The Purpose of This Blog

Purpose: In the spirit of a "scroll," share, record, learn, and take notes about ...



Socio
Cultural
Research
On
Language
Literacy
Society


I engage in this blog from the given identity of "ALICE," an identity that allows me to flesh out privilege and context.

Privilege:

1. My own privilege includes a class narrative as a second generation Indian immigrant that is unlike newly arrived immigrants. This narrative is one that falls between the borderland of a family that assumed Whiteness to gain access/power while also holding closely to their conception of Indian roots. The end result, however, has been many opportunities, specific moments where class and ethnic status trumped racial and even gender identity markers.

2. My privilege also includes various other narratives that have given me capital, access, and power in education and in society including citizenship, funding for education, accepted minority status, etc.

3. My privilege also includes a new kind of membership in the "academy."


Context:

1. At the most superficial yet significant raced, gendered, and classed levels: I grew up in schools and neighborhoods with mostly White, middle-class "Americans," entered a teacher education program in the South where every one of my peers were white women, and now continue to teach about language/literacy at the pre-service and in-service level with mostly white women. These markers are not to be ignored nor am I to become arrogant by my own minority status in these contexts. Instead, I state this upfront to make a point: I am in the context of "Alice in Wonderland," and I have also assumed the raced, classed, and gendered subjectivities of "Alice" in order to survive and be successful in existing social structures.

2. Yet, I am in a context where I choose to spend the majority of time working with Non-Dominant populations, conducting research, teaching, etc. and find myself at most ease, comfort, and at "home," within the contexts of work, play, research - i.e. these are "my people..." On some level the tension exists in figuring out things is seeing how I can give them the "Alice" power they need through language (buzz word of today Academic Language) ...

hence ALICE stands for Academic Language in the Context of Education.

In stating my assumptions, I am constantly trying to reflect on a very apparent and assuming colonizing consciousness - So, basically, I have to constantly be critical in NOT becoming...

A. I do not become a "Alice in Wonderland" educator who simply glosses over and implements pedagogical practices that have been deemed "good and sound progressive education" for a privileged population.

B. I do not deny that I am also Alice no matter how much I choose to not be Alice - Meaning I choose to navigate my exisiting privileges of language, literacy to do explicit teaching of the "code," while I continue on gaining the authority of this code in my own academic development

C. I do not live in Wonderland. Language, education, and this work is power laden, messy, political, full of difficult questions. This stated epistemological stance allows me to take strength that Alice is whom I accept as a performative identity to serve its purpose in giving "power in the pocket" of the youth I work with... not a teacher/ teacher educator that can very quickly rationalize decisions of practice based on the comforts of that wonderland world.

D. I do not negate SOCIETY and "E" education that counts - i.e. globalization, transnational perspectives, and the digital age are not only here but flourishing - this is a huge part of getting out of wonderland status in educational studies and language studies. Language studies and conversations that negate the socio - cultural piece, the agency piece, the power piece, etc. are simply ... no longer an option - and this in fact is the acceptance that my own politics and assumptions are based on my own understanding. Although this understand is very limited right now, the discourses are out there - and once they are out there, they are out there ...