Love as Literacy Research Praxis in an Urban Community Space

• In Event: 67.065 - Teacher Development in Diverse Urban Settings

Abstract

Some would say that love is an essential aspect of working closely with children yet love is a mostly unvoiced and hidden secret in academic environments (e.g. Gleibermann, 2016; hooks, 2003). In this paper, two urban-located literacy professors ask the question: What does love look like in a community-based research site? We explore with children 6-13 years of age their understandings of love in a comic book club. Using data from their creative expressions, commentaries, audio and video clips, the dominant themes arising show that children interpreted love as the care that their peers and the researchers bring to the comic book club through the help they give in advancing their learning.

Authors

• Gertrude M. Tinker Sachs, Georgia State University

• Ewa McGrail, Georgia State University