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This study examines a grade 7 English teacher who enacts literature-based instruction and culturally relevant pedagogy among diverse learners in an affluent suburb experiencing residency issues. Tensions have amassed in this middle school community, as the number of African American children from Detroit, a neighboring urban core, precipitously increased during the 2004-05 school year. In previous years, the gradual influx occurred as a result of parent dissatisfaction, perceived and/or experienced, with educational offerings within Detroit city limits. The influx during the time of the study occurred mid year, aligned with the announcement that Detroit Public Schools would be closing 34 schools, due to declining enrollment. The increased influx raised suspicions among practitioners and community members, that new enrollees were border cheaters who did not live in the district or pay property taxes, as an affordance of privilege to attend a top notch school district. Coincidentally, 3000 parents signed a petition to re-enroll all students to confirm residency. Dilemmas resonate when urban children enter a suburban school and face teachers largely unprepared to teach them, which are embedded in historical and existing divisions of race and class. This study will explore the hand in history (Anyon, 1997) in this racially polarized region to interpret teacher resistance to students who are different from themselves. In addition, the teacher examined in the study represents the minority of teachers who effectively teach in this controversial climate, while managing challenges that are typically enacted in urban districts. In spite of dilemmas, the teacher implements controversial literature and enacts discursive practices surrounding matters of racism, classism, and ethnicity. Moreover, the teacher provides all students with opportunities to draw from their home language to write in formal and informal contexts. At the same time, all students are provided with opportunities to apropriate their home language to acquire formal writing conventions in a non threatening manner (Delpit, 1995, 2002; Adger, et al., 1999). This study is an examination of a teacher who enacts transformative practices and sustains an awareness of the context in which the school and community are situated.

Stream: Curriculum and Pedagogy, Student Learning, Learner Experiences, Learner Diversity, Equity, Social Justice and Social Change, Literacy, Language, Multiliteracies

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

My work posits educational parity among linguistically and culturally diverse students in varying educational contexts. My most recent work is a case study of an experienced 7th grade English teacher in an affluent suburb experiencing a diversity problem. In a context where teachers are largely uncertain about teaching a new influx of culturally and linguistically diverse students, the focal teacher in my research represents a minority of teachers who appropriates culturally relevant pedagogy. Hence, my research documents numerous enactments of classroom practices, including discursive practices embedded in controversial literature and critical race theory. In addition, the teacher takes into account the cultural and linguistic strengths of students to support reading and writing acquisition. My background and interests resonate with my work, for I sustain a role as a researcher and as a reading specialist in the school system where I conduct my research.