A Code of Conduct for
"Cross-Boundary Discourse"
Cora's Interpretive Summary of Jacqueline Jones Royster
's
"When the First Voice You Hear Is Not Your Own"
(College Composition and Communication
Feb. 1996).
In her Feb. 1996 College Composition and Communication article "When the First Voice You Hear Is Not Your Own," Jacqueline Jones Royster calls for a new paradigm of "voice"--self-reflective, responsible, and responsive to the "converging of dialectical perspectives" at any site of "cross-boundary discourse." Teachers, researchers, writers, and talkers need to be carefully consider differences in "subject position" among all participants in such dialogues--differing cultural contexts, ways of knowing, language abilities, and experiences--as well as the social and professional consequences of our cross-boundary discourses. Royster believes it is time to articulate a code of behavior--respectful, reciprocal, and responsible--for such discourse that will enable us to talk with culturally different others--not "for, about, or around" them--a vision of genuine dialogue that makes open, respectful listening as important as talking and talking back. From Royster’s three troubling stories of her experiences with cross-boundary discourse, I have abstracted below what such a code of behavior for such discourses might look like:
1. Reconsider your claims to authority to engage in knowledge construction and interpretation about a cultural group other than your own. Such claims should be constrained and tempered by (a) acknowledgement that substantial knowledge already exist and meanings have already been assigned; (b) awareness of how--from what subject positions and on what grounds for claiming authority--that knowledge [your own and others’] has been constructed; and (c) self-reflective recognition that your interpretation may say more about you and your own context than about that of your intended subject, including the real possibility that what you think you see may not actually be there at all (30-32). That is, talking with others means placing your interpretation in dialogue with others’ as just one interpretation among the many that are mutually constituting the field of meaning making.
2. Remember your "home training" (31) when you cross the threshold into the homes and cultures of others. The right to free inquiry and discovery in such spaces does not absolve you from the necessity of demonstrating professional integrity, honor, good manners, respect for others’ viewpoints, and adherence to the "golden rule." Be careful "not to judge too quickly, draw on information too narrowly, or say hurtful, dehumanizing things without undisputed proof" (32).
3. Commit to reciprocity in inquiry and discovery efforts especially in cross-cultural "contact zones" where engagement is likely to be contentious. To achieve a deeper, richer, broader, and more enriching mutual understanding, (a) all inquiries--from subject positions outside as well as inside our cultures--should be taken seriously; (b) possessive, exclusive rights to know our own cultures must be given up; (c) the tendency to lock ourselves into the tunnels of our own visions and direct experiences must be worked against ; and (d) all should operate with personal and professional integrity.
4. Treat differences in subject positions as "critical pieces of the whole, vital to understanding, problem-finding, and problem-solving" (34).
5. Commit to "serious study of the subject" (34), which includes these imperatives: (a) don’t cross cultures as "voyeurs, tourists, and trespassers" (34); (b) approach interpretation and speaking of the subject as a "privilege" to be "negotiated," especially when you are an "outsider"; and (c) learn to listen to "insiders" with an attitude of believing, of expecting something of value, consequence, and importance from them.
6. Respect the voices of "hybrid people" who have learned to move with "dexterity across cultural boundaries and can make sense of the chaos of difference" (37); value these intercultural border-crossers and boundary-straddlers as guides, negotiators, translators, for they can shed light for those of us less experienced and competent in cross-boundary discourse; and these "hybrid people" speak in many voices--recognize all the voices of these "hybrid people" are equally "‘authentic’ constructions of social realities that affirm differences and variety (37).
This summary was first prepared by Cora
Agatucci in 1996.
It has been used as a handout for courses and for a conference
presentation
entitled "Mapping Pedagogies for Crossing Disciplines and Cultures,
part of the panel "When the Teacher Is Not the Expert: Implementing
Non-Canonical Pedagogies,"
with Kathy Walsh and Kevin Dye (Central Oregon Community College),
given at 1996 PNASA Conference, 19 April 1996
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Last updated: 25 April 2002
© Kathleen Walsh and Cora Agatucci, 2001
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