts and as proce-
respond to their own purposes and dural language, as the medium and
methods of knowing, knowledge-build- means of learning and knowledge build-
ing, and knowledge-evaluating (Heap, ing. In order to take up learning oppor-
1985). tunities, students need to understand
how to read, enter into, and make sense
Student Access to Academic of the constantly evolving interactional
Knowledge through Discourse contexts or frames (Goffman, 1974;
For students to gain access to this Tannen, 1993) of knowledge construc-
academic English knowledge-building tion. Reading the purpose of any given
process, they are required to enter the interaction is essential to entering into
academic discourse of the group within it. For example, in order to ask an
which they will use it (Gutierrez, 1995). appropriate question, provide a useful
70 RESEARCH IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH • VOLUME 34 • AUGUST 1999
answer, or make a relevant comment, a demic performances in order to facili-
student must have read the purpose of tate student understanding of language
the preceding discourse action (Mehan, arts subject matter. The subject matter
1979). as culture, tradition, and a discipline
Third, discourse is also a medium needs to be characterized purposefully
and a means for constructing a view of for students so they can engage it
the self in relation to others. For ex- within evolving contexts of under-
ample, academic language is the means standing. The teacher must make par-
and medium for positioning oneself ticular accommodations in what counts
within power relationships and having as curriculum to take advantage of each
the opportunity to perform as one interactional moment and the potential
thinks appropriate (Bakhtin, 1981). Stu- contexts for student understanding and
dents’ actions in learning academic performance they provide. In order for
English literacy occur at the level of students to perform appropriately, the
identity, selfhood, and personality. What teacher needs to mediate opportunities
counts as knowledge, whose voices may for explicit clarification as to the nature
be heard, and what version of self may of the tensions between the constraints
be brought forward determines what and the opportunities of their agency as
students say, write, and read, how they readers and writers. Such clarification is
do so, and how they feel about them- built over time, over multiple interac-
selves when they do. There is a prin- tions, to give participants experience in
cipled rationality to students’ reading experimenting with solving the prob-
and writing acts. They act in keeping lems that arise within these tensions
with how they perceive their role and (Green, 1991).
relationship with their interactant and Academic literacy when viewed
onlooker(s). They act to meet not only from this perspective means to become
the normed practices of the group but conversant in and facile with the con-
also to negotiate the power relation- ventions and the ingredients that con-
ships between themselves and those stitute school literacy as constructed in
who evaluate their actions. Becoming the classroom, that surround it, and that
an effective academic reader and writer are used at particular moments in
means learning in each situated mo- particular situations calling for it. Aca-
ment which procedural definitions of demic reading and writing is knowing
reading and writing satisfy the criteria how to engage with and construct texts
for accomplishment and choosing which strategically and procedurally within
way of meeting those criteria satisfies particular interactional contexts. Given
one’s view of oneself in relation to this view, the teacher as mediator for
others (Heap, 1991; Ivanic, 1994; Street, inclusion provides multiple opportuni-
1996). ties for students to exercise particular
The teacher’s role is to mediate the voices in purposeful and strategic ways
classroom’s social procedures and aca- in and through multiple knowledge-
Emergence of Inclusive Literacy 71
building events so that students can ment-to-moment handing over and
observe their contribution to what taking up processes. For example,
counts as literate knowledge. Lerner’s (1995) study of turn design
and the organization of participation in
Teaching and Learning as instructional activities illustrates how
Interactional Handing Over the organization of activities into se-
and Taking Up quences of discourse actions shapes
Observing how the teacher mediates participation. By describing in detail
academic and social inclusion is tied to what some aspects of instructional ac-
a view of teaching and learning that tivity consisted of as actual courses of
originates in the work of Bruner (1983), action (actual sequences of talk-in-
Goffman (1967), and conversation analy- interaction), Lerner shows how oppor-
sis (Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974). tunities for take up were initiated and
Bruner used the terms hand over and acted upon. As participants made mean-
take up to describe how children come ingful various opportunities to partici-
to take control of the process of learn- pate though their actions, they thereby
ing to talk under the scaffolded instruc- organized themselves; and as they orga-
tion of adult caretakers. At strategic nized, official and peer teachers handed
points throughout the learning process, over the frames of understanding for
the instructor hands over control to the action and students took up and acted
child who takes it up to perform within those frames.
independently. The learner interna-
lizes external knowledge as a tool for Method
conscious control (Bruner, 1985). The Context of the Investigation
relation of power and control to the What GATE and NonGATE
creation of joint understandings, as Represent
Edwards and Mercer (1987) point out, For the purposes of this study, it is useful
is both problematic and of great impor- to have focal students Maralyn and
tance. In classrooms students do not Kora represent the embodiment of
simply reinvent the existing culture different identity kits (Gee, 1991), dis-
within symmetrical power relation- courses (Gee, 1996; Muspratt, Luke, &
ships. Learning is a socialization process Freebody, 1997), and associated aca-
(Corsaro & Miller, 1992) deeply em- demic capital (Lanksheer & McLaren,
bedded in asymmetrical communica- 1993) that students shape and are shaped
tive interactions. Successful learning is by in two academic tracks. Maralyn was
fostered when asymmetry of power an institutionally designated GATE stu-
relations is recognized and capitalized dent who as a sophomore was taking a
upon. junior level class, and Kora was a junior
Studies of interactive talk that ne- general College Preparatory student.
gotiates power relationships between Though both were European Ameri-
teachers and students during instruc- cans from college educated families,
tional activity help to reveal the mo- when they entered the classroom site of
72 RESEARCH IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH • VOLUME 34 • AUGUST 1999
this study, Maralyn and Kora embodied pectations. The analyses depict a class-
two historically constructed school dis- room discourse community in which
courses that spoke through them and both groups of students experienced
that positioned them differently in academic success within a range of
relation to English curriculum and overlapping performance. (See Table 1.)
instructional practices. Maralyn em- In this study I limit my descriptions
bodied a dominant academic discourse to the first few weeks of the course to
(Gee, 1996; 1991) that had historically explore the emergent relationship be-
been privileged over Kora’s and that tween the building of a way of know-
predisposed her to have fewer conflicts ing as a particular reading approach, the
than Kora with the secondary discourse constructing of a social culture, and the
curriculum in this course. Following beginnings of transformation of stu-
this line of thinking, when Kora and dents’ reading identities. Before pre-
Maralyn shared the same academic senting my descriptive analyses, I provide
discursive space, the disequillibrium a brief snapshot of what it meant in the
between their discursive practices should socioculture of the school to be a
have served to marginalize Kora and to GATE and a general College Prepara-
reinforce unequal power relationships tory student. Then, my descriptive an-
between the two groups they repre- alyses of eight segments of classroom
sented. This study has been written discussion serve as telling cases (Mitchell,
because that condition did not occur. 1983) addressing how local academic
Rather, social and academic relation- literacy and identity were renegotiated.
ships were renegotiated as what counted
as academic discourse practices was What It Means to Be
socially reconstituted. That both GATE GATE and General
and nonGATE students learned to be The site of the study was the original
more academically sophisticated read- high school in a district of approxi-
ers and writers and that they did so mately 180,000 inhabitants; two other
together in this classroom makes it an high schools were added in the 1960’s.
appropriate context for exploring how Historically the district was a genera-
these transformations occurred. tionally stable, European American,
In two previous studies from the middle-class community with a small
same data corpus, I described the evo- Mexican American population. Begin-
lution of both GATE and nonGATE ning in the early 1980’s, the demo-
students’ written discourse (e.g., read- graphics shifted dramatically, as did the
ing quizzes and essays) over the first transience of the population. Escalating
thirty days of the course (Rex, 1997b; land values and increasing desirability
Rex, Green, & Dixon, 1997). A textual of the area resulted in a more polarized
analysis of Kora’s quizzes and essays shift in population to those who could
delineated how her discourse evolved afford to live there and those whose
from failing to successful as measured work was tied to these residents. There
according to the class’s academic ex- occurred a substantial increase in num-
Emergence of Inclusive Literacy 73
students who entered the school came
TABLE 1
from junior high and middle schools in
GATE English Literature Students
which 50-75% of students qualified for
GRADE free or reduced lunch under AFDC guide-
1ST
INSTITUTIONAL GATE CLASSES ACADEMIC lines.
CLASSIFICATION COMPLETED QUARTER These statistics provide the context
for understanding the sociocultural di-
1 GATE all English A
2 all English A mensions of the school’s academic track-
3 all English A ing system at the time of the study.
4 all English A Students were sorted into Special Edu-
5 all English A
cation, English Second Language (ESL),
6 all English A
College Preparatory, and Gifted and
7 all English A
Talented (GATE) tracks. It was not
8 all English A-
9 all English A- unusual for students to be given one of
10 all English B+ these institutional identities as early as
11 all English B kindergarten. They were GATE iden-
12 all English B
tified through three methods (usually at
13 all English B
the urging of the student or the student’s
14(10th grade St) all English B
15 all English B parents): appropriate GATE examina-
16 all English B- tion score, teacher nomination, or dem-
17 all English C onstration of exceptional talent such as
1 NonGATE none B
winning a poetry competition. General
2 none C+
students were college prep students by
3 other than B+
default. Little permeability existed across
English
4 other than B+ tracks. Once identified, students tended
English to be sorted into designated classes for
5 other than C the duration of their schooling.
English
Researchers from the fields of de-
6 some English A-
tracking (Oakes, 1985; Rosenbaum, 1979;
7 some English A-
8 some English B Wheelock, 1992), learning disabilities
9 some English B- (Brantlinger, 1997; Ruiz & Figueroa,
10 some English B- 1995; Skrtic, 1991), multiculturalism
(Delpit, 1995; Ladson-Billings, 1995;
Moll & Greenberg, 1990; Ruiz, 1995),
bers of students from families below the critical pedagogy (Shor, 1992, 1987)
poverty line for whom English was a and critical literacy (Gee, 1991;
second language. The year of the study, Lankshear & McLaren, 1993; Muspratt,
the district identified 55% or 1,126 of Luke, & Freebody, 1997), among many
the school’s 1,950 students as members others, have documented the effects of
of ethnic minority groups, mostly His- educational sorting practices. Of par-
panic American, and 440 students or ticular interest to this study is how these
22% as Limited English Proficient. The researchers have shown students to
74 RESEARCH IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH • VOLUME 34 • AUGUST 1999