Multicultural Literacies & the Elementary Classroom

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Drawing on sociocultural and sociopolitical theories of literacy, we will investigate the ways in which literacy is a social, cultural, and political practice. Students will learn research based best practices in elementary literacy instruction, how to incorporate diverse multicultural literature into everyday instruction, and how to honor the rich and diverse literacy practices children bring to school. Students will unpack and re-imagine literacy learning and teaching for all students, particularly those who have been and remain marginalized through formal education due to race/ethnicity, social class, nationality/language, dis/ability, and other socially constructed inequities. Rooted in the assumption that power circulates in culture, literacy, and education, this course will look closely at the role of power in reading, producing and disseminating texts, as well as how power works through literacy in people’s everyday lives. We will address and challenge deficit discourses about children, families and communities, and explore ways to create a collaborative, supportive, and literacy rich classroom culture that encourages and enables children to become critical readers of the word and the world (Freire, 1970).