Disentangling the Web: Unpacking Unequal Access and Opportunity in Teaching and Learning Through a Syncretic Approach to Classroom-Based Research

• In Event: 29.082 - Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: 29.082-21 - Research in Reading and Literacy SIG Roundtable

Abstract

This paper presents one methodological approach to studying an elementary literacy classroom as an ecology where teaching and learning were conceptualized as inextricably linked then examined within the context of the complex systems of activity in which they took place (Cole & Engestrom, 1993). This syncretic approach (Gutierrez et al., 2010) draws on theoretical and analytic tools that illuminate and trace the myriad factors shaping teaching and learning; this process of illuminating influencing factors and connecting the dots within and across contexts supports our understandings of how inequitable classroom practices persist and continue to be unwittingly reified. These understandings may be leveraged to disrupt such practices and inform decisions that reimagine equity and eliminate existing barriers to expansive literacy learning.

Author

• Andrea Caroline Bien, Boston University