AT LAST: What's the Problem? Constructing Different Genres for the Study of English Learners
Marjorie Faulstich Orellana and Kris D. Gutiérrez
In our previous “At Last” essay, “The ‘Problem’ of English Learners: Constructing Genres of Difference” (Gutiérrez & Orellana, 2006), we identified a predictable
genre that characterizes much research on English Learners. We noted how the genre may unwittingly perpetuate deficit constructions and keep us from identifying other issues for redress—such as structural and institutional inequalities that create the vulnerability of non-dominant students in schools and society. This may aggravate the disenfranchisement that these groups already experience. But we recognize that it is easier to deconstruct genres than to construct new ones, and to name problems than to propose solutions. We also recognize that resisting dominant frameworks requires concerted and deliberate efforts, as well as models for how to do so. The more difficult task is to revise and even replace our own historically enduring ways of conceptualizing and doing work in cultural communities. And so, in this essay, we pose alternative ways of conceptualizing, examining, and reporting our work with English Learners and members of other non-dominant groups. We hope our suggestions will facilitate efforts to research, write, and think against the grain.
RTE, Volume 41, Number 1, August 2006
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