"In other words, she tries to work within the existing system accepting its
values and goals. She and other educators belonging to this group of
thought want to increase the size of black middle class. I wholeheartedly
support this goal. However, for me it is not enough. They are my allies
and
I can learn a lot from them."
I see her very much going against the existing system and its values and
thought. This of course depends on what system we are talking about.
Her research in Papua New Guinea was a model of how we can avoid the binary
of local romanitism on one hand and reproduction of power relations on the
other. Creating a model of education where the school is not put in an
appossitional position to the local communnity and actually can serve the
strengthen and reiforce the local culture.
What she does speak towards is how often in the progressive discourse of
valueing the student or local knowledge what gets forgotten as Jesse
Jackson reminds us is the language of money. History shows that the
gatekeepers are not going anywhere, yes we ought to challenge the
gatekeeping, but we can't just pretend the gates no longer exist. Friere
took a similar stance which I have quoted before which pointed toward the
dilemma or contradiction between on the one hand valueing local knowledge
and on the other equiping students with the skills, weapons they need to
fight the power structure. I don't think Delpit's goal is to increase the
African American middleclass, but rather to give all kids a shot.
In her "Skills" essay it was very much a Vygotskian line in my view. She
found fault with skill and drill on the one hand where everything was so
rigid, and more holistic unfolding approaches on the other. What she
described as an alternative was very much in line with a leading activity.
Where she did find fault is how African American teachers were kept out of
the loop "progressive racism" at writing workshops because of their defense
of phonics. I saw her taking a contextual stance and fighting the notion
of the eternal child that could be abstracted from the reality of power.
Nate