Postcolonial Theories and TESOL: Exploring Implications for Teaching in U.S. Contexts

Abstract

One of my first experiences with teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) was during my years as an undergraduate, working with the Somali-Bantu Community Organization (SBCO) in Syracuse, NY. My fellow undergraduate tutors and I worked specifically with 4 th -6 th grade students, developing lesson plans and implementing project-based learning activities each semester. The program met weekly on Saturday mornings through collaboration with the Syracuse City School District and several student organizations and academic departments from Syracuse University. I continued my work with the tutoring program after graduation as a member of AmeriCorps, working as a liaison between the SBCO and the departments and programs at the university. In the five semesters I worked with this program, I planned monthly meetings with community leaders, assisted with lesson planning and activities, and organized tutors and transportation to the site. I sought advice across campus and in a variety of scholarly sources for our teaching and project-based activities, which included a holiday book, a poetry quilt, a CSI movie, decorated T-shirts, and an alphabet line. I progressively became aware of the politics of power related to my work. In my meetings with community leaders, I was aware that my identity as a White, middle-class, female student from a locally prestigious university afforded me a position of power and privilege: I collaborated with colleagues and advisors from the university to plan and implement the projects, not allowing much choice by our students or their families. While well received by other White, American-educated faculty and friends, our students’ parents did not always appreciate the projects with as much confidence. The youths’ self revelatory writings aired individual perspectives in ways with which parents were uncomfortable even as their children seemed engaged and motivated. Though the community leaders tried to protect us program cocoordinators from hearing what parents thought, the students were forthright about sharing their parents’ beliefs that the program was contributing to their assimilation to U.S. culture, questioning if it was at the expense of Somali-Bantu culture, language, and tradition. Awareness of my location within these situations of power and privilege caused me to take pause when considering a future degree and career in Teaching English as a Second or Other Language (TESOL). The little that I knew and understood about the spread of English, with its politically charged ties to colonialism, made me want to learn more about why and how