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

Throughout years of research, it has been proven that race, class, and gender, as well as many other factors, all have an impact on learning. Some researchers argue that one factor has more influence on learning than another, but as Deborah Hicks states, “It’s an entire cultural web of language practices and identities that so importantly has an impact on student learning, including literacy learning.” (page 20) The discourse of a child, their culturally specific ways with words, relates to the way that child engages with literacy. Even as adults, our discourse influences our engagements with literacy. Even though we read the same articles for this course and the text reads exactly the same, the literature ‘says’ something different to each of us. The literature connects with us and touches us in different ways. I enjoy reading others’ critiques to see how our perceptions and interpretations of the text vary.

In school, children are often ‘named’ according to their race, gender, and class. Thinking back to my childhood years, children were often given a name by peers, but it was usually based on their race. I do not recall students ever being named for gender or class, but it is possible that it happened. As a child, I thought there were only two classes: rich or poor. I was in the poor class which meant I never had name brand clothes, I didn’t have to pay for my lunch, and I never received toys while they were still “in-style.” So naturally, I thought that the children who had the name brand clothes, paid for their lunch, and always had what was in-style were rich. I also associated my teachers as being in the rich class. They always wore such nice clothes, went to the salon to get their hair fixed, told me stories of taking vacations to faraway places, and drove brand new cars. To be honest, as a child, that is why I desired to be a teacher. I thought they had such perfect, rich lives, and that was the life I desired. As I got older, of course I realized that they are not perfect, and when I started pursuing teaching, I realized that they are definitely not rich. At least not from their teaching salary!

Discourses are not permanent or fixed; they are always shifting. As my perceptions, beliefs, desires, and intentions changed while I was growing and maturing into an adult, our students change as well. In school, children take up many different social discourses causing them to change roles. They can talk, act, and know in hybrid ways as well (p. 21). As educators, this is to our advantage because we can help students create new subject positions. We can help them change the name that they have been given by others, and to create their own name and identity. We can do this by helping them to uncover their true values, beliefs, and desires, and then modeling to teach them how to present themselves so that their words and actions reflect what and who they are, and will be in the future.

Lisa Beach

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

It’s evident why conflict exists among kids from working class families as they are forced to transition into white middle-class schools. I have to agree with Hicks that literacy is more than reading and writing because language is used in diverse ways in a range of places. It’s our overall use of the language in various social settings, which often differs with one another and creates the need for this move towards “hybrid” individuals. This “hybridization” compares with code-switching in that we have to understand our roles within each setting and talk like we are a part of that setting. However, the “hybridization” that Heath discusses includes more than our speech. It also involves our behaviors, thoughts, and actions of each role in our social places. A child can often experience failure and decrease in self-esteem and confidence when they are unable to distinguish different roles for each setting, making it hard for them to achieve the literacy and its expectations of each setting.

The idea that power, gender, and class affect our relationships as our social worlds expand is best said with Hicks’ idea of how children enter classrooms having already “named” their identity from their cultural worlds. However, when they enter classrooms, they encounter worlds that are saturated with specific cultural meanings, values, and forms of knowing that are unfamiliar and foreign from their home lives (p. 24). Because they sometimes experience trouble performing to educational literacy expectations, they are labeled in statuses perceived lower than their roles within their families, making many of these working-class children dread or hate school. They feel stupid at school but empowered at home because of their families’ roles that are defined by their gender, race, or class. This concept further affirms Hicks’ thoughts that literacy practices aren’t learned by autonomous reasoners (p. 15). Literacy is guided by those around us in our differing social settings, which include home and school.

Melissa Riley

I totally agree with cultural literacy researchers in that the way students act, their values and beliefs are important in how our students engage in literacy. I found it interesting that Hicks stated it's not just the preschool years that make such a difference. It seems that is the point to drill home to our preschool parents and teachers. But that's not all there is to it. According to Hick's it's the entire cultural web and the literacies within that web. A "cat's cradle" of different language practicies and the identities that come from knowing and acting on those languages. I think that is a very important point in that it's not just how much exposure these children have to books that is the key to early literacy, it's also understanding the background of our students. The literacies they are engaged in at home, involving all language practices. It makes perfect sense to me that we must reflect on the histories, cultural locations, class and gender of our students in order to understand them and their literacy background. As educators our job is to help our students create new literacy, a literacy of learing. The social and economic status of our students shape them into not only who they are, but what they know. The culturally hybrid classrooms were a great way for students to remain who they were and to maintain their cultural " language" as they move to literacy education. Language is more than just linguistics. I agree that conflict occurs when school languge is unfamiliar to our children. The one thing that really comes to my mind is our time spent in Writer's Workshop, just like Roadville. As we read fiction aloud to our students and then ask them to create a piece of fiction writing and they can't. We wonder why this is so hard for them, but to create a piece of writing that is not true or imaginative is out of their language norm. As we (educators) do a better job of understanding the cultural languages (the community of our learners) of our students maybe then we can help our students create new possibilities for their writing and literacy.

Karin Scott

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

Previously we have discussed how our ‘languages’ must occupy separate spaces. We must be “in two places at the same time 'ovuh dyuh' and here too” as we construct our identities. (Dowdy).

Hicks expands on this notion of identity by examining the ‘whole’ child. She defines literacy as a cultural process and not just a cognitive one. She discusses how theories suggesting children are ‘autonomous reasoners’ who individually in their own minds construct literacy is too narrow an assertion. Instead she defines it as a social process: “Literacies are cultural and material practices shaped by histories, localities, and the persons within them that give form and meaning to children’s lives” (p.16). I think she is correct when she states that children come to school ‘named’ in terms of their literacies that are embedded in their culture. Young children can perceptively articulate how they view themselves as readers, writers and speakers and it is fascinating to listen to them explain why.

Identity is not just our social literacy, it is this and more. Just as we utilize Dowdy’s notion of dual languages, we also occupy hybrid discourses, shifting discourses: Not of language of words, but of socialization, what Hicks terms “a way of being”. Therefore, as the podcast also explained, in all walks of life we see and experience different ways of being. However, in doing so we tend to have social expectations that certain people will behave in a certain way.

Hicks also discusses how gender, race, power and class influence literacy learning and therefore identity. How children view these through the lenses of their upbringing can cause “working class children to experience painful cultural dissonance in middle class classrooms” (p.4). She cleverly illustrates this influence in her discussion of family moments with Jake and Lee Ann were issues of power, gender and rules were evident in their play and arguments and the resolutions offered by the adults. Children then bring this discourse, this ‘way of being’ into the school environment. They have preconceived notions that are embedded in their upbringing about behavior, the role of women and men, and if those same notions apply at school or are they to be left at the classroom door? Here children have to try and navigate a world “saturated with specific cultural meanings, values and forms of knowing” (p.24) that is different from their own. With conflict we often ask the children how can we solve it and give them ownership and develop a ‘way to be’. We expect them to say “I should have told the teacher, walked away or worked it out by talking with each other’. However, more often than not students have a different approach beginning with “my dad told me to” or “in my family we.” Hicks offers Heath’s depiction of the Roadville children as an example of contradictions such as this and the need for shifting discourses. The children’s communities approached storytelling in different ways to their school setting. The teacher did not value spontaneous stories, about real life events. Instead they favored students making up stories from their reading books. However, in Roadville these stories would be seen as lies and bring punishment. (p.25). Clearly this is confusing for students because literacies and values clash. Social discourses have to shift because of shifting power, talk, action and knowledge.

To counteracts these moments, Hicks urges teachers to teach critical literacy: “to strive for critical practices that address the varying diversities they might encounter – those involving relations of ethnicity, race, gender and class”. (p.4). We should offer a curriculum that “embraces listening, watching, feeling, and understanding” (p.13). This task is challenging but crucial: to attempt to ‘read the lives’ of children as they negotiate their hybrid discourses of home, school and places. Above all we should not model autonomy, of singular experiences such as tests and labeling of students. For policy makers this should be their ‘shift’ and ‘way of being’.

Karen Massey-Cerda

I found the chapters in “Reading Lives,” to be very thought provoking and the podcast was helpful in understanding vocabulary as well as highlighting important aspects of the text. One interesting part of the readings for me was the comparisons about working class vs. middle class. If I interpreted the text correctly it revealed that students coming from working class backgrounds are more focused on social belonging and they way their peers and teachers respond to them. Students from working class environments draw on their experiences from listening, watching, feeling and understanding more than they do from reading and writing. Everyday experiences form much of their literacy knowledge depending upon their access to literacy.

Whether from middle class or working class environments children soon become aware of “where they stand,” socially and academically among their peers. You don’t have to tell a child they are a struggling reader they most often know it already. It would be nice if our society could get over the competition that pits children against each other – we constantly have to assign a place in line or pecking order if you will. It would be better to have at least a school environment that emphasizes all students reading in a nonthreatening and comfortable/encouraging place to grow academically.

In Chapter 2 of Hicks book, the term hybrid ways was introduced. This I equated to the term code switching from the earlier readings. Students do learn to work one way at home and another way at school. I also liked that Hicks brings out the fact that literacy does not just happen at school. Many things happen at home that relate to literacy such as storytelling, sitting on the front porch talking, and conversing over preparing for dinner or at the dinner table. I know that I have learned many things just from conversations with my parents and watching them that doesn’t mean that I do the same things the way they did but it was a learning process.
Karen Gold

I often wonder if the younger set out there was plagued during their adolescent years by the scourge of last name identity as it relates to literacy and worth. After reading Hicks research and accounts of "we of me" and the fact that literacy is not just reading, many memories flooded my mind. In my dating years and in the years of friendship cultivation, I remember quite well my experiences with my family and in particular my mom. In my county we had many people with the last name of Cox, Smith, Brady, Brown, Deaton, Kiser, Moffitt, Craven, Teague and the list goes on. When I mentioned to my mom certain interest in cultivating friendships or dating certain people, she immediately referenced them by the last name as if it would be a predictor of their worth. "On no", she would say, "you don't want to date a Deaton or make friends with a Brady." "Their families are illiterate or poor or bad and so on." These kids were lableled already and off limits to me. My literacy evolution was to be threatened by the very parameters she set. I suffered during these years and realized potential friends avoided me and thought I was an introvert. The "we of me" was always my family and I began to think there were no other people out there quite as good as my family. The Holy Bible and study was written literacy for me and my content area studies. However, as time evolved even my family ties could not stop the evolution of relationships and new "we of me" experiences. We never stop evolving in this way and as meet people or change circles of friends. My we people change as well as my thirst for new and different literature based on what they bring to my life. They shape me and mold me. How fortunate I have been to be able to break out of the small southern community stereotype and become intertwined with culturally different and diverse beings. The very socialization with many people continue to make me what or who I am and I don't see this ever stopping until death. Am I a Hybrid? You betcha I am. As a matter of fact, I change the nature of my hybrid existence depending on where and with whom. In reference to the podcast, I now understand as well that I am a literary product of the female south. That is innate and will not change but I revere and applaud my friends and experiences from different cultures and backgrounds. With each relationship and experience my readings become more diverse and clear. How in the world do we expect young children from certain cultures and backgrounds that experience only that because they can't flee the nest, to understand some of the literature we as educators place before them. How can we test them on such? They must live and experience in order to learn as do we. Relationships, experiences, people, places, all form our literacy background. Reading and reading for understanding is the product of those things. That is true literacy.

Candace Kee

I often wonder if the younger set out there was plagued during their adolescent years by the scourge of last name identity as it relates to literacy and worth. After reading Hicks research and accounts of "we of me" and the fact that literacy is not just reading, many memories flooded my mind. In my dating years and in the years of friendship cultivation, I remember quite well my experiences with my family and in particular my mom. In my county we had many people with the last name of Cox, Smith, Brady, Brown, Deaton, Kiser, Moffitt, Craven, Teague and the list goes on. When I mentioned to my mom certain interest in cultivating friendships or dating certain people, she immediately referenced them by the last name as if it would be a predictor of their worth. "On no", she would say, "you don't want to date a Deaton or make friends with a Brady." "Their families are illiterate or poor or bad and so on." These kids were lableled already and off limits to me. My literacy evolution was to be threatened by the very parameters she set. I suffered during these years and realized potential friends avoided me and thought I was an introvert. The "we of me" was always my family and I began to think there were no other people out there quite as good as my family. The Holy Bible and study was written literacy for me and my content area studies. However, as time evolved even my family ties could not stop the evolution of relationships and new "we of me" experiences. We never stop evolving in this way as meet people or change circles of friends. My we people change as well as my thirst for new and different literature based on what they bring to my life. They shape me and mold me. How fortunate I have been to be able to break out of the small southern community stereotype and become intertwined with culturally different and diverse beings. The very socialization with many people continue to make me what or who I am and I don't see this ever stopping until death. Am I a Hybrid? You betcha I am. As a matter of fact, I change the nature of my hybrid existence depending on where and with whom. In reference to the podcast, I now understand as well that I am a literary product of the female south. That is innate and will not change but I revere and applaud my friends and experiences from different cultures and backgrounds. With each relationship and experience my readings become more diverse and clear. How in the world do we expect young children from certain cultures and backgrounds that experience only that because they can't flee the nest, to understand some of the literature we as educators place before them? How can we test them on such? They must live and experience in order to learn as do we. Relationships, experiences, people, places, all form our literacy background. Reading and reading for understanding is the product of those things. That is true literacy.

I often wonder if the younger set out there was plagued during their adolescent years by the scourge of last name identity as it relates to literacy and worth. After reading Hicks research and accounts of "we of me" and the fact that literacy is not just reading, many memories flooded my mind. In my dating years and in the years of friendship cultivation, I remember quite well my experiences with my family and in particular my mom. In my county we had many people with the last name of Cox, Smith, Brady, Brown, Deaton, Kiser, Moffitt, Craven, Teague and the list goes on. When I mentioned to my mom certain interest in cultivating friendships or dating certain people, she immediately referenced them by the last name as if it would be a predictor of their worth. "On no", she would say, "you don't want to date a Deaton or make friends with a Brady." "Their families are illiterate or poor or bad and so on." These kids were lableled already and off limits to me. My literacy evolution was to be threatened by the very parameters she set. I suffered during these years and realized potential friends avoided me and thought I was an introvert. The "we of me" was always my family and I began to think there were no other people out there quite as good as my family. The Holy Bible and study was written literacy for me and my content area studies. However, as time evolved even my family ties could not stop the evolution of relationships and new "we of me" experiences. We never stop evolving in this way as meet people or change circles of friends. My we people change as well as my thirst for new and different literature based on what they bring to my life. They shape me and mold me. How fortunate I have been to be able to break out of the small southern community stereotype and become intertwined with culturally different and diverse beings. The very socialization with many people continue to make me what or who I am and I don't see this ever stopping until death. Am I a Hybrid? You betcha I am. As a matter of fact, I change the nature of my hybrid existence depending on where and with whom. In reference to the podcast, I now understand as well that I am a literary product of the female south. That is innate and will not change but I revere and applaud my friends and experiences from different cultures and backgrounds. With each relationship and experience my readings become more diverse and clear. How in the world do we expect young children from certain cultures and backgrounds that experience only that because they can't flee the nest, to understand some of the literature we as educators place before them? How can we test them on such? They must live and experience in order to learn as do we. Relationships, experiences, people, places, all form our literacy background. Reading and reading for understanding is the product of those things. That is true literacy.

`The idea of cultural discourse involves all the components which affect the development of the whole child. Language, beliefs, values, and ways of acting all impact an individual’s placement in the world. All these factors play an important role in a person’s literacy- how he or she interacts with his or her world.

It is fascinating how differing localities can produce such a range of cultural differences. Regions, dialects, and population size will produce individual traits within a culture. Likewise, jobs and careers will produce a social discourse which may be shared within families and communities. There is an understood way of interacting within one’s own community.

As a child becomes who he or she is expected to be within the community, he or she adopts or assumes certain roles. Their performance in school is controlled to a degree by these expectations and common values. While this control is a powerful influence, I do believe it is possible to assist children in developing an alternate discourse. With exposure to different experiences, one can learn to exist between two different cultures.

Currently, I teach at a rural school, much like the one I attended as a child. Many of the children participate in community events but may not have had experiences beyond their community. The dialect spoken reflects a need to express basic needs and wants. Students have learned to exist in a single culture with a common dialect. As a result, their writing reflects local values and experiences. Often during parent/teacher conferences, parents will excuse their child’s performance, assuming that their shortcomings are a direct result of their own academic struggles. Comments such as, “He gets that from me” or “Well, I wasn’t good at math either” reflect limited expectations. Children often internalize these expectations and live up to them. Many of these parents work at blue collar jobs or are unemployed.

While these outside influences do affect a child internally, I believe teachers can bridge the gap by creating global awareness. Children need to know that there is a world beyond their community. By doing this, we are not conveying that their world is not acceptable; rather, we are making them aware of additional opportunities. Once they are exposed to other possibilities, they will begin to create the ability to coexist between the two.

We cannot ignore the cultural histories of our students. On the contrary, we must embrace them and invite them to share their cultural literacies with us in order for us to expand our own. Before we can be great educators, we must take steps to understand our children’s backgrounds and create a safe atmosphere in which they can grow. We must not perceive what they bring to literacy as insufficient, but we must recognize it and validate it. “An explicitly political activism is required if the discourse that create ‘knowers’ and ‘knowings’ are to be altered.” (Hicks 30)

Holly Lawson

It was interesting, after reading these two chapters and listening to the podcast, to think of the other readings we have done with Hicks’ beliefs in mind. It appears that Daniel and Zonnie, the American Indians in the Noll article, were very much the produce of their Native American culture. Despite having parents who supported the students in their attempts in school, they were not as successful as they could have been, perhaps because their cultural literacies were not valued in the school setting. The Black students and the African Caribbean students in the Staples and Henry articles and Lamont Carey, were, likewise, not successful in school, and again, I believe, their cultural “ways” were not accepted in school. Their home discourses, their “language practices, ways of acting, values, and beliefs” (Hicks, p. 20) were not compatible with school literacies, and therefore these students had a strong sense of being disconnected with the world of education. None of these students had become skillful at shifting between cultures – hybrid ways, as Dr. Hicks described it, nor did it appear that the schools recognized and valued their discourses. On the other hand, the Lost Boys, from the Perry article, were able to successfully make the shift, and, as a result, they flourished in school even as they maintained their cultural identities. They were even able to use their literacy skills to share their culture and their experiences with the world. I have to wonder what made the experiences of the Lost Boys so different from the other students about whom we have read, what caused them to be able to function comfortably in both worlds.

At one point in my teaching career I taught in a small town where most of the parents worked in a furniture factory. Many of those parents were very distrustful of the school system because of negative experiences they had with schools in their childhood. Their feelings and attitudes came across loud and clear to me when we talked – and I can only imagine what their children grew up hearing about schools. As I read these chapters, I began to wonder if their experiences were the result of conflicting discourses, with a lack of acceptance of their home culture in the school setting. If their school experiences are repeated with their children’s schools, it makes sense that this becomes a cycle...so how do we break the cycle? It seems clear to me that it is crucial that educators get to know their students, that we learn about their home lives and community, and that we work with our students as they come to us. Only in that way can we break the cycle that holds so many students back.

Marlee Wright

A child’s values, beliefs system, language interactions, and behavioral interaction all impact how a child interacts in the world. Ideas that are rooted in a child’s upbringing shape their lives outside of the classroom “…it is an entire cultural web –of language practices and identities that so importantly has an impact on school learning, including literacy learning.” (p. 20) Children bring their deep rooted identities from home to school causing what Hicks has described as discourse.

During the podcast the discussion of “being socialized into ways of being, knowing, talking, acting, and feeling” brought think about my own school located in the center of public housing. Every student makes a shift when they come to school between their home expectations and their school expectations, but the shift is not always the same. The discussion of power really spoke to me and how children have to shift the power between school and home.

Many of my student’s parents work second shift and much of the responsibility at home fell on the siblings to take care of one another. At home the child was in charge. The child gave the orders and was also the caregiver. When they came to school and it was time to be “the child” it was hard for some of my students to make this shift into school mode. It was hard for them to relinquish the power and it could often lead to behavioral problems in school both academically and socially. For many of my children survival was the key as parents were working to make ends meet and the children took care of one another. Education was not always valued or modeled within the home, so for some kids the stigma of not being a good reader existed. The goal in the home was to be independent and take care of each other. School was routine for the kids, but not the center of their lives.

As their teacher it was my job to engage the children in the idea of accepting the roles of school. Building a trusting relationship along with understanding their life helps to transition the shift to school a little easier. When we embrace their lives while educating ourselves we make the shift for students between homes and school more inviting.

Kara Scott

As I read the chapters in Reading Lives by Deborah Hicks and listened to Dr. Jackson’s podcast, the point that resonated most with me was that literacy was not a school-based, individualized activity. Rather, literacy is a social and cultural activity, much more than just reading and writing. According to Hicks, “the ways in which students’ [engage] with literacies – or institutional modes of talking, reading, and writing - are connected with their own histories, formed with others whom they value and love” (p. 1). While I know that a child’s early literacy experiences are crucial to their literacy development, I think that I have been guilty of forgetting this cultural aspect of literacy development once they enter my classroom.

Hicks asserts that students “come to be and know with others as they engage in discourse practices fully saturated with cultural meanings” (p. 23). The problems for many children, like the working-class poor who are indeed viewed negatively in middle-class classrooms, arise when they enter school and encounter discourses and cultural practices that differ greatly from that of the home. The knowledge these children have constructed at home is the foundation of their identity. Once at school, these children must make shifts as they practice different discourses and different types of knowing. Hicks refers to this notion as “hybrid” ways of acting, talking and knowing (p. 21).

This idea of “hybridization,” for me, is the sum of all of our previous readings. Whether we call it code switching, helping them find their voice, or building a bridge between home and school literacies, this “hybridization” is key into today’s classrooms. Educators must create, respect, and maintain a balance between a child’s discourses. We have to create “classroom spaces where students [can] begin to move between cultural discourses without giving up the richness of their community experiences and language practices” (p. 25).

This is no small feat for educators. We are faced with many constraints in the classroom, especially the standard curriculum we are required to teach. We have to be innovative and creative. We must facilitate lessons that celebrate these different cultures and discourses. I felt that Hicks made an important point when she said that teachers needed to “confront their own racisms and classisms before they [can] see the richness of children’s culturally saturated lives” (p. 26). I know I have a lot of work to still do in this area. While I feel that I am taking positive steps in the right direction, I still have much to learn.

I am reminded of an article I was just reading in my hometown newspaper. The article was referring to a speech made by one of the graduating seniors. In his speech he was reminding his classmates to be proud of who they are and where they come from; their cultural identities. He said, “Wherever you go, wherever you are, don’t forget to say ‘y’all’ and ‘you’ns’.” Maybe his teachers got it right!

Leslie Rothenberger

“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, or Black identities and values.” (p.21)

When reading this section of the book, this quote in particular reminded of Staple’s article about “re-authoring.” I felt that this text went beyond calling on students to “re-author” themselves, and extended to calling on teachers and students to “re-author” the community. As in Staple’s article, the work of Heath and Walkerdine acknowledge that conflicts often arise between the cultures and literacies of students’ home lives and their school lives. Heath’s work suggests that classrooms should be reworked to include aspects of the students’ home and school literacies. Walker’s focus was on teaching students to be aware of how certain literature pieces may contain messages of “silencings and oppressions.” Both researchers’ goal was to change the way working-class students feel about themselves and the way their middle-class counterparts treat them.

What I took most from this portion of the text was Heath’s statements that we need to take all parts of the reader’s life into account when analyzing their literacy skills. Children do not grow up in a private bubble until they reach the magical age of kindergarten. They learn indirectly and directly from the people and interactions that occur around them and the situations in which they interact with others. These influences are always present, and we teachers need to acknowledge them not as a detriment to their education, but as a resource that can be used as a supplement to our standardized teaching materials.

Andrea Schlobohm

Reading the first chapter of Hicks' book about working class children and literacy opened my eyes to how many different discourses our students must manage in their lives. They are raised with a certain identity based on their social and cultural practices that shape their literacy before their school discourse even begins. Early socialization affecting their cultural literacy based on gender and class often conflict with school literacy practices. As educators, helping students become successful shifters of their various discourses would create more engaged learners in literacy practices at school. In Heath's research, she advocates for "teachers to create more culturally responsive pedagogies" (chapter 2, p.25). Creating classroom environments where students are able to shift between their discourses with ease, solidifies identities and feelings of belonging. The two American Indian students in Noll’s study, Daniel and Zonnie, would have been able to shift with greater ease between their home culture and school culture if their school discourse had integrated some of the literacy practices they both excelled in outside of school. Their power and identity was not recognized at school and their home culture was stronger and deeper thus separating the two discourses rather than bridging them. I believe by working through our own cultural discourses as Dr. Jackson described on the Podcast, shifting from academic researcher to a small town southern woman when visiting family, we can help students bridge the gap between home culture and school culture. Although with the example of the preschoolers, Terry and Sean, in Walkerdine’s study mentioned on page 27, some discourses cannot transfer easily into the school environment. I was astonished that the teacher did not discourage the young boys’ sense of power over her. Is there not a time when the line must be drawn to define what is acceptable and what is not?
Although we have a multicultural school community where I work, a large majority of the students come from working-class families or low income households. I think it would be beneficial to understand the three main ethnic class cultures found in our classrooms; White working- class, African-American working-class, and Hispanic working- class, to better understand their literacy practices outside of school and how that affects their learning in class. I grew up in a White middle-class family living in a predominately white middle-class neighborhood where the shift between discourses was easily attained. Even though my parents were only high school graduates, they both held respectable government jobs that required effective reading, writing, and verbal literacy skills. These literacy practices were instilled in our home environment through communication and support throughout my schooling. As an educator, I need to recognize that not all home cultures provide that continuance and many of our young students are learning how to become culturally hybrid in a global world.

Michelle Carlson

When reading these chapters, my mind was drawn to the one person in my life who has had to adapt to many different discourses and learn how to function accordingly: my mom. When my parents met, they were from culturally different worlds. My mom was from a working class family, while my dad came from an upper class family. My mom needed to learn how to navigate the world of country clubs and cocktail hours. Yet, while she needed to shift from one discourse to the other, she still needed to socialize with those that she grew up with. As Hicks illustrates, she couldn’t lose both, she became a hybrid of such, just as the kids in Hicks’ study did.

Then, when I was seven, my parents got divorced. My mom suddenly found herself illiterate in life skills. She did not know how to pay bills. She did not know how to get a job. She felt as if she didn’t have an identity other than being a wife and a mom. Her first job at an eye doctor’s office had a steep learning curve. She had to learn how to get along with all kinds of people outside of her socioeconomic environment. She needed to take direction from a boss that was much younger than she was. She needed to learn how a professional practice operates. As my mother’s discourse expanded, so did her confidence. She became literate in the things that were initially her biggest obstacles. Literacy cannot only be defined as how well someone reads or writes. My mom had established her reading and writing skills in primary school, but in her situation, she needed to become more knowledgeable in the skills of interviewing, maintaining a job, and managing money, to succeed in her world. As Hicks describes, literacy is a social and cultural practice, not only a school based activity. My mom is a first hand example of how she needed to become literate in certain areas to navigate her surroundings.

In some respects, my mom’s ability to transition between different cultures is similar to code switching. She might not adapt her language completely, but she adapted her actions, expanded her skill set, and extended her cultural awareness. Yet she was still able to fit into many different worlds. The students that Hicks’ studies are in a similar situation. I’m interested to read more…

-- Carrie Brown

While reading the two chapters from Hicks’ book, I found myself realizing there were many connections to previously read articles. The concept that stuck out to me the most was the use of the term hybrid to describe how children’s identities are not fixed but in fact switch back and forth from when they are school and when they are at home. This reminded me of the term “code-switching” from the Delpit/Dowdy readings/discussion. It further solidifies the idea that children today have identities that are dynamic as opposed to static and change according to their surroundings. It is important to support this fluidity so as to make sure that children are staying true to who they are, and yet still moving in the right direction in education.

Another similarity I noticed was the section that focused on storytelling. This, of course, made me remember our latest reading of Perry, and her discussion of storytelling. I took particular notice of the example of the community in Roadville, where telling stories from the Bible or of actual events was valued but “made up” or fictional stories, even stories that elaborated details of a real life event, were discouraged and frowned upon. As teachers we so often encourage our students to use their imaginations and make up their own stories, but in Roadville, this practice would in fact “bring punishment or charge of lying” (p. 25). It is important to know the kind of community your students are going home to at the end of the day in order to best understand where they are coming from.

In general, what this these chapters and many of our past readings have highlighted is the fact that literacy is not just reading the writing. It is not even simply what happens in school and it does not start when school starts. Literacy also involves everyone and everything that the child is introduced to and influenced by outside of and before starting school as well. It’s important for us as teachers to know where our students come from, and value those resources, in order to help them get where they are going.

Kim Strzelecki

While reading Deborah Hicks’ first two chapters I was reminded of many concepts previously introduced in the research we have been reading. “Code-switching,” the search for “voice,” storytelling, and “re-authoring” just to name a few. The concept of discourse is an interesting one for me. We all belong to many groups and therefore are members of several discourses. Interaction and communication within these groups require us to participate in and utilize “code-switching,” our “voice,” and storytelling. Hicks refers to this as “being socialized into ways of being, knowing, talking, acting, and feeling.” For children this can be a confusing and overwhelming time or process, especially if they do not feel or experience support from their home or school environment.

As teachers we need to remember to support and take into consideration all the differences that our students are bringing with them to class. They experience interactions with many discourses themselves throughout a day and week. As Hicks mentioned and it has been said before, literacy does not just consist of reading and writing alone. As I reflect, I can remember as a child switching easily between literacy experiences and discourses- from home, school, dance class, soccer team, piano lessons, and neighborhood playtime. I’ve noticed that some of my students, even at such a young age in kindergarten, can also easily adjust to their changing discourses. I look forward to reading more of
Hicks’ findings and utilizing ideas to help improve my own classroom.

Ruth Ann Timmons