"Breaking Them Up, Taking Them Away"

In response to: “Breaking Them Up, Taking Them Away” by Kelleen Toohey;

The article describes a research project conducted by Kathleen Toohey in Grade 1 classroom filled with both L2 learners and Anglophones. In the study, the author examines some classroom practices that she argues contribute to the “construction of L2 as individuals and in doing so, reinforcing traditional perspectives.” The article argues that in this traditional perspective, some students become defined as deficient and are coincidentally excluded from practices in which they could have otherwise used to their advantage and grown in knowledge. The classroom that the author examined is described as being a particularly difficult classroom, meaning the children made visits to the guidance counselor often. She included information about the children borrowing and lending their materials, which she concluded was to maintain interaction with each other.

The practices that the author observes that contribute to the “breaking up of children” are a) location of the students. b) the management of the materials and c) the source of the intellectual resources needed to complete school tasks.

The author indicated from the research conducted that lending and borrowing among students was “reflective of the social relations of the children. Practices like copying and borrowing were frowned upon by the teacher. By the end of the year he children would physically protect their written works from other children in the class. The author argues that the practices she observed in the classroom (encouraging students to stay at their own desks, concentrating on their own work) establish each child as an individual. It is in these practices that the community learns to see children as “more or less adept.” In other words, it contributes to children being unfairly seen as more or less literate, intelligent, creative, etc.

When reading this I was reminded of my experiences in elementary school. Are there any of us out there who doesn’t remember how it felt at some point in their childhood not to have the “cool” lunchbox, backpack, or crayons? I feel like the author was illustrating what goes on all over the world in this article, and in doing so, connecting things like the seating position and the students’ materials to possible hindrances in the classroom. It’s important to learn all we can from studies like these in order to be more effective as teachers.