Literacy as Conversation: Learning Networks in Philadelphia and Arkansas (Composition, Literacy, and Culture) - Hardcover

Joliffe, David A.; Goldblatt, David A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0822946246 ISBN 13: 9780822946243

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021

Synopsis

In Literacy as Conversation, the authors tell stories of successful literacy learning outside of schools and inside communities, both within urban neighborhoods of Philadelphia and rural and semi-rural towns of Arkansas. They define literacy not as a basic skill but as a rich, broadly interactive human behavior: the ability to engage in a conversation carried on, framed by, or enriched through written symbols. Eli Goldblatt takes us to after-school literacy programs, community arts centers, and urban farms in the city of Philadelphia, while David Jolliffe explores learning in a Latinx youth theater troupe, a performance based on the words of men on death row, and long-term cooperation with a rural health care provider in Arkansas. As different as urban and rural settings can be - and as beset as they both are with the challenges of historical racism and economic discrimination - the authors see much to encourage both geographical communities to fight for positive change.

About this title

About the Author

David Jolliffe is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Arkansas, where he was the initial occupant of the Brown Chair in English Literacy.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0822946246
• ISBN 13: 9780822946243
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 232