English Education - Volume 42, Issue 3, 2009

Guest editor David Kirkland introduces this themed issue on linguistic pluralism, which grew out of a set of conversations initiated by the 2006’2008 NCTE Cultivating New Voices Fellows.

In this frankly utopian essay, Robert Yagelski’s theme is the transformative power of writing as an act in and of itself. He makes us reevaluate our motivation and point for teaching writing in schools and asks us to consider an agenda that will quite frankly scare teachers as he explains why we need an ontology of writing.

Portes and Smagorinsky examine the degree to which stable schools and authoritarian instruction accommodate the needs of learners exhibiting difference, with special attention to Spanish-speaking English Language Learners in a Southern setting. They find that the influx of immigrant students in Southern schools lays bare the normative institutional structures and instructional practices that go unchallenged until a new cultural group enters the school and reveals that what is normative to some is alien to others.

John Lofty’s presentation of found taped interviews from 1992 with James Britton and Nancy Martin add deepened perspective to Britton’s and Martin’s contributions to NCTE. These contributions reflect the enduring concepts and legacies of two world-renowned educators.

Souto-Manning examines the role of classroom discourse analysis in helping to change a teacher’s perceptions of English Language Learners from students who need “fixing” to experts from whom teachers may learn. She finds that blurring the lines between teacher/student and subject/object positions opens up pedagogical third spaces that are often missing from traditional classrooms.

Catherine Carter reminds us that “metaphor is not a decorative adornment to language, but a central mode of thought, both reflecting and affecting concepts of the world and actions in it” as she examines the metaphors that construct teaching and both reflect and perpetuate the conflicted nature of the work.

In focusing on what is taught in English language arts, Rojas examines stereotypical notions of U. S. Latino cultures and identities and finds that there is considerable diversity within the group that is worthy of acknowledgment.

Firmly anchored in methods course construction, Luciana de Oliveira and Melanie Shoffner’s article is a starting point in the discussion of better preparing English teachers to help diverse learners. It offers both practical considerations and implications for needed research.

Paris examines texts worn on objects (like clothing or backpacks), delivered over electronic media, and rapped by youth emcees at a multiethnic high school. He argues that these are identity texts, used by young people to express ethnic and linguistic differences.

This issue’s guest editor offers thoughts on the changing linguistic spaces of society by attempting to map the pluralistic, dynamic, and fluid nature of new English(es) as used by urban youth.

Anne Haas Dyson concludes the issue by challenging readers to see the diversity of languages within which one’s own voice sounds.