Learning about Culture, Language, and Power: Understanding Relationships among Personhood, Literacy Practices, and Intertextuality

Abstract

This article theorizes about what the notions of personhood and intertextuality contribute to our conception of literacy teaching and learning. To do so, it provides definitions of key terms and a review of related literature from literacy studies, critical discourse analysis, and multicultural education. The article then presents an analytical framework for understanding interrelationships among personhood, literacy practices, and intertextuality. To elaborate on the theoretical ideas presented, the article draws on data from a study of an urban writing club in which a small group of eighth-grade female students used a number of research methods to explore issues of culture, language, and power that had importance to them. Analysis focuses on (a) the ways two students took up opportunities presented to them as they participated in the writing club for shaping and reshaping discourse practices about personhood along the dimensions of history, music, racial and ethnic identity, and womanhood, and (b) the significance of the framing of the study in providing opportunities for the students to make inter-textual links between their research studies and the literacy practices of community members.