Some years ago, challenged a classroom of young, Southern white women to defend mainstreaming novels by black authors into standard courses rather than celebrating them during Black History Month.
鈥淢y point was that without both, some students might assume the authors are white,鈥� says Fecho, Professor of English Educa颅tion. 鈥淏ut I didn鈥檛 ask for people鈥檚 thoughts.鈥� Instead, he says, he should have induced 鈥渨obble,鈥� or just enough 鈥渄isequilibrium鈥� to prompt reflection.
Teaching itself is learned by wob颅ble, argues Fecho, who taught English for 24 years in a big North Philadel颅phia high school. In books such as and (both published by Teachers College Press), he describes striving for class颅es to 鈥渦npack texts for themselves鈥� and 鈥渋ndividually and collectively make meaning.鈥�
Fecho once despaired of student essays about literature as either emp颅ty or convoluted. But influenced by educator , he came to view reading as a 鈥渢ransaction鈥� with 鈥渢ext鈥� co-created by each reader鈥檚 experiences and ideas: 鈥淚f I wanted my students to take greater interest in their writing, I had to take greater interest in my students.鈥�
鈥淲e all belong to multiple cultures that include gender, sexual preference, class, interests in sports or the arts, and more. Culturally responsive peda颅gogy should respond to them all.鈥�
鈥� Bob Fecho, Professor of English Educa颅tion
In the early 1990s, Philadelphia allowed its schools to divide into autonomous learning communities. Fecho鈥檚 group structured curricula around 鈥渆ssential questions鈥� 鈥� for example, following clashes between Brooklyn鈥檚 blacks and Jews, the issue of how communities deal with change. The readings mixed journalism, fiction, poetry 鈥� whatever was germane.
鈥淚f you create a unit on dinosaurs, only some students will be interested,鈥� Fecho explains. 鈥淏ut if you ask, 鈥榃hat does studying dinosaurs tell us about life today?鈥� they鈥檒l see the cohesiveness of reading, writing, listening, speaking. They鈥檒l learn about thinking and ethics鈥� 鈥� a must for dis-affected teens who 鈥渃ould make money selling drugs and didn鈥檛 expect to live long.鈥�
More recently, still interested in personal meaning-making, Fecho has taught the theories of the late , who argued that 鈥渢o make an utterance means to appropriate the words of others and populate them with one鈥檚 own intention.鈥�
For Fecho, true 鈥渄ialogic teaching鈥� entails understanding the many 鈥渃ultures鈥� that shape students鈥� responses to others鈥� utterances and their intersection in the 鈥渃ultural contact zone鈥� of the classroom. 鈥淚n this country, we conflate 鈥榗ulture鈥� with 鈥榬ace鈥� 鈥� but we all belong to multiple cultures that include gender, sexual preference, class, interests in sports or the arts, and more. Culturally responsive peda颅gogy should respond to them all.鈥�