Monica Shank Lauwo will have her doctoral defence on Monday, July 22, 2024 at 11:00 AM in the Multipurpose Room (PCN 2012), Ponderosa Commons North, 6445 University Blvd.
Supervisory Committee:
Supervisors: Dr. Bonny Norton and Dr. Marlene Asselin
Committee Member: Dr. Maureen Kendrick
University Examiners:
University Examiners: Dr. Jennifer Vadeboncoeur (EPSE) and Dr. Ryuko Kubota (LLED)
External Examiner: Dr. Jeff Bale (OISE/University of Toronto)
Title of Dissertation: Linguistic diversity, antiracism, and raciolinguicized subjectivities in teacher education
Abstract:
Language and race collaborate in the production of educational inequities, creating an imperative for teacher education to equip future teachers to disrupt raciolinguistic ideologies and become critical antiracist language educators. Emphasizing the inseparability of linguistic and racial justice, this study examines possibilities for centring linguistic diversity, antiracism, and equity in teacher education. This study responds to calls to foreground teacher identity and critical reflexivity surrounding TCs’ own raciolinguicized subjectivities as part of efforts to normalize multilingualism, disrupt hegemonic conceptions of literacy, and denaturalize Whiteness in teacher education.
Employing critical action research (CAR), this study examines possibilities for implementing a multilingual, race- and identity-conscious approach in language and literacy courses for elementary teacher candidates (TCs) in an 11-month B.Ed. program in Western Canada. Embedding case study methods into the broader CAR, it examines the learning journeys of five TCs of contrasting raciolinguicized subjectivities as they participate in language-related coursework and practicum, in two different cycles of CAR (in the 2019/20 and 2021/22 academic years). This study also examines the role of a three-part multiliteracies autobiography project in supporting TCs (n=22) to reconceptualize literacy while considering possibilities for equity-oriented antiracist literacies pedagogy.
Raciolinguistics, raciolinguicized subjectivities, and critical antiracism in language education provide theoretical lenses, alongside perspectives from translanguaging and plurilingualism. Data from course assignments, written/multimodal reflections, in-class activities, instructor fieldnotes, focus group discussions, and interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis.
Findings demonstrate that critical reflexivity surrounding raciolinguicized subjectivities supported some TCs to contend with systemic racism and monolingual ideologies, reimagine ‘literacy,’ and develop concrete pedagogical ideas for more equitably supporting racialized multilinguals. A multilingual race- and identity-conscious approach supported some racialized TCs to strengthen their resource orientation towards their own multilingualism, while challenging other TCs to disrupt race-evasive discourses and unpack intersectional privileges in ways that enriched their design of equity-oriented pedagogies. However, power dynamics in practicum complicated TCs’ attempts to implement multilingual antiracist commitments.
Implications address the need to cultivate brave spaces for race-related conversations, offer enriched opportunities for TCs to experience multilingual and antiracist pedagogies, and integrate critical engagements with race and language more systematically throughout teacher education programs.