Literacy, Place, and Pedagogies of Possibility: Working Against Residualization Effects and Deficit Discourses in Poor School Communities

• In Event: Unmasking International Social Injustices in Education: Incursions, Interruptions, and Interventions

Abstract

II. Summary
Australia has a long history of policy attention to the education of the poor and working-class, yet on standardized educational outcomes measures the gaps are widening in ways that relate to social background, including race, location and class. The objectives of this paper are to: revisit key theories of social justice (eg Connell, 1993; Fraser, 1997) that have informed educational policy, practice and research over the past half century and to consider the current situation in Australia with respect to the literacy education of children growing up in poverty. How spatial theory (Fenwick et al, 2011; Gulson & Symes, 2007; Massey, 2005) has recently been applied to literacy education research is outlined briefly and then illustrated with respect to studies of literacy pedagogy in elementary school classrooms in poor and changing areas of South Australia.
These studies employ classroom design experiments of the affordances of place-conscious pedagogy for English literacy learning, ethnography and collaborative teacher research on educational leadership and turn-around literacy pedagogies. Data include interviews with school leaders and teachers, classroom observations, teacher curriculum documents, teachers writing, student products and performances. These projects indicate that when place is made the object of study and research in classrooms, the affordances for assembling complex, critical and inclusive literacies are considerable. Place can be studied from many different perspectives, including psychological, Indigenous, historical, geographic, architectural and so on, depending on the teachers’ learning goals. Following Massey (2005), if classrooms are considered meeting places, where opportunities exist for something new to be negotiated, then students’ diverse histories, identities and cultural resources become assets rather than a problem. Teachers who work with students as co-researchers and constitute the classroom as a site of inquiry report high student motivation for tackling challenging academic work and complex literacy projects. The potential of working with theories of critical and inclusive literacy, spatial theory and place-conscious pedagogy has yet to be fully explored (but see Green & Corbett, 2013). This is not to romanticize place (Nespor, 2008) but rather to see the materiality of place and spatial relations as proper intellectual phenomenon for young people to study and through which to develop distinctive discursive resources.
Connell, R.W. (1993). Schools and social justice. Toronto: Our Schools/Our Selves Education Foundation & Leichardt, NSW; Pluto Press Australia.
Fenwick, T. Edwards, R. & Sawchuk, P. (2011). Emerging approaches to educational research: tracing the socio-material. London & New York: Routledge.
Fraser, N. (1997). Justice Interruptus. New York, NY: Routledge.
Green, B. & Corbett, M. (Eds. ) (2013). Rethinking rural literacies: transnational perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
Gulson, K. & Symes, C. (Eds.) (2007). Spatial theories of education: Policy and geography matters. New York & London: Routledge.
Massey, D. B. (2005). For Space. London: Sage.
Nespor, J. (2008). Education and Place: A review essay. Educational Theory, 58(4), 475-489. doi:10.1111/j.1741-5446.2008.00301.x

Author

• Barbara M. Comber, Queensland University of Technology