All people from all walks of life, cultural backgrounds, and beliefs should have access to good education. Universities and colleges often claim to celebrate differences and invite everyone in. But what do instructors do when the very thing that universities claim to celebrate, is the very thing keeping students from fully engaging in the classroom? Or worse, when it keeps students from even entering the classroom? Instructors see this, especially in collegiate writing classrooms. The issue is not a lack of student effort, rather, they are afraid to use the wrong English.
Most collegiate writing classrooms, consider White Mainstream English correct or Standard English. “The standard language ideology goes unquestioned in our institutions, particularly schools, as a result of the disinformation and misrepresentation that get distributed as dominant languages and marginalized languages and dialects,” (Baker-Bell, 15). Collegiate writing classrooms often forget students’ Mother Tongue. A student’s Mother Tongue is their first expeirence with language, often differing from White Mainstream English, and is therefore criticized. This is especially true for students of color and immigrants. Instructors must take this into account when reviewing their students’ writing. The main issue preventing this, is neither students nor instructors openly discuss diversity in relation to course material.
Diversity must be discussed across disciplines within collegiate classrooms. We might do this by directly relating it to the course or encouraging further critical thinking. For example, in Unit 3 in Business Communication- ENL 265, my students review images for reports on their chosen companies. Throughout the process, I ask my students to assess the company’s stereotypes based on these images. If the company promotes diversity, does the image represent that? Or do they show only one group of people? Throughout Unit 2, we discuss how establishing goodwill and the appropriate tone goes beyond the page. While reviewing a list of Public Relations scandals, we discuss how actions must match what is said. Some other ways I do this are:
- Remind students their voices should come through
- Grade assignments on clarity and completion
- Set aside time for student group work in class and randomize the groups
These strategies encourage students to work together and hear each other voices. The most interesting conversations happen when I step back and let my students use their voices. Claiming students’ Mother Tongue, and Black Language are not valid languages limits the discussion, limiting student engagement. Unfortunately, this point has been and continues to be undertheorized. This must change if we are to see and embrace diversity in the classroom. After all, before confronting an issue, we must first admit there is one. The issue: lack of diversity in collegiate writing classrooms promoting White Mainstream English. Now we’ve found the problem…how do we approach it? First, instructors must define diversity for themselves, so they can define it for their classroom. Next, they must discuss it with their students in relation to their course. Finally, instructors and students must both understand diversity is only the first step to equity and inclusion.
Great thinking here, Amanda. I think it’s important to remember that the flip side must also be considered. We must know how to address teachers, students, and others who defend WME as the “correct” English. What are we going to do or say? How will we stand our ground on this point? As teaching fellows, we have no institutional power whatsoever, so we may need to work as subversives. In fact, since subverting the mainstream view of English is our goal, subversion is the action plan. What do you think?
Recognition of WME for rhetoricians is very important. I think this out-loud acknowledgement to students and overall application of encouraged voices is going to further develop our classroom as a safe and diverse space. I really like how you see this problem, the denial of identity/mother tongue, and compell the reader to push forward and change this thinking. That positive thinking toward change is a simple concept that makes effective use of affirmations.
as a former student of a bilingual public school classroom, where they taught me to ‘overcome’ my Brazilian accent, it’s a little frightening to think about how little thought went into that. Yes, it’s important to have standards and conventions that give us a common understanding and language. But how much of the white mainstream English is rooted in white supremacy, and not in accessibility?