Cover not available
Article published In:
Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict
Vol. 6:1 (2018) ► pp.1–25

A critical literacy proposal for exploring conflict and immigrant identities in the classroom

Or how not to sweep conflict under the multicultural classroom carpet

| University of Patras, Greece
| National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

In this paper we intend to show that conflict emerging from multiple and competing perspectives on social reality, may not necessarily be avoided in class, but it could instead become the starting point of critical discussions among teachers and students. To this end, we focus on the exploitation of essays written by immigrant students attending Greek Lyceums (15–18 years old) to promote conflict-dialogue processes in class, which are most compatible with critical literacy. We suggest that language teaching concentrating on texts including immigrant experiences and ambivalent identities constructed by immigrant students, could underline the conflict between majority expectations or pressures and minority efforts to adjust to a complex, often inhospitable context. Such a conflict could enhance immigrant and non-immigrant students’ critical literacy by bringing to the surface and critically discussing assimilationist and monoculturalist ideologies, thus promoting a culturally sustaining pedagogy.

Keywords: conflict-dialogue processes, critical literacy, culturally sustaining pedagogy, legitimizing identities, resistance identities, immigrant students in Greek Lyceums
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Critical literacy, conflict-dialogue pedagogy, and minority/immigrant student discourse
  • 3.Monoculturalist and monolingualist discourses in Greek society and education
  • 4.A theoretical proposal for critically analyzing identities
  • 5.The data of the study
  • 6.The analysis of immigrant students’ disclaimers
    • (A)Remembering racist behaviors as resistance
    • (B)Homesickness as resistance
  • 7.Some tentative critical literacy proposals
  • 8.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 2 July 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00001.arc
References
Archakis, Argiris
2014 “Immigrant Voices in Students’ Essay Texts: Between Assimilation and Pride.” Discourse & Society 25(3): 297–314. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Archakis, Argiris, and Villy Tsakona
2012 The Narrative Construction of Identities in Critical Education. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 “Sociocultural Diversity, Identities, and Critical Education: Comparing Conversational Narratives at School.” Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices 7(1): 48–62.Google Scholar
Baynham, Mike
1995 Literacy Practices: Investigating Literacy in Social Contexts. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Benwell, Bethan, and Elisabeth Stokoe
2006 Discourse and Identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan
2005 Discourse: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blommaert, Jan, and Jef Verschueren
1998 Debating Diversity: Analyzing the Discourse of Tolerance. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Boutoulousi, Eleni
2002 “The Multicultural School: Critical Approaches and Cultural Awareness.” In Discovering the Wealth of Diversity through Art: Meeting Proceedings of the Comenius and Education without Borders Programs 28 March–2 April 2001, edited by Avra Avdi and Anastasia Chrysafidou, 39–88. Thessaloniki: Pegasus. [in Greek]Google Scholar
Castells, Manuel
2010 The Power of Identity. 2nd edition. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Cohen, Sarah
2008 Making Visible the Invisible: Dual Language Teaching Practices in Monolingual Instructional Settings. Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto, Canada. [URL]
Cummins, Jim
2000 “Academic Language Learning, Transformative Pedagogy, and Information Technology: Towards a Critical Balance.” TESOL Quarterly 34(3): 537–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009 “Pedagogies of Choice: Challenging Coercive Relations of Power in Classrooms and Communities.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 12(3): 261–71. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cummins, Jim, Vicki Bismilla, Patricia Chow, Sarah Cohen, Frances Giampapa, Lisa Leoni, Perminder Sandhu, and Padma Sastri
2006 “ELL Students Speak for Themselves: Identity Texts and Literacy Engagement in Multilingual Classrooms.” Educational Leadership Journal. [URL]
Curdt-Christiansen, Xiao Lan
2010 “Competing Priorities: Singaporean Teachers’ Perspectives on Critical Literacy.” International Journal of Educational Research 49(6): 184–94. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dendrinou, Vassiliki
2001 “Bilingualism.” In Encyclopedic Guide for Language, edited by Anastasios-Fivos Christidis (in collaboration with Maria Theodoropoulou), 89–94. Thessaloniki: Centre for the Greek Language. [in Greek]Google Scholar
Enciso, Patricia
2011 “Storytelling in Critical Literacy Pedagogy: Removing the Walls between Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Youth.” English Teaching: Practice and Critique 10(1): 21–40.Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman
1989 Language and Power. London: Longman.Google Scholar
1992 Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
1995 Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Felipe Fajardo, Margarita
2015 “A Review of Critical Literacy Beliefs and Practices of English Language Learners and Teachers.” University of Sydney Papers in TESOL 101: 29–56.Google Scholar
Figgou, Lia, Antonis Sapountzis, Nikos Bozatzis, Antonis Gardikiotis, and Pavlos Pantazis
2011 “Constructing the Stereotype of Immigrants’ Criminality: Accounts of Fear and Risk in Talk about Immigration to Greece.” Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology 21(2): 164–77. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Flores, Nelson, and Jonathan Rosa
2015 “Undoing Appropriateness: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and Language Diversity in Education.” Harvard Educational Review 85(2): 149–71. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gkaintartzi, Anastasia, Aggeliki Kiliari, and Roula Tsokalidou
2015 “ ‘Invisible’ Bilingualism – ‘Invisible’ Language Ideologies: Greek Teachers’ Attitudes towards Immigrant Pupils’ Heritage Languages.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 18(1): 60–72. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Griva, Eleni A., and Anastasia G. Stamou
2014 Researching Bilingualism in the School Context: Perspectives of Teachers, Students and Immigrant Parents. Thessaloniki: Kyriakidi. [in Greek]Google Scholar
Hess, Diana, and Patricia Avery
2008 “Discussion of Controversial Issues as a Form and Goal of Democratic Education.” In Sage Handbook of Education for Citizenship and Democracy, edited by James Arthur, Ian Davies and Carole Hahn, 506–18. London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kontovourki, Stavroula, and Elena Ioannidou
2013 “Critical Literacy in Cypriot Schools: Teachers’ Beliefs, Practices and Attitudes.” Preschool and School Education 1(1): 82–107. [in Greek] DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ladson-Billings, Gloria
2014 “Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0: A.k.a. the Remix.” Harvard Educational Review 84(1): 74–84. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lam, Wan Shun Eva
2006 “Re-envisioning Language, Literacy and the Immigrant Subject in New Mediascapes.” Pedagogies: An International Journal 1(3): 171–95. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lau, Man Chu
2010 Practicing Critical Literacy Work with English Language Learners: An Integrative Approach. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Toronto, Canada. [URL]
Lo, Adrienne, and Angela Reyes
2004 “Language, Identity and Relationality in Asian Pacific America: An Introduction.” Pragmatics 14(2/3): 115–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Luke, Allan, and Karen Dooley
2011 “Critical Literacy and Foreign Language Learning.” In Handbook of Research on Second Language Teaching and Learning. Vol. 21, edited by Eli Hinkel, 856–68. New York: Routledge. [URL]
Maroniti, Katerina, and Anastasia G. Stamou
2014 “Exploration of Teachers’ Ideas about the Use of Popular Cultural Texts in Language Education.” Studies in Greek Linguistics 341: 287–300. [in Greek]Google Scholar
Paris, Django
2012 “Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: A Needed Change in Stance, Terminology, and Practice.” Educational Researcher 41(3): 93–7. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Parker, Christina A.
2011 “Conflict-dialogue Pedagogies as Learning Opportunities for Ethnocultural Minority Immigrant Students.” In Citizen Education Research Network (CERN) Peer Review Collection 2011, edited by Catherine Broom, 43–56. Okanagan: Citizen Education Research Network, Comparative and International Education Society of Canada, Canadian Society for the Study of Education. [URL]
2012 “Conflicts and ‘Canadian’ Identities Embedded in Citizenship Education: Diverse Immigrant Students’ Experiences.” In Creating Communities: Local, National and Global, edited by Peter Cunningham and Nathan Fretwell, 623–35. London: CiCe.Google Scholar
2016 Peacebuilding, Citizenship, and Identity: Empowering Conflict and Dialogue in Multicultural Classrooms. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Parker, Christina A., and Kathy Bickmore
2012 “Conflict Management and Dialogue with Diverse Students: Novice Teachers’ Approaches and Concerns.” Journal of Teaching and Learning 8(2): 47–63. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reyes, Sharon Adelman, and Trina Lynn Vallone
2007 “Toward an Expanded Understanding of Two-Way Bilingual Immersion Education: Constructing Identity through a Critical, Additive Bilingual/Bicultural Pedagogy.” Multicultural Perspectives 9(3): 3–11. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sapountzis, Antonis
2013 “Dominant Group Members Talk about the Acculturation of Immigrants in Greece: Who Is in Charge of the Acculturation Process?” Hellenic Journal of Psychology 101: 24–46.Google Scholar
Sapountzis, Antonis, Lia Figgou, Nikos Bozatzis, Antonis Gardikiotis, and Pavlos Pantazis
2006 “ ‘Categories We Share’: Mobilizing Common In-Groups in Discourse on Contemporary Immigration in Greece.” Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology 23(4): 347–61. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stamou, Anastasia G., Periklis Politis, and Argiris Archakis
(eds) 2016 Sociolinguistic Diversity and Critical Literacies in Popular Culture Discourse: Suggestions for Language Teaching. Kavala: Saita. [in Greek]Google Scholar
Tantos, Alexandros, Katerina Alexandri, Ifigeneia Dosi, Katerina Pouliou, Paraskevi Savvidou, and Georgia Fotiadou
2015 “Error Analysis in the Greek Learner Corpus (GLC): Preliminary Findings.” Studies in Greek Linguistics 351, 719–32. [in Greek]Google Scholar
Tzimokas, Dimitrios
2010 “Corpus for Learning Greek as a Second Language: Towards a Research and Teaching Tool.” Studies in Greek Linguistics 301, 602–16. [in Greek]Google Scholar
2015 “Corpus for Learning Greek as a Second Language: Preliminary Observations.” In the 11th International Conference on Greek Linguistics (Rhodes, 26–29 September 2013): Selected Papers, edited by George Kotzoglou, Kalomira Nikolou, Eleni Karantzola, Katerina Frantzi, Ioannis Galantomos, Marianthi Georgalidou, Vasilia Kourti-Kazoullis, Chrysoula Papadopoulou, and Evagelia Vlachou, 1679–94. Rhodes: Laboratory of Linguistics of the SE Mediterranean, Department of Mediterranean Studies, University of the Aegean. [in Greek]Google Scholar
van Dijk, Teun A.
1992 “Discourse and the Denial of Racism.” Discourse & Society 3(1): 87–118. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008 Discourse and Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Sluys, Katie, Mitzi Lewison, and Amy Seely Flint
2006 “Researching Critical Literacy: A Critical Study of Analysis of Classroom Discourse.” Journal of Literacy Research 38(2): 197–233. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wallace, Catherine
2003 Critical Reading in Language Education. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wodak, Ruth and Michael Meyer
(eds) 2001 Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Gasteratou, Spyridoula
2020. Exploring the Construction of Identities in Written Humorous Narratives by L2 Learners of Greek. Półrocznik Językoznawczy Tertium 5:1 DOI logo
Sinkeviciute, Valeria
2020. “Hey BCC this is Australia and we speak and read English:” Monolingualism and othering in relation to linguistic diversity. Intercultural Pragmatics 17:5 ► pp. 577 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2020. Soziolinguistische Bibliographie europäischer Länder für 2018Sociolinguistic Bibliography of European Countries for 2018Bibliographie sociolinguistique des pays européens pour 2018. Sociolinguistica 34:1 ► pp. 277 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.