"""Movin' Up That Third Grade Hill"": Discourses of Progress and Hybrid Language and Literacy Practices in a ""Mainstream"" Multilingual Classroom"
Handsfield, Lara J.
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/79834
Description
Title
"""Movin' Up That Third Grade Hill"": Discourses of Progress and Hybrid Language and Literacy Practices in a ""Mainstream"" Multilingual Classroom"
Author(s)
Handsfield, Lara J.
Issue Date
2005
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Robert T. Jimenez
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, Elementary
Language
eng
Abstract
"The increasing linguistic diversity in ""mainstream"" classrooms requires that educators rethink literacy instruction in this setting. This case study draws from ethnographic and narrative data, and feminist-poststructuralist theories to examine a ""mainstream"" novice teacher as she attempted to adapt her literacy instruction for her multilingual third graders. Her efforts toward pedagogical change are framed according to her personal language and literacy background---her ""literate life history""---as the daughter of Filipino immigrants. The findings show how two mainstream discourses of language and literacy---literacy as cognitive growth and the gospel of literacy---are reproduced across three domains: the teacher's personal practice, the larger sociopolitical context in which she works, and her literacy instruction. The teacher's adherence to these discourses of language and literacy contrasts with her hybrid identity, and she asserts her hybridity in small yet significant ways, blending dominant and non-dominant ways of ""doing"" literacy to engage her students and redefine the ""mainstream."" Although she faces significant challenges, she is learning how to tap into students' linguistic and literate repertoires in her instruction. Professional development programs should encourage introspection regarding how teachers' personal backgrounds may factor into instruction. This study also suggests that all teachers be knowledgeable about second language acquisition and literacy, and highlights how teachers can create new spaces for integrating home, community, and school norms of language and literacy practice."
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