Balanda Talk - Ideological Becoming - Tim Delphine.pptx

A presentation on a paper written by Tim Delphine, name "Balanda Talk: My ideological becoming as an English literacy teacher of culturally and linguistically diverse first nations Australian Students"

1. Balanda Talk My ideological becoming as an English literacy teacher of culturally and linguistically diverse first nations Australian students Tim Delphine School of Education Deakin University Melbourne, Australia DELPHINE, Tim. Balanda Talk: My Ideological Becoming as an English Literacy Teacher of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse First Nations Australian Students. Changing English , v. 30, n. 3, p. 183–194, 2023. DOI: 10.1080/1358684X.2022.2151418. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1358684X.2022.2151418 . Accessed on: 25 jul. 2024.

2. Context Bachelor of Physical Education , in 2011. Teaching position in a First Nations Australian community . English was most students’ second or third language . School with a large Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population . Some students had Engl ish as first language . Some others spoke several aboriginal languages . Large non-Indigenous English-speaking student population as well. Role: teach English and Literacy to 11–15 years old. Welcomed any guidance and knowledge to teach English. Also uneasy with the sense of “assimilation” of aboriginal students.

3. Geographical location Source: Google Maps

4. Accelerated Literacy Designed to remediate First Nation students’ literacy learning by providing students with access to powerful academic-literate discourses through high quality ‘literate texts’ (Cowey, 2005) and heavily scaffolded explicit instruction into their meaning and purpose (Gray, 2007) ” (Delphine, 2023, p. 183-184) .

5. “ Growing up aboriginal could be seen as a hindrance to the successful transition of young people to school-based English literacy ” . (Delphine, 2023, p. 184)

6. Research question How to mediate between the prescriptive practices he was indoctrinated into and a more progressive and student-centred conception of practice ?

7. Objective ( PhD) What? → investigate his own praxis (Kemmis 2010, 2012) . When? → 2019; one school year. Where ? → northernmost region of Australia. How? → research journal, conversations with critical friends (practising teacher; Aboriginal school support worker) and reflections on student work samples. Why ? → teacher resistance (refusing the ideological impetus of all-encompassing knowing and being).

8. Methodology A nalytically narrate representative excerpts from his research journal in an effort to engage readers in the felt complexities of finding a path towards doing good English literacy teaching and being a good English literacy teacher in performative times (Ball, 2003) .

9. February – Journal Students explaining fishing lure at a bucket Language ( Standard Australian English ) offered by the teacher Videos were recorded Shaun watched his video, laughed, and said balanda talk Teacher couldn’t understand Was not being edgy No powerful social discourse knowledge “Literacy learning experiences through connectedness to local practice can never really be politically neutral ” (Delphine, 2023, p. 185) . papo de branco

10. February – Analysis Delpit’s (2006) criticises “progressively oriented teachers who responded to cultural Others who are reluctant to learn by refusing to teach for fear of further marginalising students’ cultural identities” , T he author believed that “being a good teacher and doing good teaching in this culturally and linguistically plural context had to sit somewhere in a reconciled space between a dogmatic (and perhaps assimilationist) vision of teacher-centric explicit English literacy pedagogy and the ‘funds of knowledge’ and cultural and linguistic resources students brought with them to school (González, Moll, and Amanti, 2005) ” (Delphine, 2023, p. 185) .

11. Shaun shattered his middle ground “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” (Lorde, 2018) .

12. March – Journal At lunchtime, students engaged on the topic of Global Warming . topic they were studying in the classroom . Teacher asked Johnny to explain to other students who did not know what it is. Johnny did not say what the teacher was expecting Expectation: “Global Warming is the increase in temperature of the earth” Reality: “water flooding” Johnny still showed control over what was taught use of terms such as “atmosphere” and “gas being trapped”

13. March – Analysis New managerialism: “extracting more value from human resources, including the harnessing of the leisure time of children and young people (Gronbaek Pors, 2017) as sites for adding value” (Delphine, 2023, p. 187) . The author became aware of the cloud that post-colonial theory casts over his performance-orientated English pedagogy. A teacher being able to decolonise their practice when giving instruction in the dominant colonial language is an ivory tower . privileged seclusion from the practicalities of real life

14. July – Journal Realised that being strongly focused on Bakhtin made it hard for him to legitimate a course of normative English instruction . The English curriculum and achievement standard clashed with his focus on practices of becoming human . It challenged the premise of teaching Standard Australian English through prescriptive pedagogies like Accelerated Literacy.

15. July – Analysis Through his journal, his self-talk unfolded his reflections. “Imagine a dialogue of two persons in which the statements of the second speaker are omitted, but in such a way that the general sense is not at all violated. The second speaker is present invisibly, his words are not there, but deep traces left by these words have a determining influence on all the present and visible words of the first speaker. We sense that this is a conversation, although only one person is speaking, and it is a conversation of the most intense kind, for each present, uttered word responds and reacts with its every fibre to the invisible speaker, points to something outside itself, beyond its own limits, to the unspoken words of another person.” (Bakhtin, 1984, p. 197)

16. August – Journal Diverse mix of students (English literacy skills and background). Accelerated literacy lesson. Learning about spooky stories . Asked: “what was last lesson’s story about?” Aboriginal student said devil in their preferred Aboriginal language . Not what the teacher expected , but : He understood what it meant. Kids could communicate in mediums they were comfortable in.

17. August – Analysis As the students used their agency in learning situations, the author became aware of Bakhtin’s (1990, 1993) architectonic perspectives as active agents. Three perspectives of seeing the world: I-for-myself → I’m connected to my inner world and ideological forces acting through me. The-other-for-me → how I integrate others into my words from perspective. I-for-the-other → the other’s lived perspective of the world and how I am integrated into this world as an ‘other’. → Ethical practice

18. November – Journal Talked to Sally (Aboriginal critical Friend) , not as a token, but for legitimate pedagogical strategies . He needed other people’s voice to help him think about his approach. Talk about the reasons how and why he goes about achieving his “why” .

19. November – Analysis Over a number of dialogues with his Aboriginal critical friend, he was able to transform the prescriptive and didactic practices of Accelerated Literacy towards a praxis that was focused on building positive and supportive relationships with the students . Three practical teaching strategies gifted by Sally: → move around the room; → use the language of positivity with students; → listen to the students;

20. “ For English teachers negotiating tensions between the ideological import of prescriptive (and perhaps assimilatory) pedagogies and the cultural and linguistic life worlds of their students, I can offer no silver-bullets or quick fixes. ” (Delphine, 2023, p. 192).

21. After all , what remains unreconciled for teachers like us? “ Potential irreconcilability of the policy desire for justice as recognition and a reductive image of redistributive justice tied to the ‘literacy myth’ (Gee, [1991] 2007) , whereby Aboriginal students’ ‘social empowerment ’ is unlocked with the ‘magical key’ of English Literacy ” (Delphine, 2023, p. 192) .

22. My research paper P rovisional Title: An ideological journey of an English Teacher: overcoming challenges and misconceptions while teaching Kaingang and Guarani students from UEL. Research Questions: → How did I prepare to teach English to indigenous students at UEL? → What were the main difficulties and successes encountered during the classes? → How has the experience of teaching English to indigenous students at UEL impacted my views on education and intercultural teaching?

23. Contributions to my paper?

24. References Bakhtin, M. M. 1984. Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. 8 vols., Translated and edited by C. Emerson. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. Bakhtin, M. M. 1990. Art and Answerability: Early Philosophical Essays. 9 vols., Edited by M. Holquist and V. Liapunov. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. Bakhtin, M. M. 1993. Toward a Philosophy of the Act. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. Ball, S. J. 2003. “The Teacher’s Soul and the Terrors of Performativity.” Journal of Education Policy 18 (2): 215–228. doi:10.1080/0268093022000043065. Cowey, W. 2005. “ACTA Background Paper: A Brief Description of the National Accelerated Literacy Program.” TESOL in Context 15 (2): 3–14. doi:10.3316/informit.612813512733971. DELPHINE, Tim. Balanda Talk: My Ideological Becoming as an English Literacy Teacher of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse First Nations Australian Students. Changing English, v. 30, n. 3, p. 183–194, 2023. DOI: 10.1080/1358684X.2022.2151418. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1358684X.2022.2151418. Accessed on: 25 jul. 2024. Delpit, L. 2006. Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. New York: The New Press.

25. References Gee, J. P. [1991] 2007. Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses. London: Routledge. González, N., L. C. Moll, and C. Amanti. 2005. Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities, and Classrooms. London: Taylor & Francis Group. Gray, B. 2007. Accelerating the Literacy Development of Indigenous Students: The National Accelerated Literacy Program (NALP). Darwin, NT: Charles Darwin University Press. Gronbaek Pors, J. 2017. What Kind of Children Will We Get Out of This?: Education Policy in Times of Performance. Sydney, NSW: Whitlam Institute, University of Western Sydney. doi:10.4225/35/59892b8536dae. Kemmis, S. 2010. “Research for Praxis: Knowing Doing.” Pedagogy, Culture & Society 18 (1): 9–27. doi:10.1080/14681360903556756. Kemmis, S. 2012. “Researching Educational Praxis: Spectator and Participant Perspectives.” British Educational Research Journal 38 (6): 885–905. doi:10.1080/01411926.2011.588316. Lorde, A. 2018. The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House. London: Penguin UK. Morson, G. S. 2004. “The Process of Ideological Becoming.” In Bakhtinian Perspectives on Language, Literacy, and Learning, edited by A. F. Ball and S. W. Freedman, 317–332. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511755002.016.

26. Thank you!