Blog #6 Nilson DaSilva

Campano’s book focuses on the role that immigrant stories play in the classroom environment.  He examines, through his personal experiences, the social significance of individual stories on student’s self-awareness of their own capacity and potential.  In using the “process of knowledge construction” as a framework to explore and interpret agency, engagement, and language development processes, Campano touches upon many areas which resonate with the student stories I have observed in the classroom.  Many of the students I observe come from immigrant families and speak English as a second language in their homes. 

My students and I engage in the process of knowledge construction by collaboratively building, interrogating, and elaborating our funds of knowledge.  As Campano, I always encourage my students to do their best while at the same time communicating to them that their tests and grades do not reflect their potential or impact my belief in them.  This process, in turn, allows students to reevaluate past experiences and begin to create supportive community where it did not exist for them before. I have engaged students, like Campano’s “Carmen”, who faced challenges relating to identity within the classroom and have found the process of knowledge construction as an invaluable tool for empowering such students to overcome their personal challenges.

I notice this process has a positive influence on students caught in a cycle of school categorization, a cycle I worry acts as a form of “symbolic violence” (Bordieu, 1993) that may cause immediate psychological effects and potentially long term consequences. As Campano, I treat my students as capable agents within their socio-cultural contexts.  I observe this engagement as helpful to students who may feel limited by their upbringing, language learning experiences, or social stigmatization.  Based on my experiences as an educator and student, I believe that when students have access to supportive academic environments they are more likely to engage in the process Campano refers to as “unlearning” and release the stories they hold that tell them they are failures.  They are magnificent.