The Assignment
Individual Research Paper
4-5 pages (20% of final grade)
Your essay draft is due by April 28th, for peer review
The final draft is due by May 5th.
Save the dates!
Here are your options. Read through them and select one that sounds interesting.
Option 1: Ethnography of Community
Conduct a mini-ethnography project: observe individuals engaged in literacy practices (e.g., a Bible reading group, book club) and take notes. Focus on the way that literacy is a tool that assists in the development of this community, how communities create literacy practices, and on the relationship between that community and identity formation (e.g., gender) and/or hegemonic or counternarrative discourses.
Option 2: Literacy Landscapes and Superdiversity in the Community
Study a diverse community in New York City, and explore the language employed in the local environment (e.g., signs in store windows). Take notes and pictures. Consider a) the expected literacy and language demands of members of the community and b) the community’s relationship to the concept of superdiversity. Analyses should focus on how language relates to identity, community, power, and/or hegemonic or counternarrative discourse.
Option 3: Literacy History Project
Analyze how members of a particular minority community (e.g., indigenous groups in Northern United States) have been affected by the institutionalization of literacy in the United States. Examine scholarship that points to literacy practices within this community that are devalued or ignored by formal schooling while considering the strengths of the literacy practices of minority communities. You should also consider how minority communities have used the hegemonic tools of literacy practice to gain access to power.
Option 4: Think-Aloud Experiential Study
Conduct a mini-research project where you gather data about individuals’ experiences with a particular literacy practice (e.g., the reading of a Supreme Court opinion addressing equality). Ask your selected participants to engage in think-alouds about what they understand/do not understand while reading; what they disagree with. In reflection, participants will then discuss their overall thoughts about the relationship between literacy and their access to power by being able to comprehend and evaluate the reading. Analyze this data and comment on your participants’ relationship to identity, community, and/or hegemonic or counternarrative discourses
Option 5: Analyses of Literacy Tests
With or without a partner, distribute a historic literacy test to at least five adults. Post-Civil War, many states required adults to pass a literacy test to be eligible to vote (with the explicit purpose of limiting voting access of African-American voters). Ask these individuals to take the literacy test. After the participants finish the test, ask participants to discuss their reactions to/experiences with taking the literacy test (e.g., did they feel there was cultural bias in the way the literacy test was structured). Individually, write a reflection outlining what you learned through the activity while using data from participants to inform your reflection.
In a nutshell, a hegemonic discourse is the story that the ruling class tells. It justifies their power and confirms that they deserve it.
In a nutshell, a counternarrative discourse is a form of resistance to those in power; it contradicts the main/ generally accepted discourse.
