Deborah Juarez
Instructor, Calvin Simmons Junior High School
My name is Deborah Juarez and I teach 9th grade English in Oakland, CA. I have taught the past 8 years, covering grades 7-12. The school where I currently teach, Simmons Jr. High, is known as a Chapter One school, located in a lower-middle class neighborhood with a diverse ethnic population. Coincidentally, I was raised and continue to live in the very neighborhood where I teach.
For the past four years I have been a teacher consultant for the Bay Area Writing Project, my workshop titled "Writing to Understand Diversity." I have recently completed a teacher research paper to be included as a chapter in a forthcoming teacher research publication focusing on multiculturalism and literacy. I am currently working on a new teacher research project which focuses on linguistic awareness in the English classroom. The Ebonics debate produced interesting discussions in my class!
I have been interested in multicultural education for a very long time new, particularly how it is practiced in the English classroom. I've been interested since my first year of teaching when I was limited to the very traditional of texts and "Cultural Literacy" was the mainstay of thought. I wanted to help my students see themselves in the text, to validate the particular experiences and histories of those not normally represented in mainstream text, and thus I did a lot of xeroxing that year.
Since working in Oakland I've been afforded the opportunity to envision a multicultural canon, to reinvent the canon according to the needs of our diverse audience. Multiculturalism is by no means the mainstream, yet in Oakland we attempt to present it as such. I'm curious as to how this vision may differ from others. I'm interested in how multiculturalism is practiced from teacher to teacher, district to district. Though I am optimistic about its potential effect in promoting tolerance, I remain cautious about its delivery. Naively I once asked a fellow teacher, " How is it that 'they'---the powers that be, would allow such a revolutionary idea as multiculturalism?" She replied in all seriousness, "It could also be used as a means to perpetuate stereotypes." Like traditional canon material, an emerging multicultural canon too requires analysis and contextual support.
My vision of American literature? I'll tell you what I'd like to see---an array of experiences that span time, race, class, and gender, documenting frictional encounters; that is the American experience. Individualism, our very American ideal, fits hand in glove with the concept of diversity, yet another American by-product. Diversity too is an American ideal, worthy of exploration beyond a melting pot or salad bowl description.....Yet this is my vision, am I alone?....What is the role of educators in shaping the canon?....Coming out of a textbook adoption year, I can readily see how marketing concerns dictate the inclusion or exclusion of traditional materials....Looking ahead, I'd like to see what effect a changing canon may have in shaping our perceptions of what is "American."
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