Literacy practices, linguistic anthropology and social inequality

20 Pages·2015·0.52 MB·English

Literacy practices, linguistic anthropology and social
inequality: ethnographic cases and theoretical engagementsI
James CollinsII
Abstract
This paper discusses my efforts during several decades of research
to understand the interaction of schooled literacy, language
diversity, and social inequality. It draws on semiotic and Marxian
traditions to investigate language diversity and social inequality
in contemporary European and North American settings. Focusing
especially on racialization practices and class dynamics, the
arguments present early studies of minority language and schooling,
which build toward and frame a recent study of federal education
policy and immigrant experiences of schooling and language
hierarchy. That study draws from sociolinguistic and ethnographic
research among multilingual migrant families and communities in
upstate New York, with particular focus on children’s experience
with multilingual repertoires and monolingual language polices in
schooling (COLLINS, 2012). Examining federal education policy and
debates and comparing classroom interaction processes involving
different ethnolinguistic groups, I identify two “state effects”
(TROUILLOT, 2001) as they operate across different institutional
sites. I argue that such effects are ways in which contemporary
states attempt to regulate globalized class and racial dynamics.
By shaping educational subjects whose social and linguistic
characteristics, and especially their class characteristics, are both
I- Acknowledgments: Earlier versions of
this manuscript were presented at Literacy obscured and employed in school-related categorizations and
Practices in the 21st Century, Kings College/
school-based communicative processes, such effects contribute to
London, May 27-30, 2012, the Inter-American
Symposium on Ethnographic Research in the hegemonic reproduction of social, linguistic and educational
Education XIII UCLA, September 18-20, inequalities (HYMES, 1996; MENKEN, 2008).
2013, and a Linguistics Department Seminar,
University of the Western Cape, April 14, 2014.
I am indebted to audiences at all events for Keywords
questions and comments, and to all participants
in the research projects discussed in this
article. Those projects received support from Ethnography — Hegemony — Indexicality — Literacy — Migration —
the National Institute of Education, the Flemish
Multilingualism — State effects.
Academic Centre for Science and the Arts, and
the Spencer Foundation. Lastly, I am indebted
to Elsie Rockwell, Katie Anderson-Levitt, and an
anonymous reviewer for Educação e Pesquisa
for editorial suggestions that have sharpened
the argument.
II- University at Albany/SUNY, Albany, NY, EUA.
Contact: [email protected]
Educ. Pesqui., São Paulo, v. 41, n. especial, p. 1191-1210, dez., 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1517-9702201508144842 1191
Práticas de letramento, antropologia linguística e
desigualdade social: casos etnográficos e compromissos
teóricosI
James CollinsII
Resumo
Este artigo discute meus esforços durante várias décadas de pesquisa
para compreender a interação entre letramento escolarizado, diversidade
linguística e desigualdade social. Inspira-se em tradições semióticas
e marxistas para investigar a diversidade linguística e a desigualdade
social em contextos europeus e norte-americanos contemporâneos.
Enfocando especialmente as práticas de racialização e a dinâmica
das aulas, os argumentos apresentam estudos iniciais sobre línguas
de minorias e escolaridade que contribuem para e contextualizam
um estudo recente sobre a política federal de educação, experiências
de escolarização de imigrantes e hierarquia linguística. Este estudo
baseia-se em pesquisa sociolinguística e etnográfica com famílias
e comunidades migrantes multilíngues e comunidades no norte do
estado de Nova Iorque, com foco específico na experiência de crianças
com repertórios multilíngues e políticas linguísticas monolíngues na
escolarização (COLLINS, 2012). Examinando a política e os debates
federais sobre educação e comparando os processos de interação
em sala de aula, que envolvem diferentes grupos etnolinguísticos,
identifico dois “efeitos de Estado”’ (TROUILLOT, 2001), conforme eles
I- Agradecimentos: versões preliminares operam em diferentes locais institucionais. Defendo que tais efeitos
deste manuscrito foram apresentadas em
são maneiras como os Estados contemporâneos tentam regular aulas
Literacy Practices in the 21st Century, no
Kings College, em Londres, entre 27 e 30 de globalizadas e dinâmicas raciais. Ao moldar sujeitos educacionais
maio de 2012, no Inter-American Symposium
cujas características sociais e linguísticas – e especialmente as
on Ethnographic Research in Education XIII,
na University of California – Los Angeles suas características de classe – são obscurecidas e empregadas em
(UCLA), entre 18 e 20 de septembro de categorizações relacionadas à escola e em processos de comunicação
2013, e num seminário do Departamento
centrados na escola, tais efeitos contribuem para a reprodução
de Linguística, na University of the Western
Cape, em 14 de abril de 2014. Agradeço ao hegemônica das desigualdades sociais, linguísticas e educacionais
público de todos os eventos pelas perguntas
(HYMES, 1996; MENKEN, 2008).
e comentários e a todos os participantes
dos projetos de pesquisa discutidos neste
artigo. Tais projetos receberam apoio do Palavras-chave
National Institute of Education, do Flemish
Academic Centre for Science and the Arts, e
da Spencer Foundation. Por último, agradeço Etnografia — Hegemonia — Indicialidade — Letramento — Migração
a Elsie Rockwell, Katie Anderson-Levitt, e ao
— Multilinguismo — Efeitos de Estado.
parecerista anônimo de Educação e Pesquisa
pelas sugestões editoriais que aperfeiçoaram
a argumentação.
II- University at Albany/SUNY, Albany, NY, EUA.
Contato: [email protected]
1192 http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1517-9702201508144842 Educ. Pesqui., São Paulo, v. 41, n. especial, p. 1191-1210, dez., 2015.
Introduction an ideological model of literacy (STREET, 1984),
which pushed forth both an event-centered
We live in a time of increasing methodology and a set of productive if unsettled
awareness of social inequality, including a questions about power. My studies of literacy
sobering recognition that schools must engage have been motivated by a desire to understand its
the divisions of class inequalities, ethnoracial relationship to social inequality.
stratification and fractionated citizenship My intellectual horizon for understanding
while attempting to draw students’ linguistic inequality – how it comes about, what forms
and social resources into a common project of it takes in everyday life, how it is reproduced,
learning. The studies discussed below examine what opposes or lessens it – has been a Marxian
language difference, schooling practices, tradition encompassing studies of economics
and social dynamics. They are drawn from (HENWOOD, 2003; MARX, 1906), politics
investigations into language use and such topics (GRAMSCI, 1971), language (OHMANN, 1987),
as schooled literacy, the interplay of race and global systems (ARRIGHI, 2011; WALLERSTEIN,
class in minority status, and social reproduction. 1983), and intersections of class, race and gender
My enduring research engagements have (FOLEY 1990; WEIS 1990). Among the subjects
been with language and literacy practices (an that I have studied as a linguistic anthropologist,
educational arena and field of study), linguistic dispossession of linguistic resources has always
anthropology (a research tradition) and social accompanied economic precariousness and
inequality (an ethical-political project as well material scarcity, whether the people concerned
as research area). were Native Americans (COLLINS, 1998),
In my work, prior to the advent of the literacy working-class African-Americans and whites
practices framework,1 the study of literacy events struggling with school in the U.S. (BRANDAU;
was part of an effort to understand institutional COLLINS, 1994; COLLINS, 1999a), or migrants in
processes leading to social reproduction. In this Belgium and the U.S. (COLLINS, 2012; COLLINS;
initial work, I came to ideas of practice through SLEMBROUCK, 2006).
Bourdieu’s work on reproduction as practice In the argument that follows, I briefly
(BOURDIEU; PASSERON, 1977) and have always discuss several studies of literacy and literacy
viewed the study of practice as committed to practices, conceptualized from evolving
investigating the dialectic of the subjective and perspectives within linguistic anthropology
objective in social life and social structures. that illustrate aspects of both social practices
This dual focus on events and structures has and reproductive processes. These studies
been shaped by conceptual frameworks and employ semiotic concepts of indexicality
knowledge commitments originating in Linguistic and ideology to examine how situated
Anthropology as well as what came to be called the communication is linked to differing social-
New Literacy Studies. In particular, my research institutional scales in classroom settings,
has been influenced by Gumperz’ insistence on wider debates about language and education,
the interactive bases of meaning (1982; 1996), and multilingual literacy practices in urban
Silverstein’s work on semiotics and indexicality migrant neighborhoods. A final study,
(1976; 2003) and Hymes’ vision of ethnography presented at greater length, analyzes language
as a critical, democratic mode of knowledge and education policy as social practice. It
(1996), as well as Street’s original formulation of examines the implications of the federal
legislation and implementation of No Child
1- It began with theoretical and methodological commitment to studying Left Behind for English Language Learners
literacy as an event rather than a text (HEATH, 1983), which was also a
(ELLs), a large category of bilingual students
starting point for influential early work in the theory and study of what came
to be called literacy practices (e.g. BAYNHAM, 1995).) in the U.S., many of whom are immigrants.
Educ. Pesqui., São Paulo, v. 41, n. especial, p. 1191-1210, dez., 2015. 1193
It analyzes “state effects” (TROUILLOT, particular ways of reading in events of reading
2001) as they operate in and across differing (COLLINS, 2006[1986]; COOK-GUMPERZ,
institutional sites. I conclude by arguing for 2006 [1986]).
the interplay of theory and ethnography in The primary findings from this research
studying how broader political and institutional were that students classified as “low-ability”
processes interact with language diversity in and “high-ability” had different approaches
and out of schools. to text. These approaches resembled what
was reported in the educational psychology
Perspectives on literacy research literature on the reading styles
practices; or, an evolving of good and poor readers as a lifelong
conceptual framework profile: poor readers conceived of and
performed reading as word-based decoding,
My earliest academic research on literacy and speed and fluency were hallmarks of
emerged from a context where the primary good performance; good or skilled readers
empirical and analytic focus was on the social conceived of reading in terms of meaning,
interaction that accompanied acts of reading or and understanding text content was the
writing. The overall study was the School-Home hallmark of successful reading. A question,
Ethnography Project, which involved year-long not answered in the psychological literature
classroom interaction analyses of classroom on this subject, was how such differences
literacy events as well as research into students’ emerged and persisted. My study was of
social networks and their language use at home first-grade reading groups as they developed
(COOK-GUMPERZ, 2006 [1986]). over the course of a school year. There was
evidence that the different initial orientations
Literacy events and indexes of identity to reading emerged very early and persisted
over the school year. My final analysis was
My study investigated differential that teachers and students socialized each
treatment2 in classroom literacy lessons, based other to different styles of reading. This was
on a year-long study and analysis of tracked in part because we had evidence that students’
or streamed early elementary reading groups. language use, both their use of intonation to
Because I was in regular conversations with segment syntactic and rhetorical units and
educators and sociolinguists Sarah Michaels, their ways of pronouncing English words
Jenny Cook-Gumperz, and John Gumperz, the differed between groups. This seemed to
nature of literacy events, which we discussed influence their interaction with the teacher
as activity types, and the interactional meaning in reading lessons, during which they read
making in such events, which we discussed as aloud from text as well as answered questions
situated inference, were among the primary about meaning.
descriptive and conceptual concerns. So also In 1a and 1b, we see examples of
was a concern with socialization, viewing reading group interaction in which response
teaching and learning as an exchange, to dialect is prominent. Here the effort is to
in which all parties shaped one another’s correct “gahbage can” to “garbage can”,
evolving sense of what reading consisted of as focusing on the presence or absence of post-
over time students learned and teachers taught vocalic R. In the fuller publication, I analyze in
detail what we can see from inspection below:
2- Briefly, differential treatment referred to Civil Rights era school research
reporting that students from working-class and minority backgrounds Concern with regulating pronunciation can
received different instruction from middle-class white students, whether in
distract from the activity of reading (COLLINS
the same schools or, as was typically the case, in urban versus suburban
school districts (e.g. LEACOCK, 1973). 2006[1986], p. 158).
11119944 James COLLINS. Literacy practices, linguistic anthropology and social inequality: ethnographic cases and theoretical...
Figures 1 and 2: exemples of reading group interaction
Source: Collins, 2006.
The implications of the study were several- travel across discursive sites. In that coherence,
fold. First, viewing reading lessons as literacy that inter-discursive trajectory, there is evidence
events orients analysts to the diverse sources of socialization to school identities as “good” or
of meaning making, in the text, in participants’ “poor” readers, and thus as “good” or “poor”
expectations, and in their interactive responses students. Put otherwise, we find evidence of a
to each other. Second, event-based processes pathway for how differential treatment emerges
cohere over time; as we would now say, they and persists, helping to produce distinct literate
Educ. Pesqui., São Paulo, v. 41, n. especial, p. 1191-1210, dez., 2015. 1195
identities. These implications, in turn, raise ensuing national debate, it became clear that
questions about social reproduction, that is, white media elite were resolutely against the
how schooling perpetuates social inequalities proposal that Black English be taught in a
among students; and they raise questions public school and that middle class African
about practice, that is, how mundane, Americans were also opposed, although more
everyday activities are connected to larger- conflicted by the issue.
scale entities, processes, and outcomes. In In late winter of 1997, I took part
the case at hand, the salient question is how in several public forums on the Ebonics
early primary school experiences with literacy controversy at my university and in the wider
can reinforce hierarchies of race and class in community. One was held at the main public
educational attainment. library of the City of Albany. It was organized by
Let me focus on one aspect of this multi- an African-American community organization,
faceted issue, the treatment of nonstandard and featured community speakers, speakers
English, that is, the correction or rejection of from the state Department of Education, and
nonstandard English in classroom settings. I myself as a university academic. Let me first
have examined this issue in historical and give the title of the event, then briefly comment
comparative perspective (COLLINS, 1988); on remarks made, before turning to what I see
explored it in a re-analysis of primary school as the wider significance of both the remarks
responses to dialect, models of reading, and and title. Here’s the forum title (COLLINS,
group interaction, using new empirical material 1999b, p. 208-209):
from Chicago (COLLINS, 1996); and discussed it
as part of a general argument about schooling (2) “Ebonics: legitimate language or gibberish?”
and social reproduction (COLLINS, 2009).
All of these studies explore the interplay of During the forum that night, several
social categories, language use, and language African-American speakers commented on
evaluation. A primary question has been how the controversy and spoke to their affection
responses to class differences in language for Black Speech. One audience member
use, intertwined with ideas about ethnoracial described it as the language she learned from
identities and associated ways of speaking, her mother and family, but she and others on
influence the school project of promoting the panel and in the audience argued also that
universal literacy in Standard English (COLLINS; the vernacular, Ebonics, should be banned from
BLOT 2003). any classroom setting. The conflict between
intimate association and il-legitimate language
Racialized language-ideological was painful and telling.
debates: the Ebonics controversy What I took away from a study of this
event and the wider controversy over Ebonics
A dramatic, public illustration of (COLLINS 1999b) were several points relevant
language conflict over the acceptable varieties for how we think about literacy practices and
of English for public education emerged social inequality. First, language ideologies
in the United States in the winter of 1996- are often about kinds of language and kinds
1997, when the School District of Oakland, of people, and those ideologies shape social
California, proposed to have “Ebonics,” or subjectivities, including intimate domains,
African American Vernacular English, taught such as pride and shame. Second, language-
in the public schools along with Standard ideological debates are conflicts over what
English. A national media furor soon followed Bourdieu called “the linguistic field” (1991,
the Oakland School Board action, and in the p. 57, passim). All fields concern value, often
11119966 James COLLINS. Literacy practices, linguistic anthropology and social inequality: ethnographic cases and theoretical...
hinged on fundamental cultural contrasts indexical ordering. Indexicality rests on a
of good and bad that are themselves rooted principle that the communication of non-
in material inequalities in society. With the referential, non-literal social meaning depends
question “Ebonics: Legitimate Language or on knowledge of “regular relationships
Gibberish?” we pose a stark question of value: between language use and social structure”
whether a major social dialect of American (GUMPERZ, 1968, p. 45). The study of such
English, a primary language variety for tens “regular relationships” has been the bedrock of
of millions working-class African Americans linguistic anthropology, for it underpins both
(MUFWENE et al., 1998), can be a legitimate the normativity and performativity of language
vehicle for acts of learning, for practices of use (GUMPERZ, 1982; SILVERSTEIN, 1976).
reading or writing; or, conversely, whether Language ideology, at its simplest, consists of
Ebonics is gibberish – that is, unintelligible or statements connecting ideas about language
meaningless noise. difference to ideas about social difference,
I suggest that the society-wide dynamics and such ideas are always suffused with moral
of language hierarchy just described – in which judgments as well as political interests (IRVINE;
the variety of English known as Ebonics is GAL, 2000). The Ebonics controversy is a case
forbidden from the fields of education and in point. In recent decades, like much social
legitimate language – must be part of the analysis science research, linguistic anthropologists
of literacy practices. Here I am arguing that the have grappled with the challenge of reconciling
analysis of literacy practices entails both the micro and macro analysis. Semiotic-functional
situated, ethnographic study of literacy events research has benefitted from Silverstein’s
coupled with analysis of inter-event, structuring (2003) clear conceptual argument that we must
principles such as language hierarchization understand interaction to extend beyond face-
(ROGERS, 2003; WORTHAM, 2005). In the to-face processes, involving dialectic relations
two cases discussed so far, such inter-event between situated, micro-analytic processes and
structuring principles are (a) investigated as macro-scale phenomena that, in their real-time
processes unfolding during the ordinary course unfolding, typically produce multiple, layered
of an ordinary school year, in the classroom indexical orders (see also BLOMMAERT, 2005).
reading study, or they are (b) revealed in the Such orders can range, for example, from (a) the
analysis of exceptional, national debates and indexical layers involved in the “social meaning”
conflicts about legitimate language, in which signaled by the habitual classroom correction
an enduring national language hierarchy is of a child’s reading aloud in a nonstandard
challenged and powerfully re-asserted, as in dialect, as in the classroom study above, to
the society-wide controversy over Ebonics in (b) the indexical layers involved in the social
school. Let us note that the hierarchy involves meaning about kinds of language and kinds of
overt issues of class and race in relation to people that is at stake in nation-wide debates
language and education. about legitimate and illegitimate language, as
The field of linguistic anthropology, in the Ebonics controversy. If we add to this
because of its emphasis on situated, semiotic focus Hymes’ vision of ethnography
interactional meaning and its intensive as a critical, democratic mode of knowledge
study of communicative events and inter- (1996), then we have a tradition of linguistic
event structuring principles, has specific anthropology that has contributed much to
contributions to make to educational research the study of communicative events in relation
on literacy practices. The semiotic concept of to wider cultural orders, social structures, and
indexicality is central to the field, as are the historical frames. It is a tradition that shares
related concepts of language ideology and with the study of literacy practices assumptions
Educ. Pesqui., São Paulo, v. 41, n. especial, p. 1191-1210, dez., 2015. 1197
about the communicative underpinnings of background and intentions of sign-makers. We
social orders and a desire to use critical inquiry were fortunate, as the research progressed, to
to make a better world (COLLINS, 2006). literally triangulate: We set up an additional
Although rooted in North American interpreting session with a Flemish man we
Anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology has knew from our fieldwork. His translations and
been enriched by international exchanges. In my commentary similarly combined attention to
personal work, this included collaborating in a joint word choice, spelling, and sign design with
engagement with both Linguistic Anthropology assumptions about social background and
and Critical Discourse Analysis (BLOMMAERT communicative intention, which he framed in
et al., 2001). In addition, for several years in the terms of a discourse about native/migrant ethnic
last decade, I was fortunate enough to collaborate relations in Belgium. He arrived at different
with both Jan Blommaert and Stef Slembrouck on interpretations from the other two, whose
studies of multilingualism and literacy practices in interpretations had differed from each other.
immigrant neighborhoods in Belgium, which we What this variation in response to the
presented and debated at forums and conferences same sets of Turkish and Dutch shop signs led
in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK and us to investigate were the indexical meanings
the US (BLOMMAERT; COLLINS; SLEMBROUCK, associated with varieties of Turkish, varieties
2005a, b; COLLINS; SLEMBROUCK, 2005, 2006, of Dutch, and the juxtaposition of Turkish and
2007, 2009). Dutch. Briefly, the Turkish academic, Meryem,
read the Turkish of the signs in terms of an
Literacy practices and indexical orders Istanbul educated standard, seeing evidence in
the linguistic form of the signs that the writers of
One study which came out of the work the signs were of rural, Anatolian, uneducated
in Belgium concerned multilingual shop signs, origins. Our Turkish-Belgian consultant, Nežat,
a phenomena that Slembrouck and I had first examined features of Dutch as well as Turkish in
encountered, noted variations in, and puzzled the same signs, interpreting variations in signs
over, during early ethnographic forays into the as indicating variations in the multilingual
working-class immigrant neighborhoods that repertoire of sign makers, which in turn
ring the Flemish city of Ghent. “Reading shop indexed the signer makers’ length of residence
windows: Multilingual literacy practices and in Belgium, and their membership in different
indexicality” (COLLINS; SLEMBROUCK, p. 2007) immigrant networks. Our Flemish consultant,
examined how different readers made sense Herman, interpreted the orthographic, lexical,
of the multilingual shop signs encountered and design features of signs as indexing both
in the immigrant neighborhoods we studied. the kinds of immigrants who operated a given
Having decided to focus on signs that featured shop or enterprise and the state of immigrant/
Turkish and Dutch, we obtained translations native ethnic relations in a given Flemish city.
of a set of Turkish and Dutch bilingual signs In the interests of space, I will not discuss
from a visiting Turkish scholar, and then later particular examples and analyses further (see
obtained translations of the same signs from COLLINS; SLEMBROUCK, 2007), but the lesson
a Belgian-Turkish community activist who we drew from the alternative interpretations of
lived in one of the neighborhoods of our study. Meryem, Nežat and Herman is that all reading
We were intrigued by the ways in which our is a contextualized practice utilizing diverse
two Turkish-speaking interpreters attended frames of interpretation. Such frames may be
simultaneously to features of spelling, word organised, inter alia, by assumptions about
choice and grammar in the Turkish and Dutch geographic scale, as in Meryem’s contrast
signs, as well as to textual signals of the social between rural and urban varieties; historic
11119988 James COLLINS. Literacy practices, linguistic anthropology and social inequality: ethnographic cases and theoretical...
social relationships, as in Nežat’s evoking of inequality of education nonetheless contributes
migration histories to account for varieties of to such inequality.
Turkish and Dutch; or combined linguistic- As stated in the introductory remarks, I
grammatical norms and sociolinguistic think the intellectual horizon for thinking about
typifications, as Jef, in particular, utilized. In inequality remains the Marxist legacy. It offers
addition, and this will provide a bridge to our two lessons pertinent to thinking about literacy
last study, language contact is seen in terms of practices in the current century:
class and ethnoracial differences and conflict. •Lesson one: Historical capitalism,
In their readings of multilingual shop in all its variety, is organized into global
signs, our consultants were drawing upon systems that, in turn, generate a multiply-
widely-shared views of the contemporary world, tiered ranking of regions and nations. Part of
in which large-scale working-class migrations its restless dynamism is the construction and
and multilingual language practices are seen transformation of spatio-temporal scales. These
alternately and simultaneously through lenses have been fruitfully explored by sociologists
of class and race. For Meryem, immigrants were (WALLERSTEIN, 1983) economists (ARRIGHI,
seen as the uneducated, rural poor; for Herman, 2011) and anthropologists (FRIEDMAN, 2003).
Turkish immigrants were an ethnoracial threat Sociolinguists have investigated how time-
to Flemish livelihoods and ways of life, as space scales comprise highly-differentiated
Turkish was a rival to Dutch. Despite Belgium’s relations of verticality, that is, hierarchies or
vaunted reputation as a multilingual society, the inequalities, reflected in national and global
Francophone and Dutch-speaking regions each sociolinguistic fields (BLOMMAERT, 2010;
insist on official monolingualism, especially in COLLINS; SLEMBROUCK; BAYNHAM 2009).
education (BLOMMAERT, 2005). Although we •Lesson two: Language plays a vital role
have not yet discussed it, it usually takes the in forms of consciousness and structures of
work of a state to preserve the dominance of perception in class societies. This role has been
monolingual Standard language registers in conceptualized and analyzed as “structures of
the face of sociolinguistic diversity wrought feeling”, in Williams (1977) formulation; as
by regional histories, transnational migrations, “habitus”, in Bourdieu’s (1977) terminology;
class divisions, and ethnoracial hierarchies. and as “hegemony”, in Gramsci’s (1971)
In Literacy & Literacies, Collins & Blot important conception of the inextricability of
(2003) provide a historical account of how state state and civil society.
classifying practices influence literacy, attending
closely to the dynamics of class, race and gender Language diversity and education
hierarchies in the history of public schooling policy: a contextualized analysis of state
in the U.S. In the last case, presented below, I effects as literacy practice
argue that contemporary efforts to preserve the
dominance of monolingual Standard English in In an essay “Report from an
public schooling in the United States emerge Underdeveloped Country: Towards Linguistic
from a politics of racialized language difference Competence in the U.S.”, Hymes provides a
(CRAWFORD, 2000; ZENTELLA, 1997) with frank discussion of what he termed “cultural
effects that operate across different social hegemony” through language:
scales, selectively dispossessing speakers whose
primary languages are other than English from The heart of the matter, I have suggested,
linguistic resources relevant for learning and is that language has been a central medium
literacy. We will examine how educational of cultural hegemony in the United
policy explicitly presented as a way to combat States. Class stratification and cultural
Educ. Pesqui., São Paulo, v. 41, n. especial, p. 1191-1210, dez., 2015. 1199
assumptions about language converge open to ethnography, since we discover
in school to reproduce the social order. that, theoretically, there is no necessary site
A latent function of the educational for the state, institutional or geographical.
system is to instill linguistic insecurity, Within that vision, the state thus appears
to discriminate linguistically, to channel as an open field with multiple boundaries
children in ways that have an integral and no institutional fixity—which is to say
linguistic component, while appearing open that it needs to be conceptualized at more
and fair to all (HYMES, 1996 [1975], p. 84). than one level (TROUILLOT, 2001, p. 127).
This is a blunt statement of social In what follows, I will examine empirical
reproduction and schooling, and it still seems materials, focused on the federal legislation No
accurate many years after it was first presented. Child Left Behind (NCLB) and its consequences
However, it needs reworking conceptually and operating “at more than one level” in the
empirically if we want to investigate how “class educational system. Taking inspiration from
stratification and cultural assumptions converge Menken’s (2008) excellent study of the multiple
in schools” in the 21st century or if we want to effects of NCLB on English Language Learners
examine “latent function[s] of the educational in New York City schools, I will argue the
system” after several decades of economic federal legislation, and its testing regimes, and
restructuring, shrinking support for public its realization in classroom practices comprise
education, and recurrent controversies over de facto language policy. Such state practices
culture, identity, language, and citizens’ rights. channel children, devaluing and excluding the
In an essay on the anthropology of linguistically diverse, thus serving what Hymes’
the state, Trouillot (2001) raises two issues termed a “latent function of the educational
relevant for such conceptual and empirical system,” but doing so across multiple social-
reworking. The first concerns Gramsci’s original linguistic scales and through what Trouillot
conceptualization of hegemony and the need to terms “state effects”.
think about the state as well as culture or society: By state effects Trouillot means the
decentralized practices through which political
Gramsci’s insist[s] on thinking state and and cultural subjectivities are shaped in
civil society together by way of concepts relation to sharpening national and trans-
such as hegemony and historical bloc […]. national inequalities, especially those of race
I read Gramsci as saying that, within the and class. Two effects discussed by Trouillot
context of capitalism, theories of the state are relevant for the data and themes of this
must cover the entire social formation and paper. First, there is an isolation effect, the
articulate the relation between state and “production of atomized individual subjects
civil society (TROUILLOT, 2011, p. 127). molded and modeled for governance as part
of an undifferentiated but specific ‘public’…”
Second, Trouillot argues that in our era of (TROUILLOT, 2001, p. 126). I argue below
globalization, we cannot assume that nation and that the category English Language Learner
state are simply equivalent and this non-equivalence within No Child Left Behind legislation and
has implications for how we conceptualize and implementation produces just such an isolation
study state processes and powers: effect. Second, there is an identification
effect, processes that align individuals within
If we suspend the state-nation homology, collectivities, whatever the complexities of
as I suggest we should, we reach a more their actual lives and histories. We will consider
powerful vision of the state, yet one more below how class- and race-sensitive models
11220000 James COLLINS. Literacy practices, linguistic anthropology and social inequality: ethnographic cases and theoretical...