This case study examines the ways in which an elementary school teacher drew upon her own multilingual, multicultural and racial identities and those of her students in developing her pedagogy within the classroom (Hall, 1990; Hall & du Gay, 1996; Norton, 2000; Peirce, 1995; Pavlenko & Blackledge, 2004; Toohey, Manyak & Day, 2007). As a result of this focus, the teacher in this study made a number of curricular modifications in her teaching, including the creation of dual language identity texts also referred to in this case study as the dual language book projects (See Cummins' definition below).
The focus of this study is on the teaching practices of Perminder Sandhu, a grade 4 elementary school teacher that centre on integrating students' cultural and linguistic identities into the curriculum. In this case study we discuss the modifications that Perminder made in her teaching based on a multiliteracies approach and how her teaching practice impacted her students' interactions around their linguistic and cultural identities. We also explore the ways in which this focus extended beyond her classroom into a wider school based discussion of what multiliteracies means for other teachers and in particular demonstrate the kinds of teaching partnerships made possible by the dual language identity text projects.
The purpose of this research collaboration was: a) to observe and document Perminder's work on students' multilingual and multicultural identities (e.g., through the creation of dual language identity texts); b) to document the conversations amongst teachers based on multiliteracies; and c) to examine the types of interactions between teachers, students and their families in the school when students' and their families linguistic and cultural capital were used for literacy engagement in English and their home languages.
The research questions that guided this study were:
The research questions above connect to the research claims developed by the Toronto-based Multiliteracies Project team. These were based on the data produced and preliminary analysis of our work in the Greater Toronto Area schools. These claims stipulate that:
As noted, these claims state the importance of students', and their families', linguistic and cultural capital to build their knowledge of English. Thus, enabling students with even minimal knowledge of English to express their "linguistic talents, intelligence and imagination" (Cummins et al. 2005). Dual language identity texts are a powerful example of the way teachers, students, and parents can work together as valued members of the school learning community. These texts are defined as: "any student artifact whether it be multimodal, visual or text-based that provide a venue for students to express themselves and to see their identity reflected back to them and to a wider audience." (Skourtou, Kourtis-Kazoullis & Cummins, in press)
Coppard Glen is an elementary school (K-8) in the York Region School Board situated in the Greater Toronto Area. This is an area that has seen a high influx of new immigrants, particularly from South Asian and South East Asian communities such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and China. The school is located within an established middle-class neighbourhood, where multiple families live in single dwelling homes.
Coppard Glen was established over ten years ago and has grown during that time to a population of approximately 700 students who are multi-racial, multilingual, multicultural and multi-faith. At the time of the study, there were approximately 40-45 teachers, who were predominantly Anglo-Canadian, and only 12 racial and/or linguistic minority teachers.
Although there are a variety of first languages spoken by students at Coppard Glen, the four most commonly spoken in the school are: Tamil, Punjabi, Urdu and Cantonese. Students bring to school diverse cultures, religions and varying degrees of L1 literacies, and English language skills.
The effects of globalization can be seen across Canadian urban schools in the form of rapidly increasing linguistic and cultural diversity. Statistics Canada projections estimate that by 2017 more than half the populations of Canada's major cities will be of non-European origin. In Toronto (and the GTA) schools, more than half the student population comes from non-English-speaking.
In the 21st century, new forms of literacy or multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996) have emerged that are associated with multimedia technologies as well as more culturally-specific forms of literacy associated with complex pluralistic societies and an information-based economy (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000).
In this study, as well as the broader project, we articulate options for policy and practice at the level of the local school in relation to our growing linguistic, cultural diversity and the impact of technology in an emergent globalized context that calls for a multiliterate workforce. The options we propose communicate to families the significance of home language development as a foundation for growth in English (or French) literacy and as an important skill to maintain. The overarching purpose of this study has been to demonstrate that literacy work in the children's first languages is a means of realizing the benefits of multilingualism for individual students, their families, and Canadian society.
This case study reports on an action research collaboration between Perminder Sandhu and Frances Giampapa[1] a university based researcher at OISE/UT. This research partnership was developed over the course of approximately two years. Perminder Sandhu has been teaching for over twenty years and has taught in the UK and Canada. She is multilingual (e.g., she writes and speaks English, Punjabi, Hindi; speaks Urdu and has a basic written knowledge of it) and of Sikh background. Perminder was born in India, raised in the UK and now resides in Canada. At the time of the research study, Perminder had been teaching at Coppard Glen for seven years.
The methodology followed an ethnographic case study model utilizing a variety of data collection methods including: videography, classroom participant observations, field-notes, and open-ended and semi-structured interviews. The principles underpinning this methodology focused on not only providing 'thick description' (Geertz, 1973) of the case study site and it's participants but on documenting with a critical lens the way in which issues of language, identity, race, religion are taken up across the school and within the classroom. Students must navigate through a variety of messages communicated to them about their home languages in the English-medium classroom. It was vital to document and interpret their experiences, and the experiences of their teachers.
Specifically, the university researcher: a) made bi-weekly visits to the school and documented both outside and inside the school context and the surrounding community using a digital camera/video camera; b) was a participant-observer in Perminder's classroom, videotaping and digitally recording classroom discussions and activities; c) documented students' work by taking digital pictures and video recordings and collected samples of students' work; d) attended and participated in the Multiliteracies committee meetings (see below for a detailed description), which took place face to face, as well as online, when teachers reflected and wrote about their own linguistic and cultural experiences, and their identities as teachers in connection to their pedagogy; e) conducted semi-structured interviews with Perminder, other Multiliteracies Committee teachers, students and parents; f) attended school wide activities such as school concerts.
This project was a close collaboration where both researchers worked together to design pedagogical tasks that explored issues of identity, power, language and culture. We analyzed students' written, visual and oral work and shared each other's research and pedagogical knowledge, as well as our own personal experiences of being multilingual, and part of a minority group in Canada.
In response to school demographics coupled with the initiation of the Multiliteracy project, one of the initiatives that took place was the formation of a Multiliteracies committee at Copparad Glen. Perminder has taken a leadership role on the teacher Multiliteracies committee. The committee brought together twelve teachers from diverse linguistic, cultural, racial and religious backgrounds and grade levels. They defined their purpose as:
Through a multiliteracies pedagogy, the teachers wanted to bring students' linguistic and cultural identities to the fore of their classrooms. They started to explore the terrain of what it means to be a multilingual, multicultural, multiracial and multi-faith student population at Coppard Glen by first documenting and deconstructing their beliefs and their multiple identities, including their linguistic and cultural experiences. The following section documents this journey.
This committee's first step was to explore and write about their own linguistic and cultural experiences and how this connects to their students' experiences, and what this in turn means for their teaching. Many had themselves experienced shame and marginalization in relation to their language and culture in the educational context. This is poignantly captured in one teacher's reflection:
As a student, I remember, only too vividly the trauma of walking into a class where I didn't understand much of what went on, of being very afraid, bewildered and de-skilled. My rich resource of my first language accumulated over 13 years [had] suddenly been rendered redundant. Children in these situations are left to sink or swim. I do not want that to happen to my students in my class or in my school. Teacher reflections
Dismantling feelings of disempowerment engendered by having to leave identities and languages at the school door were central to this teacher groups' mandate. Some of the teachers' own experiences with these issues was a driving force in their impulse to find ways to value their students' linguistic and cultural capital, and to use it as a pedagogical resource.
Perminder and other teachers from Coppard Glen, who were interested in pursuing a multiliteracies focus, asked students in different grade levels to reflect on their first languages (L1) and write about how they felt about using their L1's in school. When the teachers met to discuss students' responses, they were surprised by the overwhelmingly negative connotation that students had toward L1 use in the school context.
What began as an exploration of teacher identities around language and culture developed into a snapshot of students' feelings around issues of language and difference as reflected through their multilingualism. Teachers documented students' reflections on language and culture across the different grade levels at Coppard Glen. These reflections or student narratives were reproduced on a 12 ft poster. Student reflections
The narratives reflect students' feelings of linguistic and cultural marginalization within this school. The students expressed feeling that they are not permitted' to bring their multiple identities and literacies onto school grounds. Students also expressed the power that being enabled to speak their first language in the school context has for them. One student captures this perspective in simple and clear terms. He describes the importance of language in the construction of his identities, in the creation of his voice within the school context, and what it means to be given permission' to speak his languages. He states:
I feel that when I speak my first language I will be accepted not rejected. If I had the permission to speak my first language, I will feel confident, free, feel like I can catch a dream and run with it.(Grade 4).
This notion of permission weaves through the discourse of language, identities and power within this school. Regardless of the fact that Coppard has a highly diverse minority student population with multiple languages, Perminder states that students never hear their languages. Perminder discusses the conflicting messages that students are given about their linguistic and cultural identities in the following video clip. She states:
On the PA, they hardly ever hear their teachers, their mainstream teachers wanting to learn even a few words of that language and there's all kinds of covert messages that children are internalising and it takes me a very long time to get them to open up. (Colloquium Video, 2004).
What is salient to note here is the important role that mainstream (i.e., the white, monolingual) teachers play and the power that they hold in co-constructing images of their students that encourage and promote their linguistic and cultural capital within the school.
Perminder comments further on this point during one of our interviews. She states that:
"Because I am of the SAME group when I encourage them, you know, children still think that, Oh, she's a minority teacher so it's okay. It's safe to use languages with her. Oh we can see why she is sympathetic and shy she wants to foster this cultural understanding' but, you know, a small effort on the part -- because a white teacher is a symbol of larger society out there. So those teachers learning one or two words of their first languages is going to do just as much as ME trying to foster their use of first language. So it's people like that are NOT in a powerless situation?I think that people can do a lot but it's in their attitude and what they're willing, how they're willing to look at this issue and what they think education is all about." (Int. Nov 23 04, p. 15).
In this instance Perminder's discourse connects to the politics of location and challenges the way in which at the macro-societal level, discourses of language and power that privilege white, monolingual, monocultural agents have been manifested in schools and across classrooms. Through this act of naming Perminder does exactly what Borsa (1990) states, [2] that is, "to be able to name our location, to politicize and to question where our particular experiences and practice fit within the articulations and representations that surround us."
What Perminder strongly highlights through her comments is the fact that it is not the sole responsibility of minority teachers in the school to make the effort to reach out to multilingual, multicultural students. Instead, she acknowledges the coercive societal relations of power (see Cummins, 2001) that are at play where "white" privilege exists and affirms the impact that the white monolingual teachers would make if they were to reach out to these students. Reaching out to these students means going beyond the "holidays and heroes" (Banks, 1994) scenarios where lip service is given under the guise of multiculturalism' to include the voices of minority students and their families but to make languages audible and to include students' funds of knowledge into the English-medium classroom.
In Perminder's discourse this notion of "permission" goes beyond allowing students to talk in their home languages. She questions the role of the teacher as the linguistic gatekeeper who allows or disallows home language use to take place. In her view it is about enabling students, fostering and nurturing their linguistic and cultural capital. Thus taking ownership of the linguistic space within the school community.
Teachers and students at Coppard Glen struggle to carve out a space where multilingual/multicultural voices are made audible, are recognized and are drawn on within the learning contexts of the English medium classroom.
Perminder's transformative and critical pedagogy is fuelled by her own multiple identities and the politics around her self-positioning as a 'black woman' and as a cultural and religious minority. Her own experiences of linguistic and cultural marginalization feed her pedagogy. This drives her need to access her students' realities -- that is, to tap into not only their academic reality, but their social reality and their psychological reality' (Int. Nov 23 04, p.1) in order to create spaces for the development of deeper level thinking' (ibid).
As Bransford, Brown & Cocking (2000) note, deeper levels of understanding are necessary for the transferring of knowledge across contexts. Instruction for "deep understanding" entails the development of critical literacy. Thus, enabling students to read between the lines and gain insight into how knowledge and power intersect (Cummins, 2005).
Pedagogically, Perminder has brought her identities and those of her students into the classroom through a number of different means.
Firstly, she has co-created a space with her students where languages other than English are audible and cultural artifacts are visible. Poetry and art become the textual vehicles through which critical discussions on identity, language, race and difference are tackled. The classroom becomes a space that affirms student identities and challenges the mainstream curriculum. Thus this goes far beyond a token gesture of "dressing up" the classroom with students' cultural artifacts as a show and tell activity. Instead, they become entry points for deeper level discussions that allow students to reflect and articulate their thoughts around different topics (hyperlink to general classroom shots).
Secondly, she focused on what she calls her 'identity work' in her classroom. Part of this was initiated through collaborative work between Perminder and the university researcher that aimed at understanding students' self-positioning and self-concept. Activities were created that asked students to critically explore their identities, language, and culture through curricular topics such as bullying, war and peace. (Link to slide on identity poster wide shot). Students created multi-modal self-representations and deconstructed what it means to be multilingual, multicultural, and racially and religiously diverse. The following picture shows a display created by the students over a period of time that combines art and a multilingual open dictionary with words that describe who they are in a positive and affirming light. (link to slide on identity poster close up with words shown)
This was part of a series of activities that focused on self-concept by asking students write about, articulate, and visually represent how they see others and how they see themselves. At every stage, Perminder had students share their thoughts in a post-activity, whole-class discussion venue in order to deconstruct the activity for students and to have students think critically on how words and the use of words to describe how others see us can cut down or boost one's self-concept.
Thirdly, through dual language identity texts students engaged on a cognitive, affective and creative level to produce authentic texts that affirmed their multiple identities through multiliterate practices. The following sections focus on two dual language text initiatives that took place during the 2003/04 and 2004/05 school years.
In many ways Perminder created the conditions where student experiences are given a voice. Students are able to give meaning to their dreams, desires, fears, and subject positions that they hold. As bell hooks states: "Awareness of the need to speak, to give voice to the varied dimensions of our lives, is one way [to begin] the process of education for critical consciousness" (cit. in Giroux 1992, 169-170). Giroux (1992: 170) goes on to expand that "educators need to approach learning not merely as the acquisition of knowledge but as the production of cultural practices that offer students a sense of identity, place, and hope". Perminder's pedagogy weaves L1 language, culture, and identity throughout. She works to move beyond a surface treatment of these issues that impact deeply on students' sense of self-esteem and sense of place in the world beyond her classroom.
Perminder began the dual language identity text project with her grade four class in 2003. It is a testament to her commitment to enabling her students to flourish and take ownership of their multilingual literacies.
As part of the Language Arts curriculum where students are learning about writing stories and publishing them, Perminder wanted to find a way to develop students' sense of pride in their first languages and to challenge them to deconstruct and appreciate their out of school literacies, and their own and their peer's cultural and linguistic diversity. To this end she brought in published books in students' home languages, led discussions with her class about students' languages and culture and developed a dual language writing project that would give students a purposeful reason for writing in their first language. Also, she introduced students to other dual language books completed at Thornwood school[3]. Students were given the opportunity to self-select book themes and to write in the languages of their choice.
For example, one dual language book written in Chinese and English told a story about family conflict -- 2 families who didn't get along and then were shipwrecked on an Island and had to work together understanding each other's different perspectives and cultural backgrounds.The Island Adventure
Perminder based the student pairings on factors that included the children's social-emotional levels, literacy and language strengths in their first language and English. For the students it was the first time that they were actively engaging in multiliterate practices in their L1 and English. Perminder recounted that students who were afraid to use their L1 language in the classroom were now working with multilingual dictionaries (e.g., babel fish), and simultaneously translating between English and their home languages.
Perminder enlisted the help of one parent (Mrs. Chowdry) to help translate texts in Punjabi. An example of this work can be seen in the following slide, which shows the outcome of one dual language text by two grade 4 students -- Sunny and Jananan. This text was also conceived as a multilingual text incorporating both first languages of the two male students, that is, Punjabi and Tamil respectively. However, the example of "The Hook" that you will see is in English and Tamil authored by Jananan The Hook . In creating this text, Jananan speaks about simultaneously translating English/Tamil, and collaborating with his partner on the textual and visual components of the book. (Go to Jananan video)
These dual language texts offer an opportunity for students to bring their linguistic and cultural capital to the forefront of their learning. This case study points to the importance of harnessing students' out-of school literacy skills and communicative practices to support academic attainment, and how this takes shape through the production of multimodal dual language identity texts. As Cummins (2005) notes once produced, either individually or through groups work, these texts hold a mirror up to the student in which his or her identity is reflected back in a positive light. Students invest their identities in these texts, which then become ambassadors of students' identities. When students share identity texts with multiple audiences (peers, teachers, parents, grandparents, sister classes, the media, etc.) they are likely to receive positive feedback and affirmation of self in interaction with these audiences (p. ?).
These identity texts take on greater meaning for both teachers and students and can be seen as a form of resistance when contrasted to the provincial-wide, test- driven curriculum model of teaching. Teachers and students struggle in a context where the default curricular option aligns literacy with English only, where little space is given to students', and parents' linguistic and cultural capital, where there is a disjuncture between school expectation and parental involvement, and where there is sporadic and disconnected use of technology.
Instead, when teachers and students create an interpersonal space within the English-medium classroom, where students' linguistic and cultural identities are permitted to enter, thus challenging educational power dynamics, identity options are created and re-created for students' to claim. This opens up the possibility for collaborative engagement in learning that leads to cognitive development and academic achievement (Cummins 2001). As Cummins states (2001: 44-45): "micro-interactions between educators, students and communities are never neutral; in varying degrees, they either reinforce coercive relations of power or collaborative relations of power. In the former case, they contribute to the disempowerment of culturally diverse students and communities; in the latter the micro-interactions constitute a process of empowerment that enables educators, students and communities to challenge the operation of coercive power structures".
In this case study, we show the importance of acknowledging teachers' and students' linguistic and cultural identities and how that becomes an instructional resource.
The creation of these texts encourages the co-construction of knowledge and multiple dialogues between teacher-student, student-student, and student-parents-teachers. These texts actively incorporate children's first language skills, enhance metalinguistic awareness and development, and enable students' identities to be part of their learning process.
The success of the initial project was reproduced in a cross-grade class collaboration that took place between grade 4s and grade 7s in 2004/2005. Joanne, a grade 7 teacher and Perminder brought their classes together to have their students jointly create dual language books.
As in Perminder's dual language text project, the main research claims for this partnership focused on the beliefs that:
Jo-Anne noted that she was intrigued by Perminder's work with her students and the dual language texts they produced. She explained that when the Multiliteracies Committee's discussion focused on potential projects for the following year she said:
"My eyes lit up and I thought lets try the writing buddies and do a dual text". Perminder's previous experience of doing cross-grade partnerships between elementary and high school had been a fruitful and rewarding experience for teachers and students. She explained the importance of drawing in the older students:
"When children get older they become even more reluctant to use their first languages or to relate with their cultures, like, you know, more distancing happens. Whereas the younger ones are much more spontaneous and you can mould them with reasonable sort of instruction and help. So I thought if we do this and, um, particularly in view of the comments we've had from children in the past, which recorded on our graffiti sheet the large one. So we thought, we do need to raise the level of awareness of languages diversity that's in the school so this would be an IDEAL project, which would fit right in with our Multiliteracies Project aims. AND would ALSO go hand in hand with our literacy focus in school, which is, um, now we're looking at oracy, development of children's writing, impact on their reading. Those are the kinds of things that were under the microscope anyway but this gave us an added incentive I guess to REALLY examine our own practice" (Perminder and Jo-Anne Int. 2005).
Both Jo-Anne and Perminder highlight the importance of creating opportunities for students to draw on their linguistic and cultural capital. Their interest built on the successes of initiatives such as reading buddies coupled with a focus on raising linguistic diversity as a resource in the school. Perminder highlights the distancing that takes place as students get older and feel reluctant to use their L1 languages and cultures. She draws attention to the comments expressed by students on the graffiti sheet. As noted earlier, this is a 12-foot banner that documents students' comments regarding language and culture. As noted earlier, students' narratives reflect, at times the unease felt with being allowed to use their L1's in the classroom.
Both Perminder and Jo-Anne believed that by exploring how grade 4 and 7 students work together as writing buddies to create dual language stories it would build on each students' linguistic and cultural capital. While the infusion of students' linguistic and cultural capital into the English-medium curriculum was a primary focus of this project, it also explored how collaborative writing projects can instill respect and mutual understanding among students and how they permit students to explore their writing in their L1 and English in creative ways through their narratives. Accompanying these texts are the semiotic representations of their stories through illustrations, which took a number of different forms from pencil and crayon drawings, water colours to computer-generated illustrations.
Through overt instruction, the teachers provided story guidelines and students co-created and negotiated stories with their cross-grade partners. Jo-Ann and Perminder gave students the following list of guidelines for their story: 1) genre; 2) characters; 3) setting; 4) introductory hook; 5) languages of the text 6) conflict; 7) key events; 8) problem and resolution; 9) Style of materials (layout of the text and illustrations); 10) dedication.
These became important co-ordinates for students to negotiate at each turning point of the evolution of their book. All these guidelines are in keeping with the Language Arts curriculum and the achievement guidelines set for each grade level. (Reference to curriculum doc???)
Together students learned how to write for a particular audience, to peer-edit using technology, to provide feedback to other student partners and to collaboratively create the layout and artwork to accompany their texts. Students did not always share the same home language, and as a result texts were created in multiple languages. Perminder notes that this initiative goes beyond the usual short-term individualized writing activities, which are a normal part of the curriculum (2006, personal communication).
Instead, the process of creating dual language texts requires a sustained interest over an extended period of time, and it engages student collaboration on all levels of decision-making. The power of authoring these books gives students the possibility to see themselves, and each other, in a different light. These partnerships allowed for a re-imagining of the way students across grades saw each other, in terms of their cognitive abilities, and linguistic and cultural resources. As Kim, a grade 7 student, remarks:
"Now I know that if I work with people who are still younger we have the same ideas and everything and even if we don't, we can compromise. We might get a better idea than we both had." (CG DL video 7)
Kim's reflection captures the sentiments of many students in the cross-grade dual language book project. Older and younger students collaborate and not only re-imagine these partnerships but they are stimulated through these partnerships creatively and academically. Another grade 7 student Sonya remarked on the process of peer editing, which she saw as a fruitful and important process. In fact, the impact of peer editing appeared more important to the students than teacher editing precisely because it focused on the ideas and content of their story. Furthermore, peers represented a section of their audience. In the following excerpt from a discussion with Perminder, Sonya states:
P: How is peer-editing different from teacher editing?
S: Peer editing is telling you about what other students think of your story. Teacher's editing is probably about correcting the errors right away (laughs).
P: Students are more critical about the content?
S: Yes. They're the same age as us and they get what were saying. (CG DL video 7)
While teacher editing provided one type of important input for the students' stories, peer editing, which was done using a computer program, was valued at a different level. This sentence sounds awkward: Students commenting on other students' work meant students listening and valuing each others' strengths, creativity, and ideas. Understanding their audience was an important aspect of writing the dual language texts and as Sonya noted: "They get what we're saying." This demonstrates that peers provide an invaluable level of understanding of each other's worlds and lived experiences.
Mohindra, a grade 4-student and Wendy, a grade 7-student, talk about the development of their story, their partnership and how that evolved and how they negotiated this partnership throughout the writing process. Collaboration to them meant negotiating how the book would take shape, their ideas for the book, the storyline, and it's representation through illustrations. Often they would need to resolve their differences of opinion in order to make the narrative flow and enable the process. The following video captures this negotiation, and it also captures the excitement and positive attitude that each student brings to the partnership. (LINK to video and comment on excerpts)
The impact of authoring a text is highlighted in the following comments made by Arshia, a grade 4-student and Vasko, a grade-7 student who created a story in multiple languages based on the theme of "Around the world in 80 days". They state:
Vasko: Just the whole idea of making a book.
Arshia: Yeah like publishing it.
Vasko: publishing it.
Arshia: It's almost like we're like authors but except younger. Because authors are usually / most of them are like grown ups and stuff. Important as if like we're actually REAL authors ourselves and making a book For the books that the grade 4's did last year I did a picture for them. And it was fun to go see my picture on the internet. Also I think, I thought it was kinda a good idea making it in different languages because since like it's going to be on the internet and stuff then the, the, maybe the grandparents or parents can read it and tell like other people. (CG DL video 3) [link to video]
The importance of taking ownership of these identity texts and the power of becoming "real" authors is part of this creative process. These students are engaged in this process and understand the significance of technology in enabling the sharing of these texts on the Internet to family members beyond their social context.
In both of the cases reported here, there are positive effects when teachers make choices to create inclusive learning spaces where their own professional and personal identities and their students' languages and identities are drawn upon pedagogically. Perminder's, and other teachers', identity reflections shed a critical lens on the ways in which students are being marginalized and silenced when their linguistic and cultural capital are not validated or used within the English medium classroom.
In conclusion, this work points to the important choices that teachers make to create inclusive learning spaces where identities are re-created and brought to the fore of learning. These case studies show the need for a space where all teachers, and not only minority teachers, come together to share their practice, and through dialogue increase the possibility of transforming their teaching and their image of their students as coming with multiple identities and literacies.
The dual language identity text projects are one example that show how through the incorporation of L1 literacies, students' attitudes towards their home languages, and their self-concept are reframed in positive ways. The impact of sharing their stories electronically reinforces students' literacy practices as vital to the academic growth and identity investment.
To doubt the impact that teachers' and students' identities make on learning in the English medium classroom would be foolish, to say the least. If education for the 21st century is to prepare students' to deal with the global realities, new demands on literacies and the rapidly changing technological terrain, then we should all be investing in students' multiliteracies and multiple identities as resources inside our classrooms and schools. To leave them at the school door sends the message that our students' and their families' linguistic and cultural capital are not welcome and unimportant. The responsibility lies not only with teachers, students, and their families to advocate for change but it also lies firmly in the hands of principals, administrators, superintendents, schools and governments, both provincial and federal.
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[1] Frances Giampapa is currently an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Bristol. (Frances.Giampapa@bristol.ac.uk)
[2] Borsa, J. (1990). Towards a politics of location. Canadian Women's Studies. Cit. in H. Giroux (1992). Border Crossings: Cultural workers and the politics of education. NY: Routledge.
[3] http://thornwood.peelschools.org/dual/index.htm