Literacy Practices Research Articles

“We're loud, why aren't you?” Laura’s social media activism through justice-oriented literacies

PurposeSocial media offers youth a virtual platform to build community and amplify underrepresented voices. Online spaces are often used to respond to societal issues and adopt various roles. This article aims to focus on Laura's case, spotlighting the intersection of online activism by a youth of Color, and social media literacies used to demonstrate civic engagement around contemporary social justice issues.Design/methodology/approachThrough case study methods, the author examined how a youth of Color used social media to employ critical literacy practices as tools for civic engagement, advocating for social justice, and navigating the complexities of identity work in online spaces, spotlighting Laura, a self-identified Mexican and Ecuadorian Latine 18-year-old activist, to understand how social media shapes multimodal literacy practices, how youth build culture, engage in literacies and craft civic identities online.FindingsFindings examine Laura’s social media literacies toward social justice activism, contributing to the understanding of youth activism, digital identity and civic engagement. Findings will also examine how Laura enacts online literacy practices related to her racialized identities, and how she engages in activism and civic participation related to social justice issues. These findings contribute to the understanding of youth activism, digital identity and civic engagement.Originality/valueThis paper focuses on Laura’s practices within the larger frame of politics, digital space and youth culture. Moreover, it also highlights the potential of youths' multifaceted social media literacies to redefine the educator's role by fostering youth identity and social justice literacies.

“We need to publish in English: Brazilian reserarcher's voices regarding tensions in academic literacy practices

“We need to publish in English: Brazilian reserarcher's voices regarding tensions in academic literacy practices

Making an Influence: Sponsorship and Creolization on Social Media

AbstractThe growing presence and impact of predominantly female online influencers suggests the proliferation of a cultural phenomenon that characterizes the social aspects of our digital lives. Working with the notion of gender and maker literacies, this paper shines light on newer forms of making practices by looking at influencer cultures of five popular online social media platforms. Situating the research in a Caribbean context, this paper examines the “influencer culture” by looking at the platformized literacy practices of four Caribbean female influencers and using the concepts of literacy sponsorship and creolization as lenses through which to view the interrelationships and accompanying practices between the influencers and their local and global followers. The paper argues that social media platforms are strategically curated digital‐maker spaces that influencers use to shift and change literacy practices and perspectives related to gender, language, and culture. Findings from this qualitative study suggest that these influencers' sponsorship of creolized literacies is reflected in their power to enact social change and transformation through advocacy, consciousness, and community‐building. The paper concludes by considering the potential for such social actors and their digital‐making practices to influence our contemporary global sociocultural and educational landscapes.

(Co)constructing hybrid, transformative, and democratic Third Spaces in a heritage language classroom for Asian American transnational students

Employing the Third Space as a theoretical framework, the present study explores how the teacher and transnational students co-constructed a transformative Third Space in their fifth-grade Korean heritage language classroom. The teacher implemented transnational literacy practices and transformative pedagogy by embracing the students’ linguistic hybridity and cultural diversity from their dynamic transnational lifeworld. The findings reveal that transnationally inclusive literature works as a great medium and a powerful pedagogical tool for the students in utilizing their transnational funds of knowledge, incorporating translanguaging, and (re)constructing their multifarious identities. The fluid classroom discourses during their literature discussions provided possibilities and opportunities for the Third Space to be established and developed in the classroom as a hybrid, transformative, and democratic learning space. This study provides educators and researchers insights into the unique ways that both teachers and students can collaboratively create Third Spaces in learning contexts to offer hybrid, transformational, and democratic educational experiences.

Exploring maternal perceptions of critical digital engagement practices in Iranian children

ABSTRACT Limited studies exist that demonstrate the way that children show critical digital literacies such as expressing their voices through digital technologies at home. To explore this further, the present study draws on Mirra et al.’s framework (2018) to analyze the types of critical digital engagement with digital technologies. Critical digital engagement refers to different critical digital literacy practices used to achieve a particular goal such as critically evaluating, creating, sharing, and designing digital resources. In this study, we recruited five Iranian families involving five mothers and six children aged six to seven. The data collection process involved semi-structured interviews with the children and mothers, demographic profiles, and collecting photos of the children’s home digital literacy practices. Having used deductive coding, we report on several differences and similarities between children’s digital literacy practices and their types of critical engagement such as critical digital consumption, production, distribution, and invention. These similarities and differences may stem from political, historical, social, cultural, and economic influences in the Iranian context. Understanding the way that children express their voices through digital technologies can give invaluable insights for policymakers, teachers, and parents to better support children in becoming engaged digital citizens.

The Relations Between Parents’ Beliefs, Parents’ Home Reading Practices, and Their Children’s Literacy Development in Kindergarten

Abstract Background Research indicates that parents’ involvement in early literacy, particularly through book reading, matters for young children’s language and literacy development. OBJECTIVE: However, little is known about the nature and extent of family book reading across the U.S. nation or about which factors support parents’ involvement in book reading. In particular, parents’ beliefs about promoting literacy may be linked to their book-reading actions, which can foster their children’s learning. Method We investigated several questions using the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten 2011 (ECLS-K) dataset: (1) How are demographic characteristics (ethnicity, SES, and child age) predictive of parents’ literacy beliefs and home reading practices during children’s kindergarten year?; (2) How do parents’ literacy beliefs contribute to parents’ home reading practices during children’s kindergarten year?; and (3) How do parents’ literacy beliefs and home reading practices relate to children’s literacy development during their kindergarten year? We focused on data from Fall 2010 through Spring 2011, spanning the kindergarten year, and utilized descriptive and multivariate regression techniques. Results Regressions reveal that parents’ literacy beliefs are linked to their literacy practices, net of the effects of a variety of covariates. In turn, both beliefs and practices are uniquely linked to increases in children’s reading performance over the kindergarten year, demonstrating incremental validity for both sets of variables and reinforcing the importance of both beliefs and practices as part of the home learning environment. Conclusions The findings of this study underscore the critical role of parents’ beliefs in contributing to their home reading practices, which, in turn, are positively related to kindergarteners’ literacy development, net of the effects of variety of important covariates.

What sources do individuals use to validate arguments in scientific discourses today? An exploratory study of YouTube comments on vaccination

PurposeThis study aims to explore scientific discourses on vaccination in YouTube comments using the Connectivism theory as a foundational guide in the inquiry of understanding knowledge seeking and sharing. The authors sought to understand how individuals share and seek information by using external sources through URL links to validate their arguments.Design/methodology/approachUsing content analysis, the authors extracted and analysed 584 random comments with URL links from eight YouTube videos scientifically addressing the purpose of vaccines. The comments were coded by stance (pro, anti, and neutral) and the type of resource to observe how their links were used.FindingsThe results showed that URL links were composed of quotes, questions, and opinions. Many sources came from research papers, conspiracy websites, or other videos. Some of the comments did not accurately reflect the information from research papers and showed little scientific reasoning. This suggests the need for critical evaluation among individuals when finding information online.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings can be expanded to explore different types of information literacy practices in the comment section of social media for both informal and formal environments.Practical implicationsYouTube is useful in fostering scientific discourse and information-seeking/sharing practices among individuals. However, considering the inaccuracy of content deliverance, educators and individuals will need to consider how to teach/conduct information literacy skills when implementing social media for educational purposes.Originality/valueOnly a few studies have conducted research on comments using URL links, the originality of sources and how the sources were used in argumentation.

The Prosōpon of Jesus’ Soul in Origen’s Homilies on Psalm 15 (16)

Abstract Prosopological exegesis was integral to the trinitarian theology of several second- and early third-century Christian theologians who argued that the different divine personae or prosōpa that speak in biblical texts were distinct from one another in reality. Unlike these predecessors, Origen’s use of prosopological exegesis in the Psalms occurs in a less polemical context and gravitates towards Christology and ecclesiology rather than trinitarian theology. In his homilies on Psalm 15 (16), Origen identifies the soul of Jesus as a speaking prosōpon distinct from, and acted upon by, the divine Word. This instance of prosopological exegesis highlights the distinctiveness of Origen’s theological use of this literary practice. In particular, I argue that Origen draws conclusions of soteriological and ecclesiological relevance from his notion of the speaking prosōpon of Jesus’ soul, which mediates a kind of communicatio idiomatum between the human Christ and the Church.

Manuscript Mystique

Abstract The following study takes its cue from a body of literature that seeks to challenge the academic discourse on “religion” as transcendent, irreducible, and unique – sui generis. Naturally, a sui generis conception of religion also views religion’s objects through a lens of transcendence and divine authority. These objects possess immense meaning potential and act as social mediators in particular social contexts. In both ancient and modern times, early Christian manuscripts are examples of such religious objects. They are evidence of the literary practices of early Christians and are windows into their social contexts, reflecting how these believers navigated their socio-cultural realities. Modern scholars often use these manuscripts as evidence to postulate the existence of homogeneous Christian communities who created these texts for their theological upliftment. However, are such postulations supported by the material evidence? This paper examines one case study where 𝔓72 has been propped up as a witness to the presence of a coherent unified proto-orthodox Christian community in the fourth century CE in Egypt. The following research concludes that extant evidence points to a socio-religious context in Egypt during this period that was remarkably complex; as such, the existence of such a community cannot be supported.

‘You come as a human being…’: exploring sense of equality in arts interventions through an ethnographic study of Shared Reading

Research shows that the arts hold a particular potential for promoting health, well-being and social inclusion for vulnerable people. However, the use and consumption of the arts tend to be...

Peer tutoring as an empowering literacy practice for bilingual Students with Interrupted Formal Education

Peer tutoring as an empowering literacy practice for bilingual Students with Interrupted Formal Education

“Nepantla is a Place Just Like the Ocean”: Bilingual Teachers Explore their Identities through Multimodal and Artifactual Testimonio

AbstractBilingual teachers of Color navigate many in‐between spaces as they forge hybrid teacher identities; Chicana feminist scholars have referred to these crossroads between cultural ideologies, values, and beliefs as spaces of nepantla. In this qualitative case study, we analyzed the work of 31 teachers from two cohorts of multilingual educators who participated in a summer bilingual endorsement course and subsequent bilingual teacher induction meetings. These teachers identified as Latine, Asian/Asian American, Native American, or multiracial, and taught in Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Japanese, and English‐medium settings. As course instructors and induction facilitators, we engaged participants in a series of multimodal and artifactual testimonio sessions and collected data in the form of multimodal and artifactual testimonios, coursework, interviews, and video recordings of testimonio sessions. Framed by bringing Chicana feminist conceptualizations of testimonio and nepantla into conversation with theories of multimodal and artifactual literacies, we analyzed participants' testimonios and found they used images, voice, video, and artifacts to unearth their histories; to forge resilient identidades nepantleras; and to express connection and solidarity with students that informed their present and future pedagogical practices. This study suggests the potential for researchers and teacher educators to leverage hybrid literacy practices, like multimodal and artifactual testimonio, while creating spaces that facilitate identity exploration and development for multilingual teachers of Color. Significantly, this multilingual teacher identity development allows for articulation of connection and solidarity with multilingual students, which teachers perceive as consequential in shaping their pedagogical and advocacy commitments.

Beyond the Observable

This research focuses on one teacher’s lived experience as he contributes towards a broader understanding of possibilities and constraints afforded by technologies, materials, and relationality during this recent shift in pandemic pedagogy. The pandemic drastically altered the way curriculum is enacted as there were shifts in the learning environment, the subject matter, and the way teachers and students engaged in literacy practices. To understand this shift, we explore: What are the participating teacher’s perceptions about how multiliteracies are utilized for classroom practice and pedagogy? How did this teacher’s pedagogy continue or change once the pandemic influenced curriculum enactment? This paper focuses on how one grade 6 teacher explored this pandemic pedagogical landscape in his classroom. This experience contributes to learning from the past, navigating the present, and continuing to shape the future of effective instruction in an elementary classroom.

The Sea and Underwater Transport in Imraan Coovadia’s The Institute for Taxi Poetry

ABSTRACT This article discusses the link between public transport and literary practices by analyzing Imraan Coovadia’s 2012 novel, The Institute for Taxi Poetry. In this novel, Coovadia comments on South Africa’s palimpsestic history from the precolonial to the postcolonial. One way in which Coovadia does this is through the motif of the taxi. The taxi refers to a mini-bus taxi which in South Africa is a form of public transport primarily used by people from working-class backgrounds. Another way concerns the proposal of a fictional genre that plays a prominent role in this novel: taxi poetry. The article explores the ways in which the novel uses the taxi and submarine vessels to open up the geography of the sea as a transport surface whose impact on the histories of the dispossessed is visible from both below and above the waterline. Through engagement with the humanities turn in mobility studies and with scholarship in the oceanic humanities from the Global South, the article argues that the national and terrestrial readings of public transport in African literature(s) undervalue the sea, a prominent transport arena in Coovadia’s novel, as both a space of transit as well as a public space with shared transnational histories. The article engages the novel’s imagined literary sub-genre to evaluate how the text’s subterranean extensions of the South African taxi industry, and public transport generally, unearth the layered narrative of South Africa as nation.

Exploring One Colombian Adolescent’s Diverse Literacies in his Rural Community

A deficit view of rural language learners’ out-of-school literacy practices has permeated formal educational and language policy globally. Intergovernmental organizations like the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, for instance, have often portrayed rural learners in Global South countries as having literacy deficits if their language skills are not in alignment with the practices valued in school contexts. These deficit representations are often instrumentalized as a tactic to oppress and exclude rural students’ literacies and language traditions from educational policy and curricula. Throughout this article, the authors – both language educators researching young people’s diverse literacy practices – aim to address and combat such problematic omissions. Following a sociocultural, multiliteracies framework, we analyzed two semi-structured interviews and accompanying artifacts to feature the literacies that a 14-year-old rural Colombian youth engages with daily. Results illuminate the myriad language practices honed outside of formal learning contexts, including family-based literacies, oral and embodied forms of communication, analyzing and composing with multimodal texts, and developing critical skills with digital texts to question national power relations and forge activist identities. The authors discussed the benefits of an expanded view of literacy – particularly for educators – in hopes of contributing to equity-based research advocating the recognition and inclusion of rural students’ vernacular literacies across formal learning spaces.

Communicate to Care: Implementing Health Literacy in a Pediatric Ears, Nose, and Throat Clinic.

Despite positive outcomes in controlled trials, organizations have been slow to adopt health literacy practices. The purpose of the Communicate to CARE (Clear Communication, Achieve Understanding with Teach-Back, Receptive to our patient family needs, Empathetic care delivery) study was to use theories and strategies from implementation science to scale up health literacy practices in a pediatric Ears, Nose, and Throat (ENT) clinic. Expanding on previous efforts that simply reflected on barriers, the CARE team identified barriers within the local context pre-implementation to select strategies to directly address barriers during health literacy implementation. The RE-AIM framework was used to evaluate the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance of health literacy practices. Over 18 months, the CARE team delivered multiple implementation strategies, including external facilitator, microlessons, preparing champions, audit and feedback, local consensus discussions, and small test of change. We tailored health literacy practices to clinic team roles to accommodate the clinic workflow. ENT team mean ratings on acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility remained >4 indicating a high likelihood of successful implementation. Caregiver always ratings significantly increased from baseline to 12 months for easy-to-understand medication instructions (74%-96%), test results (54%-96%), know what to do if had questions (89%-96%), and encouraged to talk about health problems (76%-90%). Caregiver ratings dropped slightly at 18 months, indicating a need for booster training. While one third of caregivers reported Teach-Back practice across all time periods, the ENT team reported increased practice from baseline (42%), 6 (61%) and 12 months (70%). Over the first 12 months, the external facilitator delivered implementation strategies with weekly contact, tapering contact over the final 6 months. The local champion became engaged in the CARE study through a quality improvement project with meaningful outcomes for the clinic and an incentivization program for scholarly endeavors. Lunch and learn sessions helped build relationships between the CARE and ENT team to discuss and problem solve issues. The 5-item CAHPS health literacy composite proved to be sensitive to changes during implementation of health literacy practices. Integrating these items into standard follow up surveys with patients and families would help realize the return on investment for health literacy implementation. [HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2024;8(3):e166-e174.].

Foreign views on the culture of Soviet Kazakhstan: an analysis of historiography

The research conducted by American scholars focused on themes such as nationality, language, religion, politics, modernization, and cultural change. These scholars sought to understand the implementation of Sovietnational policies in a multi-ethnic society like Kazakhstan and the delicate balance between Soviet identityand ethnic identities within the union. Language reform and its impact on cultural and linguistic diversitywere also explored, along with the interaction between Islam and the secular ideology of the Soviet state. Theeffects of Soviet modernization programs on Kazakhstani society, including the disruption of traditional prac-tices and ways of life, were investigated. Moreover, the study examined how Soviet policies influenced cul-tural institutions, literary practices, and artistic expression, highlighting the tensions between conformity toSoviet norms and the preservation of a distinctive Kazakh cultural identity. The article acknowledges that thebroader global dynamics of the Cold War era influenced the interpretive frameworks and assumptions ofthese scholars. As part of an intellectual tradition shaped by Western liberal values, American scholars oftentook a critical stance toward the Soviet system. Their research emphasized the failures, problems, and resistance generated by Soviet policies, including state modernization, national policies, and language reforms.The article concludes that despite valuable contributions from scholars such as Wheeler, Allworth, and Con-nolly, a comprehensive examination of Kazakh culture during the Soviet period through the lens of foreignhistoriography remains lacking. It highlights the need for further research to deepen our understanding of themultifaceted aspects of Sovietera Kazakh culture, shedding light on the complexities and contradictions inherent in the Soviet project.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Financial Literacy and Management among Household Women in Lahore

Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Financial Literacy and Management among Household Women in Lahore

Emotionally Empowered Learners: Promoting Emotional Literacy Practices at Government Primary Schools

Emotionally Empowered Learners: Promoting Emotional Literacy Practices at Government Primary Schools

PENINGKATAN PEMAHAMAN LITERASI KEUANGAN PADA SISWA SEKOLAH DASAR

MI KH Badrussalam is one of the educational institutions at the elementary level located in Malang City. This madrasah has been established since 1926 during the colonial period. In 2022, MI KH Badrussalam has a total of 52 students and 7 teachers. One of the problems of this madrasah related to students is the lack of students' understanding of financial literacy. This is due to the unfavorable economic conditions of the family, so that many financial literacy practices cannot be carried out optimally. However, this does not stop madrasah from continuing to try to grow students' skills in managing finances. Based on the description of the problems above, the PPM team provides training related to financial literacy to increase students' understanding of good financial management. There are three methods that will be used in this activity, namely lecture, discussion and question and answer. The PPM team and partners believe that this training on financial literacy can provide benefits for both parties. The result of this training is that students' knowledge and skills regarding financial literacy increase.