Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric Apr 2017 Open Access

Writing our own América: Latinx middle school students imagine their American Dreams through Photovoice

Zak K. Montgomery ; Serena B. O’Neil

Abstract

This study examines the intersection of the “bootstraps” American Dream1 and the América envisioned by four first-generation U.S. Latinx sixth graders in an urban English Language Learners class. The students participated in a joint Photovoice writing and photography project about the American Dream with students from a liberal arts college and articulated the importance of the journey toward their dreams. Sharing their narratives and photographs in public forums, the students challenged the individualist American Dream discourse, underscoring a collective approach instead. The outcomes foreground previously-silenced voices and provide an example of culturally relevant pedagogy within a structured literacy curriculum.

Journal
Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric
Published
2017-04-01
DOI
10.59236/rjv17i1pp36-68
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Topics
discourse analysis writing pedagogy multilingual writers literacy studies
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