Research in the Teaching of English May 2011

“Rise Up!”: Literacies, Lived Experiences, and Identities within an In-School “Other Space”

Kelly K. Wissman

Abstract

In this article, I consider the literacy practices that emerged in an in-school elective course centered in the literacy tradition of African American women. Drawing from spatial perspectives (Leander & Sheehy, 2004), I explore what it means to consider this course an “Other space” (Foucault, 1986), as a space created without the constraints of a mandated curriculum or standardized test pressures and as a space informed by an understanding of the connections among literacies, lived experiences, and identities. Through the presentation and analysis of five vignettes, I consider how the students shaped the course to their own ends and pursued agentive literacy work resonant with the epistemologies in the literacy tradition of African American women. While I situate these contributions and literacy practices within Black feminist and postpositivist realist theories of identities, I contend their full measure cannot be understood without a look at the physical aspects of the space, the travel of texts into and out of it, and its relational and affective dimensions. I conclude with considerations for pursuing literacy pedagogies attentive to social identities and for creating ”Other spaces” within a time of standardization and testing.

Journal
Research in the Teaching of English
Published
2011-05-01
DOI
10.58680/rte201115255
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
literacy studies race and writing gender and writing community literacy
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Ellison et al. (2020)
    Examining African American Girls’ Literate Intersectional Identities Through Jo…
    Written Communication

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