Schooling activist evangelical literacy: Speaking, writing, and storying Christian faith in dialogue with public secondary literacy curriculum

Abstract

Abstract Contributing to emerging work on youth religious literacies interacting with secondary literacy curriculum in US public schools, this paper conceptualizes and empirically examines activist evangelical literacy. We narrate how, in response to a community-based, experiential literacy curriculum called “Walkabout”, focal youth participant “Jeremy” chose to join the traveling campus ministry of an evangelical Christian preacher. A small story analysis of Jeremy's written and spoken language (including journals, teacher responses to journals, class dialogues, and public presentation), narrated over a three-month period surrounding Walkabout, showed literacy curriculum invitations opening space for Jeremy to practice sharing his faith. Jeremy’s set of faith-sharing practices (i.e., activist evangelical literacy) aimed to transform speaker/writer or listener/reader: narrating faith, listening to others who do not share faith, dialoguing with more knowledgeable others, and flexibly recalling scripture for varied rhetorical purposes. Engaging activist evangelical literacy in response to school literacy curriculum increased Jeremy’s inclination and capacity to participate in dialogue across religious difference.