Critical analysis of the literacy narrative assignment within the context of the other genres in a basic writing course complicates understandings of the political import of the assignment. While several advocates of the literacy narrative have argued that it has the power of what Jean-François Lyotard has called petits récits, the authors argue…

For years, educators have approached college writing from three distinct pedagogies: composition studies, basic writing, and ESL. But now as these classrooms have diversified, mixed, and blended, separated pedagogies are no longer effective. In other words, these three fields (each with its own journals and conferences) have the same common…

Claims that there is general agreement of a need to rethink the basic writing course. Posits that there is also a need to rethink the view of literacy on which the course is often based. Questions aspects of academic literacy and suggests ways to reform writing instruction at all levels by looking at literate practices outside the academy. (PA)

Examining the intersection of culture and literacy education, this book explores the roles that class, race, ethnicity, and gender play in students' learning to negotiate the conventions of academic discourse. A foreword by Gary A. Olson is followed by an introductory chapter, in which it is claimed that recent literacy scholarship has tended to…

U.S. high school graduates for whom the home language is not English run the risk of inadequate preparation for the rigors of higher education. Whether this poor preparation is the result of disruptions caused by the transition to a new country/language/culture, or of a watered-down high school curriculum that reacts to language error but does not…

Arranged chronologically, the essays in this book trace the attempts of one writing teacher (Patricia Bizzell) to understand theoretically--and to respond pedagogically--to what happens when students from diverse backgrounds learn to use language in college. Over the 10-year period chronicled in the essays that make up the book, the teacher sees…

A study focused attention on the academic personas acquired by two AAVE-oriented (African American Vernacular English) beginning writers as reflected by their speech in informal settings and the style they employed in academic tasks. The study explores the degree to which literacy experiences (home and school) affect students' lives. It was guided…