Social Justice and Reading Science: Tinkering With the Tip of the Iceberg

• In Event: Effective and Equitable Literacy Instruction

Abstract

Debates about reading achievement frequently construe teacher knowledge of language and reading as the key lever for change in student outcomes, yet these debates fail to consider how system-level factors affect efforts to improve instruction (Woulfin & Gabriel, 2020). Teacher knowledge is simply the tip of the iceberg. We examine how additional, and sometimes invisible, barriers mediate teachers’ attempts to act on their knowledge of reading science. In this implementation study of reading science, set in two elementary schools serving primarily Black and Brown students in a midsize urban district, we seek to identify and investigate these underwater barriers and their interrelationships to transform the framing of the issue (Coburn, 2006) and work toward social justice in reading instruction.

Authors

• Anne Murphy Karabell, American University

• Danielle Gervais Sodani, American University

• Sarah Irvine Belson, American University