Re: Diversity Issues & Resistant Students
vera p john-steiner (vygotsky who-is-at unm.edu)
Sat, 4 Oct 1997 10:08:17 -0600 (MDT)
Dear Esteban,
Living in New Mwxico, I do not get as strong a resistance to
multicultural
and bilingual issues as do those of you in California. But having
been involved in some of these issues since the early 60's,-our first
thin volume on Early Childhood Bilingual education was published by MLA
before Title VII passed, I keep on thinking about the importance of
helping each other during times of backlash, and of the need for a long
view. The world is multicultural and multilingual, and the discomfort
of young, while, English speaking students with that world is part
arrogance and part fear, and I wonder how we can help them to deal with
these issues. I have little right to comment as I now teach only
graduate students, I made this choice because I have not resolved the
issues of resistant undergraduate students effectively. But, at the very
least, this network and similar contexts of mutuality might assist those
of you who are keeping the long view alive and who are battling for it.
Thanks,
Vera
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Vera P. John-Steiner
Department of Linguistics
Humanities Bldg. 526
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
(505) 277-6353 or 277-4324
Internet: vygotsky who-is-at unm.edu
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