STEP OUTSIDE THE BOX: Issues of multiple literacies and gender norms

          “Step outside the Box” This seems to be the sentiment of all the readings this week from multiplicity of literacy, to the ‘New Economy’, to gender equality. As educators we have to be able to step outside of the rigid box that has defined, what, how and who gets educated. We are doing injustice by staying in the old box and not allowing for the new transformations; from fighting technology to reinforcing pedagogies that enforce the ‘culture of power’. Throughout the wide range of topics we read you hear over and over the same message for the need to CHANGE. The OLD system is not working for the NEW world. In the worlds of the great Yvon Chouinard ,“We cannot keep trying to fix a broken system, sometimes all you really need to do is turn around 180 degrees and take one step forward” (Yvon Chouinard, 180 Degrees South).

Over and over we see the need to fight back on the demands of the educational system and say this is enough. We have to see teachers as, “Transformative intellectuals”(Maher, 273), who are respected and given freedom to do their individual work within the classroom. With a pedagogy that matches their students’ values, and lives and does not create continuous miss-matches that time and time again excludes the same students. Stereotypes are created by unfair “Opportunities to Learn” states Gee, “If two children are being assessed on something that they have not had equivalent opportunities to learn, the assessment is unjust…. If one cannot prove that the children being tested have had equal opportunity to learn than the assessment is, “invalid and unethical”(28). And when we see the failure of the same stereotyped students are being enforced and perpetuated in the school system we have to begin to ask questions.

It (good or bad) happen in the classroom,” In spite of today’s barriers and obstacles, of racism and elitism as well as sexism, it is in the classrooms of individual teachers, helped by allies in their schools and communities, that our best hopes lie for resolving “gender turf battles” and building democracy”(Maher, 274). You have to ask yourself are you creating a match or a miss-match? Weather we are talking about school literature choice that are embedded with message of inequality or the fight against technology or the acceptance of multiple literacies; what we are really talking about is inclusion or exclusion, and unfortunately the system with this narrow box only allows for a small amount to be included, but for most to be left looking in trying to learn (assimilate to the culture of power) how to be included. Williams make this argument concerning literature for young readers (both action and violence novels and young romance literature), remove the hysteria of concern around these issues most boys aren’t killers and most girls aren’t sexual victims; although the odds of sexual abuse are higher for girls than violence for men- either way no one wins. “ When such rigid expectations result in institutionally unimaginative or personally inflexible responses, no student benefits”(Williams 302).

What we must do is use these reading as a teachable moment to reflect on the complexities and the culturally constructed expectations that limit us all. There has to be VALUE and VISION, we have to push and stretch our student’s minds. Whether we are challenging technology tolerance or the modern identity paradigm we have to push boundaries. “To transgress the boundaries, valued so strongly by society, is to begin to undo violence and oppression and the regulation and control of these identities. These transgressions are a “step out side the box,” and therefore an attack on the power held by those who conform and police identity boundaries”(Hill, 31). A student sums it up so well, “In school, writing is about handing something in. Here (on-line) it is about having something to say”(Kajder, p.215). We have to ask ourselves what are students are writing for? Which result are we striving for accountability or value?

The world is changing and a new economy is evolving and you have to wonder if by staying in the old box are we preparing students for a world that does not thrive on ‘basic skills’, As Gee discusses,“ the old industrial capitalism was about mass producing standardized products for heavily controlled mass markets. In the new global, hypercompetitive, science-and-technology-driven capitalism, products and services are created, perfected, and changed at ever faster rates”(Gee, 414). You are your project. You are your own portfolio (Gee). The new world is flat world and these are the new skills needed: (Burke, 153).

-Collaborators and orchestrators

-synthesizers

-explainers

-adapters

-green people

-personalizers

-localizers

How do we produce learners for this new world? “We create an “active learning” environment, “experiencing the world in NEW ways, forming NEW affiliations in preparation for NEW future learning “(Gee, 32).  WE STEP OUTSIDE THE BOX!

And, sometimes we can’t always so boldly take the 180 degree turn that we will like to be able to do, but hopefully what we can do as Williams suggest,“ teach our students how to recognize the challenges of the river; how to navigate it to get to where they want to go; and, when necessary, how to turn the boat around and –slowly with great effort-move upstream against the current”(Williams,302).