Ways with Words

I find Ways With Words: Language, Life, and work in communities and classrooms by Shirley Brice Heath very fascinating. This because, first of all, it gives a historical background on how literacy came to be in America among the mill workers after the bloody civil war which was described as the most deadliest war in the country. Heath discusses the language, work life either at work of off work. But the part I find interesting is the language of the mill workers even though I can not comprehend the full meaning of the expressions. But before I go into citing the examples, I would like to point out that many of these mill workers were actually interested in acquiring literacy. Many of them could not express themselves well not to talk of writing. And so “schools were designated to teach mill children everything from manners to morals; schoolteachers became preachers for the culture of the townspeople. They were charged to teach health and sanitation habits, grammar, self-control, neatness, and obedience (23). He goes on to emphasize that if mill children were to grow up and become voters, they would have to learn to read and write and to reform their “barbaric” “wild” ways. This is really interesting and necessary because voters are supposed to at least read the manifestos of their candidates, get convinced before they can cast their votes.

As a result of these designated schools at different locations which some were actually night schools, many young mill children became interested in literacy acquisition. But she gave an example of a young man who apprehended out of school, says that his father was the cause of it states that “Pa says tain’t nothin’ ter it” (23). He goes on say he got “long ‘thout it” (23). Sincerely speaking, I personally do not understand what this expression means. Another example she cited is about a master mechanic in worked in a Textile Industrial institute who wrote from Georgia showing great interest in getting educated. He says thus: “I’II be there next Saddy (Saturday), I’II sleep on the flo an eat half rashions ef necessary to git to stay. I need edgercason (education) and mean to have it. Yours truly” (24). This I think is the work of an ethnographer who has to live with the people to know their language, way of life, and culture respectively. But above all, I think language is one of the things I find fascinating and at the same time confusing. One of the goals I guess in literacy acquisition discussed by Heath is help the people write differently from what and how they speak.

Field Notes on McNair Project

As the first student employer of McNair Scholar Program in Texas A&M University-Commerce, I was opportune to go to the student’s center every morning between the hours of 11am and 1pm to distribute flyers from Weds to Friday for three days. While I was there passing out flyers for the program for the recruitment of students into the program, I discovered that some of the students did not want to be part of the program despite the fact that I explained to them about some of the benefits of the program. Most of the students told me that they don’t like to do research and that they don’t want to go to graduate school because it entails too much writing. Some of them actually took the flyers and said they would think about it. For that three days, a few people responded by coming to the office to submit their applications.

During the second week of publicizing McNair scholars program, I visited BSM to announce to the students who usually go there every Monday for free lunch after I had obtained the permission to do that. In between the lunch hour, I was called out to talk about the program. I came out, stood in front of everyone and talked between five to ten minutes explaining what they stand to gain when they become scholars. At the end of the announcement, I gave time for questions but to my surprise, no one said anything.

Even though, international students were more on that day, but they were still many students who were citizens and did not care to make inquiry about the program. At the end of the lunch, I left some flyers and applications behind with the student director of BSM. I have been doing follow-up but up till now, no one responded unfortunately.

Two days later, a few international students who were present at the BSM lunch time the day I made the announcement asked me if there was anything they could do to qualify, and my response was: “You must be a citizen or a legal resident”. “Too bad” all of them said in unison. I was so surprised to know that international students showed interest to become scholars. Maybe those it is meant for will still come or turn in their applications, I do not know.

My Project Proposal

My initial plan was to discuss TRIO programs and how it came to be in Texas A&M University-Commerce. Trio as we might have known from my update includes Upward Bound, Student Support Services and McNair Scholars Program. But doing research in all of these programs would be too broad and so I decided to narrow it down in order for me to focus on McNair scholars programs alone.

However, this project will now be on McNair Scholars Programs. McNair is basically designed to recruit undergraduate students who are interesting in getting their Masters/PhD into graduate school. In other words, it is a research based program that help the scholars attain a greater height in academics with the help of their mentors respectively. It is also a program designed to assist low income earners and those who are under-represented in graduate school.

This project is set to find out and accomplish to what extent this program has really helped the so called low income earners earn their degrees. In view of this, I hope to examine and interview a few McNair alumni scholars to see how and to what extent they have really made use of this opportunity. If they had, how? and if they could not, then I would like to know why?

It is interesting to know that McNair has been in existence since 1996 but this year Feb 2010 is the first time that it is being established in Texas A&M University-Commerce. And so, I would like to find out why it took so long for this program to be finally established, and not only that, not many low income students like African American students are responding to this enviable opportunity despite the fact that they would have their tuition paid for them among other benefits. In view that, I am going to find out why is it that some of the students in A&M Commerce are not so much interested in graduate school and that would be done through interview. I also hope to interview the director of the program on this particular reason.

In addition to that, I am going to make some phone calls to other directors of McNair in other universities that have been running this scholars program for some years now to find out (a) how their own students responded to the program when it was first established (b) how long it took students to get recruited into the program, (c) if students were slow to response, why? And if they were quick to be recruited, what was their motivation (d) and how the McNair staff strategized their publicity to convince the students to be a part of the program, (e) what roles are the alumni playing to help future scholars. Apart from all these, I would be setting up a face to face interview date and time with one of the McNair alumni scholar who is currently a professor in the department of Psychology in A&M University-Commerce to inquire from him his experiences when he was a scholar and how far it has helped to improve his life etc. I think this method of obtaining some of the information I need through phone calls is better for me than sending emails because I would be able to ask more questions and getting direct answers than using emails. Internet information is one of the vital tools I would be exploring also in this project.

Furthermore, as regards obtaining signatures, I am not sure how that will be possible especially when I am ready to correspond with McNair directors in other schools. The only signatures that I am certain to obtain would be from the director of the program, and the professor in Psychology department here in A&M University-Commerce. I would also be looking at some of the photographs from the mini archives in TRIO programs to see what I can share with my classmates.

Finally, the project is actually rooted in the advance literacy of African- American students even though it is not designed for them alone, but in a way, I am interested in knowing how many black people in Commerce would be interested in getting into graduate school with the help of McNair Scholars Programs.

Field Working:Reading and Writing Research

Bonnie Stone Sunstein and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater work on Field Working: Reading and Writing Research discusses extensively what it means to take field note while doing an academic research especially doing that “in the field” (1). They describe working in the field for an anthropologist to mean, talking, listening, and recording, observing, participating, and sometimes even living in a particular place. The field is the site for doing research, and fieldworking is the process of doing it (1). It is interesting to know that not only anthropologist does all of these tasks, but even those outside this specified field could also do all of these in other to come up with a coherent and fantastic research project.

According to Sunstein and Chiseri-Strater quoting from Powdermaker, fieldworking entails studying and asking questions about everyday ways of behaving, talking, and interacting (2). In other words, fieldworkers research people, places, languages, and behaviors and have the ability to make the strange familiar and familiar strange. Studying people and their languages means studying the culture of the people because language can not be separated from culture. They are both connected or related if you like. Therefore, A fieldworker must realize that every group has a culture of their own, and in view of that, no culture is high than the other. This means that there is no high culture and no low/salvaged culture. Every culture is unique to the group of people be it ethnic groups or nations that practice them no matter how strange it might look or sound.

When I read the story on Body Ritual among the Nacirema people in North America, I found it strange and fascinating. It is fascinating in the sense that I have never heard anything like that before in terms of ritual, and I am learning a new thing different from mine. And it is strange because my belief system is different from this group of people’s ritual practices. The author on one hand had succeeded in making the strange actually familiar and making the familiar strange as far as I am concerned.

Another fact is that for a field worker to be able to study the behaviors, language, and culture of a certain group of people, he must live, observe, and describe the daily life, especially the language of that group for a long period of time, and this process is referred to as ethnography. Therefore, an ethnographer is however, also an insider when he is immensely involved in doing all of this stuff described above. Reading Sustein and Chiseri-Strater has actually changed my perspective of reporting field note because it gives every single detail of what a fieldworker should know and how to take and report field notes with different illustrations.

Making the Familiar Strange

Beverly J Moss in Ethnography and Composition: Studying Language at Home explicates a fantastic way of doing research/fieldwork. According to her, every ethnographer must have a goal (s) and these goals are; to study, explore, and describe a group culture (389). I am very fascinated with her earliest story of unfamiliarity with what she initially intended to research on. She showed some form of discomfort because that topic could not pave way into a researchable field for her. And so she decided to identify her root and relate with it. What I think she is trying to say here is that, researchers are more comfortable conducting their research with and among their own people than subjecting themselves to a strange people/culture. But on the contrary, that does not mean that people don’t research outside their own culture and community, I think doing that among her own people is what worked for her.

However, generally speaking, Moss states that Ethnography is concerned with describing, and analyzing a culture. In other words, a total way of life of a specific group of people as Moss rightly did; like what they do, what they know, what they say, and what their physical artifacts are (390). I would like to add to what Moss has enumerated here for example; what the community do and how they do them, what they say and how they are said, what they know and how they know them, or the effects of what they know on them both physically, socially, economically, and maybe emotionally if you like. And finally, what their physically artifacts are, and how those artifacts add values to their cultural life/tradition if they have one.

In asking all of these questions which I am very sure will metamorphose into other questions thereby making the familiar strange and making the strange familiar, will lead to getting more information and deriving more meanings just as post-structuralists argue that, there is no end to the meaning of anything. So also is the ethnographic research. It is a continuum. But one of the good points that Moss pointed out is that, no ethnographer should wait until every data is collected before he starts his analysis. Instead, it has to be what I call “Analyze As You Go”.

Militant Literacy: Response to Reading of March 1

William Mayo system of literacy I am very sure that contemporary parents and individuals will appreciate it were now. It is very interesting to know that his philosophy actually worked for him because he was able to inculcate his own system of literacy acquisition into some of those students in Mayo College as at that time. One of his beliefs that I really love is what he referred to as “Normal method” which he wrote in the college catalogue “Do not make the students a mere passive recipient for the learning of others, but put him to thinking and telling his thoughts for himself” (128). According to Gold, it is also very interesting to know that Mayor despised students who just sit in the class and recite what they had been thought. He called that “Parrot” and said that students should be active in the class. Even though teachers are meant to assist and guide, the students must get involved in the classroom actively to actualized real learning. Classroom according to Mayor, is a “place that pupils learn to exercise their own powers and if the teacher unsurps this, he is the meanest of tyrant¬ - and¬¬ tyrant over human souls” (128).

However, there are so many criticisms about Mayor’s system of literacy. He was compared to other educators like Harvard president, Charles Eliot and Adams Smith Hill. Of course Mayor failed in some aspects but also succeeded because some of his students were hard workers.