Inquiries Into Literacy Learning and Cultural Competencies in a World of Borders

A Volume in:

Research in Second Language Learning and Literacy

Series Editor

Bogum Yoon

Binghamton University

Research in Second Language Learning and Literacy

Series Editor

Bogum Yoon
Binghamton University

Critical Views on Teaching and Learning English Around the Globe:
Qualitative Research Approaches (2016)
José Aldemar Álvarez V., Cathy Amanti, Shireen Keyl, Erin Mackinney,

Academic Language In Second Language Learning (2013)
M. Beatriz Arias, Christian J. Faltis,

Studies and Global Perspectives of Second Language Teaching and Learning (2013)
John W. Schwieter

Teachers’ Roles in Second Language Learning:
Classroom Applications of Sociocultural Theory (2012)
Bogum Yoon, Hoe Kyeung Kim

Research Informing Practice—Practice Informing Research
Innovative Teaching Methologies for World Language Teachers (2011)
David Schwarzer, Mary Petrón, Christopher Luke

Crossing Languages and Research Methods:
Analyses of Adult Foreign Language Reading (2009)
Cindy Brantmeier

Project-Based Second and Foreign Language Education:
Past, Present, and Future (2006)
Gulbahar H. Beckett, Paul Chamness Miller

Research as a Tool for Empowerment: Theory Informing Practice (2006)
David Schwarzer, Melanie Bloom; Sarah Shono

Research in Technology and Second Language Learning:
Developments and Directions (2005)
Yong Zhao

Culture as the Core: Perspective on Culture in Second Language Education (2003)
Dale L. Lange

Literacy and the Second Language Learner (2002)
JoAnn Hammadou Sullivan

Inquiries Into Literacy Learning and Cultural Competencies in a World of Borders

Edited by

Tonya Huber

Philip S. Roberson

INFORMATION AGE PUBLISHING, INC.
Charlotte, NC • www.infoagepub.com

Copyright © 2018 Information Age Publishing Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission

from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Data

The CIP data for this book can be found on the Library of Congress website (loc.gov).

Paperback: 978-1-64113-205-3

Hardcover: 978-1-64113-206-0

eBook: 978-1-64113-207-7

Cover photos provided by: Randel Brown, Andrea Pawelek, and Tonya Huber

Contents

Foreword ix

William A. Howe

Preface: Literacy Learning and Cultural Competency: Shifting From Dominant Culture to Multi-Cultural to Globally Inter-Cultural xi

Tonya Huber

Praise for Inquiries Into Literacy Learning xv

PART I

Laredo, Texas—Nuevo Laredo, Mexico:
A River Runs Through It

1. Research-Based Instructional Strategies for
Emerging ELL Readers 5

Bonnie J. Villarreal and Xuesong Wang

2. Un-Drowning the Transfer Process: Strategies to Aid Hispanic Transfer Students 23

Marcela Uribe and Cihtlalli G. Perez

3. Intercultural Competency: Crossing Borders Between Laredo, Texas, USA, and Ahmednagar, India 39

Tonya Huber, Randel Brown, and Philip S. Roberson

PART II

Voices of Border Crossers

4. Structuring and Un-Structuring Interaction among English Language Learners (ELL) and Their Non-ELL Peers 73

Anny Fritzen Case

5. Moving Between Languages, Meanings, and Worlds: Bilingual Adolescents as Poetry Translators and Cultural Mediators 95

Jie Y. Park and Lori Simpson

6. Youth Scaling Borders to Access Education 109

Kathleen M. Corley

PART III

Historical, National, Theoretical, And Emerging Paradigms Of English Language Learning, Bilingualism, And Culturally Responsive Practice

7. Cognitive Impact of Bilingualism and Language Habits at the Borders of Cultures and Nations 141

Angélique Michelle Blackburn

8. Crossing Cultural Borders: Language Use and Identity of
Chinese Immigrant Students 167

Yuwen Deng

9. Project-Based Inquiry: Professional Development With Chinese EFL Elementary Teachers 183

Hiller A. Spires, Casey M. Paul, and Chang Yuan

10. Promoting Intercultural Learning Through an International Teaching Internship Program 199

David M. Moss, Christine A. Barry, and Heather MacCleoud

11. The Role of Teacher Educators and Teacher Leaders in Developing Intercultural Literacy in and Beyond USA Border Communities 219

James G. O’Meara

Epilogue: In Pursuit of English Language
Learning on the Border: The TAMIU-LBV
Literacy Partnership 235

Philip S. Roberson, Bonnie Villarreal,
Andrea Pawelek, and Heather Blagg

About the Contributors 253

Recognizing Reviewers’ Critical Feedback 263

v

vi • CONTENTS

CONTENTS • vii

FOREWORD

William A. Howe

I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel internationally to study multicultural education in schools. Teachers belong to a brotherhood/sisterhood that transcends borders. We all share in the same struggle to educate the next generation to go out and make this a better world for all.

I think of the principal of an impoverished high school in Soweto, South Africa, who put on a brave front despite the fact that thieves had just stolen every one of the school’s 10-year-old computers. I think of the computer teacher in a rural school in southern China who was overjoyed when our tour group of teachers presented him with the school’s first and only computer and printer. The poor, young man had been teaching keyboarding to his students using only cardboard replicas of the keyboard. I think of the young children having to walk to school in Jerusalem past heavily armed soldiers. I think of the children in a school in Mexico who have field trips canceled because of increased warfare between drug gangs. And I think of the young children in Chicago walking to school, learning at a young age how to navigate the different gang territories. I think of all the people desperate to seek a new life, free from war, poverty, and varied hostilities.

Throughout all of these experiences was the common denominator of teachers worldwide doing their best to not only educate properly, but to also prepare their young charges for a multicultural, global world. This is why Second Language Learning and Cultural Competency in a World of Borders, is such an important new work. If we are to succeed on international as well as local levels, then we must create an educational system that focuses on the mastery of bilingual/multilingual literacies and the development of cultural competence. One only needs to read the business section of the newspaper to find that corporations, big and small, put a high premium on employees that are culturally competent and multilingual. Even the proverbial mom-and-pop store, particularly in diverse neighborhoods, value workers who can communicate in a second language and are able to work effectively with customers from different cultural backgrounds. This book addresses these issues in light of a political climate that threatens increased conflicts between nations and from within.

Educators today know that the teaching profession has evolved to become a multifaceted career that involves work with emerging literacies and outside of the traditional classroom. Schools acknowledge that learning must encompass the entire school community that includes working with families. Educating students often requires a solid understanding of the experiences and cultures of students. In particular, how to accommodate the unique needs of new arrivals, both immigrants and refugees, is an essential component of teaching and learning.

This timely publication addresses issues that need to be understood at all levels of education. The trifecta of languages key to the international business world is now English, Spanish, and Mandarin—the three most commonly spoken languages on our planet. Preparation to teach students whose first language is not English must be within the core curriculum of all educators. Education leaders must also have this preparation if we expect schools to successfully teach all students. Understanding that culture is inextricably tied to the learning of language and literacy is also essential. Add to this the importance of providing students with the skills and dispositions needed to work effectively with other cultures. And then combine all of this within the context of cross-border conflicts that exist between cultures and between countries.

One can hopefully see then why Inquiries Into Literacy Learning and Cultural Competencies in a World of Borders holds such promise for use by faculty in pre-service and graduate settings, by staff developers in PK-12 schools, for all professionals who work in different levels of second language instruction and so many others working in international arenas.

William A. Howe, Ed.D.

PREFACE

Literacy Learning and Cultural Competency

Shifting From Dominant Culture to Multi-Cultural to Globally Inter-Cultural

Tonya Huber

The vision of this book has been to represent the work of educators and scholars invested in moving education beyond insular models of language study and cultural awareness to more globally representative and inclusive interactions that range from the studied word to the lived experience, reading the word to read the world (Freire & Macedo, 1987). A fundamental aspect of this vision is to recognize the living nature of language and its intricate role in culture. Culture is mediated through language (Hauerwas, Skawinski, & Ryan, 2017, p. 202) and the linguistic experience of difference is essential for developing cultural competence beyond surface culture considerations. The editors of this volume are committed to a closer bond between literacy learning and cultural competence, particularly when literacy practices and education are often characterized by quantifiable standards and accountability restraints. Readers of this volume will find meaningful and practical approaches to engage with learners from the early ages of communication through university and across global communities.

The editors have adopted the perspective of Robert Frost (1914) that before building a wall we should ask who it is we are walling out. As liberatory activist and historian Howard Zinn (1994/2002) has written: “The twelve-foot-high stone wall around the campus [Spelman, “a Negro college in the year 1956” (p. 15)], at certain points replaced by a barbed wire fence ... slanted so as not to keep intruders out, but to keep the Spelman students in” (p. 19). The editors contend, cultural competence should overcome physical and social walls with a globally inclusive paradigm of engagement to transcend language, cultural, and geographical borders.

The field of psychology as the science of the individual was historically built and taught on the philosophical foundation (e.g., paradigm, world view, over-arching theory—or, perhaps in this case, barbed-wire wall) of individualism, a paradigm that represents about 30% of the world’s people. The other 70% of the world’s population perceives the world from a paradigm of interdependence or collectivism (Greenfield & Cocking, 1994). While people are fully engaged in human interactions without comprehending or recognizing their own and others’ paradigms, it is impossible to engage with another individual without these philosophical foundations of human development being activated. Colonial mindsets, paradigms of oppression, and a lack of cultural to national to global knowledge bases may continue to complicate the issue of moving from a European-heritage dominant culture in the U.S.A. to a globally interdependent, intercultural world (Dei & Johal, 2005; Smith, 1998, 2000–2001).

American education’s focus on multicultural education following the Civil Rights Movement was often aimed at comprehending the histories of hyphenated Americans and celebrating the richness of their cultural contributions, including language, in English-speaking classrooms during designated weeks and months of the year. The students in today’s classrooms bring global awareness exponentially broadened beyond the USA to social media coverage of and connection to world leaders and events; technology, medicine, and business; and athletics, music and pop culture. Additionally, students in USA classrooms today bring diverse lived experiences often transcending the geographic borders of the USA. While the terrorist attacks on North American soil on 9/11 may have changed America’s insular geographic knowledge, it remains true that although American students and citizens understand that events in places they have never heard of may dominate daily news, the ability to locate these places on a map of the world, much less make an articulate statement of identification about the people in these places, escapes the average person. This is not a new phenomenon.

Modern education’s proverbial progressive lighthouse, John Dewey (1899), perceptively and prophetically wrote in 1899,

One can hardly believe there has been a revolution in all history so rapid, so extensive, and so complete. Through it the face of the earth is making over, even as to its physical forms; political boundaries are wiped out and moved about as if they were indeed only lines on a paper map; population is hurriedly gathered into cities from the ends of the earth; habits of living are altered with startling abruptness and thoroughness. (p. 22)

How does Dewey’s astute awareness of the rapid movement of places and people frame the current-day rapid changes of a globe technologically tethered but politically, philosophically and pedagogically disconnected? His awareness of borders as “only lines on a paper map” foreshadowed the accelerated change of borders and nations in the following century.

How do we meaningfully connect people across places? As Bringle and Hatcher (2011) reported regarding results from the Beyond Immediate Impact: Study Abroad for Global Engagement project including both quantitative and qualitative research presented by Fry, Paige, and Stallman (2009):

This study provides strong empirical evidence that undergraduate students who study abroad during their college years become globally engaged in a variety of ways in subsequent years. Moreover, many of them attribute their global engagement to their having studied abroad (in Bringle & Hatcher, p. 7).

Fry, Paige, and Stallman (2009) concluded that an investment in study abroad, even in short-term programs, makes “a much broader investment in the long-term well-being of society and the globe: socially, environmentally, and politically” (in Bringle & Hatcher, p. 7).

In related research, Bowman, Brandenberger, Mick, and Smedley (2010) surveyed a total of 354 students who participated in one-credit service-learning courses of 2–7 days in length along with 115 students who participated in three-credit service-learning courses with longer immersions (8–10 weeks). Regarding orientations toward equality, justice, and social responsibility, their research highlighted the importance of immersion experiences preceded by and followed with opportunities for structured reflection and academic integration, regardless of length of service-learning as the critical factor. “This model may work especially well in the context of a semester if the immersion occurs during a week-long spring break” (p. 28) or similar break in semester coursework when embedded in semester-long academic study.

Immersing students in real-world experiences beyond their comfort zone is a cornerstone of my explanation of liberatory pedagogy targeting social responsibility and justice, “we must move beyond the narrow confines of our own experiences to a transformative approach that incorporates different perspectives and points of view” (Huber, 2002, p. 17). According to Walker and Soltis (2009), William Heard Kilpatrick (1871–1965, Progressive educational philosopher and interpreter of John Dewey’s work) “argued, we learn from the activities we engage in, from our experiences, not from memorizing or studying, but from doing things with a purpose” (p. 49). Certainly, the support for active engagement and immersion in experiences is not new in pedagogical theory. Should not meaningful integration of academic content into real-world experiences beyond familiar borders be a solid pillar of today’s teaching~learning encounters to encourage global citizenship? Clearly, the authors in this volume provide studied examples of immersing students in language, cultural, and geographical experiences different from their own lived experiences, documenting the learning process in which individuals interact/engage/immerse themselves in other languages and cultures thereby learning to “situate their identity in a broader context” on their life-long journey to becoming more globally inter-cultural (Deardorff, 2012, p. 8).

REFERENCES

Bowman, N. A., Brandenberger, J. W., Mick, C. S., & Smedley, C. T. (2010). Sustained immersion courses and student orientations to equality, justice, and social responsibility: The role of short-term service-learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 17(1), 20–31.

Bringle, R. G., & Hatcher, J. A. (2011). International service learning. In R. G. Bringle, J. A. Hatcher, & S. G. Jones (Ed.), International service learning: Conceptual frameworks and research (pp. 3–28). Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.

Deardorff. D. (2012). Intercultural competence in the 21st century: Perspectives, issues, application. In B. Breninger, & T. Kaltenbacher (Eds.), Creating cultural synergies: Multidisciplinary perspectives on interculturality and interreligiosity (pp. 7–23). Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Dei, G. J. S., & Johal, G. S. (Eds.). (2005). Critical issues in anti-racist research methodologies. In J. L. Kincheloe & S. R. Kincheloe (Gen. Eds.), Counterpoints: Studies in postmodern theory of education. New York: Peter Lang.

Dewey, J. (1899). The school and society (p. 3). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

Freire, P., & Macedo, D. (1987). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. Great Britain: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Fry, G. W., Paige, R. M., & Stallman, E. M. (2009, August). Beyond immediate impact: Study abroad for global engagement. Presentation at the International Academy for Intercultural Research, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Greenfield, P. M., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.). (1994). Cross-cultural roots of minority child development. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Hauerwas, L. B., Skawinski, S. F., & Ryan, L. B. (2017). The longitudinal impact of teaching abroad: An analysis of intercultural development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 67, 202–213.

Huber, T. (2002). Quality learning experiences (QLEs) for ALL students. San Francisco, CA: Caddo Gap Press.

Smith, G. P. (1998). Common sense about uncommon knowledge: The knowledge bases for diversity. Washington, DC: The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

Smith, G. P. (2000–2001). Relationships among knowledge bases for diversity in teacher education, critical pedagogy, critical inquiry, and story. Journal of Critical Inquiry Into Curriculum and Instruction, 2(3), 26–30.

Walker, D. F., & Soltis, J. F., assisted by Schoonmaker, F. (2009). Curriculum and aims (5th ed., rev. & expanded). In J. F. Soltis (Series Ed.), Thinking about education series. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.

Zinn, H. (1994/2002). You can’t be neutral on a moving train: A personal history of our times. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Praise for
Inquiries Into Literacy Learning

Inquiries Into Literacy Learning and Cultural Competencies in a World of Borders is a timely and important volume in which 22 educational scholars share knowledge and perspective on the challenges, opportunities, and successes of educational efforts that transcend borders, whether geographical, theoretical, or spiritual. While this work is focused primarily on the U.S.A.-Mexican border at Laredo, Texas, it also reaches overseas to India and metaphorically across and around the globe.

It has been my great pleasure to work with the volume’s co-editor, Tonya Huber, on several other books and journals over the last three decades, and in this new book, as always, she guides both authors and readers with a skilled hand and a firm commitment to educational equity and social justice.

This book offers both theoretical analysis and on-the-ground, in-the-schools-and-community guidance and practicality towards education and literacy for all children, and especially for those who all too often are considered to be at-risk rather than valued and treasured for their inherent intellect and skills. This volume should be required reading for all who seek to unlock those essential human characteristics of all children, borders and barriers of every kind be damned.

Alan H. Jones, Ph.D.
Publisher, Caddo Gap Press
Co-Editor & Publisher, Multicultural Education
Executive Secretary, California Council on Teacher Education

Tonya Huber has mentored many students throughout their developing careers in the field of education for social justice. Her groundbreaking publication, Journal of Critical Inquiry into Curriculum and Instruction (JCI~>CI), was identified by Cabell’s Directory of Publishing Opportunities in Educational Curriculum and Methods (6th ed., 2002-2003) identified as the only journal focused on publishing manuscripts that were the result of the graduate level studies of the first author. The journal continued as a synergistic work in progress through the final issue, 5(3), when Huber transferred the scholarship to her book series as Founding Editor of Teaching <~> Learning Indigenous, Intercultural Worldviews: International Perspectives on Social Justice and Human Rights, Information Age Publishing. I have observed her as an instructor of her peers in many workshops and institutes for the professional development of university faculty. Her work as an editor mirrors the same commitment to the profession.

G. Pritchy Smith, Ed.D.
Founder, National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME)
Professor Emeritus
Department of Foundations and Secondary Education
College of Education and Human Services
University of North Florida, Jacksonville

Tonya Huber and Philip S. Roberson, Editors, smartly bring together two critical topics: literacy learning and cultural competency. The invested scholarship of the chapter authors, along with the excellent attention to teaching strategies for working with a diversity of ELL, bilingual, immigrant and international learners makes: Inquiries Into Literacy Learning and Cultural Competencies in a World of Borders an outstanding contribution to the language and cultural competency studies field. Inquiries Into Literacy Learning…is situated to fill many program needs. Huber and Roberson have given the field a powerful tool for teaching and learning literacy and cultural competency.

Carl A. Grant, Ph.D.
Hoef Bascom Professor
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Inquiries Into Literacy Learning and Cultural Competencies in a World of Borders is a necessary addition to cultural and linguistic studies in education. This text provides a research-driven focus on magnifying effective instructional approaches, strategies, and partnerships. Furthermore, this text has a continuous underlying focus on developing cultural competence and linguistic development. This volume arrives during a moment of necessity as borders are becoming ever transparent and contested.

Brandon L. Fox, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Elementary Education
Stephen F. Austin State University
Parliamentarian, National Association for
Multicultural Education (NAME)
President-Elect, Texas Chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education (TxNAME)
Editor, Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Inquiries Into Literacy Learning and Cultural Competencies in a World of Borders is an effectively written book regarding the numerous issues, concerns and problems surrounding our borders. The paradigms and suggestions presented in the diverse chapters are based on valid research models emerging from action research, qualitative research and quantitative research. All educators who have an interest in “Border Education” will find this scholarly treatment of these issues, a stimulating and inspiring read. Professor Huber is providing an avenue, which is not usually available through mainstream media, for these scholars to share their knowledge on “border” learning and competencies. The timing of this book is most appropriate given the vitriolic national conversation regarding borders and immigrants.

H. Prentice Baptiste, Ph.D.
President, National Association for
Multicultural Education (NAME), 2017 & 2018
Founding Member of NAME
Regents and Distinguished Professor
College of Education
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM

In this exhilarating volume of Inquiries Into Learning and Cultural Competencies in a World of Borders (Huber & Roberson, 2018), Tonya Huber, Phillip S. Roberson, and a group of courageous and invigorating activist scholars and intercultural language workers critically and creatively examine the trajectories, struggles, and contradictions of second language learning and intercultural competency. They call for intercultural language workers to work with other researchers, educators, teachers, administrators, parents, students, community workers, policy makers, and educational workers to shatter “colonial mindsets, paradigms of oppression” (Huber, 2018, p. xii); decolonize space and place; “hope radically, imagine creatively, and act inspirationally” (AERA Call for Submission, 2018, p. 2); transgress epistemological, socio-political, cultural, and linguistic borders to cultivate generations of emergent intercultural language workers to become the light in troubling times; and invent a landscape of education for cultural and linguistic diversity where creative and worthwhile intercultural language learning and teaching make the impossible possible in the increasingly multicultural, multiethnic, multilingual, and multiracial world.

Ming Fang He, Ph.D.
Professor of Curriculum Studies
Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
College of Education, Georgia Southern University