Research on Literacy in Diverse Educational Contexts: An IntroductionAuthor(s): Valerie Kinloch, Arnetha Ball and María FrànquizSource: Research in the Teaching of English, Vol. 45, No. 2, RESEARCH ON LITERACY INDIVERS EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS (November 2010), pp. 93-96Published by: National Council of Teachers of EnglishStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40997085 .

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Research on Literacy in Diverse Educational Contexts: An Introduction

Valerie Kinloch Ohio State University

Arnetha Ball Stanford University María Fránquiz

University of Texas, Austin

A growing body of research in literacy has begun to examine various factors that contribute to how children, young people, and adults engage literacy to negoti- ate home and school practices and produce extended meanings of education as they (re)conceptualize their identities in a diverse world (Ball, 2006; Franquiz & Brochin-Ceballos, 2006; Kinloch, 2010; Vasudevan & Campano, 2009). What do these things imply for research on literacy in diverse educational contexts, particu- larly in relation to people of color? What are examples of practices that encapsulate racially, ethnically, linguistically, and/or culturally rich identities of children, youth, and adults across diverse contexts? How can studies in critical literacy research account for dynamic interactions, practices, and literate engagements of children, youth, and/or adults of color in ways that critique unfounded notions that they are disinterested in learning? Contributors to this special issue considered these questions as they investigated the various meanings of, as well as tensions with, conducting literacy research in diverse educational contexts.

The four contributors - Marcelle Haddix, Ramón Martínez , Mariana Souto- Manning, and Patrick Camangian - present studies in language and literacy reflec- tive of racial, linguistic, and cultural diversities of people in multiple educational contexts. As their individual studies demonstrate, there is an ongoing need in our profession to hear and rely upon the perspectives of scholars of color, particularly those whose work lies at the intersection of language, literacy, and cultural stud- ies and relates to the literate engagements of children, youth, and adults of color within classroom and community contexts. The four articles highlight rigorous studies and employ various theoretical orientations and methodologies to de- scribe literacy projects by and with people of color and situated within diverse educational settings.

In, "No Longer on the Margins: Researching the Hybrid Literate Identities of Black and Latina Preservice Teachers," Marcelle Haddix employs critical discourse analysis to examine the identities and discursive practices of three preservice

Research in the Teaching of English Volume 45, Number 2, November 2010 93

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94 Research in the Teaching of English Volume 45 November 2010

teachers of color who are nonstandard language and dialect speakers. Data from her yearlong ethnographic and sociolinguistic investigation of preservice teach- ers' language and literacy practices within university and school settings reveal the teachers' gradual shifts from linguistic marginalization to linguistic hybridity. As they created hybrid literate identities, the three preservice teachers neither fully accepted nor completely rejected the dominant discourses of teaching and teacher education, discourses, according to Haddix, that are "tailor made for the predominantly White, monolingual, middle class, female teacher population" (p. 98). Hence, their ongoing encounters with dueling opposites: school culture, practices of schooling, and school placements, on the one hand, and home cul- ture, practices within familial communities, and interactions with social peers, on the other hand. In her conclusion, Haddix discusses methodological concerns that might arise with research designed to capture, analyze, and represent hybrid literacy and language practices.

Haddix's focus on hybrid literate identities relates to Ramón Martinez's study on code-switching. In, "Spanglish as Literacy Tool: Toward an Understanding of the Potential Role of Spanish-English Code-Switching in the Development of Academic Literacy," Martinez investigates Spanish-English code-switching among middle school bilingual Latina/Latino students in East Los Angeles. Doing so allows him to focus on students' engagements with code-switching, a hybrid language practice that many referred to as "Spanglish." He examines their language ideologies as

they relate to acts of and practices in code-switching. Martinez's examinations -

grounded in New Literacy Studies, sociocultural research on students' everyday language practices, language ideological inquiry, and critical literacy studies - frame

Spanglish as a situated literacy practice and reveal the ways students' attitudes about Spanglish reflected dominant and counter-hegemonic language ideologies. As he describes, this examination can contribute to the development of greater metalinguistic awareness and critical language awareness. As a dynamic language practice, Spanglish can serve as a tool for literacy teaching and learning and could

impact the academic literacy development of multilingual students. In addition to investigating hybrid identities and the influence of code-

switching on academic literacy development, it is important to understand the

impact of teacher education on pedagogies that seek to foster inclusive educational

practices. Mariana Souto-Manning's article, "Challenging Ethnocentric Literacy Practices: (Re)Positioning Home Literacies in a Head Start Classroom," describes influences of in-service teacher education in a Freirean culture circle setting on two Head Start teachers' practices with creating educational spaces of possibility. As she explains, the teachers sought to employ a generative curriculum that reflected students' realities and cultural legacies. By studying this process, she examined how teachers transcended the act of merely documenting home literacy practices and ne-

gotiated ways of redesigning such practices in their actual classes. As Souto-Manning

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KiNLocH, Ball, and Fránquiz An Introduction 95

explains, documenting glimpses of home literacy practices, paying careful attention to the cultural nature of definitions of literacy, and engaging children as curriculum

designers, can help teachers to better understand children's literacy strengths. In the last article, "Starting with Self: Teaching Autoethnography to Foster Criti-

cally Caring Literacies," Patrick Camangian takes care to illustrate the application of critical literacy pedagogies that draw from young people's funds of knowledge (Moll, Amanti, Neff, 8c Gonzalez, 1992) to nurture authentically and culturally car-

ing relationships. He discusses how students' performances of autoethnographies, which he describes as cultural narratives that build toward critical social analysis, can increase critical self-reflection and create compassionate relationships among youth of color with "fractured collective identities" (p. 179). He highlights the

ways such approaches can tap into youth confusion and anger in order to engage them as critical readers, writers, and oral communicators. Analysis of data reveals that autoethnographies can increase students' knowledge of self and critiques of individual and shared struggles. Camangian contends that autoethnographies have the potential to positively restructure classrooms into spaces that are more conducive to the construction of critical identities among youth of color. In this

way, his article has implications for building classroom relationships grounded in effective pedagogies that utilize culturally relevant literacy teaching practices with

working-class youth of color. In addition, this issue presents the valuable "Annual Annotated Bibliography

of Research in the Teaching of English," a product of an international collaboration led by Richard Beach and including Martine Braaksma, Beth Brendler, Deborah Dillon, Jessie Dockter, Stacy Ernst, Amy Frederick, Lee Galda, Lori Helman, Tanja Janssen, Karen Jorgensen, Richa Kapoor, Lauren Liang, Bic Ngo, David O'Brien, and Cassandra Scharber. The 2010 version of the bibliography marks a major change - the bibliography is now available solely as a downloadable PDF file. The introduction to the Annotated Bibliography is included in the print version of RTE; it describes the changes in format and delivery along with summarizing key trends in the literature. One trend the editors of the bibliography note - an increasing focus on sociocultural and critical analyses of students from non- dominant cultural and linguistic backgrounds and of literate practices across the home, community, school, and digital contexts - dovetails directly with the goals and articles of this special issue.

Selected from a large number of blind, peer- reviewed submissions by early career scholars of color throughout the United States, the articles in this special issue do not merely raise questions about theory and practice, but offer sound suggestions for conducting research inclusive of the lived experiences, literate ac- tivities, and cultural ways of knowing of diverse people in diverse contexts. They understand the power of literacy in the lives of children, young adults, and teachers

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96 Research in the Teaching of English Volume 45 November 201 0

in a variety of sociocultural contexts. They challenge traditional views of language, culture, identity, and learning, and through their studies, they push us to take seri- ously the lives and literacies of people of color in classrooms and communities.

Another important point to highlight is that the four authors are scholars of color and former fellows in the Cultivating New Voices Among Scholars of Color (CNV) grant program sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English (NGTE). CNV is a two-year grant program that supports the academic and activist activities of doctoral students and early career scholars of color by pairing selected fellows with a senior scholar in language, literacy, and cultural studies. As active mentors in the CNV program, which is now in its 10th year, we (Valerie, Arnetha, and Maria) believe that it is crucial for programs like CNV to support the work of scholars of color whose voices have long been marginalized in educational research and in professional organizations. This special issue of RTE is one effort by which to recognize, encourage, and support the scholars and scholarship of CNV fellows, on the one hand, and of other scholars of color in the academy and in various communities, on the other hand.

REFERENCES Ball, A. (2006). Multicultural strategies for education and social change: Carriers of the torch in the United States and South Africa. New York: Teachers College Press.

Fránquiz, M. E., & Brochin-Ceballos, C. (2006). Cultural citizenship and visual literacy: U.S.-Mexican children construct- ing cultural identities along the U.S.-Mexico Border. Multicultural Perspectives, 8(1), 5-12.

Kinloch, V. (2010). Harlem on our minds: Place, race, and the literacies of urban youth. New York: Teachers College Press.

Moll, L, Amanti, G, Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teach- ing: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory Into Practice, 31, 132-144.

Vasudevan, L., & Campano, G. (2009). The social production of adolescent risk and the promise of adolescent literacies. Review of Research in Education, 33, 310-353.

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