Diverse Learners, Diverse Texts

ABSTRACT: This article reports from a yearlong ethnography that examined two urban 10th-grade English classes of ethnically diverse students in which the teachers diversified literature selections for newly designed ethnic literature curricula. The study reports texts students found most memorable and meaningful and analyzes the values students found in their encounters with these literary works. When students identified with characters and texts, they reflected on personal concerns, including family nostalgia and loss; adolescent challenges; and culture, gender, and sexualidentity formation. Literary encounters also fostered discoveries about diverse groups (identified by race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and sexual orientation) that helped students move past stereotyped notions of others. Choices of meaningful works were often tied integrally to ways in which the texts were treated during class time - particularly to activities involving the social processes of constructing meaning, exploring interpretation, and openly discussing issues of culture and identity. The results remind researchers of the need to include in curricular theorizing the importance of instruction that fosters students' thinking about literature, identity, and diversity.

Adapted from: ATHANASES, S. Z. Diverse Learners, Diverse

Texts: Exploring Identity and Difference through Literary Encounters. Journal of Literacy Research 1998 30: 273.

Diverse Learners, Diverse Texts

ABSTRACT: This article reports from a yearlong ethnography that examined two urban 10th-grade English classes of ethnically diverse students in which the teachers diversified literature selections for newly designed ethnic literature curricula. The study reports texts students found most memorable and meaningful and analyzes the values students found in their encounters with these literary works. When students identified with characters and texts, they reflected on personal concerns, including family nostalgia and loss; adolescent challenges; and culture, gender, and sexualidentity formation. Literary encounters also fostered discoveries about diverse groups (identified by race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and sexual orientation) that helped students move past stereotyped notions of others. Choices of meaningful works were often tied integrally to ways in which the texts were treated during class time - particularly to activities involving the social processes of constructing meaning, exploring interpretation, and openly discussing issues of culture and identity. The results remind researchers of the need to include in curricular theorizing the importance of instruction that fosters students' thinking about literature, identity, and diversity.

Adapted from: ATHANASES, S. Z. Diverse Learners, Diverse

Texts: Exploring Identity and Difference through Literary Encounters. Journal of Literacy Research 1998 30: 273.

Diverse Learners, Diverse Texts

ABSTRACT: This article reports from a yearlong ethnography that examined two urban 10th-grade English classes of ethnically diverse students in which the teachers diversified literature selections for newly designed ethnic literature curricula. The study reports texts students found most memorable and meaningful and analyzes the values students found in their encounters with these literary works. When students identified with characters and texts, they reflected on personal concerns, including family nostalgia and loss; adolescent challenges; and culture, gender, and sexualidentity formation. Literary encounters also fostered discoveries about diverse groups (identified by race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and sexual orientation) that helped students move past stereotyped notions of others. Choices of meaningful works were often tied integrally to ways in which the texts were treated during class time - particularly to activities involving the social processes of constructing meaning, exploring interpretation, and openly discussing issues of culture and identity. The results remind researchers of the need to include in curricular theorizing the importance of instruction that fosters students' thinking about literature, identity, and diversity.

Adapted from: ATHANASES, S. Z. Diverse Learners, Diverse

Texts: Exploring Identity and Difference through Literary Encounters. Journal of Literacy Research 1998 30: 273.

Despite common belief that Brazil is a monolingual country, it is in fact a multilingual country with dozens of immigrant and indigenous languages spread in many communities where Portuguese is not the mother tongue. As pointed out by Leffa (2013), Brazilians must recognize and preserve this multilingualism fighting against the omission and discrimination towards linguistic minorities through the reflection on and elaboration of language policies that promote understanding and tolerance among cultures, languages and identities. Leffa (2013) also alerts to the danger of linguistic isolation in Brazil, the only country in Latin America whose national language is Portuguese and where Brazilians face many challenges to learn foreign languages, be them the language of their parents (heritage languages) of their neighbors (Spanish) or the international language (English). In a country with over 200 million people, this represents a huge challenge for language policies and education in Brazil.

Lagares (2013, p. 185) claims that the teaching of foreign languages in Brazil was sometimes treated as an extracurricular component being delegated to outsourced private language institutes that reinforced the belief foreign languages cannot be learned fluently in schools (p. 186). This belief is supported by authors (for example Tilio, 2014) who suggest that just as the public school does not form mathematicians or historians (to give but two examples), it does not have the responsibility to form fluent speakers of foreign languages either. Finardi, Prebianca and Momm (2013) and Finardi (2014) disagree with this view of the responsibility of Brazilian public schools based on the assumption that some knowledge of English is necessary to build a global citizenship and public education must guarantee the teaching of English with quality. Gimenez (2013) and Finardi (2014) go a step forward to suggest that the lack of responsibility of public schools to form fluent speakers of English increases the social gap of those who can afford to study English as a foreign language in private institutes and those who cannot.

Adapted from: FINARDI, K.; LEÃO, R.; PINHEIRO, L.

English in Brazil: insights from the analysis of language policies, internationalization programs and CLIL approach. Education and linguistics research. Vol. 2, nº. 1, 2016, p. 54-68.

Despite common belief that Brazil is a monolingual country, it is in fact a multilingual country with dozens of immigrant and indigenous languages spread in many communities where Portuguese is not the mother tongue. As pointed out by Leffa (2013), Brazilians must recognize and preserve this multilingualism fighting against the omission and discrimination towards linguistic minorities through the reflection on and elaboration of language policies that promote understanding and tolerance among cultures, languages and identities. Leffa (2013) also alerts to the danger of linguistic isolation in Brazil, the only country in Latin America whose national language is Portuguese and where Brazilians face many challenges to learn foreign languages, be them the language of their parents (heritage languages) of their neighbors (Spanish) or the international language (English). In a country with over 200 million people, this represents a huge challenge for language policies and education in Brazil.

Lagares (2013, p. 185) claims that the teaching of foreign languages in Brazil was sometimes treated as an extracurricular component being delegated to outsourced private language institutes that reinforced the belief foreign languages cannot be learned fluently in schools (p. 186). This belief is supported by authors (for example Tilio, 2014) who suggest that just as the public school does not form mathematicians or historians (to give but two examples), it does not have the responsibility to form fluent speakers of foreign languages either. Finardi, Prebianca and Momm (2013) and Finardi (2014) disagree with this view of the responsibility of Brazilian public schools based on the assumption that some knowledge of English is necessary to build a global citizenship and public education must guarantee the teaching of English with quality. Gimenez (2013) and Finardi (2014) go a step forward to suggest that the lack of responsibility of public schools to form fluent speakers of English increases the social gap of those who can afford to study English as a foreign language in private institutes and those who cannot.

Adapted from: FINARDI, K.; LEÃO, R.; PINHEIRO, L.

English in Brazil: insights from the analysis of language policies, internationalization programs and CLIL approach. Education and linguistics research. Vol. 2, nº. 1, 2016, p. 54-68.

Despite common belief that Brazil is a monolingual country, it is in fact a multilingual country with dozens of immigrant and indigenous languages spread in many communities where Portuguese is not the mother tongue. As pointed out by Leffa (2013), Brazilians must recognize and preserve this multilingualism fighting against the omission and discrimination towards linguistic minorities through the reflection on and elaboration of language policies that promote understanding and tolerance among cultures, languages and identities. Leffa (2013) also alerts to the danger of linguistic isolation in Brazil, the only country in Latin America whose national language is Portuguese and where Brazilians face many challenges to learn foreign languages, be them the language of their parents (heritage languages) of their neighbors (Spanish) or the international language (English). In a country with over 200 million people, this represents a huge challenge for language policies and education in Brazil.

Lagares (2013, p. 185) claims that the teaching of foreign languages in Brazil was sometimes treated as an extracurricular component being delegated to outsourced private language institutes that reinforced the belief foreign languages cannot be learned fluently in schools (p. 186). This belief is supported by authors (for example Tilio, 2014) who suggest that just as the public school does not form mathematicians or historians (to give but two examples), it does not have the responsibility to form fluent speakers of foreign languages either. Finardi, Prebianca and Momm (2013) and Finardi (2014) disagree with this view of the responsibility of Brazilian public schools based on the assumption that some knowledge of English is necessary to build a global citizenship and public education must guarantee the teaching of English with quality. Gimenez (2013) and Finardi (2014) go a step forward to suggest that the lack of responsibility of public schools to form fluent speakers of English increases the social gap of those who can afford to study English as a foreign language in private institutes and those who cannot.

Adapted from: FINARDI, K.; LEÃO, R.; PINHEIRO, L.

English in Brazil: insights from the analysis of language policies, internationalization programs and CLIL approach. Education and linguistics research. Vol. 2, nº. 1, 2016, p. 54-68.

Despite common belief that Brazil is a monolingual country, it is in fact a multilingual country with dozens of immigrant and indigenous languages spread in many communities where Portuguese is not the mother tongue. As pointed out by Leffa (2013), Brazilians must recognize and preserve this multilingualism fighting against the omission and discrimination towards linguistic minorities through the reflection on and elaboration of language policies that promote understanding and tolerance among cultures, languages and identities. Leffa (2013) also alerts to the danger of linguistic isolation in Brazil, the only country in Latin America whose national language is Portuguese and where Brazilians face many challenges to learn foreign languages, be them the language of their parents (heritage languages) of their neighbors (Spanish) or the international language (English). In a country with over 200 million people, this represents a huge challenge for language policies and education in Brazil.

Lagares (2013, p. 185) claims that the teaching of foreign languages in Brazil was sometimes treated as an extracurricular component being delegated to outsourced private language institutes that reinforced the belief foreign languages cannot be learned fluently in schools (p. 186). This belief is supported by authors (for example Tilio, 2014) who suggest that just as the public school does not form mathematicians or historians (to give but two examples), it does not have the responsibility to form fluent speakers of foreign languages either. Finardi, Prebianca and Momm (2013) and Finardi (2014) disagree with this view of the responsibility of Brazilian public schools based on the assumption that some knowledge of English is necessary to build a global citizenship and public education must guarantee the teaching of English with quality. Gimenez (2013) and Finardi (2014) go a step forward to suggest that the lack of responsibility of public schools to form fluent speakers of English increases the social gap of those who can afford to study English as a foreign language in private institutes and those who cannot.

Adapted from: FINARDI, K.; LEÃO, R.; PINHEIRO, L.

English in Brazil: insights from the analysis of language policies, internationalization programs and CLIL approach. Education and linguistics research. Vol. 2, nº. 1, 2016, p. 54-68.

Despite common belief that Brazil is a monolingual country, it is in fact a multilingual country with dozens of immigrant and indigenous languages spread in many communities where Portuguese is not the mother tongue. As pointed out by Leffa (2013), Brazilians must recognize and preserve this multilingualism fighting against the omission and discrimination towards linguistic minorities through the reflection on and elaboration of language policies that promote understanding and tolerance among cultures, languages and identities. Leffa (2013) also alerts to the danger of linguistic isolation in Brazil, the only country in Latin America whose national language is Portuguese and where Brazilians face many challenges to learn foreign languages, be them the language of their parents (heritage languages) of their neighbors (Spanish) or the international language (English). In a country with over 200 million people, this represents a huge challenge for language policies and education in Brazil.

Lagares (2013, p. 185) claims that the teaching of foreign languages in Brazil was sometimes treated as an extracurricular component being delegated to outsourced private language institutes that reinforced the belief foreign languages cannot be learned fluently in schools (p. 186). This belief is supported by authors (for example Tilio, 2014) who suggest that just as the public school does not form mathematicians or historians (to give but two examples), it does not have the responsibility to form fluent speakers of foreign languages either. Finardi, Prebianca and Momm (2013) and Finardi (2014) disagree with this view of the responsibility of Brazilian public schools based on the assumption that some knowledge of English is necessary to build a global citizenship and public education must guarantee the teaching of English with quality. Gimenez (2013) and Finardi (2014) go a step forward to suggest that the lack of responsibility of public schools to form fluent speakers of English increases the social gap of those who can afford to study English as a foreign language in private institutes and those who cannot.

Adapted from: FINARDI, K.; LEÃO, R.; PINHEIRO, L.

English in Brazil: insights from the analysis of language policies, internationalization programs and CLIL approach. Education and linguistics research. Vol. 2, nº. 1, 2016, p. 54-68.

No dia 2 de julho de 2011 faleceu Itamar Franco. Depois de uma longa carreira política (foi senador, prefeito de Juiz de Fora, embaixador do Brasil na OEA, em Portugal e na Itália), Itamar Franco foi presidente entre 1992 e 1994, assumindo após a renúncia de Fernando Collor devido ao impeachment. Foi como presidente que Itamar Franco implantou o Plano Real em julho de 1994, sob a coordenação do então Ministro da Fazenda Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

Remarcação de preços nos supermercados, uma prática cotidiana às vésperas do Plano Real. (Revista Veja. 08/07/2009)

“O Brasil viveu, no período que antecedeu a adoção do Plano Real, um dos casos de hiperinflação mais impressionantes da história. Entre janeiro de 1980 e junho de 1994, a inflação acumulada no país, medida pelo IPCA, foi de 10,5 trilhões por cento (ou 10.500.000.000.000%). A maior inflação anual foi registrada em 1993, quando o índice chegou a 2.477%. A cada mês, a moeda perdia praticamente metade do seu poder de compra.”

(Veja. 08/07/2009)

Por que devemos recordar os anos da República de Weimar: A história nunca se repete seguindo o mesmo roteiro. Será que nossa situação atual se parece em algo à daqueles turbulentos anos 1930 na Alemanha?

(Fernando Vaallespín, Jornal EL PAÌS, 27/07/2019)

Um carro distribui propaganda do Partido Popular Alemão em Berlim em 1924, durante a República de Weimar. (BRIDGEMAN IMAGES)

“Com o tempo, Weimar deixou de ser associada exclusivamente a uma população alemã de afortunado passado artístico e cultural e acabou se tornando uma grande metáfora, o epítome do fracasso da democracia liberal parlamentar. Não em vão, o que nasceu como produto de um impulso otimista de regeneração nacional e democrática acabou nas trevas do nazismo. Por isso, quando hoje em dia falamos da “síndrome de Weimar”, estamos nos referindo às tensões que ameaçam pôr em perigo a estabilidade da democracia liberal − tensões provocadas principalmente pela revitalização do populismo e pela guinada iliberal, quando não autoritária, que verificamos em alguns lugares da Europa.”

(https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2019/07/26/cultura/1564148647_990100 .html)