Literacy Education in an Ecological Perspective Triple contexts of participation

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Literacy Education in an Ecological Perspective
Triple contexts of participation language
learning

• Associate Professor Jeppe Bundsgaard (presenter)
  jebu_at_dpu.dk
• School of Education, University of Aarhus
• Associate Professor Anna Vibeke Lindø
  avl_at_language.sdu.dk
• Associate Professor Jørgen Chr. Bang
  bang_at_language.sdu.dk
• Institute of Language and Communication,
  University of Southern Denmark

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Focus

• Ecological literacy education in an era of
  globalization and migration, especially the need
  for communicative competencies related to
  intra-cultural, inter-cultural as well as
  trans-cultural communication.

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Challenge

• How does language education (mother tongue,
  second language, foreign language, cross
  language) contribute to friendly and fair
  cooperation locally and across regions, nations,
  ethnicity, sex and ages and to a fruitful
  childhood, creativeness, democracy etc?

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Dialectical linguistics

• Started by Bang Døør
• From end-60-ies- Focus on language, order and
  power (class)
• From mid-70-ies Focus on sex and age (children)
• From 1990-ies Focus on ecology (ecolinguistics)
• 2000- Focus on trans-cultural communication og
  peacekeeping dialogue.
• Dialectical Linguistics argues for a politically
  and morally responsible approach to language and
  linguistics from our point of view, a theory
  of language is part of a theory of life (Bang
  Døør 19987).
• Thus, no theory of language can claim to be
  neutral.

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Some principles of language and language use

• Linguistic communication in natural language is
  normally and principally a creative process
• In a communicative situation only a part of the
  semantic potential is actualized by the
  participants
• A communicative relationship is constituted by
  multi-leveled, interdependent, and criss-cross
  relations
• Language-use and text-interpretation is part of a
  moral and social order, and consequently it is
  vital and essential who says what, where and for
  what reason
• The social order and praxis is constituted by
  core-contradictions that are asymmetrical
  relations.
• (Bang Døør 19987)

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Dialectical models of communicationThe dialogue
Model
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Third subject (S3)

• The third subject is an ecological key concept
• Child who overhears parents talk
• Censor
• Overarching subject (Das Man, you, man)
• It reminds us of the fact that speech is never
  free, never neutral
• When you participate in a dialogue, you are
  responsible for the third subjects of the
  communication as they are involved in the dialogue

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Core Contradictions
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Core Contradictions

• Recursive base of the individual
• Shows the complexity of the contextual dynamics
• Medium for and a basis of experiencing,
  understanding and interpreting ourselves, each
  other and our environment
• Every situation, every dialogue is more or less
  constituted by (and constitutes) the nine core
  contradictions
• All core contradictions are present and connected
  as a conjuncture of contradictions in every
  dialogue
• They are more or less fore- or backgrounded in
  the situation.

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The semantic matrix
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Social sense and Individual meaning

• Social sense traditional way a word is used
  among the individuals of a community
• Individual meaning the word meaning an
  individual grows up with. (1) the normal way a
  person uses a word/text and (2) the
  interpretation the person habitually uses in
  understanding other peoples use of the
  word/text.
• Relatively stable under different circumstances
  (time, place, situation). Part of the persons
  identity.

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Social import and Personal significance

• Social import a more synchronic dimension of the
  communication.
• The language use of a certain group, an
  institution or a discipline. Thus, the use of the
  social import presupposes a common identification
  of the communicative context and situation.
• Personal significance is our contribution to the
  dialogue.
• A persons particular semantics in a specific
  context
• Personal significance and Social import The
  actual language use.
• The foreground of the communication.
• The semantics of social sense and the individual
  meaning the more diachronic dimensions of the
  communication are in the background.

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Triple contexts of participation language
learning
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Literacy education in the Danish Folkeskole
(K-9/10) from the viewpoint state

• Danish/Purpose of the subject
• The purpose of teaching in the subject Danish is
  to promote the students experience and
  understanding of language, literature and other
  modes of expression as sources of personal and
  cultural identity. The subject should promote the
  students ability of sympathetic insight and
  their aesthetic, ethical and historic
  understanding.
• 2. The teaching shall promote the students
  desire to use the language personally and
  many-sided together with others. The teaching
  shall strengthen the students mastery of the
  language and develop an open and analytical
  attitude towards the modes of expression of the
  contemporary and other periods and cultures. The
  teaching shall develop the students joy of
  expression and reading and qualify their
  sympathetic insight and insight in language,
  literature and modes of expressions.
• 3. The teaching shall give the students access to
  the Scandinavian languages and the Nordic
  cultural community.

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Some observations

• Mono-culture of the nation state as if it was
  one culture (intra-cultural)
• Mostly formal contexts
• More individual expressions, less collaborative
  communication
• Language as system in focus.
• Language implied being the Danish Standard
  Language.
• A system to acquire.
• Sensibility (sympathetic insight) mostly towards
  literature and other kinds of one-way texts
  less towards other people.
• Focus on language use as a skill, not on
  communication as a form of life

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Cultural contexts

• Culture is
• a group of inter-connected persons
• with shared traditions (ways of doing, thinking,
  valuing, aiming)
• and artifacts (tools, laws, institutions)
• and often physical places and spaces.
• In this way a culture can be regarded
• a homogeneous unit where members are assimilated
  and conform to the common traditions
• But core contradictions constitute the relations
  of the members and thus a culture is a dynamic
  unit.
• Cultures can encompass cultures
• An ethnic group can encompass villages
  encompassing families.
• Historically cultures developed in more or less
  closed circles with more or less frequent
  exchange with other cultures. Today most cultures
  are highly interrelated due to the globalized
  market and communication.

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Three proto-contexts

• Intra-cultural contexts
• Contexts where the participants share deep
  identifications and understandings
• family, tribe, peers in some connections the
  ethnic, religious, national groups
• Inter-cultural contexts
• institutions which in formalized ways organizes
  the interaction between cultures
• the state, school
• the international market
• the international organizations (EU, OECD, FN)
• Trans-cultural contexts
• Members of two distinct cultures (families,
  villages, ethnic groups, etc.) meet outside of
  formalized meeting places
• Or where the formal frames does not meet their
  goals

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Trans-cultural contexts

• Challenge of establishing a common ground of
  participation and communication.
• One of the most critical tasks of the highly
  globalized societies of today.
• Participants must transcend their own cultural
  background in order to develop a common ground
  where a new language is created, a language which
  integrates the cultures at play.

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Triple contexts of participation language
learning
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Some prototypical characteristics of the triple
contexts of participation and language learning

Context Process Relation Prototypical communication Function Approach Participation
Intra-cultural Homogenization Identity Ethics Conversation Deep semantics Ritualization Solidarity (closed) Assimilation differentiation
Inter-cultural Equilibration Categorization Politics Discourse Formal semantics Legalization Loyalty Negotiation war
Trans-cultural Heterogenization Identification Crisis Dialogue Creative semantics Globalization Solidarity (open) Integration alienation
T
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Processes

• Intra-cultural Homogenization - Identity
• Inter-cultural Equilibration - Categorization
• Trans-cultural Heterogenization - Identification

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Relations

• Intra-cultural Ethics
• Inter-cultural Politics
• Trans-cultural Crisis

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Three states of relations

• War Destructive
• War is to stay in a destructive state
• Peace Positive
• Peace is to stay in the positive state
• Crisis Constructive
• Crisis is a transition to another state
• Crisis is when nobody knows right away what to
  do.
• Crisis is when the ways things are done until now
  does not suffice to handle the ongoing changes.

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Prototypical communication

• Intra-cultural Conversation - Deep semantics
• Inter-cultural Discourse - Formal semantics
• Trans-cultural Dialogue - Creative semantics

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Prototypical communication and S3

• Intra-cultural context
• The third subject the child who overhears the
  conversation of the parents
• and hereby makes its early experiences with
  different ways of language games (Wittgenstein,
  1953) and life forms in the family.
• Conversation.
• Inter-cultural context
• The third subject is more anonymous
• And the communication therefore seems to be in
  accordance with the dominating common values and
  logics of the culture and appears as neutral
• Discourse, because we now operate on a more
  abstract level

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Prototypical communication and S3

• Trans-cultural context
• the participants traditionally will focus on the
  differences in he communication.
• We call it dialogue, because we define a dialogue
  as a complex language game in which we are forced
  to reflect on both similarities and differences.
• The similarities, the shared, makes it possible
  for the participants to identify a common ground.
  
• Differences are often related to different
  identifications of S3 (authorities, God, truth,
  good and evil, legitimate, legal etc.)
• The differences might be regarded as constraints,
  but the identification of the differences might
  also lead to new insights and cooperation.
• Cooperation is not possible without some sort of
  experiments that include a will to more or less
  radical change from all parts involved.

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Functions

• Intra-cultural Ritualization
• Inter-cultural Legalization
• Trans-cultural Globalization

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Approach

• Intra-cultural Solidarity (closed)
• Inter-cultural Loyalty
• Trans-cultural Solidarity (open)

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Participation

• Intra-cultural Assimilation differentiation
• Inter-cultural Negotiation war
• Trans-cultural Integration alienation

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No pole of the triple contexts is inertly good

• Staying in either pole easily leads to the
  negative results
• Staying in the intra-cultural pole
• Monopolization of truth
• Xenophobia
• Staying in the inter-cultural pole
• Certification
• Technologization
• Staying in the trans-cultural pole
• Rootlessness

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Dialectics of homogenization, categorization, and
heterogenization

• Homogenization
• Learning to speak in homeliness contexts
  assimilating oneself into the language and world
  view of mother and father, the local community
  and the regional tribe.
• Categorization
• Learning to negotiate in the common room of
  local, regional, national and international
  societies, in the institutional contexts of
  bureaucratic discourse.
• Heterogenization
• Learning to integrate differences and oppositions
  of language and world views locally, regionally,
  globally, in order to be a part of a dialogue of
  change and solidarity.

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Three languages

• Democratic literacy education relates to all
  three contexts and supports children and students
  in the development of languages and literacies
  related to the dominant languages and
  communication practices of each context
• Mother tongue
• Neutral languages (specialized languages
  (technical, administrative, bureaucratic, etc.),
  standard national language, lingua franca
  (English)). Danish as second language
• Local and global common languages

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Local and global common languages

• Created in the situation to communicate and
  mediate experiences and insights.
• In order to be able to communicate with strangers
  or friends with another mother tongue (another
  dialect, language, cultural or social background,
  etc.)
• Sometimes with the use of body language, some
  times using versions of English, some times with
  a national standard language etc.

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Educational aim and objectives

• Sense and sensitivity
• To support the student's development of sensitive
  sympathetic insight into the meaning and sense of
  other people's utterances. Further development of
  the deep semantics.
• Discourse
• To support the student's mastery of the 'neutral'
  language of core institutional contexts.
  Argumentation, reasoning, criticizing.
• Dialogue
• To support the student's development of the
  principles of democratic dialogue 0) Who is
  participating in the situation? 1) What is shared
  in the situation? 2) What are the differences
  between the participants? 2b) What are the
  individual characteristics of the participants
  (særhed)? 3) How can we construct an experiment
  to develop our common practice in healthy
  directions and overcome oppositions?

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References

• Bang, J. C. Døør, J. Steffensen, S.V. Nash,
  J. (2007). Language, Ecology and Society. London
  Continuum.
• Bang, J. C. Døør, J. Alexander, R.J. Fill, A.
  Verhagen, F.C. (eds.) (1996). Language and
  EcologyEcolinguistics. Problems, Theories and
  Methods. Odense Universitet
• Barton, D. (2007). Literacy An Introduction to
  the Ecology of Written Language (2. ed.). London
  Wiley-Blackwell.
• Bundsgaard, J. Lindø, A. V. (2000) Dialectical
  Ecolinguistics. Three Essays for the Symposium 30
  Years of Language and Ecology in Graz December
  2000. Odense Nordisk Institut.
• Fill, A. Penz, H. Trampe, W. (eds.) (2002)
  Colourful Green Ideas. Papers from the Conference
  30 Years of Language and Ecology (Graz, 2000) and
  the Symposium Sprache Und Okologie. Bern Peter
  Lang Publishing.
• Lindø, Anna Vibeke (2007) Der stumme Gast Das
  dritte Subjekt als ökolinguistische
  Schlüsselkategorie. In Fill, Alwin, Hermine
  Penz (eds.) Sustaining Language. Essays in
  Applied Linguistics. Wien, Austria LIT Verlag
  (237-250)