State-Defined Literacy and the Illusion of Equity

• In Event: Examining Assumptions Underlying Teaching Standards and Practices: A Focus on Equity

Abstract

Promoted through aims tied to educational equity, state-defined literacy involves education policy that defines allowable processes and practices teachers can use in schools and classrooms, including a focus on high stakes and/or standardized testing in the early elementary grades. Grounded in empirical research, this qualitative narrative inquiry examines the implication of these policies on literacy teaching at the local level through the narrated experiences of three elementary teachers. Findings highlight the normalized colonizing practices of state-defined literacy, the tensions teachers experience, and the efforts taken to center student literacies despite these policies. These findings highlight the need for critical analysis for systems using “educational equity” to justify processes and practices that maintain colonizing systems of schooling.

Author

• Michael Young, University of Minnesota - Duluth