Positionality: Using Self-Discovery to Enhance Pre-Service Teachers’ Positionality: Using Self-Discovery to Enhance Pre-Service Teachers’ Understanding of Language Differences Nancy Rankie Shelton

Positionality Narrative: What was language use like in your home as you were growing up? In your neighborhood? Or region?

Positionality Narrative: When did you first become aware that people are treated differently because of differences in their language? Were you ever treated differently because of your language? How did you feel about it?

Positionality Narrative: How do you feel about using “Standard English”? How do you feel about people who do not use it? Does context make a difference?

Importance of Awareness: As the student population becomes increasingly diverse but teachers remain predominantly female, white, and middle-class, the need to become culturally sensitive becomes increasingly important. It is important to “try to bring an awareness of subconscious biases toward others based on language differences” (p. 119). Teachers’ perceptions of their students have a profound impact on student performance.

The Positionality Project: Emerged from Shelton’s realizations that: Her undergraduate pre-service teachers were not receptive to valuing differences in students’ language abilities They needed to first examine their own oral language in order to understand how discourses are switched to match various communicative situations.

Positionality Narrative: How do you treat language in your classroom? Do you ever correct your students’ grammar or pronunciation? When? Why? How often? Do you find that you correct the same students?

Positionality Narrative: Were you ever told that you had bad writing or grammar? Has anyone ever corrected your pronunciation? How did it make you feel?

The Positionality Project: Shelton’s goals: Not to change students’ beliefs but to: Create an awareness of their perceptions of people who speak variations of American English Help them understand how perception-based biases influence teachers’ expectations of students’ abilities; Help them see the connection between lowered expectations for student achievement and lower student performance.

The Positionality Project: Phases: Tasks: 1 – Foundational Knowledge Students define dialect 2 – Data Collection Students record three conversations from their own lives 3 – Data Analysis Students analyze recorded conversations 4 – Essay Students respond to the question: “How do you say what you say when you are in multiple environments?” 5 – SRTOL Documents Students read, discuss, and respond to the documents under the guiding principle of stepping back from one’s own language use and evaluating language diversity from a teacher’s perspective

The Positionality Project: Results: Pre-service teachers developed an understanding of the importance of studying language diversity. They understood the importance of allowing elementary students the right to their own language. They developed an understanding of the tension between theory and practice. Their final essays indicated that more explicit attention to teaching methods is needed.

Positionality Narrative: How can you use your awareness and empathy in your classrooms?