"'Together' Means I Am Not the Only One": Educators Reclaiming Interdependence in Early Literacy Through Narratives of Struggle

• In Event: Toward a Future of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies in Early Literacy Classrooms

Abstract

Purpose
The concept of a “struggling” reader or writer prioritizes the acquisition of independent, decontextualized skills, locating deficits within children (Dyson, 2015). Honoring struggle creates opportunities to practice interdependence — recognizing that we rely on one another and no one moves without support (Annamma & Handy, 2019). Embracing interdependence in early literacy can sustain both children and teachers, contributing to a “more loving and just” future (Author, 2021, p. 373).

Theoretical Framework
Disability justice activists foreground interdependence in their organizing by respecting the needs all people have (Piepzna-Samarasinha, 2018; Sins Invalid, 2017). Transnational feminists embrace interdependence as a means of uplifting subjugated knowledges and learning across differences (Anzaldúa, 1987; Mohanty, 2003). Together, these perspectives highlight how struggling in solidarity with communities targeted by multiple oppressive systems (Saavedra & Pérez, 2017) creates space to imagine what early literacy might look like when self-sufficiency is not the primary goal.

Methods & Data Sources
We share findings from a multi-year participatory case study (Reilly, 2010) of a critical literacies collective with early educators. Through narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000), we explored the role of struggle in our group, examining how our collective work helped us reclaim interdependence with young children. We asked, What does struggle teach us in early literacy? Six group members contributed compositions, storying their and their students’ experiences with struggle, which we then discussed as a group in a video-recorded session and transcribed. Authors1 and 2 then reread, listened to, and/or viewed each narrative and associated talk, noting compositional craft moves. Through analytic discussion and memoing (Saldaña, 2016), we generated patterns across the pieces.

Findings
We identified three themes across the narratives. First, group members grappled with and disrupted notions of struggle in early literacy. For instance, as Author3 recounted how Black boys in her classroom were routinely labeled, she asked, “Who was this fictional ‘struggling reader/writer’?” Second, by composing and reflecting on our shared struggles amid multiple social crises, we reclaimed notions of interdependence. For example, Author 6 expressed how she valued struggling alongside group members, writing, “There is just something about not being alone. Through ALL OF THIS *gestures wildly*.” Third, group members explored how struggling toward interdependence could help them imagine and enact liberatory early literacy pedagogies. For example, Author 4 explained how approaching literacy through expansive lenses created space for students to express historical and literate learning on their own terms, reflecting, “As a collective community, our struggle for justice includes honoring all ways of being a reader – not letting the system define what reading and writing means.”

Significance
Teachers and children can resist illusions of meritocracy that portray literacy learning as a matter of individual hard work (Au, 2016; Grande, 2004) while struggling against intersecting systemic oppressions (i.e., ableism, racism, linguicism) that shape notions of desirability and competence (Authors, 2022; Muhammad & Mosley, 2021). Narrating struggle can help us critically question what we have been taught about struggle in early literacy, reflexively considering our roles in perpetuating deficit-based constructions of children, and imagining alternatives rooted in interdependence.

Authors

• Maggie Beneke, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Emily Machado, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author

• Santasha Dhoot
  Non-Presenting Author

• Janaki Nagarajan
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jordan Taitingfong, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Megan Rupert
  Presenting Author