Finding the voice inside the student

Class and gender are two large impactors when it comes to education. Pamela Hartman and Robert Yagelski are two people who have done research that directly support this claim. By taking a close look into the lives of students and their performance in their writing and in the classroom, it is clear to see a connection. Writers are in a constant process of trying to find their voice through their work and students are constantly looking for their own identity in the educational setting. These theories are important to investigate because if they are true, it is important to find an answer as to how this should be dealt with from the standpoint of a teacher.

Yagelski, in “Writing Roles for Ourselves”, tackles the idea of educational discourses bleeding into discourse that awaits each individual in their lifetime. He does so by discussing a couple of students’ writing that he dealt with in his time as a writing instructor. Beginning with an African-American female student, he was able to show the broadness of discourses that a student can deal with. She used her writing as an opportunity to communicate her own personal struggles with discourse as a member of a minority community. There is the discourse that is expected of African-Americans amongst each other and the discourse that is expected in the college classroom. While these two discourse communities are completely different, they exist all at once in her life. In her writing, Yagelski points out that she struggles with these internal issues while also concurrently discussing the issues that she is investigating. Another student Yagelski uses as an example is a middle-class, white male student. This student has self-esteem issues that he discusses in his discourse as a writer in Yagelski’s classroom. In writing dialogue that deals with a number of issues, some of which were meant to be personal, some of which weren’t, Yagelski noticed that the student was constantly dealing with his own esteem issues. The pattern that can be seen in these students is that their discourse is constantly self-inclusive. The writing that they do on various topics is also consisting of internal dialogue and finding a sense of self in the topic at hand. Yagelski appears to find that this includes even himself as he reads a flyer delivered on his doorstep about an upcoming construction project in his neighborhood. As a result of this literature he is influenced to go to meetings and vote about the topic and ultimately, as a result of the ruling, sell his home. All of these events included him investing the ‘self’ into his decision and discourse. Writing is in many ways self-expression and should not be detached from the self. This being so as a result of the impact that any topic at hand can have on the ‘self’.

Hartman, in “’Loud on the Inside’: Working-Class Gils, Gender, and Literacy”, similarly sees a strong connection between the individual and their performance in the classroom. She did a study of eleventh and twelve grade female students and studied how their social and societal backgrounds effected their performance in the classroom. She found a strong connection between the two. In one classroom, she broke the class into two separate lists: one consisting of working-class girls, and one the middle-class girls. Without knowing the information behind the list, the teacher of the class responded to it by pointing out that the girls on one side were much more vocal in class, while the other side tended to be quieter. The teacher was shocked when Hartman revealed the reasoning behind the separation on the list. She noted that all of the students are equally motivated, some just felt more comfortable taking part in the classroom interactions and discussions. Hartman theorizes that society has a strong role in this situation. She explains that society pushes their views on young influential minds through literature, movies, and working-class family structures. Women are often expected to be quiet and submit to the needs of males. She also points to many of these girls who are in quiet in the classroom being much more vocal in social circles outside of the classroom. This points to them being more concerned with how society views them than the academic world. Hartman sees some possible solutions to these problems. One way that there is help being given is through literature being introduced to the classroom that is less ‘romantic’ and less gender biased. Often women in the past have been forced to read primarily male narrated stories that force the woman to see the story through a man’s eyes. Women in these stories are placed in socially accepted roles. Hartman sees literature going in a better direction in schools as there is a place being given to women authors and books that bring diversity into the classroom. Her standpoint is that education should be ‘liberating’ and not ‘domesticating’. The long held view as the ‘good-girl’ being quiet in the classroom needs to be snuffed and there needs to be incentive and motivation for girls to participate in their academics.

As seen through the work of these two researchers, there are clear connections between class, gender, and education. It is important for the student to find his or her voice in the academic world because it is vital once one takes the step out of the classroom and into the world. One important way to do this is seen in Hartman’s observations as she illustrates how the teacher makes it a point for the classroom to feel like a safe, comfortable place where the student is not being forced to do anything, but instead feels comfortable to do so. This teacher moves from one topic to another when she sees students not responding to one. The success of this method indicates just how important it is for the student to find his or her self in the literature being discussed. Students have voice and need to be encouraged to find that voice and not be silenced.