(Re)Imagining Identities: Family Literacies Beyond Bars

• In Event: Families and Communities: The Role of Liberatory Literacy Practices in (Re)Storying Lives

Abstract

How do fathers construct, (re)imagine, and (re)claim their identities as they engage in family literacy practices while incarcerated? This study aims to answer this question and to understand the role of literacy as a liberatory practice in working with incarcerated fathers and their families.

Though they are physically absent, research suggests that incarcerated parents are integral to their child’s/family’s literacy development (Barad, 2008; Dahlberg, Dahlberg, & Nyström, 2008; Vagle, 2014). Further research suggests that incarcerated fathers are able to be fathers as they engage in prison/jail literacy programs (Muth, 2016; van Manen, 1990, 2014). Correspondingly, this study is informed by sociocultural theories of learning and literacy (Vygotsky, 1978), focusing on literacy as a liberatory practice (Freire, 1970). This study also draws from research on family literacies (Darling, 2005), reading aloud to children (Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, & Wilkinson, 1985), and on the lived experiences of incarcerated fathers (Muth, 2016).

In this qualitative, multiple case study (Yin, 2015), 10 incarcerated fathers in Louisiana participated in a 10-week multimodal workshop on strategies related to bookmaking and reading aloud with/to their children. The fathers read storybooks on video which were mailed to the children along with the books. They also created their own books so that they could share their personal stories with their children. Data included observations, field notes, artifact collection, and video/audio recordings and transcriptions of sessions and interviews. Data were examined using a sociocultural lens, highlighting participants as essential components of the family literacy landscape, and also as active research contributors through talk, interaction, participation, and collaboration (Bakhtin, 1986; Vygotsky, 1978). Data were analyzed in an ongoing fashion, informed by Thematic Analysis (Glesne, 2011) and The Constant Comparative Method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), allowing for the continuous comparison of gathered information and the construction of themes both within and across data sets.

Findings suggest that participation in this program afforded fathers opportunities to (re)imagine their literate identities, their identities as participating/present fathers, and their identities as creators/artists as they shared stories with their children. Fathers noted that they felt actively engaged in parenting their children throughout the study. They also recognized that the videos allowed them to be out of the confines of incarceration and that they felt free and liberated, during the recordings, to be present for their children/families in a way they had not been previously. They further noted that the process of creating their own books and sharing their stories with their children was simultaneously therapeutic, liberating, and empowering.

This study highlights the ways that incarcerated fathers were able to transcend boundaries and (re)imagine their identities and their futures by sharing stories with their children. The findings invite us to critically reflect upon the impact of our work with incarcerated populations and their children and illuminates future possibilities of research that highlights the experiences of diverse families and communities.

Author

• Tori K. Flint, The University of Louisiana at Lafayette