tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4470800272309893246.post7763055613164128017..comments2023-08-23T08:13:02.884-05:00Comments on CCCC: "Cognition and Diversity"NCTEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12254024796847309329noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4470800272309893246.post-23918542593038887652008-09-29T13:27:00.000-05:002008-09-29T13:27:00.000-05:00Thank you Professor Rose and the other bloggers fo...Thank you Professor Rose and the other bloggers for your illustrative comments. I work with Spanish speakers (first generation immigrants) at a technical college in both GED Spanish communication and basic (bilingual) English. Over the years working with this population, I have become increasingly interested in the formation and impact of an "immigrant Identity." My question is how or to what extent the students' first language and culture needs to (or should be) acknowledged, developed, or taken into account before, during, and after, learning English and US culture? I realize that my particular situation does not apply to college communication or many other teaching situations; however, I believe that many of these adult immigrants face a high standard to meet and, usually, negative labeling. Their most common response is isolation and self-defeating prophecies. It is not a matter of whether or not these immigrants should learn English, it is a matter of reconciling two identities. I have been a teacher for ten years and my struggle is still as strong as when I first started. By the way, I am also an immigrant, Spanish speaker, and English learner of twenty years. Thank you again for your comments and ideas that respond to my concerns.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4470800272309893246.post-89374559369607673862008-09-26T11:58:00.000-05:002008-09-26T11:58:00.000-05:00The expansion of the idea of diversity, such as Mi...The expansion of the idea of diversity, such as Mike Rose discusses, I think, touches upon the heart of the matter. The idea of diversity should certainly encompass a wider range of dissimilar values and their manifestations. And I think that means metrics of all sorts: informal and personal ones as well as formal or institutional or cultural. In the academic arena, particularly, where we invite students to test and form their own values, the idea of non-substitution of our personal values for those different from our own, even if based upon cultural or linguistic communities, needs to be extended. It needs also to inform conversation about all kinds of assessment or “sizing-up” in this day’s assessment climate—one too often benchmarked by standardization and uniformity of mind and spirit, even if de facto and face to face with the person sitting next to or across from us at school.<BR/><BR/>John Stovall<BR/>National-Louis UniversityJohn Stovallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04907901766008668417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4470800272309893246.post-72704691908274435342008-09-22T11:34:00.000-05:002008-09-22T11:34:00.000-05:00Dear Anonymous, Thank you for your comment. I cer...Dear Anonymous, <BR/><BR/>Thank you for your comment. I certainly sympathize with the dilemma that you posed. I don't have any easy answers, because as you point out, it's a tough issue. But reflecting on my own career, I can say two things.<BR/><BR/>First, I have found, sometimes to my surprise, that there are a lot of valuable things in traditional scholarly writing that I could appropriate or adapt. So try looking at the traditional stuff with that perspective.<BR/><BR/>Second, and I know this isn't easy, but there can be ways to blend all sorts of other writing styles and genres into traditional academic work. Some of the bloggers in this series have done that. <BR/><BR/>This business of trying to shape an identity within traditions and constraints is something that just about every writer, artist, crafts person faces, from poets to woodworkers, so you are not alone in this struggle. Perhaps it is one of the key developmental struggles that folks like us go through. I don't want to keep pushing An Open Language, but graduate students and new professors have told me that they find my own account of learning to do this work helpful. You can get a complimentary copy from Bedford Books, and just read the introductory and prefatory sections -- that's where I talk about doing the work. Good luck to you, and thanks for taking the time to post a comment.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4470800272309893246.post-77914160605464325452008-09-19T13:56:00.000-05:002008-09-19T13:56:00.000-05:00Dear Professor Rose, thank you for your story rega...Dear Professor Rose, thank you for your story regarding your graduate student and his/her thesis sketch. I am also a graduate student in the midst of exams and thinking about my thesis, and it was helpful to hear a faculty's perspective in this particular situation. I have to say that this whole process of exams has been both a source of frustration and anxiety due to some of the reasons you pointed out in your blog: multiple suggestions given by multiple sources. I realize that part of being a scholar is sorting through all of these suggestions and advice to find my own conviction and voice. In fact, it is exactly what I tell my own students. But I've been thinking about this word, "scholar" and what it means to me, or to anybody for that matter. Being and becoming a scholar are two very different things, and I realize that I have been resisting this identity for quite some time now. I'm still working through why this is the case, but I do know that I am still uncomfortable with what being a scholar means to my own identity, and an identity that is tied to writing. I don't necessarily think that being a scholar is opposed to who I am at any given moment, but being a scholar does mean believing in my writing and the work I do. And, ultimately, this is a terrifying thing. Regardless of all the support from my own wonderful program, the wider context of academia is, more often than not, cut-throat, and, more often than not, demanding of conformity. To me being a successful scholar means that I have to begin to believe in the thinking, writing, and work that are sanctioned by the institution-- otherwise, I wouldn't be able to write. But my dilemma is that I don't want to believe, because believing also necessitates changing. I'm not one to oppose change, but I question whether I ought to for the sake of academic success. And in talking to others in my position, we all feel-- being marginal, minorities, diverse, or whatever we are called--we still have to wear a mask and pretend that we are part of a culture that, more often than not, does not value us as the norm. We still wear a mask, because don't believe we will succeed otherwise. My question to you and others: how does one take ownership of an identity-- scholar-- when that identity neccessitates changing oneself and one's writing to acheive academic success?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com