(DOWNLOAD) "Transnational/Queer: Narratives from the Contact Zone." by Journal of Curriculum Theorizing ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Transnational/Queer: Narratives from the Contact Zone.
- Author : Journal of Curriculum Theorizing
- Release Date : January 22, 2005
- Genre: Education,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 185 KB
Description
Back in the late 1980s, as a student teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL) to immigrants, refugees and international students in the United States, I was eager to read something, anything, to help me think through the intriguing teaching dilemmas that often arose when the topic of (homo)sexual identities became foregrounded in classroom interactions. But extensive searching through language education literature yielded almost no acknowledgment that a range of sexual identities even exists, either within or beyond the classroom; the world represented in the literature was one in which straight people--albeit from various national, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds--were interacting only with other straight people. Turning to the more general education literature, I found a handful of publications on lesbian/gay/bisexual matters, but little serious attention to addressing these matters in classrooms characterised by a mix of cultural perspectives and linguistic fluencies and disfluencies; this constructed world was one in which fluent (usually 'native') speakers (of English)--albeit lesbian, gay and bisexual, as well as straight--were interacting mostly with other fluent speakers, usually from the same (Western, English-speaking) country. The dearth of literature on teaching in a 'contact zone' environment (1) that was simultaneously transnational, transcultural, multilingual and multisexual spurred me to write about my own teaching experiences. Three classroom narratives were published in the statewide newsletter of what was then my local teachers' association. (2) Even though these narratives were written fifteen years ago--by a very inexperienced teacher--and were not intended as a form of narrative-inquiry research (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000), I re-present them here because it seems that gay or queer discourses still tend to be considered 'foreign' within teaching contexts that readily engage transnational themes or cohorts (and conversely, that transnational discourses and cohorts still tend to be considered 'foreign' within teaching contexts that readily engage gay or queer themes). The aim of this paper is to spark discussion and debate about two over-arching questions: What might it look like to think queerly and transnationally--in tandem--about teaching, and what modes of inquiry can provoke new thinking on these sometimes contentious matters, among multiple audiences?