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

The story of the Lost Boys of Sudan is a compelling one and has been perserved because the refugees are willing to pass on their experiences through storytelling orally and in written forms. I think that all people groups have their ways of passing on traditions using storytelling. In the United States we have access to all kinds of media and access to stories in written and oral form and we pass down family traditions and stories in those forms. But these boys lost a connection with their elders (the storytellers) and mentors that will possibly never be recovered.

In Perry's discoveries, he discusses literacy practices among Sudanese Refugees. The refugees that he included were educated and passionate about disclosing the events from the civil war that tore them from their communities. Perry found that in the participants lives their literacy practices before leaving the Sudan included oral traditional type storytelling by elders, some written storytelling mostly in a religious forum as well as acting out storytelling. Since their arrival in the USA the literacy practices have included more transformed storytelling as they no longer have the elders but rely more on their memory and memory of their fellow refugees as to the acuracy of traditions. But the emergence of using storytelling for change and to tell their stories and to educate the public about the Lost Boys and the civil war has been and outcome for the refugees.

To me it is significant in allowing students I teach to write stories, poetry, and any other form of written expression to put down on paper their thoughts, feelings and desires. It is also important to me that we dictate stories children have because they don't write well but every single one of the have a story to tell. Added to the importance of a student begin given the opportunity to write they should be given opportunities to talk, discuss and participate in self-made skits to express themselves. While I beleive this is true for all students it would be especially important for refugees or ELL students.