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Teaching with the Flow: Fixity and fluidity in education

2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 25; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/02188790500032491

0218-8791

Alastair Pennycook,

Second Language Learning and Teaching

Abstract In this paper I suggest that as educators we need to understand that the spaces and cultures our students inhabit are to be found not so much in predefinitions of cultural background or in studies of classrooms as cultural spaces as in the transcultural flows with which our students engage. Thus, my argument is not only that, as Singh and Doherty (Citation2004) suggest, the flow of “international” students turns many classrooms into “global education contact zones” (p. 11), but also that the global flows of English and popular culture turn classrooms in many parts of the world into spaces of transcultural contact. Students can no longer be understood as located in a bounded time and space in and around their classrooms but rather are participants in a much broader set of transcultural practices. Taking the global culture of hip-hop as an example, with a particular focus on hip-hop in parts of East and Southeast Asia, I argue that with English increasingly becoming the medium of global transcultural exchange, we need to understand the relations between English, popular culture, education and identity, or the ways in which global Englishes become a shifting means of transcultural identity formation. What I want to suggest here, then, is that in order to be attentive to the politics of location in the global context, we need a pedagogy of flow. Notes 1. It is nevertheless the case that just as singers such as Youssou N'Dour or Wassis Diop from Senegal or Angélique Kidjo from Benin use not only French, Fon, Yoruba, Wolof etc. but also English, so rappers within the ‘Francophone’ circuit will also have English in their repertoire. 2. Verlan, as Doran (Citation2004) explains, “is a kind of linguistic bricolage marked by the multilingualism and multiculturalism present in the communities where it is spoken, which include immigrants from North Africa, West Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Given the marginal status of these communities vis-à-vis elite Parisian culture, Verlan can be viewed as an alternative code which stands both literally and figuratively outside the hegemonic norms of Parisian culture and language” (p. 94). 3. Data used in this article draws on research from an Australian Research Council (ARC)-funded project, Postoccidental Englishes and Rap, Principal Investigator Alastair Pennycook; Senior Research Assistant Adam Le Nevez; with additional research assistance from Emi Otsuji and Young Hee Park. I would also like to thank Positive Tone, Too Phat and Teh Tarik Crew in Malaysia for their assistance in this project.