Permanence, Aspirations, and Pesky Grammar: Local Literacy Practices Within a Residential Facility for Trafficking Victims

• In Event: Liberating Literacies and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies

Abstract

While the research on female adolescent victims of human trafficking is growing, much remains unknown about literacy practices in residential care settings. Through methodologies of walking (Truman & Springgay, 2016) and thinking with theories (Jackson & Mazzei, 2012) of literacy practices, ethic of care, and feminist geographies, we analyzed the entanglements of literacy events, space, context, and care within one such facility. Participants included the facility’s seven leaders; data was collected in three phases of walking the common spaces. Findings include literacy practices of permanence and remembrance, of spiritual guidance, of educational aspirations, and of individual creativity. This research sheds light into the possibilities for caring literacy practices within an alternative, residential, and educational space for recovering trafficked female adolescents.

Authors

• Gretchen S. Goode, University of Southern Mississippi

• Sunny Wells, University of Southern Mississippi

• Kimberly A Hogan, University of Southern Mississippi