Running Head:Third Space Theory and Multilingual Classrooms 1

Running Head:Third Space Theory and Multilingual Classrooms 1

Third Space Theory and Multilingual Classrooms

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It is an evident truth that students don’t come to school as blank slates, and teachers don’t just dump information into the minds of their students. Rather, students bring vast amounts of valuable information and insight into the classroom; the same is true in classroomswith multilingual students. In recent decades, the study of social learning theories, particularly Moll’s (1992)funds of knowledge andBhabha’s(1994) third space theory, hastransformed classrooms and our perception of teaching. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of third space theory and its contributions to furthering the learning process, especially in relation to the multilingual classroom.

What is ‘third space’?

The term third space expresses the space that exists between the classroom and the home community of students. According to Sue Nash-Ditzel and Tammy Brown (2012)in their article “Freedoms in the Classroom:Cultivating a Successful Third Space for Literacy Growth,” the theory of third space originated out of Moll’s theory of “funds of knowledge” and Vygotsky’s theory of the “zone of proximal development.” The theory is described by Benson (2010) when citing Bhabha as “the creation by formerly colonized people of an identity space that resists limitations imposed by racist, classist, and other oppressive forces in their lives”(555). Ideally, third space acknowledges the reciprocal relationship between the world of school and the world of the student, and it negotiates these spaces to create a third space as a mutual place between these realities. By achieving such a place Nash-Ditzel and Brownpoint out that “Third Spaces are places where marginalized voices are valued and success in the traditional school setting is promoted”(103). Nash-Dtizel and Brown’s article also describes the unique ways third space is defined within a language subject classroom, noting that it can be a “ ‘navigational space’ that allows students to successfully move in and out of various discourse communities”(103) as well as a space that redefines the social and cultural understanding of literacy.

Where does this third space exist?

As described in Benson (2010) article “NAME” third space is exists by thinking beyond the limits of institutional space; Benson writes “Instead of limiting thinking to boundaries set by outside institutions, oppressed people create a new space within official space that functions under rules more beneficial to them”(555). From this perspective, the teacher becomes a navigator of learning more than a deliverer of content. Because third space exists beyond the boundaries of the typical spaces of the school, Third Space can exist in a multitude of places. Third space is accessible in the discursive, textual, spatial, and technological spaces. Discursive third space, the space that exists in conversation, always exists within classrooms even if teachers and students are unaware of the force of such a space being present. As Bruna(2009)describes the work of Bhabha, this discursive space is not just the speech between two people consisting of “lexical signifiers” but it is also a the “discursive signifieds” that can never be fully realized. Discusive signifieds, and therefore the embededness of culture that must be displaced in the third space so that the homogeneity of the first space culture does not objectify and materialize the diversity, but rather authentically merges the second space in a legitimate manner.

But the third space does not end in a discursive mode within the space of a classroom. With the ever-growing and hanging uses of technology comes an additional place for third space to exist. Technological third space is anywhere that connects classroom activities, content, or learning to the world of the community. Heather Lotherington(2013), in her article, noted that the concepts and definitions of third space include many types of space that support learning when she defined the third space this way: “ Support for children’s developing language knowledge came from the community, accessed in the school, the neighbourhood, and online” (619). The context of online communities is part of the student’s second space, and therefore it becomes part of the third space. The community building of the classroom through technology is also a venue of the third space.

What are thebenefits of engaging in the third space?

The benefits of the third space of engaging in the third space are similar to the benefits that can be achieved by acknowledging student’s funds of knowledge. Teachers and students are able to bridge the gaps of culture and age.Such gaps are even more crucial when “linguistic divides exist between the cultural groups a school’s families come from and those its educators come from” (Baeder 57). In specific relation to students who are multilingual, the school experience and the culture of school is greatly improved by engaging in a space that is not solely owned by the school culture or the teacher.The perspective the third space provides a new space for education that goes beyond the former dichotomous view; this view provides a place for culture and identity of multilingual students and creates a new cultural space greater than the sum of thefirst and second space cultures. Nash-Ditzel and Brown (2012) contend that third space in literacy-based subject areas is crucial because “when the culture and ideologies of young adult students are valued in the classroom, the context of the reading situation shifts from a school context to a more blended home-school context. In essence, this is a Third Space, which Gutierrez (2008) argues is like a Zone of Proximal Development, allowing the optimum opportunity for growth”(106). As these two studies suggest, the need for engaging the third space is particularly essential to subject of literacy and language because of the personal relationship these subjects have to the understanding of our world and the exploring of our identity.

What are the challenges to creating third spaces?

While the obvious benefits of a third space for learners as numerous, it is also important to discuss the complications that may manifest with this space as well.

Another challenge is the difficulty in truly realizing a third space for students within the classroom. Ryan Flessner(2009), in his article “Working toward a Third Space in the Teaching of Elementary Mathematics”, discusses this particular challenge by noting that the "understanding of liberatory Third Space has been distorted, in education, through teacher-centered and power-neutral multicultural discourse”(221). Flessner’s articlefurther discusses that the most important thing in using this theory “is creating an environment that will allow third spaces to surface more organically as students and teachers engage in the everyday life of the classroom”(225). Flessner’s article points out the organic use of a theory by allowing space for student knowledge to be part of the lesson; he states: “Moje and her colleagues make it clear that third spaces require teachers to integrate students’ everyday resources, experiences, and ways of knowing into daily instruction” (431).

Although Flessner’s article outlines the major problem with the inauthentic use of third space and hybridization, he also identifies the significant problems that surround the fetishization of third space, where hybridization and diversity exist solely for the celebration and observation of their existence alone. Flessner explains: “This phrase [fetishization], first used by Homi Bhabha (1994) in The Location of Culture, offers us a critical theory of identity, a scathing dismissal of liberal understandings of multiculturalism as a ‘cultural diversity’ project” (225). The problem with such an understanding of third space, hydridization, and diversity being defined this way is the transformative limit of these spaces. Flessner points out that “The students I work with cannot afford my interest in them to stop at the level of cultural inter-change; the investment they have in their relationships with me rests in the belief that I can be an instrument of political change”(Flessner 224).

The challenges of seeing third space in this lens of fetishism do not end there; it is power positioning of the teacher and the students in this aspect of third space that became equally problematic. While the theory of third space suggests that both the first and second spaces bring equal amounts of knowledge to the third space, ultimately, the teacher is still in control of the class. It is their judgment of the second space that acknowledges it as relevant or even to exist. It is their curriculum that still drives the instruction. It is their manipulations of the second space within the first space that ultimately creates the third space for their purposes.

The teacher’s power and the institution that validates the teacher’s power also create a power disparity between teachers and parents.Yan Guo (2010), in his article “Meetings Without Dialogue: A Study of ESL Parent–Teacher Interactions at Secondary School Parents’ Nights,” explains that “The organization and delivery of Parents’ Nights made it clear that parent participation was strongly limited by a structure of power often faced by marginalized parents within the school space”(121). This disproportional power dynamic was only increased when language barriers existed between parents and professionals. Such cultural and social gaps between home and school can further distort the third space.

Conclusions about the theory

Third Space Theory has a great deal of potential for engaging students, especially within a language or literacy classroom. Students from unique and heterogeneous cultures can also provide diverse perspectives and skills through the use of a third space. However, as both Flessner (2009) and Lotherington (2013) discuss in their articles, third space cannot be hijacked or “invented” for the purposes, agendas, and fetishes of the school culture. While it is a resource for learning, it should not be a resource of institutionalization of ideologies. This theory in its utopian form would be an open space of humanistic connection, furthering both the first and second space. Yet it is the first space that ultimately controls the desire, degree, and relevance of the second, and consequently the third space. These power dynamics are important to note as the world moves closer to an increasingly globalized and standardized world.

Works Cited

Baeder, A. (2010). Stepping into students' worlds:by visiting students’ homes, a seattle high school brings families’ talents—and students’ interests—into school. Educational Leadership, 56-60.

Benson, S. (2010). “i don’t know if that’d be english or not”: Third space theory and literacy instruction. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(7), 555-563.

Bruna, K. R., & , (2009). Jesu´ s and marı´a in the jungle: an essay on possibility and constraint in the third-shift third space cultivating a successful third space for literacy growth. Cultural Studies of Science Education, (4), 221-237.

Flessner, R. (2009). Working toward a third space in the teaching of elementary mathematics. Educational Action Research, 17(3), 425-446.

Guo, Y. (2010). Meetings without dialogue: A study of esl parent–teacher interactions at secondary school parents’ nights. THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY JOURNAL, 20(1), 121-140.

Lotherington, H. (2013). Creating third spaces in the linguistically heterogeneous classroom for the advancement of plurilingualism. Tesol Quarterly, 619-625.

Nash-Ditzel, S., & Brown, T. (2012). Freedoms in the classroom: Cultivating a successful third space for literacy growth. Language & Literacy, 14(3), 95-111.