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

In our readings we have been exposed to a diverse history of literacy learning; from Dowdy’s Trinidadian background and her mother’s influence to “curse in white” to Perry’s Sudanese “Lost Boys” now immersed in American culture. When I read these articles, I think about the ESL students at my school. Preserving culture and language is probably as important to the ESL families as is to Dowdy and the Sudanese refugees. That may be the main reason that ESL families speak their home language among family members in their homes and community, to preserve their culture and history of literacy. The Hmong families in our school are a tight knit group. Most live down one dirt road that winds through some woods and dead ends to a circle of homes, what the Hmong students refer to as “The Village”. In this community, they speak Hmong and are immersed in the Hmong culture. According to Hicks, “the cultural continuity of practices and values shared among generations was stable and consistent.” When the next school year begins, they will once again be immersed in another culture and have to communicate in another language. The language practices among ESL students vary depending upon the cultural community they are in. At home the Hmong children are much more outgoing and verbal. At school, most are extremely quiet until they feel comfortable in their surroundings. Hicks might say that these students are “shifting relations or identities between discourses.”

In the podcast, Dr. Jackson points out that literacy is much more than cognitive processes, but also cultural processes. Literacy involves language practices and the way people act. How are children being socialized? Does a family teach to solve problems physically, as Lee Ann is encouraged to jump on her older brother, Jake? Are conversations taking place in the home that help children learn and grow? Are there opportunities to read in the home, and do the parents value reading? All of these areas are fundamental, because literacy takes place in a social environment.

Hicks states that “Children can know and be in ways that transgress racist, classist, sexist oppressions – a key goal of critical literacy education”. Hicks goes on to say “Children and teachers together can contest and transform the relations that position children as ‘failures’ because they voice and enact working-class identities and values”. These statements remind me of the Hustle and Flow article that reveal the African American students beginning to feel differently about themselves after participating in the afterschool program. The students changed from unengaged with literacy to not only engaged, but feeling more confident in their reading ability. Teachers should strive to help students overcome feelings of defeat, and value education no matter where they come from.

Carol Holt