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Article published In: Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict
Vol. 6:1 (2018) ► pp.1–25

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A critical literacy proposal for exploring conflict and immigrant identities in the classroom

Or how not to sweep conflict under the multicultural classroom carpet

 | University of Patras, Greece
 | National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Published online: 2 July 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00001.arc
Abstract
In this paper we intend to show that conflict emerging from multiple and competing perspectives on social reality, may not necessarily be avoided in class, but it could instead become the starting point of critical discussions among teachers and students. To this end, we focus on the exploitation of essays written by immigrant students attending Greek Lyceums (15–18 years old) to promote conflict-dialogue processes in class, which are most compatible with critical literacy. We suggest that language teaching concentrating on texts including immigrant experiences and ambivalent identities constructed by immigrant students, could underline the conflict between majority expectations or pressures and minority efforts to adjust to a complex, often inhospitable context. Such a conflict could enhance immigrant and non-immigrant students’ critical literacy by bringing to the surface and critically discussing assimilationist and monoculturalist ideologies, thus promoting a culturally sustaining pedagogy.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Critical literacy, conflict-dialogue pedagogy, and minority/immigrant student discourse
  • 3.Monoculturalist and monolingualist discourses in Greek society and education
  • 4.A theoretical proposal for critically analyzing identities
  • 5.The data of the study
  • 6.The analysis of immigrant students’ disclaimers
    • (A)Remembering racist behaviors as resistance
    • (B)Homesickness as resistance
  • 7.Some tentative critical literacy proposals
  • 8.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
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