The Importance of ‘Listening to Those Located Outside One’s Culture
For lETCs this means navigating between discourses of a student and teacher in training, while being evaluated in a staged situation as a ‘real’ teacher. In this process, teacher candidates develop a language-based strategy that they utilise during their teaching placements in schools, as well as for purposes of negotiating and nurturing classroom relations with peers and instructors at the Faculty of Education. The incident that we described in this paper illustrates how asymmetric power relations that are marked by an ‘us-them binarism’ (Kostogriz, 2002) are experienced by the disadvantaged, in this case, the teacher candidates.
Additionally, this incident illustrates the importance of ‘listening to [the voices of] those located outside one’s culture: In order to understand, it is immensely important for the person who understands to be located outside the object of his or her creative understanding – in time, in space, in culture. For one cannot even really see one’s own exterior and comprehend it as a whole, and no mirrors or photographs can help; our real exterior can be seen and understood by other people, because they are located outside us in space and because they are others. (Bakhtin, 1986, p. 7) In cross-cultural encounters, it is necessary to make sense of the meanings that both words and silences possess. It is only through doing so that we are able to ‘bring the undiscussed into discussion’ (Bourdieu, 1977, p. 168) and are capable to help establish a society in which there is space for change. In this paper we have demonstrated the polymorphic nature of Simon’s (1992) ‘pedagogy of possibility’. Using the concept of ‘possibility’ we provided four interpretations for the ‘meaning of good’. In retrospect, although multiple interpretations of the word ‘good’ are possible, the fourth interpretation (i.e. dealing with establishment) is the most plausible in the incident described. As the teacher candidates described here continue to search for jobs after graduation, we muse over their answers were we to ask them about experiences in job searches. We are sure that these new graduates would inform us that their job search experiences are ‘good’, that is, ‘as expected’. This time, again, we would ask, ‘And, what has been good about it’ Had we not proceeded to talk with the lETCs after conducting the survey instrument, we would not have learned that words used to describe their practice-teaching experiences differed from their lived experiences. Our approach thus supports Ladson-Billings’ invitation to ‘add necessary contextual contours to the seeming “objectivity” of positivist perspectives’ (1999, p. 213).
The implications of this paper for all who work with minority teacher candidates in faculties and classrooms are thus twofold: The first implication is methodological; while we had started the seminar by conducting a survey, it was only through talk -qualitative narratives – that we were able to decipher the complexity of the responses given to us. A qualitative ethnographic approach to our teaching enabled us to uncover an intriguing paradox – the contradiction between lived experiences and the verbal description given to them. Secondly, we advocate that teacher education becomes ‘an important site for the development of more aware and sensitive understanding of cultural difference’ (Santoro, Kamler, & Reid, 2001, p. 210). By discussing some language and intercultural communication issues that we tapped into almost accidentally, we want to emphasise the importance of seminars like Language and Cultural Engagement, where lETCs can communicate freely their frustrations, successes and inquires. However, we caution that no matter how dedicated the instructors and teacher candidates are, there are many instances when outside reality bleeds in, consequently bringing doubts and inconsistencies that silence large parts of those who are on the margins of teacher education programmes.With years of experience in making delicate Cheap Louis Vuitton Handbags, we are waiting to provide the crowning touch to your style. Just feel free to shop Louis Vuitton bags M23252 handbag /shoulderbag here.
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