Jim Cummins
University of Toronto
Canada
Monday, August 25
The Role of Multiliteracies Pedagogy as a Conceptual Framework for
Reversing Educational Underachievement among Minority Group Students
Abstract:
The international comparisons carried out through the OECD’s
Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA) project have
provided policy-makers with a snapshot of the educational achievement
of first and second generation immigrant students in countries around
the world (Stanat & Christensen, 2006). Major variation is evident
across countries in the school performance of different groups.
Previous research within countries has also shown considerable
inter-group variation. This presentation will examine the pattern of
results both from the PISA data and other studies that have been
carried out during the past 20 years in order to (a) establish the
phenomena that require explanation, (b) articulate theoretic cal models
that are capable of explaining the data, and (c) critically examine the
policy implications of the research and theory relating to immigrant
and minority group school performance.
The presentation will argue that societal power relations, and their
manifestation within the school through patterns of identity
negotiation, are an integral component of any adequate explanatory
model. The policy implicate one of this position will be contrasted
with those articulated by the Transatlantic Task Force on Immigration
and Integration (2007) on the basis of the PISA data. As outlined in
the quotation below, the Task Force focused primarily on linguistic
explanatory factors and corresponding linguistic interventions
implemented exclusively in the majority language of the society as the
foundation for policy designed to improve minority students’
academic achievement. Excluded from considerate on were
sociological/sociopolitical determinants of minority students’
academic difficulties and the kinds of interventions that would address
these causal factors:
The reports recommend that lawmakers focus on policies that bring
children of immigrants into the education system by the age of three,
immerse them in the language of their host countries, provide language
support through both primary and secondary school within a clear
framework, and afford more flexibility to move between academic and
vocational education. (http://www.migrationinformation.org/transatlantic)
Drawing on research conducted with minority group students in a variety
of sociolinguistic contexts, the presentation will argue that multi
literacies pedagogy provides a more adequate framework for addressing
underachievement among minority groups than interventions that focus
only on students’ presumed deficits in the dominant societal
language.
See recording of the keynote