Rebecca Disrud
University of Washington Tacoma
The question of to what extent universities should enforce standard English conventions, if at all, is a pressing one, but the voices of students most affected by decisions either to endorse standard language ideology or to withhold instruction about codes of power are often missing from the discussion. This presentation describes how I redesigned my university’s credit-bearing, quarter-long tutor training course as an inquiry-based investigation into the evidence on language learning, code-meshing, descriptive grammar, and linguistic racism. At the end of the quarter, most students advocated for both continued instruction in standard English and for wider acceptance of language diversity.
Great work! Some stakeholders will try to justify "standard English" in economic terms, a tautology that goes something like, "the systemic conditions that facilitate linguistic racism can't be racist because they're systemic." How might you respond to faculty and administrators who would push back against what you're arguing for?
Hi Rebecca,
Thank you for sharing your findings! I'm definitely going to consider incorporating some of your readings and findings in my own tutor class. I especially like your twitter thread assignment!
Erin
UW Seattle
Great work, Rebecca! Thank you!
Hi Rebeca,
Thank you so much for sharing your findings on this subject. It is one I am very much interested in and think about often in my classrooms. I am curious if you have students do work around their beliefs on this subject (at the beginning, middle, and/or end of the class) and the ways it informs or is informed by their identities.
Ali Walker Stromdahl
Pierce College