Language, Race, and Power in Schools Dear reader, let Pierre W. Orelus’s enticing edited collection, Language, Race, and Power in Schools: A Critical Discourse Analysis, be not just train- ing for the mind but an invitation for you to collect your thoughts, begin to build your own theories and coalitions, and prepare yourself for action and collaboration. —James Paul Gee, Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies and Regent’s Professor, Arizona State University This book provides a multi-perspectival account of power, race, and dis- course in educational contexts. Multilingual and multicultural scholars bring their lived experiences into dialogue with the conceptual, method- ological, and interventionist tools of critical discourse analysis. The threads of continuity across the chapters will provide readers with the ideas, tools, and hope to intervene for social justice in educational institutions. —Rebecca Rogers, Professor, University of Missouri-St. Louis In this edited collection, authors from various academic, cultural, racial, linguistic, and personal backgrounds use critical discourse analysis as a conceptual framework and method to examine social inequities, identity issues, and linguistic discrimination faced by historically oppressed groups in schools and society. Language, Race, and Power in Schools unravels the ways and degrees to which these groups have faced and resisted oppression and draws on critical discourse analysis to examine how multiple forms of oppression intersect. This volume interrogates areas of discrimination and injustice and discusses possibilities of developing coalitions and concerted efforts across the lines of diversity. Pierre W. Orelus is Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, New Mexico State University, USA. Routledge Research in Education For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com 174 The Development of the Mechanics’ Institute Movement in Britain and Beyond ‘A practical education in reach of the humblest means’ Martyn Walker 175 New Perspectives on Intercultural Language Research and Teaching Exploring Learners’ Understandings of Texts from Other Cultures Melina Porto and Michael Byram 176 Multilingual Digital Storytelling Engaging creatively and critically with literacy Edited by Jim Anderson and Vicky Macleroy 177 Vocationalism in Further and Higher Education Policy, programmes and pedagogy Edited by Sai Loo and Jill Jameson 178 Children’s Creative Music-Making with Reflexive Interactive Technology Adventures in improvising and composing Edited by Victoria Rowe, Angeliki Triantafyllaki and Francois Pachet 179 Community-based Media Pedagogies Relational Practices of Listening in the Commons Bronwen Low, Chloe Brushwood Rose, and Paula Salvio 180 Reclaiming Discipline for Education Knowledge, relationships and the birth of community James MacAllister 181 The Politics of Differentiation in Schools Martin Mills, Amanda Keddie, Peter Renshaw, and Sue Monk 182 Language, Race, and Power in Schools A Critical Discourse Analysis Edited by Pierre W. Orelus Language, Race, and Power in Schools A Critical Discourse Analysis Edited by Pierre W. Orelus First published 2017 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Taylor & Francis The right of Pierre W. Orelus to be identified as editor of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested. ISBN: 978-1-138-69049-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-53690-3 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents Foreword vii JAMES PAUL GEE Acknowledgments ix 1 Introduction: Language, Race, and Power in Schools 1 PIERRE W. ORELUS 2 From East City Gate to the East of the Pacific: My Pedagogical Journey Through CDA 15 LIHUA ZHANG 3 Emancipatory Discourses on Ideology, Power, and the Media: A CDA 29 SUSANA RÍOS 4 Toward Emancipation: Critical Discourse at work in a Composition Classroom 46 DEBASMITA ROYCHOWDHURY 5 Discourse as a Pilgrimage: The Past of My Memories and the Future of My Hopes 60 PAULO A. OEMIG 6 Teaching and Learning in the Diaspora: A Transformative Pedagogy 76 DONNA-MARIE COLE-MALOTT 7 The Learner, the Teacher, and the Classroom Community: Building Safe Spaces for Emotional Sharing 92 KAREN R. TRUJILLO vi Contents 8 Teacher, Learner, and Cultural Crosser: A Critical Reflection on the Construction of My Identity 104 GISELLE MARTINEZ NEGRETTE 9 CDA: Lenses Concerning English Ownership for Africans 116 LORETTA H. WIDEMAN 10 Accentism Exposed: An Anticolonial Analysis of Accent Discrimination With Some Implications for Minority Languages 127 PIERRE W. ORELUS 11 We Are the Stories We Share: A CDA and a Transformational Process 138 NANCY WASSER, ROMINA PACHECO, AND VERONICA GALLEGOS 12 CDA: Dichotomous Reality From a Polish Immigrant’s Perspective 171 EWA KRAWCZYK 13 Emergent Bilinguals in the Curriculum 182 ADRIANA GOENAGA RUIZ DE ZUAZU Contributors 195 Index 197 Foreword We live in perilous times. We are on our way to the highest levels of inequal- ity we have ever had in the United States and across the world. We have a new global “casino capitalism,” a form of capitalism based on bets that have little to do with producing anything of real value to people. Global warm- ing threatens the very existence of human beings and civilization. Violent extremism in the name of ideology is spreading across the world. Environ- mental degradation and violence are leading to massive flows of immigra- tion and displaced people. The Internet is now so vital to the operations of our governments, businesses, and infrastructure—and so thoroughly interconnected—that hackers could bring on a disaster as big as or bigger than the detonation of a nuclear weapon, leaving whole cities without light, water, or safety. The bad news here is this: Business as usual cannot go on. Tinkering at the edges of school and society in the name of “reform,” without address- ing these major problems and their interconnections with each other, is like Nero fiddling while Rome burns. The good news here is this: Business as usual cannot go on. It was busi- ness as usual that brought us this mess, so the fact that we will be forced to end it now is good news, if we can take advantage of this climatic moment in human history and direct change down positive pathways. We academics have to begin to think bigger thoughts and seek impact, not just citations. We have to interrogate racism, classicism, gender discrimina- tion of all sorts, and all other forms of injustice but without d estroying— indeed, by creating—possibilities for coalitions and concerted efforts across the lines of diversity. We have to start offering solutions and not just cri- tique. And solutions are going to require new categories, new collabora- tions, and new forms of knowing, being, and activism. Critical discourse analysis names a variety of different approaches to research on, and interventions in, the functioning of talk, text, activity, and identity at work in the world to produce, reproduce, and change society, culture, institutions, history, our notions of humanness, and our place as humans in the wider world. Like so much of academics, discourse analysts have placed themselves in well-protected silos. Such silos are part of business viii Foreword as usual and part of what needs to end if we are to move forward and not meet our fate without having put up any real fight. Why is discourse analysis crucial? Because it is talk and text in all their complex relationships with each other and with objects, tools, places and spaces, ways of acting and interacting, and ways of believing and valu- ing in and across history that brought us to this tipping point. Unless we understand how we got here and how we can talk ourselves out of this mess, we are doomed. Yes, talk our way out—communication, interaction, and collaboration in the service of a new world, not a utopia surely, but a place where we can be better people, better to each other, and better to our mother, the Earth. We are down to the basics here. It is a portentous time for those of us who study how people “talk the talk” and “walk the walk” and, so too, how we humans can talk new talk and walk a new walk, even something of a dance. It is the worst of times and the best of times to be an academic. Dear reader, let Pierre W. Orelus’s enticing collection of chapters— Language, Race, and Power in Schools: A Critical Discourse Analysis— be not just training for the mind but an invitation for you to collect your thoughts, begin to build your own theories and coalitions, and prepare yourself for action and collaboration. James Paul Gee Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies Regents’ Professor Acknowledgments This book would not have been a reality without the genuine contribution of all contributors involved in it. I wish to thank them all for their knowl- edge, experience, expertise, and inspiration. Second, my deepest gratitude goes to the staff at Routledge, namely Christina Chronister and Katherine Tsamparlis, who were very understanding, patient, and supportive from the beginning to the end. Third, I want thank Professor James Gee, who gra- ciously agreed to write the foreword supporting this book project. Finally, thank you to my wife and my daughter, who were extremely supportive and patient throughout the process of writing this book. As always, you two are my rock and will always be!