Overview

“Incompetence” is not an objective state lacking competence nor a kind of deficiency that needs to be filled. Rather, it is a constructed state that is productive, working in tandem with its opposite, “competence.” Perception of incompetence/competence is what Michel Foucault (1977) calls a technology of “normalization” that pushes individuals to aspire to follow a shared norm, while hierarchically differentiating individuals according to their proximity to the aspired norm. The notion of incompetence is thus “productive” in that it turns individuals into specific kinds of “subjects” (Foucault 1977). The Politics of Incompetence: Learning Language, Relations of Power, and Daily Resistance further investigates other productive processes around the perception of “incompetence” specifically through its intersections with various ideologies—“academic achievement,” teacher-student hierarchy, “native speaker” ideology, normative unit thinking, and privilege of vulnerability—as such intersections generate new knowledge, new reflection on one’s assumptions and privilege, new space for marginalized language, and more. This volume opens up a new area of study—productive cultural politics of “incompetence”—by focusing on language learning in diverse contexts: Japanese-as-a-Second-Language classrooms in US colleges, Italian language tourism in Italy, and indigenous Māori language revitalization at an Aotearoa/New Zealand school.

Full Product Details

Author:   Neriko Musha Doerr, Ramapo College ,  Theresa Austin ,  Neriko Musha Doerr, Ramapo College ,  Cori Jakubiak
Publisher:   Lexington Books
Imprint:   Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Dimensions:   Width: 16.10cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 23.60cm
Weight:   0.449kg
ISBN:  

9781666936230

ISBN 10:   1666936235
Pages:   194
Publication Date:   15 July 2024
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Incompetence and Power by Neriko Musha Doerr, Yuri Kumagai, and Cori Jakubiak Chapter 1: Identities of (In-)Competence and Plurilingual Repertoires: Three Stories of Digital Storytelling in a Japanese Language Classroom by Keiko Konoeda Chapter 2: “Incompetence” as a Productive Force for Making the Invisible Visible: Linguistic Landscapes Project as a Dialogic Space in a Japanese Language Classroom by Yuri Kumagai with Yuko Takahashi Chapter 3: Discourse of Incompetence, Unit Thinking, and Uses and Risks of the Translanguaging Framework: Language Politics in Aotearoa/New Zealand by Neriko Musha Doerr Chapter 4: Studying La Bella Lingua as an Edu-Tourist: An Auto-Ethnographic Account of (In)competence by Cori Jakubiak Afterword: Towards Understanding Production and Perceptions of (In)Competence by Theresa Austin

Reviews

Recognizing that ideologies of language are embedded in second language instruction, the contributors to this deeply thoughtful collection ask us to consider 'incompetence' in a new way. The authors challenge readers to move beyond the usual instrumental goal of teaching language as a static, abstract object to be mastered by urging us to value idiosyncratic and messy language learning experiences. Detailed case studies from different ethnographic contexts forward the argument that language learning is a journey that should engage with forms of incompetence as a productive resource. --Laura Miller, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Author Information

Neriko Musha Doerr is adjunct professor at Ramapo College.

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