“ I once was lost but now I am found”: Teaching against cultural reproduction
Ayanna F. Brown
Elmhurst College
abrown@elmhurst.edu
As Captain of a slaveship, John Newton’s religious convictions inspired by a
violent storm at sea, served as a catalyst to pen one of the most sung Christian
hymnals for over three centuries. Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound) That
saved a wretch like me” (Newton, 1779). And while his confession of God’s
greatness and glory allowed him to survive the torment of travel throughout the
triangle trade, Newton continued to serve the slave trade well after he wrote these
very words. While this song provides inspiration and worship to so many
communities throughout the world, there is a complexity that if examined more
closely, might help us to think about Bourdieu and the social contexts of power.
The economic proliferation of slavery in the 18th and 19th century would
create unimagined wealth for the most educated and least. From the owners of sea
vessels to plantation masters, the institution of slavery in the United States, and
throughout Europe and South America would afford those in power to develop
economic gains that an education alone could not afford. To participate in slavery
was nearly a guarantee of wealth. How might one resist capitalism in this free
economy? Newton’s (1799) lyrics from “Amazing Grace” and the social context of
the time in which he lived illustrates the profound nature of his “deliverance,” where
he seeks the mercy of God for his wrongs, yet he continues to gain economic
1
advantage by participating within the structure of a racist institution. However,
even more profound than this, African Americans, whose collective social, cultural,
economic, and political identities were and in many ways are bound by this same
institution, look to this same song for hope- for fortitude to “press on” amidst
institutional racism. I believe the complexity of culture, as an enslaving mechanism
can too be liberating depending on how you locate your own positionality within
that culture. Bourdieu’s articulation of cultural reproduction allows us to consider
this as a heuristic.
Both real and symbolic capital are constructed and reproduced
in order to maintain capital. In the context of Newton, “Amazing Grace” functions to
produce symbolic reverberations of a spiritual belief yet it [the song] becomes a
product used both symbolically and culturally as capital. Inasmuch as Newton’s
convictions shift, his inability to resist social reproduction keeps him as an active
member of the institution of slavery despite the words of “Amazing Grace.”
Bourdieu’s contribution to our scholarly thinking about power, culture, and
product allows us to triangulate this spiritual historical narrative within other
institutions. Education, like slavery, has worked to both enslave and to liberate.
DuBois (1906) posited:
If we are to be trained grudgingly and suspiciously; trained not with
reference to what we can be, but with sole reference to what somebody
wants us to be; if instead of following the methods pointed out by the
accumulated wisdom of the world for the development of full human power,
we simply are trying to follow the line of least resistance and teach black men
only such things and by such methods as are momentarily popular; then my
2
fellow teachers, we are going to fail and fail ignominiously in our attempt to
raise the black race to its full humanity (p. 26)
Woodson (1933) professed,
When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his
actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will
find his ‘proper place’ and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the
back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he
will cut one for his special benefit (xi).
Bourdieu’s notion of cultural production and reproduction allows us to see systems
of education not simply as products of the field—but continually managed and coconstructed through the habitus itself. It is here that divergence from the “expected,”
or resistance to the “likely,” which is reproduced and propagated in each of our
conceptions of “normal,” is an act of will. Newton’s will allowed him to construct a
thinking about grace and mercy but does not change his actions within a
slaveholding country.
20th Century Pedagogical Context for Resisting Social Reproduction
Ms. Wilson’s seventh grade language arts classroom was located in a large
school that only housed seventh and eighth grade students. The school served the
local neighborhoods of primary working class African-American families. The
school had a reputation of low academic achievement and published test scores
reflected that reputation. On the same campus as the school was a grades 6 through
3
12 academic magnet school (admission through a lottery process). Many of the
students in the magnet school lived in the local neighborhoods.
Ms. Wilson was a young, African-American woman, who had received her
undergraduate degree from a historically Black university. She had recently moved
into the area in which the school was located. Ms. Wilson had a background in
culturally relevant pedagogy and in the theories and pedagogy of Freire (2000).
She also had a deep knowledge of African-American literature, African-American
history, sociolinguistics (with an emphasis on language variation), and the
educational theories of African-American scholars (e.g., Dubois, 1903/2000, 2001;
Woodson, 1933/2000).
Ms. Wilson1 began the school year by challenging her 30 seventh grade
students in her third period language arts class to read two novels simultaneously.
She had carefully selected the novels, The Lottery Rose (1976) and The Outsiders
(Hinton, 1967), because she knew they were popular among 12 and 13 year old
students, and because the adolescent protagonist of each novel had to address
difficult circumstances. In the former, Georgie had to address the abuse he suffered
from his parents and the anger and disruptive behavior that were part of the
consequences. In The Outsiders, Ponyboy has to address the violence that
surrounds his life, being raised by his brothers (no parents), and the marginalization
that accompanies being a working class teenager.
1
All names are pseudonyms.
4
The decision to challenge the students to read two novels simultaneously
derived from a collaborative research program with a local university. She and
another teacher had spent the summer with a small group of university researchers;
they were all interested in how the construct of intertextuality might be used to
create powerful reading and writing practices (see Goldman & Bloome, 2005). Each
teacher had independently designed their curriculum based on the summer
seminars and collaboratively they would study what happened in their classrooms.
Designing learning this way can be seen as a teacher’s resistance to social
reproduction in a working class and low income African American community.
Ms. Wilson and the students continued discussing The Lottery Rose in a similar
manner until 40 minutes into the 60 minute lesson. Then, the lesson shifts and Ms.
Wilson focuses on the homework from the previous night. For homework Ms.
Wilson had asked the students to mark passages in The Lottery Rose that they found
interesting or important. Ms. Wilson told the students to get out their copies of the
book and asked Bonnie to read one of the passages she had marked. Important to
note
Transcript 1:
401. B: (reading from the passage she highlighted in her book): Miss Preston didn’t
like Georgie much / she got mad at him for not doing his work/ she
pointed to / the work she pointed to / when she wrote a long list on / the
blackboard she especial she got mad / especially / |
402. Sx:
| she got especially |
403. B:
| she got especially mad at Georgie because
he played hooky and lied xxxxx
404. T: OK
405. T: Why was that / important enough for you to highlight or make note of
406. B: Because she didn’t get that mad at the students but just at Georgie
407. B: She got real mad at him
5
408.
409.
410.
411.
412.
413.
414.
415.
416.
417.
418.
419.
420.
421.
422.
423.
424.
425.
426.
427.
428.
429.
430.
431.
432.
433.
434.
435.
436.
437.
438.
439.
440.
441.
442.
443.
444.
445.
446.
447.
448.
449.
T: So you think she singled Georgie out
T: She displayed more anger toward him than she does the other kids
B: (nods head in agreement)
T: OK Johnny
J: She’s mad because she he plays hooky and
J: talks bad and stuff and then xxxxxx he can’t read
(1 second silence)
T: OK
T: Have any of you ever been the Georgie
T: In this |
T:
| I’m not talking about the abuse part
Sx:
Oh
T: But the being in class and not doing the work or not understanding and
acting out and said
T: You said here are your damn X’s and xxxxx up xxxxxx (makes big X in the air
with her hand)
Ss: (Laughter overlaps hands gestures near end of the previous line)
T: OK
T: have any of you ever been the Georgie and mad at the rest of the world
T: Can I ask you a question?
T: this this is just for my own personal professional development
T: How did you move out of the Georgie phase ?
T: How did you move away from the / being angry and / not doing the work and
/ move into the /
T: phase you’re in now?
Sx: who
T: Whomever
T: Who was once
T: OK
T: Johnny
T: How did you progress from being Georgie into being Johnny?
J: Stop playing hooky
T: OK so your first step was to stop playing hooky
T: OK
T: Anybody else
T: I was once Georgie now I’m Helen
H: I xxxxxxxxxx if I didn’t do my work and stuff xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ss: (laughter overlaps last half of previous line)
T: So you are arguing that if you did not do the work then you would be
H: Yeah xxxxxxxxxx
T: OK
T: Terry
(1 second silence)
Ss: (soft laughter overlapping the previous two lines)
T: You learned Helen that if you did not do the work you would be a bad person.
6
450.
451.
452.
453.
454.
455.
456.
457.
458.
459.
460.
461.
462.
463.
464.
465.
T: Defi+ne a bad person
T: What’s a bad person?
H: a person who doesn’t listen
H: Has no goal in life doesn’t want to make anything of themself
T: OK a person who has no goal and doesn’t want to make anything
T: So that’s your definition of a bad person.
H: Yes
T: OK a guy with no goals
T: I was once Georgie and now I am Steven
S: I said if I don’t start doing my work I am not going to get no anywhere
T: OK if I don’t start doing my work I am not going to get anywhere in life
T: If you ...
T: I’m sorry Brian
T: I was once Georgie and now I am Brian
BR: Ahhhh
BR: When I a when I was in the second grade and my momma told me that if I
if I didn’t start doing my work then
466. BR: there was going to be something something and I xxxxxxx
467. T: OK so she might have said you know if you don’t get that work done / I’m
gonna get something else done
468. Sx: ooooo (softly rendered, overlaps juncture between “done” and “I’m” in
previous line)
469. Ss: (a few students laugh)
470. BR: It wasn’t a whupping though
T: OK it was something enough for you to get kick
Ms. Wilson begins to review the students’ homework by asking Bonnie to
read aloud the passage she had highlighted. She does so (line 401) and an unknown
student helps her correctly render the text (line 402) in a move reminiscent of
elementary school reading instruction practices and their emphasis on accurate
word-by-word rendering. In response to Ms. Wilson question of why she
highlighted that passage (line 405), Bonnie and Johnny note Georgie’s problem
behaviors and that he can’t read (line 413). These are provided as a rationale for
the teacher, Miss Preston, getting mad at Georgie. Ms. Wilson does not challenge
the students’ rationale and its implied moral justification, but shifts the focus of the
instructional conversation from Georgie to the students themselves. She asks, “Have
7
any of you ever been the Georgie?” (line 416) and “How did you move out of the
Georgie phase?” (line 427).
From field work in previous classes Ms. Wilson taught, we know she believes
that it is important for students to put themselves into the comments they make.
The previous year she had told a class at the end of a heated discussion:
… think about yourself in relationship to your comments ... a lot of you
are making excellent comments but they are devoid of you as a person.
It’s very easy to make generalizations about people or about other
people when you’re able to take yourself out of it. But when you put
yourself back into your statements put yourself in relationship to your
comments you’re making and then see if the comment still works.
Ms. Wilson’s question about being the Georgie is, in part, a reflection of her
philosophy about putting “yourself back into your statements” and avoiding clichés
and generalizations. She is pushing students to think more deeply and
empathetically about what it means to be human. But we believe that there is
something more happening in this section of the instructional conversation.
By asking the students how they moved out of the Georgie phase she
provides them with a developmental narrative within which to frame a part of their
lives and she positions them as not Georgie. The students associate being Georgie
with playing hooky (line 437), not doing their school work (lines 441, 459) and
being a bad person (line 449). A bad person is someone who doesn’t listen (line
452) and has no goal in life (line 453). From lines 465 to 471, Brian employs the
8
narrative structure Ms. Wilson provided to tell a story of how he changed. Each of
the narratives told or suggested by the students characterizes their earlier selves as
“bad” and then having been saved by their actions of the actions of their family. Part
of what is accomplished through this segment of the instructional conversation is
that the students are positioned (and position themselves) as having evolved and
who they are now is someone who is serious about their education and about who
they are becoming, and not “bad.” This is also signaled within the word “phase”
(lines 427 and 429). We find this word significant to this analysis because it
connotes transition and development. As a “phase,” the characterizations the
students offer about themselves are positioned as stages, which are active and
continual rather than static characterizations of one’s personality. The students’
presentation of their own experiences do not relegate them as unsuccessful in Ms.
Wilson’s class because she positions the students’ present day identities as a new
phase. Consider the refrain she uses,” I was once Georgie and now I am ‘x.’” The
students are able to identify their present day identities as “new” or potentially
“transformed” from past experiences- even if they have yet to resolve “bad” choices.
We identify these lines of discussion as relevant to our discussion of the roots within
African American communication. In one respect, Ms. Wilson acknowledges that
several of her students have had negative experiences within school and their
communities. Rather than assuming these experiences are unresolved, she allows
her students to “name them” thereby rendering them as resolved.
Naming one’s own identity and telling one’s own story is a central aspect of
Critical Race Theory (e.g., Dixon & Rousseau ,2006; Ladson-Billings, 1999; Solorzano
9
& Yasso, 2002), which is a theoretical construct and a research methodology that
serves to refract and challenge dominant discourses within the institutional
structures that rely on dominance as means of authority and control. In Ms.
Wilson’s class, the students’ naming their own identities provides a space for selfreflection and ownership.
There is another relevant aspect of the refrain is the significance of the Black
church and the discourse of redemption and change. One of the pillars within the
Black church is call for congregation to acknowledge and respond to once being
“lost” and now “being found.” This discourse is present is several spiritual songs
like “Amazing Grace” and “Precious Lord” where peril precedes glory and
redemption. Yet, within the Black Church, the sociopolitical and cultural
relationship of Black people within the United States is often used as an anchor and
social context for Christian living. More simply stated, praise and rejoicing about
everlasting life leaving “this old world behind,” includes the acts of remembering the
status of people of African descent in the United States and the rejoicing that comes
when that status or positionality changes. We offer this spiritual context because it
is used as a foundation for the direction of Ms. Wilson’s lesson. While she does not
actively discuss Christian principles or the perspectives of the Black Church in her
lessons, she uses “I once was Georgie [lost] , but now I am ‘x’ [found]” as a direct
reference from Christianity. She asks the students in the beginning of this
discussion (line 427), “How did you move out of the Georgie phase?” This question
functions in two interesting ways. First, it allows the teacher to gain insight into
how to support her students in the future based on their own admissions. Our data
10
supports the notion that Ms. Wilson sees her role as multifaceted and that her
students’ academic success is also hinged upon her ability to connect with her
students outside of the classroom as well.
The second aspect of Ms. Wilson’s question we identify as important is
allowing the students to “think out-loud” about the conscious choices they’ve made
in the past to own their own success. By asking them to think about their own
personal changes in this context, she encourages them to reflect on their roles as
actors in their lives. Because this lesson happens within the first few weeks in her
class, the hidden agenda may be to cultivate an environment where students can
make choices and author their own success.
Yet, Ms. Wilson does not appear to be satisfied with the student responses as
she challenges them in lines 473 and 474 to move beyond the simplistic narrative of
being motivated by threats of punishment. She is pushing them to see themselves
as being able to act on themselves and on the world in which they live; and to do so
not simply because they might otherwise be punished, but rather because it is their
agenda.
Resistance to social reproduction we may see as a pedagogical and socially
constructed process, where the teacher works to help the students not see
themselves merely in the roles in which schooling has in many ways prescribed.
Their race, class, location, and use of language has predicated how they have
experienced education and their roles within it. Here we see Ms. Wilson using a
framework for active resistance to that.
11
References
Bourdieu, P. (1993). The field of cultural production. New York: Columbia University
Press.Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J-C. (1990). Reproduction in education, society,
and culture (2nd Edition). London; Sage Publications.
Dubois, W.E.B. (2001). The education of black people: ten critiques, 1906 – 1960. New
York: Monthly Review Press.
http://www.johnnewton.org/Groups/32662/The_John_Newton/Amazing_Grace/Amazing
_Grace.aspx. Downloaded March 3, 2012
Woodson, C. G. (1933/2000). The mis-education of the Negro. Trenton, NJ: First Africa
World Press.
12