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Vergara, Magdalena

University of British Columbia

This study explores how Latin American literature is interpreted through grade-school educational practices in Metro Vancouver and problematizes potential mechanisms of representation that emerge from such practices through the lens of postcolonial theory. First, I describe key concepts of postcolonial theory and offer a brief overview how Latin American texts came to be included in North American school and university canons. I then consider the uptake of Latin American texts in Greater Vancouver through a review of BC curriculum, recommended text lists, and a survey of Vancouver-area teachers. I subsequently held focus-group sessions discussing Latin American texts and their use in classrooms with an established teacher inquiry group that was part of a SSHRC-funded, nation-wide project focused on teaching practices with postcolonial literature. Finally, I undertook a three-month observation of student interactions with Latin American texts in the classroom of one of the inquiry group members. I used thematic analysis to analyze all transcript data and applied postcolonial theory in my interpretations of this data. My findings show that Latin American texts infrequently appear among BC recommended text lists and in BC English language arts classrooms. Those that do appear tend to be from the genre of magic realism. The participants in the inquiry group were experienced teachers and critical readers (all were in graduate programs) with an interest in social justice issues; however, their interactions with Latin American texts were sometimes troubled. They reported little knowledge of Latin American texts and at times demonstrated reading practices marked by orientalism. Some participants seemed to view Latin America as a non-space (Augé, 1992) filled with an imaginary repertoire. Children engaging with Latin American texts in the grade-school classroom I observed also demonstrated reading practices marked by orientalism, particularly in the context of independent reading not guided by the teacher. This study reinforces the importance of guided readings mediated by theory and grounded in appropriate socio-political context. Constant reflexivity and examination of instructional strategies is also needed, so that teachers may avoid scenarios where stereotypes may be reinforced even in spite of intentions to expand and diversify the school canon.

Text

2023-04-20

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/84384

Language and Literacy Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/