Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - D4110061
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED345229 AUTHOR: Swilky, Jody
TITLE: Resisting Difference: Student Response in a
Multicultural Writing Classroom.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1992
NOTE: 14 p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the
Conference on College Composition and Communication (43rd,
Cincinnati, OH, March 19-21, 1992).
ABSTRACT: In the past few years, a number of theorists who
advocate the study of difference have been debating the
purposes and priorities of this approach to educational
practice. Investigating values and ethics, particularly
issues of race, gender and class, should do more than
encourage students to deconstruct dominant ideologies.
Tensions inherent in teacher-student dialogue complicate
any attempts to promote cultural critique or to effect
ideological transformation. Teachers must understand how
students resist transformation, and thus how to respond to
student resistance. A freshman writing course was designed
that asked students to read and write about difference,
specifically multicultural perspectives on identity.
Students, rather than displaying a resistance to dominant
ideologies, tended to see mainstream values and beliefs
reflected in the readings. This phenomenon was most evident
with regard to the responses to Michelle Cliff's writings.
Students chose to ignore the representation of a fragmented
self in Cliff's "A Journey into Speech," instead finding a
unified world-traveler, one with whom they could identify.
Surprisingly, the texts verified what the students already
believed, instead of raising doubts, as several student
excerpts demonstrate. Students must be provided with
critical alternatives to the dominant ideologies, and it
may be a good strategy to have students investigate their
own resistance to ideological change. By aiming to promote
resistance and ideological transformation, the study of
difference asks students to participate in the social
struggle over meaning. (HB)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Beliefs-; Cultural-Awareness; Higher
Education; Teacher-Student-Relationship; Theory-Practice
Relationship; Writing-Composition
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Cultural-Differences; *Ideology-;
*Multicultural-Education; *Writing-Instruction
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