I sent my paper to my discussant for the Literacy Research Association last night and now I can concentrate on teaching graduate students tomorrow night, observing a colleague teaching a history methods course right after, and preparing for my two presentations at the NWP Annual Meeting on Thursday. Here's a taste of the twenty-page paper written for LRA in Dallas in two weeks - don't call all your publishers at once.
The lack of formal education and
the relocation of my participants are historically connected to colonialism,
the scramble for Africa by European nations during imperialism, and the
economic involvement of the U.S. in African nations after World War II and
throughout the Cold War. The young men had experiences, knowledge, histories,
and insight before arriving to the U.S., but needed a safe space in which to
share what they knew. This space should be classrooms within American schools:
locations that build community, Ubuntu, for all students. They can be who they
are because of the way we are together. For these reasons, teachers need more
professional development to help them learn the history of youth populations they
serve (Roxas, 2008, 2010). My findings concur with Njue and Retish’s (2010)
argument that
to alleviate the challenges that
teachers face when teaching diverse students is to institute an ongoing teacher
training program in order for teachers and administrators to keep abreast of
changes within the student body. (p. 368)
Teachers need more training on the diverse languages used by
youth in the United States and the histories of world cultures that are
changing classroom demographics.
I collapse when I finish items at the bottom of my list and then laugh that in the back of my mind I create even more to do now that this work is complete. But it's Tuesday, tomorrow is Boston, and I am looking forward to learning from many of my friends across the nation. And breathe.
No comments:
Post a Comment