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FOREWORD -Kraus- Something by Somebody
Jim Cummins Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
As we move towards a new millennium, there appears to be a growing, if grudging, acceptance that the imperatives of global interdependence and increased economic competitiveness require educational systems that are effective in maximizing the human resources of the nation. The shifting economic realities have brought two major problems to the fore: first, in previous decades of this century, the industrial economy could readily absorb high-school drop-outs whose literacy skills were limited, since unskilled and semi-skilled production jobs were plentiful. However, in the information economy, these jobs are increasingly being shipped to low-wage developing countries and there are far fewer employment possibilities for those who graduate with limited qualifications. Shut out of the mainstream economy, the survival options are often reduced to either welfare or crime for these students. The link between educational failure and crime can be seen from the fact that about 80% of prisoners in U.S. jails are high-school drop-outs, each costing taxpayers about $20,000 a year - far more than an adequate education would have cost (Hodgkinson, 1990). In short, our failure to extend equality of educational opportunity to all students has reached a point of diminishing returns where the collective economic and social costs of pushing culturally-diverse students out of school greatly outweigh the costs of providing an adequate education for these students. To illustrate, it is estimated that for every dollar spent on Head Start programs, U.S. taxpayers save seven dollars in reduced educational and social costs associated with programs such as special education, welfare, and incarceration (Schweinhart, Weikart, & Larney, 1986). The second problem highlighted by the changing economic realities is the shortage of students graduating with the kinds of skills required by the information economy. These skills include the ability to get access to information, critically interpret information and use it creatively for problem-solving. High levels of literacy and numeracy as well as the ability to work together cooperatively across cultural, racial and linguistic boundaries are also required in the workplace of the 21st century. At last some politicians and business leaders have begun to realize that the racist educational and social structures that still characterize schooling for many culturally-diverse students (documented vividly by Jonathan Kozol [1990] in his book "Savage Inequalities") are simply decimating the pool of human talent available to U.S. business to compete internationally. Business is hit at both ends since not only is the pool of much-needed intellectual talent diminished but, as outlined above, educational failure generates enormous social costs which require increased taxes on business as well as individuals. It is sad, but hardly surprising, that it has taken economic realities to arouse policy-makers to address seriously the causes of educational failure among culturally-diverse students. Many of the educational structures and forms of interaction that contribute to school failure are highlighted in this remarkable volume and concrete directions for reversing the historical patterns are suggested. The roots of school failure, discussed by several of the authors of this volume, are well summed up by one of the students interviewed in Mary Poplin's (1993) study in Claremont, California in referring to his school: "This place hurts my spirit". Culturally-diverse students have mentally withdrawn from schooling primarily because many of the schools they attend have become spiritual wastelands where students' identities are negated rather than validated, their languages are eradicated rather than sustained, and their parents' inferior status is communicated to them in all their interactions with the school. By contrast, a common element that almost invariably emerges in schools that succeed in reversing the historical pattern of educational failure among culturally-diverse students is the sense of validation of identity that infuses the interactions between educators and students and between schools and communities. The portraits of interactions between educators, students and parents presented in this volume vividly highlight the empowerment that results when schools and communities together challenge the educational and societal structures that constrict students' possibilities for personal and academic growth. The intellectual, personal, and collective power that is unleashed in the kinds of dual-language bilingual programs described by Janet Leigh Foster and Ruth Swinney in this volume, or in the family literacy collaborations described by Alma Flor Ada, or in the critical explorations of identity that take place in the sister class networks outlined by Kristin Brown, expose the discursive facade that defines culturally-diverse students and communities either as inferior, and therefore incapable of learning, or as apathetic, and therefore disinterested in learning (see, for example, Dunn, 1987). This is the discourse of coercive relations of power intended to maintain a societal status quo that increasing evidence suggests is counter-productive even for the dominant group that appears to be its beneficiary. The changing realities associated with the "information age" and globalization of the economy suggest the need for a radical break in the ways in which societal institutions, such as schools, have operated in the service of stratification along racial, cultural and linguistic lines. Coercive relations of power that have resulted in enormous disparities of resources and status between dominant and subordinated groups have reached a limit where the costs for the dominant group outweigh the benefits. It is in the social and economic interests of the dominant group to shift towards more collaborative relations of power where interactional spaces are created in the relations between groups that are mutually affirming of identity and status. The major difference between coercive and collaborative relations of power is that coercive relations of power operate on the assumption that power is a fixed quantity such that the more one group (or individual or country) gets, the less is left for others; collaborative relations of power, on the other hand, operate on the assumption that power is not a fixed, pre-determined quantity but can be generated in interpersonal and intergroup relations such that participants are mutually empowered through their collaboration. For this shift from coercive to collaborative relations of power to happen, however, every opportunity must be seized to challenge the operation of coercive relations of power both in the macro-interactions between societal groups and in the micro-interactions that take place at the individual level. The chapters in this volume show how bilingual education can be transformed from a program rooted in the coercive realities of the past that defined students' bilingualism as the problem to be overcome, to a program that expands both the options for identity formation available to students and the contributions that they will be capable of making to their society upon graduation. In an era of escalating cross-cultural contact, both in domestic and international spheres, it is absurd for schools to eradicate the linguistic and cultural resources that students bring to school. It is equally absurd to preach the importance of parent participation but insist that this participation take place only in a language that parents do not understand. By the same token, it is blatantly contradictory to describe the workplace of the 21st century in terms of the centrality of critical thinking and collaborative problem-solving skills while restricting the classroom interactions experienced by low-income and culturally-diverse students to low-level sanitized drill and practice routines. These contradictions can be understood in terms of the unwillingness of some policy-makers and educators to relinquish established patterns of coercive relations of power and embrace cultural diversity as a positive force in the nation's future. Thus, despite the clear evidence that schools can adequately serve the nation's economy only when they affirm rather than hurt students' spiritual identity, and promote rather than eradicate students' linguistic and cultural resources, this reality is still difficult for some to accept, and so they attempt to stifle the shift to collaborative relations of power in the schools. If these forces are successful in preventing schools from creating interpersonal spaces between educators, students, and parents that are empowering and affirming of identity, they will also inevitably perpetuate the twin problems identified earlier in the relations between schools and the economy: (a) the escalating social and economic costs associated with alienating and excluding from the economy an increasing proportion of undereducated youth; (b) the loss of competitive advantage due to reducing the pool of intellectual, cultural and linguistic talent available to business. A clear vision of the society our schools should be attempting to shape emerges from the chapters of this volume. In Sonia Nieto's words, schools must focus on "giving students an apprenticeship in democratic living and preparing them for their roles as critical and productive members of society." In other words, the negotiation of identity between educators and students should communicate to students their potential to contribute to and shape their society, using their powers of critical thinking and creative problem-solving. This vision represents a radical departure from traditional teacher-centered instruction focused on imparting the cultural literacy of the dominant group with minimal critical analysis (e.g. the "fact" that "Columbus discovered America"). What this implies is that the micro-interactions between educators and students script an image of the envisaged relations of culture and power in our society. These interactions either reinforce or challenge particular educational structures within the school or school system and, by implication, the power structure in the wider society. Educational equity requires that educators define their roles and attempt to orchestrate the pattern of micro-interactions in such a way that these interactions actively challenge manifestations of coercive relations of power in the school and by implication in the wider society. Empowerment of both students and educators is an outcome of this process. In principle, bilingual education can contribute significantly to this empowerment process since the use of students' first language (L1) can communicate to students and communities the validity of that language and facilitate both student learning and parent involvement. However, bilingual education in itself is no panacea, and far too many bilingual programs in the past have failed to create the kinds of educator-student interactional spaces where validation of identity can occur, either because they focus only on narrowly-defined English skills or because they ignore issues related to students' identity. I believe that this volume will play a significant role not only in transforming bilingual education into a program that serves all students (both "minority" and "majority") but also in charting directions necessary for "mainstream" education to respond to the changing cultural, economic, and existential realities of the 21st century. As our society and global community become more diverse, access to only one language will be just as limiting as access to only one way of seeing the world or one way of thinking. A new paradigm is emerging that will gradually eliminate the artificial distinction between bilingual and mainstream programs. For so-called majority students access to additional languages and cultural perspectives is essential for effective participation in the global economy of the 21st century just as access to an equitable education is essential for so-called minority students. We have in this volume a detailed sketch of the kinds of educational structures and patterns of interaction between educators, students and parents that are essential to actualize the human resources of our society. The paradigm shift reflected in these educational structures and interactions is from coercive to collaborative relations of power; in Alma Flor Ada's words, to building community as a circle rather than as a hierarchy. This transformation of societal power relations is as crucial for the economic health of the nation as it is for its social and spiritual health.
REFERENCES Dunn, L. (1987). Bilingual Hispanic children on the U.S. mainland: A review of research on their cognitive, linguistic, and scholastic development. Circle Pines, Minnesota: American Guidance Service. Hodgkinson, H. (1991). Reform versus reality. Phi Delta Kappan, September, 1991, 9-16. Kozol, J. (1991). Savage inequalities: Children in America's schools. New York: Crown Publishers. Poplin, M. (1993). Voices from the inside. Pomona, CA: Claremont College Press. Schweinhart, L.J., Weikart, D.P. & Larney, M.B. (1986). Consequences of three preschool curriculum models through age 15. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 1, 15-45.
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