Marginalization Through Curricularization of Language Teaching: Creating and Exposing Deficits in an Adult Language and Literacy Program

Abstract

Research supports the premise that adult language and literacy instruction should build on prior linguistic knowledge and the lived experiences of the students. Despite these widely held tenets, classroom practices often do not reflect these ideals, instead providing learning opportunities that are decontextualized and isolated from the students’ lives. Drawing on 18 months of qualitative data and based on principles of participatory action research, this ethnographic case study of a peer-taught, prison-based, adult language and literacy program, situated in a state-run, medium security prison in the Midwest of the United States, focuses on the role language ideologies played in shaping classroom practices and the marginalization of both students and instructors. This study found that language ideologies contributed to a curricularized approach to language and literacy instruction focused on teaching discrete linguistic features and lexical items. This curricularization of language positioned students as linguistically deficient and shaped deficit perspectives of the students in the classroom. Additionally, the curricularized approach in conjunction with racialized understandings of “native speakerism” marginalized instructors through influencing who was perceived as a viable language model in the classroom. These findings emphasize the need to move away from reified understandings of language and build on the situated ways students use language. Additionally, moving toward a curriculum focused on situated language practices provides opportunities for students and instructors to critically examine issues of power and privilege related to language.