Institutions, Systems, Mythos, Standardization, and Vernacular Discourse

-

Rambling, Part I


 I'm rereading Long's Community Literacy and the Rhetoric of Local Publics and thinking about how the institution of the community college fails in its approach to literacy because of its allegiance to the state system and not to the community which it claims to serve. They make two claims, both which meet the cultural expectation that "education leads to success":

  1. Community colleges are inexpensive institutions that provide accredited courses which transfer to four year institutions; the assumption there that it's the four-year degree -- not the two-year degree or certification -- that fulfills the promise that a college education leads to success
  2. "Careers, not jobs." Here, the claim is that, instead of starting entry-level in retail or the service industry, with few skills to meet the demands of globalist corporate practices that hire and fire at will, the community college student will gain skills that prepare for long-term careers, even those that survive globalist pressures, and return the employee to the nostalgic times when we could work at the same company for decades and ensured retirement benefits, instead of the post-Fordist economy in which we currently live where nothing is guaranteed.
Michel de Certeau
To appreciate these claims we first ask how these claims, and the state institutions which support these claims, affect us as taxpayers, community members, faculty, staff, and ultimately students in an institution that designs itself as a top-down hierarchical one not responding to community needs, but maintaining its own administrative-heavy, bureaucratic existence through the replication of disenfranchising programs, programs that replicate the dominant culture and not the alternative discourses of the local community. I'll leave it to LF to help me with the original histories and goals of community colleges, but we've wandered far away from those original goals.

In chapter 3, Long summarizes features of situated public literacies -- those literacies that we see in our communities and which our students bring to the campus -- their campus. 
  1. Performance
  2. Collaboration
  3. Problem-solving stance (Freire, Dewey, Alinsky)
  4. Sponsorship
  5. Alternative discourses
The academy, and the community college especially, claim to offer a space that is designed on a habermasian public sphere, with vision statements, policies hidden in handbooks, etc. But in fact the discursive space at community colleges are contrary actual democratic ideals (Fraser) because this discourse doesn't represent actual community discourse as shown in Long's five-point features of situated public literaies.

If the community college represented actual community discourse, the college would seek out disengage voices and seek to engage and meet their needs and wants. Instead, the actual community's voices are ignored. What we have, of course, is the habermasian facade of community discourse -- an elite few, already empowered because of their participation in the dominant culture's systems -- but overall most community members don't even know about the college, much less engage with college policy or curriculum designed and certainly are never asked to participate in curriculum design at any level. For example, during current discussions of degree plans and core requirements, community members at my institution are not involved in any whit. It's the institution that fully controls this discourse, under the auspices of the state's requirements and of course with the consistent goal of meeting accreditation standards. Yet neither of these voices actually represent local, situated, public discourse.
Instead, the community college a) follows the system reflection of the state itself as a dominant culture institution with that culture's values, ethos, language, etc.; and b) reinforces standardization, through the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, SACSCOC [sic], and so forth for the game of accreditation. The system of accredidation in the form of transfer-is-our-goal-at-any-cost erases the community discourse, since most community members will never attend college or are interested in four-year degrees, and the best function of a community college would be to actually provide literacy, emancipatory skills such as alternative economic or communication models to counteract the dominant system which -- evidently -- is designed and increasing is effective in oppressing/depressing local communities all the while community college enrollments increase.

Contrast alternative discourse which seek alternative economies, social structures, art, literature, and other discursive systems which the community college all invalidates. The community college must invalidate all alternative discourses because of the THECB and SACSCOC discourse, which invalidates those community literacies.

Finally, the community college as an institution of the state system "gate keeps" [verbing something a gatekeeper does] students so that all alternative discourses -- contrary to the ideals of Fraser, Dewey, Anzaldúa, Welch, Shor, hooks, Alinsky, Habermas, Warner, Flower, Mathieu, Long, Hauser, McKee, Weisser, and others -- are bracketed, red-marked, failed, and probationed (financially and academically) until they are expelled from the dominant system again, with little recourse except to go into labor (worse, retail), or learn their lesson after a few years and take on the shackles of the dominant discourse with its hierarchical deafness to the community.


So what do we do? 


I'm still working on that.

BONUS

I'm reposting a small critical discourse ananlysis of a public meeting held a few months ago. I was told to remove the post, and I did. But considering the comments in this post, I felt that the material regarding that public meeting would demonstrate how the dominant culture in fact disenfranchises the community culture, as explained above:

 Critical Discourse Analysis of a "College Forum"


Be strong, and courageous.
Dixi et salvavi animam meam
Google +
Twitter @comstone
Professional Blog

Popular posts from this blog

Student Feedback on the State of the Public Sphere in Harris County, Texas and Houston

-
Image
I asked my students (my teachers) today what they've learned so far in this summer course on public sphere rhetoric. Some held their heads down -- because they've learned nothing? -- because they've not yet learned to speak up? -- because they don't believe in public rhetoric? -- because of their own insecurities? I don't know. Most of the responses below came from five students. Their authorities take no responsibility for communicating with the stakeholders  Authoritative texts too difficult to locate; language often inappropriately difficult for public to use  Lack of sufficient documentation and literature reflects authorities' apathy towards public engagement   Our own lack of knowledge about the power structures increases both our and their apathy  Public fails to recognize problems because we have been habituated to "learned helplessness"  Public notices but feel powerless because we've been taught we can't change anything  A
Read more

On Independence Day, Fourth of July, Fireworks Day, Whatever We Call It

-
Image
In general, I avoid observing holidays, especially those which have been marketed from an original intent of respect or adoration into a Bacchanalia of barbecue, escape from one's workplace, and the purchase of stuff we don't need, stuff that will quickly be found at the local landfill. Most of these "holidays" are far from the idea of "holy days" once on the calendar, and have been mutated into something of a masquerade. When children have little idea of the original intention of a holiday, or when adults have no idea of the same, then we might have a problem. I've spoken with adults who have no idea what Memorial Day is about, never have heard of Armistice Day, never think of veterans on Veterans Day, go into significant debt for the Feast of Saturnalia (or Festivus , if you prefer), who conflate chocolate bunnies for Easter (even for Passover), and ultimately see the Fourth of July as an opportunity to leave work, eat, complain that the Postal Servic
Read more

Visiting a Texas Prison

-
It's exhausting, emotionally. It's not necessarily the emotions of why he is in prison and what he experiences in prison -- that's another discussion and I separate those emotions from the visit itself. The gates open for visitors at 7:00 a.m., but that means I need to get there at 6:30 to get in line; I arrived in Beeville the previous evening and just captured a hotel. The town has limited food selections (and poor beer selection), so I have no reason to get outdoors except to appreciate a nice spring day of south Texas. That morning, the moon was near full and brilliantly shined on the flat fields around the prison, a mix of brush oaks, and the grasses for hundreds of acres on the unit property. The chilled air made the morning even more pleasant and while I waited for the gate to open, I thought about camping down here. Ultimately, the gate guards permitted visitors to approach the gate, the first of the all-grey officers: turn off the engine, open the trunk and ho
Read more