RES 5530: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (Spring 2009)

This chapter was a good way to tie up what we've learned in this book. I've enjoyed reading about specific people and feel like it has been a great way to learn more about literacy. This text has been able to illustrate, through intimate looks through students' lives, how their early experiences influence their later literacy lives. I found particularly interesting the section about Mike Rose and the controversy he writes about in getting too involved in students' lives. As Hicks states, "he expresses how movement through particulars was necessary for his own understanding of the dilemmas faced by poor and working-class students--and presumably also for his readers' deeper understanding of those dilemmas..." (pg. 140). One of the points brought up was that learning about these students' lives in such an intimate sense could be a negative thing, that stereotypes could be formed and being too "seduced" into the narrative to see the educational point. However, I can't see why one would NOT want to learn about the particulars of a students' life. Isn't that where all the answers lie? Why does a student act a certain way? Well, let's look at how his or her home life is. Why can this child not read? Well, let's look at the particulars of how he or she was taught and what kind of support they are receiving at home. Of course, there are boundaries to be met, as Hicks mentions. We cannot get to fully into a child's home life as teachers. I'm sure even Hicks had road blocks when she was trying to research these children at home. But we can take little steps, like asking our students about their likes and dislikes and taking the time to get to know them at the beginning of the school year. If they are acting out, take them aside and ask them what's going on, rather than calling them out and potentially embarrassing them in front of the entire class.

While we are all part of a very institutionalized setting everyday at our schools, we need to realize that the reason we're there is for the lives of the students we encounter everyday. To attempt to become part of those lives would make a lot of difference. I'm grateful for people like Hicks who take that time to do such quality research that really does make a difference for people like us reading it.

Christy Rivers