Dialoguing across Cultures, Identities, and Learning: Crosscurrents and Complexities in Literacy Classrooms(Language, Culture, and Teaching Series)

Drawing on Dialogical Self Theory, this book presents a new framework for social and cultural identity construction in the literacy classroom, offering possibilities for how teachers might adjust their pedagogy to better support the range of cultural stances present in all classrooms. In the complex multicultural/multiethnic/multilingual contexts of learning in and out of school spaces today, students and teachers are constantly dialoguing across cultures, both internally and externally, and these cultures are in dialogue with each other. The authors unpack some of the complexity of culture and identity, what people do with culture and identity, and how people navigate multiple cultures and identities. Readers are invited to re-examine how they view different cultures and the roles these play in their lives, and to dialogue with the authors about cultures, learning, literacy, identity, and agency.

Table of Contents:
Contents Dedication Introduction The Purpose of the Book Creating a Context for Dialoguing about Cultures and Selves Sketching the Landscape of the Book What to Expect from This Book References Chapter 1: Cultures and the Dialogical Self Sketching the Dialogue of Cultures Constructing a Self Dialoguing with Multiple Cultures Dialoguing Through Uncertainty References Chapter 2: Learning, Cultures, and the Dialogical Self So Where Is This Going? Cultures, Learning and "Ideological Becoming" Ideological Becoming within Ideological Environments Relationships with the Self in Educational Contexts Now, and Then References Chapter 3: Literacies, Learning, Cultures, and the Dialogical Self Literacies and Dialogical Selves Connecting Bakhtin, Literacy, and the Dialogical Self Learning within Tensions Implications for Teaching Reading and Writing References Chapter 4: Identity, Literacies, Learning, Cultures, and the Dialogical Self Constructing Identities Some Reminders and Some New Connections Learning through Isaac and Sam What We Make of All This References Chapter 5: Agency, Identity, Literacies, Learning, Cultures, and the Dialogical Self Unpacking Agency Takeaways Last Words, at Least for Now References About the Authors Index

About the Author :
Bob Fecho is Professor of English Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, USA. Jennifer Clifton is Assistant Professor, Department of English (Rhetoric and Writing Studies), The University of Texas at El Paso, USA.