Catherine Compton-Lilly

Tisha Lewis Ellison

Peter Smagorinsky

Kristen Perry

This volume examines revolutionary constructs in literacy education and demonstrates how they have been gentrified, whitewashed, and appropriated, losing their revolutionary edge so as to become palatable for the mainstream. Written by top scholars in literacy education, chapters cover key concepts that were originally conceived as radical theories to upset the status quo—including Third Space, Funds of Knowledge, Culturally Relevant Pedagogies, and more. Each chapter addresses how the core theory was culturally appropriated and de-fanged to support rather than take down racial and societal hierarchies. Critiquing the harmful impact of watering down these theories, the contributors offer ways to restore the edge to these once groundbreaking ideas, reject racist and assimilationist trends, and support the original vision behind these liberatory theories. In so doing, this volume adopts a truly radical, critical stance that is essential for researchers, scholars, and students in literacy education.

Restoring the Edge to Edgy Ideas

Whitewashed Critical Perspectives

Jieun Kim

Stephanie Shedrow

Dana Hagerman

Laura Hamman-Ortiz

Yao-Kai Chi

Sun Young Lee

Kristin Papoi

Erin Quast

Brooke Ward Taira

Bingjie Zheng

This original book offers a meaningful window into the lived experiences of children from immigrant families, providing a holistic, profound portrait of their literacy practices as situated within social, cultural, and political frames. Drawing on reports from five years of an ongoing longitudinal research project involving students from immigrant families across their elementary school years, each chapter explores a unique set of questions about the students’ experiences and offers a rich data set of observations, interviews, and student-created artifacts. Authors apply different sociocultural, sociomaterial, and sociopolitical frameworks to better understand the dimensions of the children’s experiences. The multitude of approaches applied demonstrates how viewing the same data through distinct lenses is a powerful way to uncover the differences and comparative uses of these theories. Through such varied lenses, it becomes apparent how the complexities of lived experiences inform and improve our understanding of teaching and learning, and how our understanding of multifaceted literacy practices affects students’ social worlds and identities. Children in Immigrant Families Becoming Literate is a much-needed resource for scholars, professors, researchers, and graduate students in language and literacy education, English education, and teacher education.

A Window into Identity Construction, Transnationality, and Schooling

Children in Immigrant Families Becoming Literate

Erica Halverson

Literacy researchers interested in how specific sites of learning situate students and the ways they make sense of their worlds are asking new questions and thinking in new ways about how time and space operate as contextual dimensions in the learning lives of students, teachers, and families. These investigations inform questions related to history, identity, methodology, in-school and out-of school spaces, and local/global literacies. An engaging blend of methodological, theoretical, and empirical work featuring well-known researchers on the topic, this book provides a conceptual framework for extending existing conceptions of context and provides unique and ground-breaking examples of empirical research.

Time and Space in Literacy Research

While teachers cannot travel back in time to visit their students at earlier ages, they can draw on the rich sets of experiences and knowledge that students bring to classrooms. In her latest book, Catherine Compton-Lilly examines the literacy practices and school trajectories of eight middle school students and their families. Through a unique longitudinal lens—the author has studied these same students from first grade—we see how students from a low-income, inner-city community grow and develop academically, revealing critical insights for teachers about literacy development, identity construction, and school achievement. Based on interviews, reading assessments, and writing samples,Reading Timeadvocates for educators to: Provide opportunities for students to develop long-term relationships with teachers and administrators. Allow children and parents to share their stories to identify obstacles that students encounter as they move through school. Collaborate and learn from students’ former teachers, as well as inform their future teachers. Develop portfolio systems and longitudinal records that highlight children’s emerging interests, abilities, and potential for the future. Catherine Compton-Lillyis an associate professor in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She has taught in the public school system for 18 years. Her books includeReading Families,Re-reading Families, andBedtime Stories and Book Reports. “The analysis here runs deeper than other contemporary critiques of accountability regimes and standardization, inviting us instead to consider how time, schooling, and literacy have always been co-constructed....Reading Timefeatures compelling examples of literacy practices that traverse generations, which could only be understood through interviews and observations extending over time.” —Kevin Leander, Vanderbilt University

The Literate Lives of Urban Secondary Students and Their Families

Reading Time

Rebecca Rogers

This book is a roadmap to the key decisions, processes, and procedures to use when synthesizing qualitative literacy research. Covering the major types of syntheses – including the dissertation literature review, traditional literature review, integrative literature review, meta-synthesis, and meta-ethnography – Compton-Lilly, Rogers, and Lewis Ellison offer techniques and frameworks to use when making sense of a large body of scholarship. Addressing the standard and untraditional forms a research synthesis can take, the authors provide clear and practical examples of synthesis designs and techniques, and consider how epistemological, ontological, and ethical questions arise when designing and adapting a research synthesis. The extensive appendices feature sample literature reviews, guidance on communication with editors of journals, useful charts, and more. The authors’ critical reflection and analysis demonstrates how a research synthesis is not simply a means to an end, but rather reflects each scholar’s interests, target audience, and message. This book is crucial reading for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as early career and more experienced researchers in literacy education.

Approaches to Synthesizing Literacy Research

Making Sense of Literacy Scholarship

Catherine Compton-Lilly

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