Return-Path: <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost.nifl.gov [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id DAA03092; Fri, 1 Aug 1997 03:40:09 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 1 Aug 1997 03:40:09 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <01BC9E99.A083AC20@cjsllit.f-edu.fukui-u.ac.jp> Errors-To: lmann@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Charles Jannuzi <jannuzi@edu00.f-edu.fukui-u.ac.jp> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: RE: Social Identity X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Status: RO Content-Length: 2973 Lines: 68 With all due respect, I must say you missed my point. If you read again the parts of my message that you (accidentally?) omit in your quoting of me, you will see that nowhere do I suggest that teachers "should advocate" a political agenda in the classroom; on the contrary, that is what I faulted YOU for apparently having done in your classroom. While I agree that society attempts to label each of us all the time, I just don"t think teachers should compound the problem by allowing a classroom situation to develop where one student is pressured by the rest to claim a racial label that he or she is not yet ready, or willing, to accept. How can any teacher decide which choices a student "should" or "should not" make with regards to his or her own identity? For instance, I am very proud of my own racial heritage (Irish, Mexican, Italian), but if someone, (especially a teacher) demanded of me a single label to describe this heritage, I don't think I could answer. So much would be left unsaid that I consider essential -- which is the problem with labels, as I am sure your Peruvian former student would agree. Reply to; Bern Mulvey: mulvey@edu00.f-edu.fukui-u.ac.jp Prof. of Literature Fukui University ---------- From: Char Ullman Sent: Thursday, July 31, 1997 10:17 PM To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Social Identity In response to Bern Mulvey's comment, posted by Charles Jannuzi: Your question: "Why were the students in your class made to feel pressured to label themselves as anything?" is one I'm glad you raised. I observed these processes taking place in my classroom, as I have in the larger society. I did not actively pressure anyone to adopt a particular identity, but I think that whether we like it or not, our identities are being constructed for us all the time, both actively and passively. It's interesting to me that you admired the Peruvian woman for "managing to maintain her own identity" and that you see that as "what we should be encouraging." The fact that you believe that there is a particular identity that teachers should advocate in the classroom (the one they came with, I suppose) seems to say that ESOL teachers too, can be involved with pressuring learners to label themselves in a certain way. I have a different opinion. I think that all of us are in the process of self-recreation all the time. I'm not debating whether it's better to recreate oneself as Latina or to see oneself as Peruvian and living in the U.S. My question is, given that we all create ourselves all the time, how conscious were the decisions of the students in my class, and could I have done something to make these choices more conscious. It seems to me that your comment assumed that students could come to the ESOL classroom and somehow leave all of the pressures of identity construction at the door. I disagree. I think that we bring all of ourselves to the classroom, teachers included. Char Ullman
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