Artifactual literacies: every object tells a story, by Kate Pahl and Jennifer Rowsell, New York, Teachers College Press, 2010, 176 pp., US$35.47 (paperback), ISBN 0807751332 In their book, Artifact...

Artifactual literacies: every object tells a story

Elusive Culture: Schooling, Race, and Identity in Global Times. Daniel A. Yon. New York: State University of New York Press, 2000. 175 pp.

Elusive Culture: Schooling, Race, and Identity in Global Times

School's Out! Bridging Out-of-School Literacies with Classroom Practice Edited by Glynda A. Hull and Katherine Schultz. New York: Teacher's College Press, 2002, 288 pp. Reviewed by Alison Trumbull University of California, Los Angeles School's Out! Bridging Out-of-School Literacies with Classroom Practice edited by ing, Glynda A. Hull and Katherine Schultz raises important issues about teach- learning, and defining literacy. The book assumes that traditional American all learners. school-based views of literacy are insufficient to address the needs of As a former public would argue school teacher, I agree with this assumption. Indeed, few people that all schools adequately serve all of their students. Among the literacy pedagogy is which decisions about curriculum, materials, and indeed what constitutes literacy are often made by policy-makers and administrators out of touch with diverse student needs. A more specific problem is inconsistency, not only in the availability of materials, but also in teachers' use of them. While teach- problems with school-based cational system, in the top-down nature of our edu- ing in California, the materials I was given an excellent reading program, but only a little fraction of I and very instruction in how to use them. Furthermore, heard no discussion dents' at either the district or the school level about how to integrate stu- home literacy practices into use of the program. In education, adherence to tradition has degenerated into an ineffective pattern of pedagogy, and we need to reevaluate not only curriculum and learner needs, but also our ways of defining success in literacy. This tion. new book by Hull and Schultz' performs such a reevalua- In each chapter. School's Out! touches on this need to reflect on schools' aim is to introduce the concept of out-of-school literacy, as well as provide examples of how this theory is being implemented and fostered. These examples provide suggestions for concepts and practices that work, routine practices. editors' The as well as some that have failed, provoking thought about and practitioners might use the idea of out-of-school how literacy researchers literacy in their own work. The four programs parts of this book form a conversation about current research and I, in out-of-school literacy. In Part the editors provide a theoretical frame- work for the topic and illustrate it with six vignettes about people who, for various reasons, have struggled with traditional school-based literacy but find empower- ment in their own innovative literacy practices. Parts II, III, and FV incorporate the work of many authors. Part II contains case studies of English language learners' individual literacy practices in Philadelphia and Chicago, while Part III presents adult-youth collaboration in after-school programs in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and the Issues in Applied Linguistics ISSN 1050-4273 Vol. 13 © 2002, Regents of the University of California No.

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School's Out! Bridging Out-of-School Literacies with Classroom Practice

A Search Past Silence: The Literacy of Young Black Men David E. Kirkland. New York: Teachers College, 2013. Print.As a high school English teacher, I have sat through countless faculty, department, and personal learning community (PLC) meetings that have centered on data in relation to the Black/White literacy gap. It's there. It's real. It exists. In fact, according to the 2013 Nation's Report Card on eighthgrade reading scores, 53 percent of White students scored proficient or advanced, while only 17 percent of Black students scored proficient, with merely 1 percent scoring advanced (USDE). In my teaching experience, this is where the conversation stops-with the data. The looming question for teachers, especially English teachers, is: "What do we do about it?" While David E. Kirkland's book, A Search Past Silence: The Literacy of Young Black Men, does not offer teachers clear-cut classroom strategies for improving Black adolescents' literacy scores, it does offer insight into the multiple literacies of Black men and into the social conditions that affect the manifestations of these literacies. For teachers, Kirkland provides an explanation behind the literacy gap, which can lead to developing strategies that help close the gap.The author heart-wrenchingly illustrates the misguided normative assumptions that Black males do not value literacy in their lives. Kirkland, donning the role of ethnographer and discourse analyst, follows six Black males in Lansing, Michigan, as he discovers that there are far more factors than school and home that play into the place of literacy in these young men's lives. Kirkland paints a nuanced picture, showing how the acquisition of literacy lies at the intersection of school, home, work, church, romantic relationships, the media, and pop culture. This literacy also manifests itself in different forms than traditional schooling calls for. It hides in plain sight in journals, freestyle rap, front porch conversations, ink on skin, and letters. If English teachers were willing to extend their definitions of literacy to include these media, they would see that literacy permeates young Black men's lives in a multitude of ways.Behind the Silence: Evidence of LiteracyWhen Kirkland began observing in a high school English classroom, he was immediately drawn to a group of young Black men who sat in the back of the room and rarely participated. Initially, these students seemed disengaged from activities related to literacy. However, after a scuffle in the hallway, one of the boys, Derrick, dropped his journal, or as he referred to it, his "book." On the front of the journal the word silence was etched. Inside, however, a world of literacy was in evidence. The contents ranged from freestyle raps to symbology to research to art. It read much like a multigenre autobiography. None of this was displayed in Derrick's schoolwork, but this did not make him alliterate or in need of remediation. …

A Search Past Silence: The Literacy of Young Black Men

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Life at the Intersection: Community, Class and Schooling

As a cultural phenomenon, Hip-Hop is a complex and contested terrain. Historically rooted in Black and Latino youth subcultures of New York City, Hip-Hop emerged as a form of sociocultural expressi...

Disrupting neoliberalism and bridging the multiple worlds of marginalized youth via Hip-Hop pedagogy: Contemplating possibilities

This article critically examines common understandings of sexuality and sexual agency among heterosexual Black men in Toronto. The findings are based on focus groups and in-depth interviews conducted for the qualitative arm of the broader weSpeak project, a mixed-methods study designed to engage and support heterosexual Black men in Ontario, Canada, in living more holistically healthy lives. Focus groups and in-depth interviews with 69 self-identified heterosexual Black men focused on vulnerability and resilience to HIV, but participants also shared their complex experiences and perspectives related to sexuality and sexual agency, especially in the context of systemic and structural conditions that affect their wellbeing. This article provides excerpts from their narratives to illustrate the complexities and emergent possibilities related to sexuality and sexual agency among heterosexual Black men, which may open up new ways of approaching HIV prevention and health promotion.

/pdf/sexuality-and-sexual-agency-among-heterosexual-black-men-in-4jv0zmfa7h.pdf

Sexuality and Sexual Agency Among Heterosexual Black Men in Toronto: Tradition, Contradiction, and Emergent Possibilities in the Context of HIV and Health

Drawing on Critical Race Theory and a transdisciplinary framework, this article considers how hegemonic neoliberal discourses contribute to and reinforce negative constructions of Black masculinity...

Neoliberalism, Black Masculinity, and Black Male Youth: The Value of Transdisciplinary Studies to Urban Educators

This is a collaborative ethnographic research project that highlights the artistic, literary contributions of racially diverse young men. It uses Critical Race Theory to question conventional, Eurocentric educational approaches that historically and currently continue to suppress various socially and culturally learned modes of communication. This article presents two research projects in urban and suburban formal and informal educational institutions to highlight multimodal literary approaches. The first project is an amalgamation of two critical, ethnographic case studies that explores how racially diverse young men express their literacy through rap and spoken word poetry. The second project uses ethnographic methods to observe racially diverse young men’s production of films and photographs in high school, community centers, and art gallery spaces. This study uses visual methods coupled with affect and sensory-laden approaches to collect data and conduct an analysis. The article reflects on conversations surrounding young men, particularly racialized young men, their relationship with literacy, and how these conversations are founded on their failure and deficit language about their literacy repertoires. We believe that such research is closely tied with other social justice themes and modes of inquiry. This article steers away from the ways racialized young men do not use literacy, and focuses instead on the ways that they do use literacy. Their literacy practices are predominantly visual in nature, frequently accompanied by other modes such as words and moving images. Fitting within the scope of the special issue on social justice and visual methods, we argue for a greater acknowledgement and analytical gaze on sensory and affective nuances within visual research. This approach adds texture and volume to interpreting racialized young men’s narratives. Interrogating their visuals and talking through their narratives that have agentive qualities gives both researchers an awareness of young men’s emotional worlds, and how the visual allows for sense-laden, agentive meaning-making.

https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/SSJ/article/download/1574/1472

Towards sensorial approaches to visual research with racially diverse young men

The narratives presented in this article speak to the lived experiences of an Afrodiasporic activist: an educator and spoken word poet named Efe. Efe mobilized his talents to support racialized you...

Emmanuel Tabi

Papers

Disrupting neoliberalism and bridging the multiple worlds of marginalized youth via Hip-Hop pedagogy: Contemplating possibilities

Sexuality and Sexual Agency Among Heterosexual Black Men in Toronto: Tradition, Contradiction, and Emergent Possibilities in the Context of HIV and Health

Neoliberalism, Black Masculinity, and Black Male Youth: The Value of Transdisciplinary Studies to Urban Educators

Towards sensorial approaches to visual research with racially diverse young men

Your Story Will Forever Float as Memory: Afrodiasporic Cultural Production and Activism in Black Canada.