A Series of Bifurcating Lines and Tangentially Related Points: LatCrit, Rhizomatic Mapping, and the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Perspectives in Second Language Research

Abstract

This paper critically examines the epistemologies (i.e. what counts as knowledge and how we come to know it) that inform our understanding of linguistic diversity in the field of literacy research. Using a theoretical framework drawn from LatCrit theory, and adapting rhizomatic mapping and critical construct synthesis methods, we look back ten years to a ground-breaking review of research on the literacy development of second-language learners (August & Shanahan, 2006), and summarize the epistemological implications of its methods. Our approach followed two paths, one looking at published criticism of the report to describe a contemporary epistemic counter-narrative, and the other replicating the original literature search and critically examining studies that were eliminated from consideration.

Authors

• Samuel David, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Mikel Walker Cole, Clemson University