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

One of the children that Hicks chose to study was a boy named Jake. She described a situation that occurred at Jake’s home and this helped me to put things into perspective. We know that all families rear their children differently, but when Jake pushed his sister I was taken aback by his family’s reaction. As Hicks states, on the surface this incident does not seem like it has anything to do with literacy learning. As I continued to read, I began to see the connection between Jake’s upbringing and how that could carry over into his academic life. Jake’s mother and grandmother did not use that particular situation as a teaching opportunity. I would predict that most situations in his home were resolved physically.

Students from my previous classes began to flood my mind. These were my students who never stopped to tell an adult when there was a problem. Instead, they would “solve” the problem by simply hitting or pushing the other student. After speaking with their parents it was usually evident that this behavior was tolerated or even encouraged at home. In my experience all of these parents were of the working class or working poor. These parents were quick to defend their child without asking questions or having a discussion. The children of these parents also lacked appropriate communication skills.

Hicks stated that “the ways in which students’ engagements with literacies-or institutional modes of talking, reading, and writing-are connected with their own histories, formed with other whom they value and love.” These crucial aspects of education are formed outside of the classroom. This made me think of the students who do not receive enough exposure to literacy at home. We would hope that their parents would instill a love of literacy but what if they do not? To me it is almost as if educators must take on the role of detective to uncover their students’ discourses. Educators must investigate this problem and scaffold to help students develop the use of a hybrid. I feel that this is an especially delicate situation for younger students. They may be confused about why things in school are different and could view things as “right” or “wrong”. We do not want to dampen our students’ culture; instead we must become compassionate and knowledgeable about the challenge that they encounter. In Dr. Jackson's podcast, she explained a hybrid by using southern women as an example. This really helped me understand the transitions that our students are constantly making. I know that this can be a hard task for adults to juggle, I am sure that it is for children as well. We must know where our students are coming from in order to meet their needs most effectively.

Stacy Durham