Becoming: Three Studies of Literacy and Identity Across Spaces, Ages, and Theories

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

These three studies examine identity construction in an elementary school library, middle school minority recruitment programs, and a teacher writing group. Each presenter takes up a different theoretical framework to analyze the ways that identities are constructed, enacted, and understood in a particular context. We explore the different possibilities of literacy-and-identity studies (Moje & Luke, 2009) and the ways literacy and identity inform and shape one another.

Content Area

• Area 3: Literacy Instruction and Literacy Learning

Chair

• Amy Tondreau, Teachers College, Columbia University

Discussant

• Makila Meyers, Teachers College, Columbia University

Individual Presentations

• Becoming Writers: Identity Construction in a Teachers Writing Group - Amy Tondreau, Teachers College, Columbia University

• The Library as a Site for Identity Construction - Alyson Rumberger, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Literacy As Gatekeeper: High-Achieving African American Students and Minority Recruitment Programs - Makila Meyers, Teachers College, Columbia University