Chilean Inspiration and Questions about Structure

                

*Check out this video if you want to get a glimpse of the "voices"  (musical in this case) in the Chilean school described below.

As an undergraduate, I spent a semester in Chile studying comparative education and social change.  For the final month of my time in the country, I participated in a self-created, independent study. I lived with an amazing family in a rural Mapuche village (the Mapuche are the largest group of indigenous people in Chile)  of Chapod working with students 4-8^th grades to consider history, geography, and world cultures using the World Cup 2010 to frame the journey.  Throughout the course of history, and especially during the time of Pinochet’s dictatorship, the Mapuche people have been heinously discriminated against. Their ancestral lands have been stripped from them, they were asked to longer build their traditional homes, and were forbidden to speak their language. As a result, many Mapuche face lives of poverty, continued discrimination in the workplace, and have not passed on their language of Mapungundun to their children. Interestingly, there is a move by the young adults to go back to school and learn their family’s language.  Chapod is situated one hour by bus from the major city. Very few people have cars and there is neither a gas station nor any store to speak of. The village consists of a school, a church, and a cluster of homes full of kind and gracious families.  During my time in the village, I worked with the 4^th-8^th grade student to consider cultures, history, and geography of the world using the upcoming World Cup as our framework. Each week,  I would go to the city by bus and download photo after photo of people, animals, landscapes, and events from around the world. I would bring them on my computer to the school (where there is no internet) and show the kids. Students responded with such enthusiasm! As they encountered the diversity of the world, I hoped they would own their own unique contributions as Mapuche people.  One of the most powerful experiences occurred one afternoon when I had tea with the founder of the school. He talked about what it felt like when he was told he must only speak Castellano (Spanish).  He talked about the heart wrench he experienced as he lost his own voice. . . As I consider the ways in which voice can empower students, I continue to think back to my time in Chile and to all that I learned about identity and voice through the students there.

As I have read and reflected upon readings for Critical Pedagogy and Teachers for Critical Inquiry this week, I have been struck by the frequent references to the power of voice.  In bell hooks, “Confronting Class in the Classroom,” she makes a powerful reference to the words of Jane Ellen Wilson:

“Only by coming to terms with my own past, my own background, and seeing that in the context of the world at large, have I begun to find my true voice and to understand that, since it is my own voice, that no pre-cut niche exists for it; that part of the work to be done is making a place, with others, where my and our voices, can stand clear of the background noise and voice our concerns as part of a larger song” (The Critical Pedagogy Reader, 139).

hooks continues, explaining that a “distinction must be made between a shallow emphasis on coming to voice, which wrongly suggests there can be some democratization of voice wherein everyone’s words will be given equal time and be seen as equally valuable. . . and the more complex recognition of the uniqueness of each voice and a willingness to create spaces in the classroom where all voices can be heard because all students are free to speak, knowing their presence will be recognized and valued. . .just the physical experience of hearing, of listening intently, to each particular voice strengthens our capacity to learn together” (The Critical Pedagogy Reader ,139). 

With this in mind, I continue to consider how this work will unfold. Beginning with public speaking skills as a foundation to promote self-confidence, we will move together toward student-selected projects that build conceptual understanding of what it means to share what we care about and who we are in ways that impact and transform ourselves, our communities, and our world.  As a people, we are asked to explain where we come from, who we are, and what matters to us in multiple contexts, be it interviews to gain acceptance into charter and private middle and high schools, to secure jobs and opportunities, or to open doors for our children by articulating why they deserve scholarships to summer programs or colleges.  Expression is foundational to life—musicians compose and perform, dancers choreograph, sculptures breathe life into clay, photographers capture life in a manner that is sharable, athletes hone their trademark moves, poets slam, chefs marinate and present with parsley.  If childhood and schooling doesn’t allow for the movement of imagination and the articulation of self, where will our artists be? Our athletes? Our leaders? Our freedom fighters?

I need your help. I plan to begin meeting with students next Wednesday, March 5^th.  I am currently between two structures to make this happen. The first involves staying after with students from 3:15 until just after 4 when the bus arrives to take them home.  This would allow us to meet in our classroom and meet for a specific amount of time. I would ask about 10 students (current and former first graders) to participate in this time.  I am currently thinking of students with beautiful stories who are 1. Local kids with powerful advocates as parents who are painfully shy and 2. Refugee students who will likely have to advocate for themselves in major ways in their lifetimes and will need strong voices to do so.  The second structure is quite different in that it would be limited to three children and I would be able to commit to taking these three children home after the session. This would allow us to meet at school or somewhere else and not have a restrained amount of time nor environment.  I could add a couple students if their parents would be willing to pick them up.  This would allow me to really focus on building the voices of the very small group I work alongside.  Does anyone have any suggestions between these two structures? Or have ideas for what I should do to build student confidence and introduce the project/get input from kids during our first meeting next week?

I look forward to your voices. . . .

-Maggie