Literacy for What? An Exploration of the Literacy Practices, Relationships, and Schooling Experiences of a Latino Family

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In this two-year post-critical ethnography, critical literacy was used as a theoretical framework for exploring the literacy practices, relationships, and public schooling experiences of a Latino child, Javier, and his mother, Nina. The study illustrates the push and pull between school and home, and between cognitive and critical literacies, in a way that attends to the complexities of enacting critical literacy practices in a context where schooling is authoritatively maintaining a cognitive, individualized construction of literacy. This authority is compounded by a culture that privileges individual performance on high-stakes standardized texts and sees difference from the white, middle-class, academic definition of literacy in deficit terms. Findings highlight the varied and vibrant literacy practices in which Javier and Nina engage, as well as the relationships between child, mother, and researcher. The study reveals how school authoritatively trespasses on these relationships and, in doing so, narrows Javier’s literacy practices and his understanding of literacy. Recommendations are made for researchers and educators to embrace the wealth of literacy practices that exist in students’ homes and to seek spaces in which to engage in critical literacy practices.

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