Teaching Philosophy Statement and Ideological Becoming

The writing of a teaching philosophy statement can be interpreted as a dynamic component in the development of the teacher’s system of ideas, their ideological self. In this article of reflection, I examine the exercise of reflection and personal growth that the development of a personal educational philosophy promotes according to some writing guidelines available. Through a documentary method, I argue the assumptions of the beliefs in question to interpret them under bakhtinian concepts of heteroglossia and ideological becoming. The examination of heteroglossia in the text of a TPS increases the awareness of individual teaching activity connected to broader social, cultural, and political practices built through writing. These considerations are intended to connect the activities of educators with the possibility of more democratic societies.

Teaching Philosophy Statement and Ideological Becoming

The writing of a teaching philosophy statement can be interpreted as a dynamic component in the development of the teacher’s system of ideas, their ideological self. In this article of reflection, I examine the exercise of reflection and personal growth that the development of a personal educational philosophy promotes according to some writing guidelines available. Through a documentary method, I argue the assumptions of the beliefs in question to interpret them under bakhtinian concepts of heteroglossia and ideological becoming. The examination of heteroglossia in the text of a TPS increases the awareness of individual teaching activity connected to broader social, cultural, and political practices built through writing. These considerations are intended to connect the activities of educators with the possibility of more democratic societies.

Parenting in exile: Narratives of evolving parenting practices in transnational contact zones

A sociocultural framework illustrating Bakhtin’s theory of dialogicality informed this article’s interpretation of interviews with refugees discussing their parenting in exile. Multivoicedness is used as a tool for analysing how refugee parents talk about their evolving parenting practices; interview sequences from the parents of two families are presented. The culturally complex context of refugee parenting is understood in terms of transnational contact zones. Bakhtin’s concept of ideological becoming is used to understand how parenting evolves, making visible the parents’ critical assessment of unfamiliar practices, selective appropriation of certain practices, and agentic innovation of their own practices. The analysis adds relevant perspectives on professionals’ contact with refugee parents and may contribute to more culturally sensitive and less repressive treatment of parents while challenging facile conceptions of acculturation.

The Use of Ideological Becoming in English Literature as a Means to Stimulate Students’ Readiness to Speak

This study explores the relationship between ideological becoming and students’ readiness to speak using English Literature. Learning literature can be daunting and intimidating for students. Moreover, some view the incorporation of literature in language learning is only to serve the need to impart culture and aesthetic values in students without significantly contributing to the aims of teaching and learning and students’ communicative competence. In addition, some instructors find literature to be complex, thus unsuitable to be adopted in the language learning syllabus. During language learning, speaking poses the most challenging skill to master as the students have reservations and experience anxiety in expressing themselves freely and openly in sharing their thoughts. In order to promote speaking skill among the students in a literature classroom, they need to be engaged actively with activities that would facilitate and accelerate their motivation to speak. With this in view, the researcher finds Bakhtin’s notion on ideological becoming may help students to be more expressive in sharing their views during lessons. Ideological becoming is a process of learning by positioning one’s voice with other voices. Through this process, students are required to get their voices heard and recognized while interacting with others. Thus, this article aims to review the following, first, how is literature used in class to promote speaking skill, and second, how the notion of ideological becoming can be a useful tool in learning literature. The state of ideological becoming brings positive implication for the teaching of literature as students are encouraged to be critical and assertive in defending and justifying their responses toward any literary texts.

“Too Much Cream on the Tacos”: Narrative and Moral Personhood in Transfronterizo Experience

Building on prior analyses of storytelling in migrant and transnational contexts (e.g. Baynham, 2014; De Fina, 2003; Haviland, 2005; Warriner, 2013), this article draws on research with transfronterizo (border-crossing) university students in South Texas to explore how transnational speakers use narrative to craft moral arguments in trying times. The article focuses on a single, lengthy narrative from a transfronteriza undergraduate named Araís in order to demonstrate how her narrative practice contributes to her “ideological becoming” (Bakhtin, 1981). That is, the analysis shows that the structural, textual, and dialogic features of Araís’s narrative are connected both to her emergent, dialogic understanding of her self and to value projects, or efforts to (re)shape the social world, implied in her narrative (Agha, 2015). The analysis illuminates the ethical affordances of transfronterizo narrative—i.e., the opportunities that storytelling offered transfronterizo students to evaluate their own and others’ actions in moral terms. Based on this analysis, I suggest implications for our understanding of narrative and moral personhood among transfronterizo students and other migrant and transnational subjects.

Ideological Becoming in Socialist and Post-Socialist Childhood and Schooling from a Dialogic Framework

This special DPJ issue aims to bring together those who had first-hand experiences with or conduct educational and/or historical research with children and schooling in socialist and post-socialist societies. Socialist and post-socialist childhood and schooling in socialist and post-socialist education systems are usually assumed to be monolithic and authoritarian, far from dialogic. However, by reflecting on our own or others’ experiences, narratives and observations regarding the socialist and post-socialist childhood, we realized that our memories, experiences and observations might offer unique and enriching soil for understanding, exploring, reflecting, and critiquing dialogic pedagogical theories. Through this special issue, we hope to expand the scholarship of this community to the territory of a space and time that were not previously examined (sufficiently) for dialogic pedagogy by creating interests and forums for dialogues.