Literacy as Praxis

This book highlights the socio-political nature of literacy and illuminates the potential in literacy for the empowerment of individuals and communities subordinated by race/ethnicity culture language gender and class. It addresses the specific reality of literacy for both child and adult language minority populations; it argues that traditional discourses and approaches to literacy justify and maintain literacy deficits and poor school achievement and supports a divergent positioning of minorities and women within the social structure. The book proposes alternative discourses and approaches that draw from both whole language and critical pedagogy. Three major themes organize the volume: literacy culture and schooling; the development of language reading and writing; and pedagogy empowerment and social change. Through examples of child and adult learner-generated text dialogues and narratives the chapters make clear the connection among literacy knowledge and power the potentiality of agency and the transformative possibilities of pedagogy.