Literacy Practice and the Dialogical Self: Isaac Making Meaning

Abstract

In this article I make an argument for literacy practice as a means for self and other dialogue. Through a theoretical framework that examines the concepts of heteroglossia and the dialogical self, I explore the literacy practices of Isaac, a working-class adolescent diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and his attempts to bring meaning to his life struggles. I argue that, particularly for those learners whose lives are marginalized from the cultural center, reading, writing, and other forms of expression are valuable media through which learners seek understanding of the chaos around them. Given this existential need to make meaning, I then argue that the teaching of reading and writing needs to be seen as more than the learning of discrete skills and instead should be viewed as providing learners ways to call their own lives and the lives of others into dialogue.