Ways With Metaphors: A Metaethnography of Family Literacy

• In Event: Family Partnerships and Impacts on Young Children’s Learning

Abstract

This paper describes a metaethnography conducted on seven qualitative studies conducted by top scholars in the field of family literacy (Heath, Taylor, Moll et al., Purcell-Gates, Reese and Gallimore, Marsh. and Pahl). We analyzed the metaphors used by researchers whose work has been highly cited in the field to identify the uses of particular metaphors and the ways these metaphors have developed over time. We argue that the metaphors that operate in highly cited and widely recognized academic texts affect how we, as family literacy scholars, conceptualize our own work and our field and maintain that analyses of these metaphors can provide insight into the field and its operative premises.

Authors

• Rebecca L. Rogers, University of Missouri

• Catherine F. Compton-Lilly, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Tisha Lewis Ellison, Georgia State University