Educating a Diverse Public: Broadening Conceptions of Culturally Cognizant Pedagogy Through Examining Kenyan Classroom Talk

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 22
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Perspectives on Linguistic Diversity

Abstract

In exemplifying some benefits of education to a pluralistic public, I examine classroom communication in a collaborative literacy project between grade 5 and 9 students in Nairobi, Kenya. This examination contributes to existing scholarship that affirms the resourcefulness of non-sanctioned dialects and languages in achieving curricular goals. Through a discourse analysis that is grounded in interactional sociolinguistics approach (Gumperz, 2003), I examine students’ use of standard Kenyan English, Sheng, and Swahili to achieve curricular ends. Also, within western scholarship there is need for more studies based on examples and experiences from non-western peoples and places. Such broadening of scholarship might shine light on some dynamics of multilayered linguistic worlds while enriching available evidence for pedagogical planning.

Author

• David Bwire, The College of New Jersey