On ethnography: approaches to language and literacy research

2008 ◽  
Vol 46 (04) ◽  
pp. 46-2217-46-2217
Keyword(s):  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Literacy Research

Other: Multiraciality, Community, and Cross-Racial Research

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 544-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maneka Deanna Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Racial Identity ◽  
American Woman ◽  
Educational Researcher ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Schooling Experiences ◽  
Dissertation Research ◽  
Latinx Adolescents ◽  
Literacy Research

In this article, I use what Baszile terms critical autobiographical reflection to examine my experiences as a Black and Tamil American woman who engages in language and literacy research with Latinx adolescents. I describe my encounters with two types of research policing in which perceptions of my racial identity are used to challenge the “appropriateness” of my research. Then, I illustrate how my biographical journey as a multiracial woman has shaped how I envision the conception of community that is fundamental to my equity-focused work. Finally, I discuss that it was differences in racialized schooling experiences, not distinct ethnoracial identities, which had the potential to be the greatest barrier in my cross-racial dissertation research. Through this critical autobiographical reflection, I present a diverse representation of what it means to be a Woman of Color educational researcher and document how I enact what Paris conceptualizes as humanizing research.

scholarly journals For Loretta: A Black Woman Literacy Scholar’s Journey to Prioritizing Self-Preservation and Black Feminist–Womanist Storytelling

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 526-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
April Baker-Bell
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Black Woman ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Tenure Track ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Literacy Research

In this article, I used Black feminist–womanist storytelling to weave together stories from my childhood and early years on the tenure track to illuminate how Black female language and literacy practices and the strongblackwoman trope develop across a life span. Through these stories, I illustrate how I existed, resisted, and persisted during my first 3 years on the tenure track as a Black woman and emerging language and literacy scholar with a family. This research is significant as scholarship that centers Black women literacy researchers’ lived experiences is missing from the field. As such, this work contributes to presenting a fuller narrative of Black women literacy researchers’ experiences and working lives within and beyond the academy. This research also expands the field’s knowledge of what counts as literacy research by understanding the complex racial and gendered life span literacies of a literacy researcher of color. It is important for institutions and organizations to consider the knowledge, experiences, and stories I include in this article as recommendations to sustain Black women in academic spaces and shift the culture of academia to better support Black women’s work and journeys.

When Racial, Transnational, and Immigrant Identities, Literacies, and Languages Meet: Black Youth of Caribbean Origin Speak

2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (13) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Allison Skerrett ◽  
Lakeya Omogun
Keyword(s):  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Black Youth ◽  
Immigrant Youth ◽  
Ethnic Discrimination ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Racial Category ◽  
Black Immigrant ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Literacy Research

Background/Context Immigrants are described as somewhat fixed in their geographical locations and activities in the world, having made a permanent move from their nation of origin to a new homeland. In contrast, transnational people are defined as those who live their lives across two or more nations and hold strong, multiple attachments to their nation-states. Frameworks of race are often centered in studies of the language and literacy practices of immigrant youth while transnational theories are typically prioritized in studies of transnational youths’ language and literacy practices. Research Questions/Participants This article explores extant research on the language and literacy practices and experiences of Black immigrant and Black transnational youth of Caribbean origin for whom the U.S. is a home. The purpose is to uncover similarities, differences, and nuances that may exist between the language and literacy practices and experiences of these populations. Research Design The extant research was analyzed through theoretical concepts such as micro-cultures, ethnoracial assignment and ethnoracial identity, raciolinguistics, and language and literacy as social practices. Findings Literacies prominent for both Black immigrant and Black transnational youth include reading, writing, the performing arts, and digital literacies. Analysis found that Black immigrant and Black transnational youth, through their language and literacy practices, undertake significant work in deconstructing Blackness as a monolithic racial category. The youths’ motivations for language and literacy use and transformation are conceptualized as efforts to make visible multiple ethnoracial identities and micro-cultural practices within an overarching racial category of Blackness. Analysis further found that Black immigrant and Black transnational youths’ experiences with racial, cultural, and linguistic discrimination lead many to subsume their original linguistic and literacy practices beneath the language and literacy practices of dominant ethnoracial groups in their new nations. In the case of Black transnationals, analysis found that they hold thick bonds to their countries of origin and new nations. Further, some transnationals have opportunities to spend extended time and employ their culturally influenced languages and literacies to a fuller degree in nations that hold appreciative perspectives on these repertoires. Such circumstances appear to promote Black transnationals’ abilities to continue developing and valuing their unique ethnoracial identities and ethnoculturally diverse language and literacy practices. Analysis further found that the multiple language and literacy practices of many Black immigrant youth are motivated by their longings to belong to diverse communities and connect to multicultural groups. However, these desires of youths’ were not oriented solely toward their new nation-states. Rather many Black immigrant youth actively seek out connection and consolidation of their homelands of origin and their new nations through language, literacy, and cultural practices. Analysis confirmed that this is a primary motivation for language and literacy development and use in transnational youth. Conclusion This article challenges the binary categories of immigrant and transnational using the cases of Black youth of Caribbean origin and their language and literacy practices. Its findings call for a more dynamic reconceptualization of the relationships among racial, immigrant, and transnational youth identities, literacies, and languages. Given the similarity of goals in the identity, language, and literacy practices of Black immigrant and Black transnational youth, this analysis argues that literacy research knowledge about Black immigrant youth can be enhanced by applying transnational as well as racial frameworks. Likewise, the article proposes that given the similarities of language and literacy goals, practices, and experiences, including racial and ethnic discrimination, shared by Black immigrant and Black transnational youth, future literacy research can undertake more explicit investigations of transnational youth's experiences through racial frameworks. The article suggests that knowledge of this kind can support scholars and educators in theorizing and designing educational spaces and curricula that enable all youth, notwithstanding their self- or other-assigned racial or sociopolitical categorization as native-born, immigrant, or transnational, to actualize while critically analyzing, the full range and diversity of their identities, languages, and literacies.

A Didactic Illustration of Longitudinal Analysis for Language and Literacy Research Among Individuals Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

2020 ◽  
pp. 430-444
Author(s):  
Lee Branum-Martin
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Longitudinal Analysis ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Computer Code ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Longitudinal Methods ◽  
Time Points ◽  
Literacy Research

Longitudinal methods are gaining wider use in educational research, but they have yet to see much application in research among students who are deaf or hard of hearing. The present chapter has three aims. First, an overview is given of some of the benefits and important concepts in longitudinal methods that may be informative for teachers and researchers. Second, a two-cohort data set of reading comprehension scores at up to four time points is analyzed in a didactic manner, in order to illustrate concepts and models for literacy growth. Sample computer code (SAS and R) is provided. Third, recommendations for teachers and researchers are provided.

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