Speaker: Dr. Gail E. Weinstein, San Francisco State University

Title: "The Healing Power of Stories"

Abstract:

In this plenary, Gail Weinstein will draw on 3 decades of work using learner stories in the teaching of English. She will present a model called “Learners’ Lives as Curriculum”, in which student stories provide the way in for bringing their lives and their experiences to the center of the educational experience.

Beginning with her work with adult immigrants to the United States, Dr. Weinstein will explore how the use of narratives invites immigrants to name their experience, to share it with one another, and to learn language while comparing experiences for reflection and for possible action. In the case of refugees in the U.S., the use of narratives in the language classroom has also provided a way to air the trauma of being uprooted, in a community that can create conditions for healing.

Next, Dr. Weinstein will draw examples from more recent work with secondary students in American schools. Teachers collected narratives from teens on themes such as places of belonging (or not), on clothing and its meaning, and on other issues that get at the core of their evolving identity.

Third, she’ll draw on examples from work with teachers of English in global contexts, such as Japan and Turkey, illustrating how teachers have used narratives in these settings to explore learners’ evolving role in the increasingly interconnected world.

Finally, beginning with material from Jewish-Palestinian “living room dialogue” groups in the U.S., Dr. Weinstein will explore the possibilities for the language classroom among others, to become places where learners articulate their experiences, which become part of a larger curriculum that humanizes the learners themselves, and then humanizes the other. In this interactive presentation, dialogue will be invited about how to weave this model into the fabric of educational experiences for learners in Israel and Palestine. The paper will argue that there is wisdom in the saying, “you cannot hate someone whose story you know”, and explore potential channels for sharing those stories.

Biography:

Gail Weinstein, Ph.D., is Professor of English at San Francisco State University and is Director of CIRCLE, Center for Immigrant and Refugee Community Literacy Education. Dr. Weinstein has more than two decades of experience in training professional English language teachers as well as designing and directing community-based language/literacy programs. She served on the Board of Directors for TESOL, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.

Professor Weinstein's research and publications have focused on a range of issues in the ethnography of language and literacy, adult and family literacy in multilingual communities, and learner-centered education for community building and dialogue. She is interested in the connection of materials development with professional development, providing training for practitioners in the United States and overseas.