Language Diversity in the Classroom - ymerleksi - home

Black English as Ebonics 181criticism from a linguistic perspective; and see Coates (2008) for ajournalistic overview.Beyond his intemperate language, Cosby is clearly upset by the pooreducational achievements of black students, and ascribes much of this toattitude and language. This can be seen as a particular focus upon a muchbroader social issue; see Mincy (2006) for studies of the behavior andattitudes of urban inner-city black men. Among many aspects of thematter, it is clear that a sense of social ‘marginalization’, coupled with andfuelled by poverty and prejudice, can lead to an inability or anunwillingness to engage in important and potentially rewarding activities.Thus, for instance, a recent assessment of the poor academic performanceof black children invokes the idea of disidentification with the school. Theimplication is that, to the extent that students do not ‘identify’ with theacademic culture, they will perform poorly in the classroom. This seemsan entirely reasonable supposition, and Osborne (1997), Steele (1992),Steele and Aronson (1995) and others have demonstrated that a lack ofconnection here is most pronounced among African American maleteenagers.‘Disidentification’ with the school is heightened when we considerthat some students rather more pointedly develop what has been termedan ‘oppositional identity’ (Wiggan, 2007). This is obviously not somethingthat applies solely to black students an active and oppositionaldisdain for school is an historically and culturally widespread phenomenon(see also Ainsworth-Darnell & Downey, 1998; Farkas et al., 2002;Goldsmith, 2004; Tyson, 2002). Stinson’s (2006) overview is particularlyuseful here, as he considers various approaches to understanding theachievement gap that so often separates black and white students, boysespecially. Of particular interest is the ‘cool pose’ often adopted by blackmale adolescents as a visible rejection of the life of the school. As Majorsand Billson (1993) and Majors and Gordon (1994) have demonstrated,displays of ‘ritualized masculinity’ involving dress, posture, stance andstride, hairstyles, speech styles and other such ‘statements’ can all beimportant here. They signify a blatant and forceful rejection, to be sure,but they also act as markers of group solidarity. Whether they representthe most effective avenue of social progress is, of course, another matterentirely, and one that is much discussed both within and without theblack community itself.No one doubts that children uninterested in school are unlikely to dowell there, or that a vicious circle can easily be generated. Almost twogenerations ago, Katz (1967) pointed to motivation as the centralunderlying factor: failure at school (particularly early failure) tends to