mini-curso sao paulo 2007 questions from the reaction slips: day 4 how flexible should methodology...

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Questions from the reaction slips: Day 4

How flexible should methodology be? What happened to the techniques for

teaching literacy in the classroom? Do the teacher and researcher have

different perspectives? How can we value the oral

competencies of our learners´use of language?

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Aims and objectives To examine the ´postcolonial landscapes´

and the role of local knowledge approaches.

To discuss some of the key themes in local knowledge research.

To look at some case studies where local knowledge was important

To exchange ideas about our own research To make that research more honest To work out a fruitful relationship with

´universal´theory.

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Day Four: revision

Postcolonial perspectives Is this a useful ‘historical condition´

to situate our research? Literacy practices: do they change in

a postcolonial perspective? What was postcolonial about the

literacy event in Bogu village? Is a researcher/teacher in a Brazilian

school working in a postcolonial context?

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Identity and representation

Why I need to explore this ‘topic’. 1. My main research question links literacy

and culture/identity. 2. Literacy changes people´s awareness of

their identity and hence culture (postcolonial identity).

3. Literacy gives people other options for representing themselves.

4. Postcolonial Literacy could erode, submerge or enrich identities/cultures (good thing?)

5. Literacy-culture, what verbs can we use...?

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Historical views

Definition of personal identity: Why am I with these people now? Pre-modern: Place of birth, ´place´in soc.

religion, family member... (name, dress) Modern: Job, language, politics, type of

car, clothes, nationality, gender Postmodern: institutional,

commodified.. Postcolonial: Hegemonies, Hybridity and

hyphenated identities..

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Theories of identity

Subjective views of identity Romantic: self-expression,

project of self Psychodynamic: socially

determined, symbolical order (Lacan)

Postmodern: fluidity, hybridity, fragmentary (Giddens)

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Identity as a social product

Collective identities (sociolinguistics)

(Essentialism? Orientalism-Said) Communities of Practice defined

by social engagement (Street) Queer Theory –Hybridity-

Diaspora-Crossing (Bhabha, Rampton)

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Identity, Ideology and Discourse

Interpellation (Althusser) Hegemonies, dominant discourses, (Foucault) ‘Subjection consists precisely in this

fundamental dependency on discourse we never choose but that paradoxically, initiates and sustains our agency´ Butler 1997:2

Performativity: identity as a discursive practice (Goffman, Fairclough)

Also: Critical Discourse Analysis, Conversation analysis (Schegloff)

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Different types of identity

Analytical approaches: Conversational identities Institutional identities Narrative identities Contexts (CDA, narrative,

multimodal): Commodified identities Spatial identities Virtual identities (Benwell and Stokoe 2006)

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Representation

That part of discourse which tells of the identity of the interlocutor. (?)

The world told (narrated) vs the world shown (displayed)

Affordances and modalities Importance of creativity, learning

(Kress 2004)

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Representation and identity

Linguistic revitalisation:representation at psycholinguistic level (Welsh, Cajun)

Language death/decline: (Batibo 2005) Linguistic representation: intercultural

conflicts (Bourdieu 1982) Typographies of representation (Dyer

1985): Stereotypes, classic types

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Example: Maria de Fátima F. Guilherme de Castro

Representations of English teachers, in pre-service and after 8 years

(see transparencies) Theory: Pecheux à la

brasilienne...

Mini-curso Sao Paulo 2007

Ontological landscapes

Has your ontological lanscape changed since Day One?

Discovered any new mountain ranges or marshes?

Have the epistemological ´sources´of the rivers changed?

Have you discovered new rivers or streams?

If nothing seems to have changed, don´t worry...