JoAnn Phillion

An Exploration of Narrative Inquiry into Multiculturalism in Education: Reflecting on Two Decades of Research in an Inner-City Canadian Community School

Abstract In this article we explore the connection between multicultural education and narrative inquiry. We trace the history of multiculturalism as a form of public discourse in Canadian social life. With this as background we consider life in an inner-city Canadian school as a microcosm of Canadian social life more generally. Following the ebb and flow of 20 years of narrative inquiry in this Canadian inner-city school, we realize that this inquiry, though defined in various terms, is ultimately a study of multicultural life. We argue that an understanding of multicultural life as a democratic life process is central to an understanding of the social purposes of multiculturalism. We believe that multicultural education and narrative inquiry have the potential for profoundly productive links in the pursuit of democratic life. We conclude by puzzling over the meaning of multicultural inquiry and of the significance of cross-cultural studies for understanding multicultural life.

Becoming a narrative inquirer in a multicultural landscape

This is the last of three papers based on a 20-month study of teaching and learning in a diverse classroom in a downtown community school in Toronto, Canada. The purpose of the research was to describe the details of teaching and learning in a multicultural classroom and to document successful strategies in working with immigrant and minority students. The three papers detail the process by which this focus on classroom life led to a critique of the literature and to a new way to think about multicultural teaching and learning which I call narrative multiculturalism. In this paper, I explore the process of becoming a narrative inquirer in a multicultural landscape and the implications of this way of thinking on developing new kinds of understanding. I relate this experientially oriented work to new ethnographies and other work already finding its way into the field. I explore a narrative multicultural way of thinking in greater depth. I use my own work with a teacher participant to re-imagine multicultural life in schools and classrooms. The study demonstrates the potential contribution of narrative multiculturalism to understanding multicultural life and multicultural teaching and learning.

Whose Knowledge Is Valued: A Critical Study of Knowledge in Elementary School Textbooks in China.

This study critically examines knowledge in elementary school textbooks in China. Language analysis and story‐line analysis are used to examine how the knowledge related to minority groups and how the knowledge related to the Han group are introduced and interpreted. This study finds that the Han knowledge dominates elementary school textbooks in China and that minority knowledge and culture are under‐represented, which demonstrates that the dominant Han group’s knowledge is seen as the ‘truth’ while minority knowledge is seen as backward. Moreover, through the dominant Han group’s selection and construction of school knowledge, the Han group reproduces its ideology and legitimates its hegemonic control over minority groups. Minority knowledge and culture are, therefore, subjugated.

Narrative Inquiry and ELT Research

This chapter explores the contributions and potential of narrative inquiry in English language teaching. Two stories of experience are presented and used as a touchstone throughout the chapter. We begin by discussing key terms—narrative inquiry and English language teaching and learning—to set boundaries for the review. The latter term led to a literature of learning of English as a second, third, or other language in predominantly English-speaking cultures and environments. The former term led to an experiential literature focused on language learning in life contexts. The narrative inquiry research literature is traced through the social sciences, educational studies, and language learning literature. Experiential characteristics of narrative inquiry are brought forward, and a detailed narrative inquiry analysis is made of two specific studies. In addition, life-based literary narratives are named and described. The contribution of narrative inquiry lies in its potential to permit and encourage the study of English language teaching and learning in the context of life and in the pursuit of broad educational questions.

Fluctuating Landscapes, Shifting Thinking

On September 28, 2001, the Chronicle of Higher Education featured scholars in a variety of disciplines reflecting upon September 11, 2001 and its aftermath. As we were reading and discussing their controversial comments, and continuing to experience dramatic threats to everyday life in the United States, we were composing this editorial. We saw this issue of Curriculum Inquiry as one focused on multiculturalism, understanding difference, and ways of relating to self, others, and the world—concepts that have been fundamentally challenged by the magnitude of the catastrophe. The world landscape around us is fluctuating—politically, economically, socially, academically. People are filled with uncertainty and fear. In response to uncertainties and fears some are looking for vengeance, others are searching for new ways to examine the past, live evolving change, and imagine the future. As we discussed the articles and reviews, we found our conversations woven together with the deep fears and growing questions engulfing us. In the midst of this turmoil we wondered if there are ways for educators to raise awareness of, and develop dialogue on, global issues to enhance mutual respect and understanding, to develop compassion, empathy, and acceptance, and to create possibilities to cultivate world community. It is with the cataclysmic events of September 11 emblazoned in our minds, with compassionate thoughts in our hearts, that we look at issues discussed in the articles and reviews in this issue of Curriculum Inquiry—in areas as diverse as Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and, ultimately, how these issues impact globally. Themes running through most of this issue concerning teaching, learning, researching, and living resonated with literature we have been reading

Narrative Understanding of Bilingualism

Book reviewed in this article: Lourdes Diaz Soto, Language, Culture, and Power: Bilingual Families and the Struggle for Quality Education