Teaching School Discourse for Empowering Literacy
After having read and reflected on Finn’s Literacy with an Attitude, the major theme that resonated for me throughout the text was the necessity to explicitly teach school discourse so that every child, regardless of class or primary discourse, receives empowering literacy.
While reading Finn’s text, I often found myself connecting to many of the characters and situations within the text. I saw myself both, as the middle class student and as the educator teaching working class students. Many emotions arose within me while reading, two of which were anger and embarrassment. I found myself angry and resented the fact that my early education was founded on functional literacy because of my social class while other kids in the same city were receiving liberating and empowering literacy essentially because of where they lived and who their parents were. Finn revealed the fact that not everyone receives the same type of education. I thought my school experience was the norm and that my educational experiences mimicked those of others in the city. I know now, that was not the case. Now, as an educator in a low socio-economic community, I find myself, at times, subconsciously repeating the same mentality as those of the “working class” teachers in various studies. As a special education teacher, at times, I give my students what I think they can handle and the “basics” that they need to function in life. Obviously, Finn has turned the spotlight on me and now I am embarrassed and a little ashamed of the fact that I think and act in this fashion. However, in Finn’s text it states, “Savage inequalities in schools are not the result of a conscious conspiracy to oppress the working class. These inequalities are the result of system-wide, subtle mechanisms of which most of us are completely unaware and that can only be addressed through organized collective efforts.” (Finn, 190)
From all the readings, I have realized the importance of exposing our students to critical literacy and assisting them in becoming critical thinkers so that they can have access and success, both at school and in the future. How do we ensure that we are providing our students with the empowering literacy Finn talks about? We, as educators need to start our teaching from where the children are. Every child comes to school with a primary discourse. This unique and diverse discourse represents each child’s personal history and biography. What is suggested in many of the course texts is that we must sincerely validate each child’s primary discourse (which in and of itself may reflect some type of critical thinking) and use it as a foundational building block. By doing this, we are allowing our children to create knowledge from their experiences and their own lives which is essential and personally relevant to them. Validating and honouring children’s primary discourses also leads to a sense of reciprocal trust. Students trust that their teachers truly care about them as individuals and about their success and teachers trust that the students have the potential to succeed. As teachers, “We are here to consider how we can best serve the whole child in each of our students.” (Finn, 24)
However, let’s not deny the fact that school discourse and powerful literacy, unequivocally facilitates and fosters success in the world. Finn states that if primary discourse is in direct conflict to school discourse, this is when we encounter problems in our educational system. Children who don’t and/or can’t relate to the curriculum because they do not see its significance or purpose in their own lives or find it challenging to make personal connections to it, become disengaged and frustrated with school. Therefore, once we validate and incorporate a child’s primary discourse in our teaching styles, we must then explicitly teach school discourse. We have to engage our students through progressive education and we have to truly understand that traditional methods no longer suffice and cannot lead to critical literacy. Through progressive education, we are encouraging and enabling our students to become critical thinkers. The curriculum may already be set and we may not have any say in the content, however, the manner in which it is presented should be open for discussion, interpretation and it should directly reflect the diverse needs of our students. Also, we can no longer assume that powerful literacy is going to occur naturally. “Teachers teach performative and functional literacy and think it leads naturally to powerful literacy. They are baffled and blame their students when it does not.” (Finn, 127) When we explicitly teach school discourse and powerful literacy, we are giving all students an equal opportunity at an empowering and liberating education. What this means to me is that we, as educators, need to, at times, relinquish some of our power and agenda over to the students. This will help ensure that there is more collaboration between teachers and students which consequently will allow the students to realize that they have a powerful voice in their own education.
Fighting any injustice or inequality is not a one-person endeavour. For powerful literacy to occur, everyone associated with or has a vested interest in the education of our children, needs to work collectively with a similar mindset. It is very difficult to foster and promote empowering literacy when other members of a school community are promoting and teaching “old basics literacy”. As a regular classroom teacher, it was always interesting that early in September I could determine which teacher taught the students the previous year. Within our school board, as with many others, we are focusing on Teaching Learning Critical Pathways (TLCP). All teachers have been in-serviced regarding the process and the potential benefits that accompany such a process. Yes, indeed there are limitations and pitfalls to every new strategy or program that is presented as a “cure” to the literacy problem. However, how disheartening and even, shall I say narrow-minded, it is when we as educators outright refuse to implement any part of the process. Comments like, “That may work in such and such a neighbourhood but it’ll never work with our kids.” and “Let’s just teach these kids the basics and forget about all the frill.” truly don’t reflect an empowering and liberating education. Do we have the right to give up on our students and lower our expectations of them because of their social class and/or their learning disabilities? Not to see any potential or advantage that might arise from a new perspective reflects the idea that, “To be certain is to deny that there is space beyond the circle of our own knowledge.” (MacGinitie, 678) By thinking in this manner, we are continuing to create functionally literate student who may become disengaged in school and who don’t see the value or necessity for higher level thinking skills. How fair is this to our working class and/or low socio-economic students who may already be at a disadvantage? With this “old basics” mindset, are we not just perpetuating the same cycle and “self-defeating” attitude in our students and then becoming frustrated and anger when the same attitude resurfaces in the offsprings of our former students?
From my personal experiences, I have come to realize what a challenging yet essential life skill critical thinking is. Therefore, if I, as a fairly educated adult, am struggling with the process of thinking critically, how much more difficult is it for our children? Shouldn’t we as professionals be the voice for our students if their parents are not able to fight the injustice or don’t even know that it exists? “Often, however, this anger if not driven in on ourselves, or converted to despair, can become an illuminating force: the terms of the struggles for equal opportunity ……” (Rich, 66-67)
If we accept and understand the notion that texts and the world are never neutral and that we approach every situation from our own position, we also have to understand that language is our most powerful way of expressing our ideas to the rest of the world. “Proper literacy should extend a man’s control over his life and environment and allow him to continue to deal rationally and in words with his life and decisions.” (O’Neil, 77) If this is what we want every student to aspire to, shouldn’t we, as educators, do everything in our power to help our children receive the empowering and liberating education they all rightfully deserve? Allow me to conclude with a quote that will forever remain with me and that continually encourages me to put my students first, “I’d like to hope that a child’s expectations are not determined on the day he or she enters kindergarten, but it would be foolish to entertain such a hope unless there are some drastic changes made.” (Finn, 25)
