Facilitating Critical Literacy Among Preliterate Maya Immigrants Through Family Literacy: Implications for University-Community-School Partnerships

• In Event: Politics and Praxis of Immigrant Education

Abstract

In a context fraught with anti immigrant fervor and culturally inhospitable school practices, it is imperative that community educators re-conceptualize their role as cultural brokers and agents of empowerment in poor immigrant communities. This paper describes the work of a family literacy program that approached literacy from a critical perspective. The impact of privileging critical literacy over functional literacy in curriculum development and implementation, as parents navigated the difficult cultural terrain between home and school, are described. The implications of such an approach for educators are discussed, with specific attention to the role of university researchers in context of marginalized communities.

Author

• Dilys Schoorman, Florida Atlantic University