In today’s society, education has become a part of every person’s life. The amount of participation we give varies from one person to another, but the influence of education is still present. People in a society are supposed to gain the competence needed to succeed in society through education. Keeping this in mind, it’s clear that teaching the people of a society how to survive is the goal of the education system. However, education is not limited to one individual. Because of this, there will be many different viewpoints and opinions that may clash with others while in the classroom, however the main goal of learning is still present. With this perspective, and in retrospect to Pratt’s “Arts of the Contact Zone”, the educational system can …show more content…
For instance, church goers usually go to church with the common interest of growing a closer relationship to God and in this situation, they create a small community. A contact zone is, as described by Pratt, “The social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other” (514). By this definition, a contact zone is anywhere there are conflicting beliefs. For example, an argument between two people about whether God exists or not would be a contact zone.
Now that we know what a community is and a contact zone is, let’s give an example to show how these are in use in the classroom. I feel debates are the best example of a contact zone, so I will discuss a debate we had in my honors english class in the 10th grade. Hopefully this example will clear up any confusion between a community and a contact
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I tried not to get distracted in my morning classes and pay attention to what I was learning. After what felt like forever, I finally arrived at the last class of the day; honors english 10. I entered the classroom and talked with my friends. I always dreaded this class, but they made it better. When class started, the teacher told us that we would be debating with another student on a topic pulled from a basket. I have really bad social anxiety, so I was not excited at all to be debating with someone in front of the class on a topic that I had no time to research. The teacher was to partner us up and give us a slip of paper with a topic on it to debate. One person was supposed to support the topic while the other opposed it. She also mentioned that some of the debate topics were very controversial, so to keep that in mind while we watch and participate in our debates.
I was paired against my best friend, so that calmed my nerves a bit because I didn’t have to argue against someone I hardly knew. Because she was my best friend, we had similar beliefs, so this should have been pretty easy. However, the topic that we drew from the basket happened to be on whether marijuana should be legal or illegal. It could have been worse, as someone else had gotten the topic of abortion, but this was a difficult topic because my friend smokes marijuana, where as I am completely against
According to Mary Louise Pratt a contact zone is: “Social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today”(Pratt 607).
...ecause it depends so much on perspective and circumstances. Analyzing one’s social space as both a “community” and a “contact zone” can be detrimental to a previously established opinion or feeling one could have towards that space, making it uncomfortable. It is also true, that by thinking of your social space as a “community” and a “contact zone” help you learn a lot more about that space, and helps you mature as an individual. I support the idea of a “contact zone” because there is historical proof of it, but the historical proof for a “community is yet to be discovered. I propose to discuss a new phenomenon “contact zones” that seek to be a “community”.
Swales, Gee and Porter all give their understanding of how they believe a discourse community operates and contributes to society. It can be seen as a type of language used to connect between particular groups and integrate social identities into the world (Gee 484). The building of a discourse community starts with creating a type of communication plan. It is necessary that all members connect and confer alike in order to maintain a set of documented decisions and actions. A discourse community connects people to a lifestyle and provides a form of order that stretches the interconnections of words, writings, values, attitudes, and beliefs (Swales 220). Those interconnecting contacts though sometimes conflict with select purposes of other discourses, leading to confusion or even anarchy. When this occurs, awareness and a choice of acceptance or doubt sets into place (Porter 400). For a discourse community to continue all doubt and awareness have to be tracked and suppressed. The discourse community needs to insure that its values are well convinced and received by its members and potential new members, in order to remain accepted in a
John Swales (1990), author of “The Concept of Discourse Community,” basically explains his own definition of what an actual discourse community is. Swales was able to break to concept down into a list of six characteristics that a group must have in order to be considered a discourse community. The first characteristic he mentions is that “a discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common goals”. (Swales, 1990, p. 471) He provides an example of an ordinary person joining an organization with “private hopes of commercial or romantic advancement.” The second characteristic mentioned is “a discourse community has mechanism of intercommunication among its members”. (Swales, 1990, p. 471) This basically means that communities don’t always have to meet in person on a regular basis in order to be considered a discourse community. They communicate in li...
Throughout many years, education has played an important role in improving our minds and society. However, what many people tend to forget is that our education is not at the best it can be. Education is defined as receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university. Many people today questions whether or not our education depends on the people teaching it or if it’s the student’s responsibility to want to learn. "To what extent do our schools serve the goals of a true education?" Education helps people learn new things, but it can be changed. Although education helps students learn and plan for the future, it can be improved to help benefit students ahead of time.
The book Lives on the Boundary, written by Mike Rose, provides great insight to what the new teaching professional may anticipate in the classroom. This book may be used to inform a teacher’s philosophy and may render the teacher more effective. Lives on the Boundary is a first person account composed of eight chapters each of which treat a different obstacle faced by Mike Rose in his years as a student and as an educator. More specifically in chapters one through five Mike Rose focuses on his own personal struggles and achievements as a student. Ultimately the aim is to highlight the underpreparedness of some of today’s learners.
My sixteen week class in English 111. I was really nervous about this class. Because English has never been my strong point. This class has hard, but fun all at the same time. I learn a lot from this class. Meanwhile,the first day of class you handed a paper with a question on it. “The first thing I want to say to you who are students is that you must not think of being here to receive an education; instead, you will do much better to think of being here to claim one.” Even though putting my all in what I have learned, claiming my education with hard work because using the skills of the meal plan, as we write to different audiences and learning to be a Critically thinker as I start becoming a critically-Literate Citizenship.
Discourse communities play a big role in life and how humans interact in general. A discourse community refers to a group of people who have language, life patterns, culture, and communication in common with each other. The idea of a discourse community has also been used to bring people of different orientations together, like family members, students, or committees. All of these types of people might have different standards of living, like their level of income, education, and work abilities. Discourse community can also refer to a speech community, because the main feature of a discourse community is communication. A discourse community can include groups of different regional areas that may or may not share norms and living patterns
A general definition of a discourse community is the different groups of people one socializes with, either voluntarily or obligatory. I believe that membership in a discourse community holds more value than any ordinary friend group. A “discourse community” is a group of people who share knowledge of a particular topic, similar backgrounds and experiences, values, and common ways of communicating. Gee defines discourse communities as a “form of life which integrates words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes, and social identities as well as gestures, glances, body positions, and clothing” (Downs 484). According to Swales, there are six characteristics that mak...
Education remains a cornerstone for society as it has for decades. Technology advances, the economy fluctuates, and politics change, but education remains, not only important but imperative for personal and social growth. Yet, as important as it is touted to be, the quality and purpose of learning is often lost in the assembly-line, manufactured process of education that exists today.
Education is in itself a concept, which has changed over the millennia, can mean different things and has had differing purposes according to time and culture. Education may take place anywhere, is not constrained by bricks and mortar, delivery mechanisms or legislative requirements. Carr (2003. p19) even states, “education does not necessarily involve teaching”. Education, by one definition, is the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life (education, n.d.).
According to Pratt, the two distinctive phenomenon of the contact zone are autoethnographic text and transculturation. One of the characteristics of autoethnographic text is that it usually involves some extensive collaborating process by people of different social and intellectual classes. Writing classes might have some significance with the contact zone because of this group effort process. During this process every marginalized and hidden voice can be heard, not to mention every individual member can learn how to form and negotiate an opinion in the outbreak of all the conflicting opinions of group members of different cultural background. In addition, transculturation is defined as “processes whereby members of subordinated or marginal groups select and invent from materials transmitted by a dominated culture". An example would be that they adopt some characteri...
Education is generally seen as a formal process of instruction, based on a theory of teaching, to impart formal knowledge to one or more students (Cogburn, n.d.). Henceforth, individuals seek to acquire some form of schooling from pre-school through secondary school while others may go on to tertiary to better him or her in some way. A definition of education according to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is that education is “a process of teaching, training and learning, especially in schools or colleges, to improve knowledge and develop skills.” Where education in the common parlance has become a process of adding layers of one’s store of knowledge, the true aim of education is to call forth that which is essential to the individual (White, 2006). Furthermore, and according to Coombs and Ahmed 1974, education is a continuing process, spanning the years from earliest infancy through adulthood and necessarily involving a great variety of methods and sources. Education also involves inculcating in students distinct bits of knowledge; therefore education is an additive process (White, 2006). It adds to an individual as well as it adds to a country through the individuals who are and would have been or are being educated. According to a study conducted by Olaniyan and Okemakinde 2008, education creates improved citizens and helps to upgrade the general standard of living in a society. Furthermore, education plays a key role in the ability of a developing country to absorb modern technology and to develop the capacity for self-sustaining growth and development (Todaro and Smith, 2012).
Education is a vital part of society. It serves the beneficial purpose of educating our children and getting them ready to be productive adults in today's society. But, the social institution of education is not without its problems. Continual efforts to modify and improve the system need to be made, if we are to reap the highest benefits that education has to offer to our children and our society as a whole.
Conversation is defined as an “informal interchange of thoughts, information, etc., by spoken words; oral communication between persons” (“Conversation”). This informal talk gives people the opportunity to open up to others, analyze other’s perspectives, and share ideas and interests. Conversation is an intimate experience that initiates bonds between all who are involved. These bonds unite people, creating a sense of community. A community is described as a group of people that live in the same place or have common interests. In a community, people are proactive and are involved. Also, they truly care about the wellbeing of a common interest or activity. Conversation helps to bring people together in a community by giving a voice to all who are involved and uniting all as one.