Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (Summer 2011)

After reading chapters three and four, I concluded that an individual’s identity is created from choices and backgrounds. As a person develops identity, often confusion and conflict coexist with this growth because of gender roles taught in a person’s family setting. These conditioned roles then have to be reconditioned to fit in an academic setting. What I found intriguing in these chapters was how reading and writing literacies were used to help Laurie in her academic world as she made sense of the world she was also bringing from home. Though her imaginative stories were methods at giving her a voice, I felt that they actually gave more insight to the researcher, teachers, and reader in why she was experiencing conflict in her “good girl” role at school when her good behavior achievements were not lining up to her academic abilities, especially when reading and writing improvement became evident for a brief moment at the time her single mother was dating a man that she desired to become her “daddy.” This exemplifies that even as a young girl, she already was able to distinguish the roles between male and female. My heart broke for Laurie as she tried to maintain the roles of caregiver and child simultaneously, and I sympathized for her when she struggled with this behavior during the school hours. It seemed that her situation only worsened when her kindergarten “boyfriend” relocated schools and she was diagnosed with ADD. I questioned whether she misdiagnosed for ADD and really needed to be medicated. A part of me felt that she was trying to define her gender role and cope with her reading and writing struggles. I also couldn’t help think that some of her so-called ADD issues were a direct results of the working class family she was in where her mother and grandmother were working all the time in order to provide for her and her two other siblings. Perhaps Laurie, like many children in such low-income single-parenting families, was attempting to gain adult attention and recognition from her mother and grandmother for her attempts of being a “good girl” at school and a “good daughter” at home by caring for her younger siblings.

Despite her situation, I can’t agree more with the text written on page 42 that states Laurie created “adventures” connected to reading and writing. She discovered that she could reinvent everyday, mundane experiences and create new ones. Like the Carey video, Laurie realized the importance of literacy and how it could lead to power. The power of literacy was enabling her to create hope for her in a discouraging situation. In my opinion, I felt Laurie could relate more to the woman’s role not only because she was female but because she only had female authority figures – both at home and school. Her perception and distinction of girl stuff from boy stuff was heavily influenced by the fact that she lacked a constant adult male role model. The only male influence was her brother and “boyfriends” in school, which both relationships involved Laurie taking the role of a caregiver. Even though her reading and writing skills were limited, Laurie had cultural literacy that was shaped by her working class family and female role within her family. For example, she was able to create drama when playing with her Barbie dolls. She used her experiences and understandings of the world around her to create a life for her lifeless dolls. As a child, I also did the same, where I would create situations for my dolls based on books, television shows, or social interactions that I had dealt with through the lens of my childhood. I envisioned Laurie creating the romantic, yet innocent, relationships between Barbie and Ken where Barbie stayed home taking care of the kids and cleaning while Ken worked and was the breadwinner of the family. This reenactment came to mind since Laurie so longed for something that was somewhat unfamiliar to her – a home with an active dad who provided for her family. I wonder how things would have been different for Laurie if she would have had such a being involved in her life from birth on. Perhaps the identity roles she had so much struggled with when defining herself as a female child aiming to achieve academic success as a “good student” and “good daughter” would have turned out differently.

Melissa Riley