Coalitional Literacy Inside/Outside of School: A Comparative Case Study of Two Educational Organizing Spaces

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Transformative Literacy Practices Across Educational and Community Spaces (Table 17)

Abstract

This paper uses comparative case study to ask: How is solidarity built through literacy practice in two different educational spaces for minoritized peoples? The first involved Latinx sixth graders inquiring into drug addiction in their community. The second involved youth and adult Latinx un/documented immigrants in a community setting inquiring into immigration policy. Theoretically grounded in learning in social movements, intersectionality, and coalitional literacy, findings demonstrate how coalitional literacy facilitated solidarity between group members and humanized community members, such as people addicted to drugs in the first case study, and people with criminal records in the second. Implications include the powerful ways in which coalitional literacy can link in-school and out-of-school spaces.

Authors

• Alicia Rusoja, University of California - Davis

• Kathleen Riley, West Chester University of Pennsylvania