Agency

Abstract

Dear JAAL Readers, Our primary JAAL readership is adolescent and adult literacy educators. That is, even though there are many others who come to the journal for ideas about literacy teacher education and adolescent and adult literacy theories, most of our readers, including us, come to the journal looking for ideas that will impact our teaching practice in positive ways, ideas that give us agency to be the teachers and leaders of our aspirations. We found the articles that we've included in this issue to be noteworthy in this regard, which is why we chose Agency as the theme for this issue. According to Dictionary.com, the origin of the word agency (n.d.) is Latin, from the root word agere, meaning “to do, act, manage” (para. 2). Agency is often used in the adolescent and adult literacy literature to refer to one Dictionary.com definition in particular, “the state of being in action or of exerting power” (para. 1), as when literacy learners grab hold of and run with an idea or a procedure from something we teach them that generates new insights that improve their literacies. Educators are agentive when they use ideas in JAAL to piece together a classroom literacy instructional sequence or program. In ancient Greek mythology, Sisyphus's hubris led him to be condemned by the gods to an endless cycle of pushing a boulder up the hill only to have it roll back down again, as in the photograph accompanying this introduction. His agency was limited. If his story was a real-life narrative, gravity, the weight of the rock, weather, conditions on the path, and other creatures would have further impeded his efforts. Local conditions also impact teachers’ and students’ agency for enacting new literacies. Literacy educators and learners demonstrate agency when they have access to the tools they need and can recognize how and when to use them. The articles in this issue offer both such tools and helpful ways of thinking about them. The commentary that begins this issue will be useful for literacy educators who are concerned about learners whose reading seems to be dysfluent. Authored by Melanie R. Kuhn and Paula J. Schwanenflugel, “Prosody, Pacing, and Situational Fluency (or Why Fluency Matters for Older Readers)” draws on decades of fluency research to put to rest debates about addressing fluency beyond the primary grades. The authors define the term fluency and illustrate how it impacts learners’ literacy. Kuhn and Schwanenflugel argue that reading a wide range of texts across the curriculum, with teachers’ support, is the best way to increase fluency and offer various kinds of support that will enable older learners to develop this important competency. Agency, particularly with reference to writing, is central to many of the feature articles in this issue. In the first of them, “Powerful Participatory Literacy for English Learners,” Clara Lee Brown, Robin Schell, and Mei Ni describe how urban middle school English learners improved their writing through involvement in lobbying about school district zoning. Katherine E. Batchelor also shares ideas about fostering learners’ ability to use literacy in ways that matter in “Using Linked Text Sets to Promote Advocacy and Agency Through a Critical Lens.” “The Variety of User Experiences: Literacy Roles and Stances on Story-Sharing Platforms,” by Ksenia A. Korobkova and Penelope Collins, offers explanations of the varied ways that users share narratives on such social media platforms such as Wattpad and Figment, along with ideas for using such platforms during literacy instruction. Renee Hobbs and Julie Coiro add to our readers’ digital instructional repertoire in “Design Features of a Professional Development Program in Digital Literacy.” The contributions to our regularly occurring departments illustrate the agency afforded by questioning taken-for-granted assumptions and norms. In “Language Comprehension Development au Naturel,” George G. Hruby muses on the limitations of a too-simple view of reading for the Critical Perspectives on Literacy Policy and Practice department that he shares, in alternating issues, with Barbara Comber and Hilary Janks. Danny C. Martinez, Javier Rojo, and Rubén A. González offer a searing take on recent language-based ruptures of civility and inclusion in public discourse in “Speaking Spanish in White Public Spaces: Implications for Literacy Classrooms,” a column for the Sustaining Multilingual Literacies department that Martinez coedits with Limarys Caraballo. The other two department columns address agencies afforded by educators’ collaboration with one another and with students. Aaron Wilson and Mei Kuin Lai authored “Leading Literacy Change Through Collaborative Analysis of Practice,” a description of efforts to improve literacy pedagogy in New Zealand secondary schools through collective data analysis. Their column appears in the Leading Literacy Change department that Wilson coedits with Cynthia Greenleaf and Mira-Lisa Katz. Finally, Katherine K. Frankel and Myiesha Robateau coauthored “A Student's Perspective on Literacy Teaching and Learning: Starting a Conversation Through Six Suggestions” for the Beyond Struggling: Transforming Literacy Teaching department that Frankel coedits with Maneka Deanna Brooks. The column is grounded in experiences that Robateau had when serving as a literacy mentor in a ninth-grade class that she codesigned and cotaught with eight peers and a certified teacher. The columns in this issue's Text & Resource Review Forum also take up issues of agency in varied and nuanced ways. In “Rewriting John Henry: Using Texts to Interrogate Personal Trauma,” a contribution to Alfred W. Tatum's Texts and Identities department, Kara M. Taylor demonstrates how an African American male student used the John Henry folktale as a mentor text to work through painful personal experiences and complex current events. Josephine Peyton Marsh and Deborah Gonzalez authored “Exploring Identity Through Literacy Practice and Practitioner Research” for the Research department that they share in alternating issues with Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey. Marsh and Gonzalez profile four research projects by classroom teachers who sought to understand relations between their students’ sense of literate agency and their achievement. Finally, M. Kristiina Montero and Sharon Newmaster encourage teachers to build their capacity to support youths in leveraging all available linguistic resources in “Guiding Teachers to Flow With the Translanguaging Corriente: A Review of The Translanguaging Classroom: Leveraging Student Bilingualism for Learning,” which appears in the Professional Resources department edited by Montero. Embracing our agency as literacy educators doesn't have to mean pushing the rock up the hill by ourselves. Taken as the cautionary tale it was likely intended to be, the myth of Sisyphus suggests that we are best positioned to exert power and influence in the contexts where adolescents and adults learn literacy when we help each other shoulder the load so it doesn't roll back down the hill again. We think the content in this issue will help inspire, guide, and sustain that work. Best, Kathy and Kelly