Exploring Activist Literacies Across Contexts: Literacy Practices in Teacher, Student, and Community Organizing

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium draws on the frameworks of critical literacy and emancipatory education to explore how teacher, student and community activists utilize literacy practices to organize for educational and social justice in four unique contexts. After four activist scholars share papers on the literacies of immigrant, teacher, and student organizers in diverse contexts, the discussant will facilitate a dialogue focused on implications for literacy educators and researchers in K-12 schools, teacher education programs, and community settings.

Content Area

• AREA 7. Social, Cultural, and Political Issues of Literacy Practices In and Out of School

Chair

• Kathleen Riley, West Chester University

Discussant

• Alicia Rusoja, Saint Mary's College of California

Individual Presentations

• Intergenerational Critical Literacies as Communal Pedagogy of Resistance - Alicia Rusoja, Saint Mary's College of California

• Building a Movement by Reading Together: Teacher Book Groups as an Organizing Tool - Kathleen Riley, West Chester University

• “We Have the Power to Make Change”: The Struggle of Asian Immigrant Youth Against School Violence - Mary Yee, University of Pennsylvania