Andrea Sterzuk

CSSE is over but ACLA-CAAL starts tomorrow. I’m chairing one session and presenting one paper called Academy Influences on Student Teachers’ Critical Orientation towards Language.

I gave two joint papers today at CSSE: a) Recognizing the Gaze (and Constructions of Race) in Familiar Pedagogical Activities with Val Mulholland and b) Negotiating Ethical Considerations in New Literacies Research with Dana Salter.  At our talk this morning, Dana and I promised to add our paper’s references to our blogs.  Here they are: (more…)

Dana Salter and I are giving a paper at CSSE on Monday about new literacies research and ethical considerations.  We decided to do some thinking about this topic after realizing we were having difficulties figuring out how to gain the “free and informed consent” of members of online communities.  Two good resources we’ve been using in our writing of this paper are this document located on the Tri-Council Policy Statement website and this book by Heather Kitchin.

The Faculty of Education at the University of Regina (where I am a faculty member) has a language competence policy statement. I’m okay with the idea of a language policy because I agree with the position that “if you don’t have explicit language policy, you have implicit language policy” (Neville Alexander in Brogden, 2009).

My faculty policy, though, feels like a 20th century document that doesn’t fit with the type of communication skills that I see as necessary for 21st century times.  As such, my faculty is looking to expand our definitions of meaning-making, explore what counts as legitimate  English in globalized times, and re-examine what sorts of supports are in place for students. These changes are necessary in terms of our students’ educational experiences but also have real implications for the types of practices they implement in their future classrooms.