Figured Worlds
Guiding Questions: What figured world is constructed? What artifacts pivot the activity?What identities are performed? What agency and power is exerted or resisted in this data sample? What sociocultural norms are performed or resisted (cultural, linguistic, racial, gendered, religious, class….) In what ways are these figured worlds familiar or new to you?Following this week's reading, I believe that I have a better understanding of Holland et al. (1998) definition of figured worlds. All of this week's reading - Barron, 2013; Gelfuso & Dennis, 2017; and Blackburn, 2002-2003) reference the definition of a complex and multi-layered concept of identity, and Barron (2013) and Blackburn (2002-2003) reference the 4 key concepts or contexts of identity: "figured world, positionality, space of authoring, and making worlds" (Barron, 2013, p. 5; Blackburn, 2002-2003, pp. 313-314).
I suppose that this week's articles figured worlds are somewhat familiar to me. As a critical race researcher whose positionality is such that I situé myself somewhere between that of privilege - educated, graduate student, middle-class, Christian and marginalized - black, female, recent immigrant, Naturalized American citizen. I, too, "[recognize] American life as institutionally and structurally racist, [and hold] the understanding that civil-rights laws in the United States are inadequate, and [recognize the need for] the commitment to challenge 'claims of neutrality, objectivity, color-blindness, and meritocracy'" as shared by Ladson-Billings and Tate (1995, p. 56) and cited in Blackburn (2002-2003, p. 314).
That being said, I too, attempt to navigate through both my positionality and the previously mentioned contexts of identity through my research and writing. It is through the authorship and the writing that I pivot from the marginalized space that sees me as "other" and inferior and reifies me as an empowered black feminist and post colonialist. My research and writing is then my "literacy performances and identity work [that] work in ways that disrupt" (Blackburn, 2002-2003, p. 315) both white and cultural hegemony prevalent in America. Lankshear (1997, p. 73) is quoted by Blackburn (2002-2003, p. 314) as saying that, "those who are empowered are 'enabled to also envisage embarking upon new and different possibilities for 'self-construction' or identify formation by engaging in alternative Discourses."
When looking at all of the research presented in the readings, the common thread was that they all looked at "the space of authoring" and recognized that writing and communication all originated in spaces that were constricting or limiting. Gelfuso & Dennis (2017) observed how the multi-layered contexts - classroom, school norms, district expectations and Common Core Standards (p. 73) - all played a role in shaping the language used in conversation between the inservice and preservice teacher during literacy planning. The inservice teacher is observed questioning those contexts but ultimately choosing to conform to them. Barron (2013) observed how the multi-layered contexts - ethnic identities, specifically white British and British Pakistani worked to shape the discourse and identity of a young British Pakistani boy. Hamad, however, pivots himself to a figured world wherein he is a Pakistani cricketer and only he can hold this role because as he explains to the researcher who asks if he can play the role of Pakistani cricketer, "No, I Pakistan. You be England. I live in England but my country is Pakistan. I Pakistan guy" (Barron, 2013, p. 13). Through this statement, Hamad moves from authorship to "making worlds" - his new figured world is one in which persons who look like him hold certain roles (i.e. Pakistani) and persons who do not look like what he has come to understand as Pakistani are not able to hold/play roles within it.
Blackburn (2002-2003) talks about the aforementioned contexts as performances. "Justine's figured world is composed of multiple performances, two of which are the hetero-sexist and homophobic worlds of the street in which she was verbally assaulted and silenced, and the other is the world of the journal in which she had the power to display affection publicly toward her girlfriend and retaliate against those who limited that power" (p. 318). It is out of these contexts or performances that a figured world is formed and reformed "in relation to the everyday activities and events that ordain happenings within it" and "mediate behavior, identities, literacies, languages" (Holland et al., 1998).
References
Barron, I. (2013). Finding a voice: A figured worlds approach to theorising young children’s
identities. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 12(3), 251–263.
Gelfuso, A., & Dennis, D. V. (2017). Reproducing Figured Worlds of Literacy Teaching and Learning: Examining the “Language-In-Use” of an Inservice and Preservice Teacher Enacting the Practice of Literacy Planning. Action in Teacher Education, 39(1), 67–84.
Blackburn, M. V. (2002–2003). Disrupting the (hetero)normative: Exploring literacy performances and identity work with queer youth. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 46(4), 312–324.
Christina,
ReplyDeleteI also recognized that I was understanding more about Holland et al.'s (1998) theory of figured worlds after reading how figured worlds could be utilized within education. I have a clearer discernment about how individuals are able to use their agency in figured worlds, especially when they have a space for authoring. As you described in your response, these articles show how constricting and limiting figured worlds are, even when there is intention or desire to be more open (e.g. Baron was trying to get the preschool children to "try on" new identities and the youth center's aim was trying to empower youth). I think Gelfuso's and Dennis's (2017) article demonstrated how difficult it is to enact your own identity or change within the figured world. In that article the researchers chose Sherry because the felt she had the characteristics of a "good," albeit inexperienced, teacher. While Gelfuso and Dennis did hypothesize that perhaps part of Sherry's obstacles in engaging in authentic literacy teaching and learning were a result of her teacher education program and district values and norms, I felt that they portrayed Sherry as a "deficit" or "negative" teacher and almost chastised her for not resisting the district's expectations when it came to literacy teaching and learning.
~Sarah
Christina,
ReplyDeleteThis week did give us a lens into application or ways to observe ones figurative worlds. I too thought of how the spaces were constricting or limiting. Some studies were limited and didn't provide us with more. Such as the teacher talking to preschool children. It's easier for me to observe this being an outsider, but as a researcher, I feel when you make observations from your data it would be a starting point for further inquiry. What ways could these examples extend the talk surrounding differences, or what ways could this teacher resist the powers over her?