Torres-Padilla’s (2005) article Death to the Originary Narrative! or, Insurgent Multiculturalism and Teaching Multiethnic Literature had a few ideas that stuck out to me. Torres-Padilla (2005) describes, in detail, the issue of living in a racially diverse culture and how people are seemingly content with this. However, the author also explains the sense of urgency in reversing this way of living, as it is creating more divisiveness and slowly continuing to eliminate discussions and teachings of our country’s origins from history.
In this article, the idea that “...education has a significant reciprocal relationship to culture….” (Torres-Padilla, 2005, p. 16) struck me in regards to how we see this in education. In PLC’s, I often hear about the need for us educators to have more multicultural books in our classrooms. Because the various cultures in our world and in our communities are intertwined in many ways, it is important that our students understand cultures outside of their own.
All of this leads me to ask: If we know we are all creatures of habit, often uncomfortable with learning new things, why does it seem to come as a surprise when schools are asked to have more material sharing information about other cultures?
References
Torres-Padilla, J. L. (2005). Death to the originary narrative! or, insurgent multiculturalism and teaching multiethnic literature. MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, 30(2), 13–30. https://doi.org/10.1093/melus/30.2.13
I think our schools so a good job at telling teachers to have more multicultural texts for students in the classroom but do not do a good job at having teachers do more with that text besides read it with the students. This is not a way for students to connect to different topics and cultures by simply just having them read a text. I think teachers need to get more involved and be ready to have those difficult conversations but the only thing with that is how far can we go in the classroom. I was always taught in the classroom to just avoid those conversations. I liked your question because we are all creatures of habits and stuck in our own ways so when schools want us to do something different, it is easier to just not do it and stick to the old ways.
ReplyDeletePart of the challenge to education is to bring the literature in as way to offer other "originary narratives" or add to the one we have (or change it or challenge it, etc.). Nina Baym's term "originary narrative" is what Torres-Padilla is really talking about. Baym coined the term and explains that we have this historical narrative about the beginnings of our country. It comes with a whole host of features and embedded perceptions about who we are as Americans. Torres-Padilla claims that it leaves out a lot of voices. He argues that we might consider bringing in narratives written by authors from a variety of cultures so that we can use them to add to the originary narrative of our country and thereby add to the embedded ideology of what America is and means. So to go back to Jeanann's comment, I might say that I agree with your observation, Jeanann, that immigrant, first-generation, and so on students in our classes definitely have had experiences that are incredibly valuable to their ability to succeed, to their peers' learning experiences, and to our professional development. You're absolutely right that while it's important to acknowledge the challenges some of our students have, it's also important to turn those challenges into strengths. Getting back to your question, Camryn, and your response, Rachel, that's a way we as teachers can move out from sticking to the old ways and using literature from a variety of authors in new ways that will benefit our students. I also believe very strongly that reading a variety of texts--fiction, nonfiction, poetry, articles--from a variety of perspectives will inform us and positively impact how we work with all of our students.
ReplyDelete