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Applying and Adapting Critical Literacy to an Asian context

Applying and Adapting Critical Literacy to an Asian context. Ringo Chan, Arthur Firkins, Gail Forey & Cherry Wong TWGHs Mr and Mrs Kwong Sik Kwan College, Hong Kong The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. Presentation outline. The argument The pedagogical problem

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Applying and Adapting Critical Literacy to an Asian context

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  1. Applying and Adapting Critical Literacy to an Asian context Ringo Chan, Arthur Firkins, Gail Forey & Cherry Wong TWGHs Mr and Mrs Kwong Sik Kwan College, Hong Kong The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

  2. Presentation outline • The argument • The pedagogical problem • Literacy in Hong Kong • Critical meaning • Hong Kong as a ‘third space’ • Selecting a literacy model • Adapting a literacy model • Meeting the needs of the pedagogical situation in Hong Kong

  3. The argument “Educational systems are the products of unique cultures, histories and political economies” Luke et.al.(2005) • Yet at the same time, education systems are under considerable outside pressure to reform and change. • Our argument is that it is not possible to simply embed pedagogies and practices from other systems without significant adaptation and change. • In this process of change the introduced pedagogical practice is changed to meet the needs of the new context. • We argue that the teacher needs to be an active agent towards this change.

  4. The context of education • Large class sizes • English is an L2 but taught as an L1 • Disjuncture between the language requirement of junior secondary school • As there is a more “critical” orientation of the senior English and Chinese curriculum. • New curriculum will examine critical reflection (to be introduced in the exam in 2007 (HKCC 2005) • The examination system in Hong Kong needs to be taken into account. • The present study takes place a school where • children are generally seen as ‘under achievers’ • it was a Special Needs, but now ‘mainstreamed’

  5. The pedagogical problem • Changes to the Curriculum and Syllabus • place higher expectations on Hong Kong students to critically engage with a wide range of Chinese and English texts. • The new expectations place new demands on literacy skills • very different from current pedagogical approaches to literacy. • Curriculum reform in Hong Kong towards - creative and critical pedagogogical approach that meets the needs of the “new communicative order” (Street,1988)

  6. In the literacy classroom • Current conception that Chinese and English classroom practices are very different • Part of the study was to compare Chinese and English literacy classroom • Angel Lin’s observations… • Both are very similar in their classroom practice

  7. Current literacy pedagogy • The effects of “wash back” on classroom pedagogy (Cheng,1997). • Text book based and text book dependent. • Current text books do not meet the needs of a “critical” orientation. • Participation structures teacher centred and teacher controlled. • Language lessons predominately centred on grammar activities or information extraction activities. • No co-ordinated approach to the teaching writing. • No co-ordination between the two languages. • Dependent on examinations for evaluation of progress.

  8. Introducing a literacy programme • Language teachers in the English and Chinese departments wanted to introduce a literacy programme which promoted “critical literacy”. • The details of the development of the programme will be discussed at 10.45 am tomorrow.

  9. Selecting a model Four Resources Model (FRM) as a approach to conceptualise literacy development within the school (Freebody and Luke,1990; Luke and Freebody,1999) Reasons: • Critically oriented • Teachers had some familiarity • Easy to incorporate the school’s current approaches into the model. • Although, developed for English, presented possibilities to adapt for use in Chinese Language Area. • The FRM is a schema, “map of possible practices” and therefore offered a possibility of using as a planning tool to achieve common goals in both language areas.

  10. The Four Resources Model (FRM) Code breakerdecoding the codes and conventions of written, spoken and visual text Text participantcomprehending written, spoken and visual texts Text userunderstanding the purposes of different written, spoken and visual texts for different cultural and social functions Text analystunderstanding how texts position readers, viewers and listeners

  11. Applying the FRM to the Hong Kong context

  12. Problems with using FRM

  13. Advantages of FRM

  14. Pedagogical Resources Literacy Roles Literacy Practices Text as Object Code-breaker Practices of decoding Knowledge Text Participant Practices of meaning making Activity Type Text User Practices of action Talk Text Analyst Practices of analysis Table I: The Four levels of Pedagogical Resources, literacy Roles and literacy Practices

  15. Culture: contested concept • Individualist – Western cultures • focus on individual goals, needs and rights more than community • Collectivist – Asian cultures • value group (Hall 1977; Hoftstede 1980) • Is this true of HK students in their literacy practices? • Can they be critical in their literacy practices?

  16. a) Hall’s low-context (Westerners) • Western philosophy promotes individualism and rationalism, freedom of speech, truth, logical thinking and objectivity. (Brew & Cairns 2004: 332) • value individualist goals • separate person and issue • confrontational • logic deductive thinking • explicit codes of speech • express emotion through face, voice and body movement

  17. b) Hall’s high-context (Asian & other Eastern) • intermesh person and issue • indirect • rely on contextual cues and situational knowledge • implicit referencing • indirect speech acts • careful of face and suppress / mask their emotions Confusion legacy promotes social relationships and concern for others – requiring essential diplomacy & politeness. These characteristics affect the way an individual deals with conflict high/low context (Brew & Cairns 2004: 332) The notion of critical is not part of the Asian heritage. Compare teaching of Aristotle with Confucian

  18. Hong Kongers Intercultural workplace research suggests: • Hong Konger’s perceive themselves as a cohesive group • Feel closer to ‘Westerners’ (incl. British, American and ABC) that to ‘traditional’ mainland Chinese (Chan and Goto 2003) What does this mean with respect to Hongkongers and critical literacy?

  19. Critical literacy • Taking such considerations into account how could we presume that being ‘critical’ could be the same? • Yet at the same time we are attempting to develop students ability to offer a critique of a text. • Critical literacy in Hong Kong has been reformulated to refer to: • Thinking about the text • Some type of active cognitive engagement • Higher order understanding • Reader response

  20. Literacy needs are different • Different literacy practices. • Academic orientation • Technology • Students in Hong Kong engage in different activities and hobbies. • Draw on different “funds of knowledge” (Gonzalez, Moll, Amanti, 2005) • Workplaces, educational places have different literacy demands.

  21. Critical literacy is interpreted differently We asked the three change agents in the School what they believed Critical Literacy to be :- • “Functional literacy is those daily uses, such as say reading and writing. Critical literacy is to understand the meaning and main points by understanding the passage. Students are weak in both these areas”School Principal • “Some of our student’s abilities in Chinese are comparatively weak. Therefore I think a concentration on functional literacy is important as they cannot read or pronounce characters (referring to Chinese). Students can become critical with the help of teachers to stimulate their thoughts and ideas”Chinese subject coordinator •  “I think functional literacy is the tool or consideration of the text user in using a particular language. Critical literacy is the personal response or critical comment after reading a text”English subject coordinator

  22. Third Space Pedagogy • In order to bring in and adapt a pedagogical model from another context • Needed to create of a “third space” where change was possible (Moje et. al.,2004). • A third space constitutes the discursive conditions that ensure that even the same signs can be appropriated, translated, rehistoricized and read anew (Bhabha,1994). • Can be viewed as a space of cultural, social, epistemological change in which competing discourses of different spaces are brought into conversation (Moje et. al. 2004)

  23. Allowing for a third space • Build bridges between practices. • Focus on change • Focus on adaptation • Draw on student’s ‘Funds of Knowledge’ Result in hybrid discourse and pedagogical practices.

  24. Teacher as Bricoleur • Bricoleur is change on the ‘run’ (Erickson, 2004) • Motivated by the need to adapt • Able to understand and improvise things to suit the needs of the situation. • Important with low achievers • Innovation “a tactical reuse of pre-existing elements” (Erickson, 2004:167). • The “bricoleur” is fundamentally an agent who makes use. The teacher as Bricoleur is a “jack of all trades”“makes do with whatever is available at hand, adapting pre-existing materials to whatever needs doing. • Richards (1996), Cope and Kallantzis (1993)

  25. Changing to meet the third space • Need to recruit teachers as active agents in the process of change • Understand the demands for the change – Demands on the: • students • teachers • change in curriculum • Change in classroom practice • Build network to allow collaboration and change • Provide metadiscourse to develop collaboration and change (Bourdieu, 1991; Firkins & Forey, forthcoming;Thomas, 2002: 431, Wong & Firkins :2005) • We organised workshops, developed action research, brainstormed teaching material, etc. e.g from a workshop…

  26. Conclusion • Ground up change • Adaptation: • allowing for a space for a critical literacy lesson • meeting the needs of the new of HK Curriculum • creating and developing a third space • exploring what it means to be critical from a HK perspective • understanding and sharing literacy practices in other language • Introduction of shared material / shared metadisourse • Action research • Collaboration

  27. References • Bhabha,(1994).The location of culture.New York.Routledge. • Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and Symbolic Power J.B. Thompson (Ed.): and. M. Adamson (Trans.). Cambridge, Polity Press • Brew, F.P. & Cairns, D.R. (2004). Do culture or situational constraints determine choice of direct or indirect styles in intercultural workplace conflicts? International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 28, 331-352 • Chan, D. K-S, and Goto, S.G. (2003). Conflict resolution in the culturally diverse workplace: Some data from Hong Kong employees. Applied Psychology: An international review, 52. (3), 441-460. • Cheng,L.(1997) How Does Washback Influence Teaching? Implications for Hong Kong • Comber, B. & Simpson, A. 2001. Negotiating critical literacies in classrooms. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. • Curriculum Development Council and Hong Kong Examinations & Assessment Authority. (2005). Proposed New Senior Secondary Curriculum and Assessment Framework: Chinese Language (2nd Draft for Consultation). The Education and Manpower Bureau, Hong Kong. • Curriculum Development Council and Hong Kong Examinations & Assessment Authority. (2005). Proposed New Senior Secondary Curriculum and Assessment Framework: English Language (2nd Draft for Consultation). The Education and Manpower Bureau, Hong Kong. • Erickson, F.(2004) Talk and Social Theory. Cambridge, Polity Press • Firkins, A. & Wong, C. (2005)From the Basement of the Ivory Tower:English Teachers as Collaborative Researchers • Freebody,P. and Luke, A.(1990). “Literacies” Programs: Debates and Demands in Cultural Context. Prospect, Vol.5. No.3 7-16 • Gonzalez,N. Moll,L.C. Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of Knowledge. Theorizing Practices in Households,Communities and Classrooms. London, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates • Hall, E.T. (1977) Beyond Culture. NY: Anchor. • Hoftstede, G. 1980 • Luke,A. Freebody,P.,Shun,L. and Gopinathan,S.(2005). Towards Research-based Innovation and Reform: Singapore schooling in transition. Asia Pacific Journal of Education. Vol. 25,No.1, May 5-28 • Moje,E.B.,Ciechanowski,K.M., Kramer,K.,Ellis,L., Carrillo,R. and Collazo,T. (2004) Working towards third space in content area literacy: An examination of everyday funds of knowledge and discourse. Reading Research Quarterly, Vol 39.No 1 38-40 • Nieto, S. 2002. Language, culture, and teaching : critical perspectives for a new century. Mahwah, N.J.: L. Erlbaum, • Norton, B. & Toohey (Eds.) 2004. Critical pedagogies and language learning. Cambridge, UK ; New York: Cambridge University Press. • Richards, J. 1996. Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press • Street,1988 • Thomas, L. (2002). Student retention in higher education: the role of institutional habitus. Journal of Education Policy, Vol17, No.4, 423 - 442

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