Abstract

This study critically examines how the geopolitical configuration of identities, through the medium of the institutionalized label of “English language learners,” can shape and constrain localized experiences for learners. An ethnographic video study was conducted in the context of a mathematics unit (“the transforming recess unit”) wherein learners conducted surveys, summarized data, and voiced the changes they hoped to see in the elementary school playground. Findings demonstrate both empowering and disempowering ways of mobilizing data and graphs, which are intertwined with multi-layered identities. Interactions in the classroom were nested in macro-level geopolitical configuration of identities that influenced labeled learners’ access to becoming “agents of change” who could voice their desired changes in school practices. Categorical and binary frameworks inscribed in mathematics curriculum served as a context for inheritance and reproduction of existing categories through student surveys and graphs. Implications are discussed toward disrupting and transforming taken-for-granted labeling and rigid institutionalized practices through which colonial representation of the Other can be co-constructed.

摘要

这项研究批判性地研究了身份的地缘政治结构如何通过“英语学习者”的制度化标签来塑造和限制学习者的本地化体验。一项民族志视频研究是在一个数学单元（“转换中的凹进单元”）中进行的，学习者在其中进行了调查，汇总了数据并表达了他们希望在小学操场上看到的变化。研究结果表明，动员数据和图形的授权方法和取消授权的方法都与多层身份交织在一起。课堂中的互动被嵌套在身份的宏观地缘政治配置中，这种配置影响着被标记的学习者成为“变革的推动者”的机会，他们可以表达自己期望的学校实践变革。数学课程中的分类和二元框架是通过学生调查和图表继承和复制现有类别的环境。讨论了对颠覆和转变准予使用的标签和严格的制度化实践的含义，通过这种实践可以共同构建“他人”的殖民地代表。