Defying the Odds

Donna Dunbar-Odom

Description

"For me, literacy is … like trying to open a locked door with the wrong key … I don't always see the meaning at first and usually I have to have someone … let me in with their key. I tend to think that being in college is enough, but it still isn't going to guarantee higher literacy for me. It is something I am trying to grasp, but I am going about it slowly, simply because I am not so sure of how important it is to me." — Rachel

According to key literacy research, working-class students are far less likely to pursue higher literacy than their middle-class counterparts, yet there are countless examples of those who have defied the odds. In this thoughtful look at why some determinedly pursue higher literacy against all expectations and predictions, Donna Dunbar-Odom explores the complex relationships people have with literacy, paying particular attention to the relationship between literacy and class. She shares the personal and often poignant literacy narratives of writers, academics, and her own students to reveal a great deal about what motivates desire for higher literacy, as well as what gets in the way. Bringing together these reflections with current literacy, composition, and class theories, Dunbar-Odom provides a better understanding of how to tap that desire in writing classrooms. Ultimately, the author argues that teachers need to focus less attention on how students should read and more on why they might want to.
Acknowledgments

1. Situating Literacy

2. Boundaries and Memories: Literacy Narrative as Genre

3. Identity, Class, and Higher Literacy: Theories of Literacy, Ways of Knowing

4. Metaphors We Write By

5. On the Bias: Literacies, Lived, Written, and Owned

6. Reading with Pleasure: What Oprah Can Teach Us about Literacy

Works Cited
Index

Sujets

• Tertiary education
• Literacy

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791480717
• Langue: English

Extrait

DunbarOdom D efying the O dds DEFYING THE ODDS

SUNY

Class and the Pursuit of Higher Literacy

Donna DunbarOdom

Defying the Odds

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Defying the Odds

Class and the Pursuit of Higher Literacy

Donna DunbarOdom

State University of New York Press

Publised by STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS ALBANY

© 2007 State University of New York

All rigts reserved

Printed in te United States of America

No part of tis book may be used or reproduced in any manner watsoever witout written permission. No part of tis book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mecanical, potocopying, recording, or oterwise witout te prior permission in writing of te publiser.

For information, address State University of New York Press 194 Wasington Avenue, Suite 305, Albany, NY 12210-2384

Production by Ryan Hacker Marketing by Susan M. Petrie

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Dunbar-Odom, Donna.  Defying te odds : class and te pursuit of iger literacy / Donna Dunbar-Odom.  p. cm.  Includes bibliograpical references and index.  ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6971-2 (ardcover : alk. paper)  ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6972-9 (pbk : alk. paper)  1. Literacy—Social aspects—United States. 2. Social classes—United States. I. Title.

LC151.D86 2007 302.2'244—dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2006007113

Acknowledgments

1. Situating Literacy

Contents

2. Boundaries and Memories: Literacy Narrative as Genre

3. Identity, Class, and Higer Literacy: heories of Literacy, Ways of Knowing

4. Metapors We Write By

5. On te Bias: Literacies, Lived, Written, and Owned

6. Reading wit Pleasure: Wat Opra Can Teac Us about Literacy Sponsorsip

Works Cited

Index

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Acknowledgments

T his book has deep roots. Of course, I cannot claim any grand epipanies, but I can recall a number of contributing moments. For example, te experience of working wit basic writing students at an open admissions university taugt me far more tan I was able to teac te students. hey taugt me about learning, certainly, but I also learned priceless lessons about pedagogy and politics. Anoter moment came at my first Conference on College Composition and Communication were I found myself attending a panel on basic writ- ing, listening to presentations by David Bartolomae and Mariolina Salvatori. Rarely can we say tat a conference panel as muc real effect on us, but tis one literally canged my life since I ended up going to te University of Pitts- burg for my doctorate. he work I did tere introduced me to ways of teac- ing and “ways of reading” tat ave saped me profoundly, and I am grateful. In particular, te Literacy and Pedagogy seminar wit Mariolina Salvatori and my fellow students is wereDefying te Oddsbegan to develop in earnest. Here at Texas A&M University-Commerce I ave been lucky once more to find myself working wit wonderful people: Bill Bolin, Liz Buckley, Gerald Ducovnay, and Dick Fulkerson ave been great colleagues. Sannon Carter read every word of tis manuscript more tan once and is an invaluable friend and colleague. I am also grateful to my students, particularly te following students wo generously allowed me to use excerpts from teir writing in tis project: Caterine Canzoneri, Kimberly Dunam, Marcus Lane, Micael, Nick Monday, and Julie Watson; Mark Abelson, Mallory Baptiste, Elissa Dan- iel, Roderigo Eceverria, Steve Huffer, Sean Kennedy, Axa Lima, Jackie Nen- ninger, Racel Nicols, Kim Paceco, and Evan Teer; and Scott Lancaster, Mike Marlow, Connie Meyer, Paul Mooney, and Terry Peterman. Two friendsips tat began at Pitt continue to sustain me now. Barbara McCarty and Ricard Miller make me tink and laug, and tey never let me forget wat is important about te work we do. At te same time tey accomplis some of te smartest work being done in te academy currently.

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Acknowledgments

SUNY Press as madeDefying te Oddsa real labor of love. I did not know it was possible for te production of a book to be so pleasurable and anxiety- free. My gratitude goes to James Peltz, Larin McLauglin, Ryan Hacker, Anne Valentine, herese Myers, and Ken Scrider. I would also like to tank te anonymous readers for teir tougtful and generous reviews. And I am grate- ful to Wendy Griffits at te Modern Art Museum of Fort Wort for er elp in allowing me to use an image of Anselm Kiefer’sBook wit Wingste for cover, a work tat as resonated powerfully for me since I first saw it. Finally, I want to tank Micael and Claire Odom. My real education began by watcing and learning from Mike ow to read wit rigor and plea- sure. I would not ave made it troug any level of college and beyond wit- out is intellectual and emotional support. He is my ally in every sense of te word. My education continues wit Claire wom I watc in awe as se moves troug te world wit intelligence, umor, and grace.

Chapter One

Situating Literacy

I n the Modern Art Museumof Fort Wort stands a lead sculpture, a giant open book wit enormous wings sprouting from eiter side, standing on an a tall pedestal. Anselm Kiefer’sBook wit Wingsoffers multiple readings: literacy promises to free us—te fligt of imagination, for example—but materiality can never be overcome. Kiefer’s coice of a medium is not accidental; e could ave produced te sculpture in aluminum or wood or even paper, so te coice of lead is significant. In oter words, literacy can only give us te illusion of freedom as we remain weigted, inexorably, to our material lives. We want to believe tat fligt or escape is available troug literacy, but wen we look up from te page, we are te same people in te same bodies in te same cir- cumstances. Yet literacy as ad enormous impact on individuals as publised testimonials attest. American culture, of course, invests eavily in te notion tat literacy will free us from poverty, from prejudice, from oppression. But te United States is not te only culture or cultural body to old to tis belief. he United Nations as produced researc tat maintains a nation must acieve a certain literacy level among its population before it can begin to rise economically. As Sylvia Scribner’s “Literacy in hree Metapors” sows, tese assumptions about literacy ave elped sape public policy: “In a contemporary framework, expansion of literacy skills is often viewed as a means for poor and politically powerless groups to claim teir place in te world” (75). Increased literacy is also assumed to be necessary for a person’s ability to tink abstractly. Scribner writes, “An individual wo is illiterate, a UNESCO (1972) publication states, is bound to concrete tinking and cannot learn new material” (77). Scribner’s

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