LITERACY LENSES

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 57(4) Dec 2013 / Jan 2014 doi :10.1002 /JA AL.253 © 2013 International Reading Association (p. 279)

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From “Slumdog” to Humanitarian: Combining Literacy with PurposeJyothi Bathina is an assistant professor at Fresno State University,

CA, USA; e-mail jbathina@gmail.com.

For the past four years, I have been conducting research at a residen-tial school in Orissa, India. The school is an orphanage, and stu-dents hail from the poorest, most oppressed families in the region. They are there because either they were orphaned after the massive cyclone that inundated Orissa a few years ago, or their families are so destitute that the school, which provides housing, food, clothing, and an education, is their only hope for a better life.

Given the students’ prior hard-ship, the lack of support outside the school, the pain and tragedy some have endured, and the rich funds of knowledge they have gained, I was curious to see how they would respond to the opportunity to be-come academically literate.

My first visit to the school was to conduct a weeklong literacy in-stitute for teachers to build their effectiveness at teaching reading, writing, and critical thinking. I was struck by the pervasive sense of community, with administrators,

teachers, and staff all working to-gether, and their willingness to serve not only as educators but also as mentors, parents, guides, and counselors to the young children in their charge. Teachers were ea-ger to learn new ways of building reading and writing skills to help students succeed. Although there was the familiar pressure to pre-pare students for high-stakes tests, there was also a genuine desire to equip them with the skills to sur-vive in a world where they were deeply disadvantaged. Teachers took pains to relate the curriculum to real life and to emphasize social justice as a primary goal.

What I found most notewor-thy about the Balashram students was their desire to become literate citizens and to transform society, making it a place where all people can succeed. When I asked the children to articulate their goals, responses ranged from “I want to be an architect so I can build hous-es for everyone in my village” to “I want to be a doctor and prevent

women from dying in childbirth.” As a result of their educational environment, where literacy is in-fused with purpose and relevance and where ethics are an integral part of the curriculum, each hope for success is tied to a larger hope for improving the world in which they live.

For many impoverished chil-dren, goals are often nonexistent or deemed unattainable because of social inequities. If they do ex-ist, no clear connections are made between education and the attain-ment of those goals. As a result, we struggle with a lack of motivation as well as a lack of understanding of why literacy really matters.

Perhaps if we can tie the ac-quisition of literacy to concrete yet transformative purpose, if we can show the relevance of the skills they are learning, to improve not only their own lives but also the lives of others, then we can en-able our students to develop into compassionate and literate world citizens.