Identity Texts : The Collaborative Creation of Power in Multilingual Schools

This book shows how identity texts have been used as a central focus for effective and inspirational pedagogy in multilingual school contexts that is engaging students around the world. The term "identity texts" was first used by the Canada-wide Multiliteracies Project to describe a variety of creative work by students, including collaborative inquiry, literary narratives, dramatic and multimodal performances, led by classroom teachers. Jim Cummins and Margaret Early describe their nature, the ways in which they relate to broader orientations to pedagogy and consider two pedagogical frameworks within which they have been integrated. This is followed by brief case studies of identity text construction by educators and students in schools in parts of North America, in Burkina Faso and Rwanda in Africa, and in Ireland. The identity texts produced held up a mirror to the students which reflected their identities back in a positive light. The closing chapters elaborate on their central role in bilingual instructional strategies and highlight future projects generated by brainstorming among the contributors to this volume. Identity Textsis essential reading for everyone concerned with developing appropriate pedagogy for schools and for all who work with multilingual children.

Jim Cummins is Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Curriculum, Teaching and Learning dePartment at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Margaret Early is Associate Professor-in-the DePartment of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver