Abstract
Wen Ma and Chuang Wang (eds), Learner’s privilege and responsibility: A critical examination of the experiences and perspectives of learners from Chinese Backgrounds in the United States, Information Age Publishing: Charlotte, NC, 2014; 270 pp.: ISBN 978-1-62396-589, £38.82 (pbk)
Learner’s Privilege and Responsibility: A Critical Examination of the Experiences and Perspectives of Learners from Chinese Backgrounds in the United States edited by Wen Ma and Chuang Wang is a book with four parts and 15 chapters. The aim of the book is to explore new knowledge to help educators improve and develop educational practices which recognize and understand the educational and cultural traditions of Chinese students. Each chapter ends with a summary of implications and makes recommendations for better practices; for students, educators, schools and faculties in the United States. This brings the book as an entirety close to the ideas of educational action research, even though none of the chapters use action research as a research methodology.
The book in general focuses on overarching themes dealing with the differences between China and the United States in their educational traditions and culture. It interrogates how Chinese and American students are similar or different from each other. The book also pays attention to the unique experiences and challenges of Chinese students, and explores the ways Chinese and American educators and students may benefit from learning more about each other. This book recognizes the historical evolution of the Chinese educational tradition both as a general macro-level and as a micro-level phenomenon. It discusses the broader historical, political and ideological trends in China that have shaped and constrained Chinese students’ activities in classrooms. Nevertheless, the book could have paid more attention to reflecting on the existence of historical, political and ideological trends in the United States that may have shaped and constrained Chinese students’ activities in classrooms as well. The authors do not consider how educational traditions in America are related to the questions of political power as well.
The epistemological presumptions of the book rely on constructivism, which can be seen in the methodological choices of the chapters. The book provides the reader with good examples of how to use case study, ethnographical study and/or autoethnographical study as research methodologies when studying personal experiences. The data in the chapters have been gathered by using surveys, interviews, field notes, observations, diaries and informal conversations. The researchers have used narrative approaches to analyse and report the findings. The form of the chapters varies; some are more scientifically reported while others are reported in a more informal way. This can be seen in the ways the data and analysis of different chapters are reported. However, the editors have succeeded well in finding a good balance between the different kinds of chapters, and the variation of the chapters makes it a book with an interesting integrity.
In this book the narrative approach has given space to hearing the different voices and interpretations of Chinese students across the educational spectrum. In the chapters, the authors have reproduced the voices of different participants authentically, and they have managed to keep them genuine and original. On the other hand, the voices are presented in a traditional way. The title of the book promises a critical examination of experiences and perspectives. The book could have been more critical of the traditional ways of gathering and reporting the educational experiences of participants. A narrative approach provides us with the possibility of collecting and analysing data in various ways; for example, through more artistic modes.
The book pays great attention to the language problems of immigrants. These seem to be a key feature that separates Chinese students from American students and contributes to the challenges that Chinese students experience when adjusting to a dominant American educational culture. The book could have provided new ways of researching experiences of people who have English as their second language. For example, artistic ways of expressing experiences would have been provocative for participants as well as readers, evoking personal mental images, memories or emotions related to the themes represented in the book.
In the book there is only one chapter which examines children. However, hearing more children’s voices would have increased the polyphony of the different voices in the book. Teachers’ voices were also missing. Teachers in schools and universities mainly represent the dominant American educational culture. Hearing teachers’ voices would have provided the reader with a greater chance to reflect on how the voices of people from different social, political and cultural background differ from each other; this in order to emphasize how the power of a dominant culture defines practices in the field of education.
The authors have succeeded well in describing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to Chinese students. I believe, however, that this book can be used many other ways in the field of education. The book can be used to foster teachers at every level of the educational spectrum to reflect the cultural background of all students and to understand the meaning of knowing the educational and the cultural traditions of their students. The book brings new perspectives to teacher education by giving practical advice on how to deal with the problems teachers confront in multicultural classes. I want to also highlight the last part of the book that shows how personal narratives can be used as a tool in developing teachers’ professional identities and their practical theories. Through personal narratives it is possible to reveal teachers’ personal beliefs, values and understandings; these guide the teachers’ pedagogical actions in the classroom.
The book deals with the experiences of Chinese students in the United States, but it also provides perspectives which allow us to see multicultural education with new lenses in an international context.