Enacting Adolescent Literacies across Communities

Latino/a Scribes and Their Rites

By (author) R. Joseph Rodríguez Contributions by Kevin J. Burke The University of Georgia

Publication date:

30 November 2016

Length of book:

180 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

238x159mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781498536448

Through an innovative approach of critical ethnography and literacy research via case-study methodologies, Enacting Adolescent Literacies across Communities: Latino/a Scribes and Their Rites analyzes Latino/a adolescents’ engagement with the elements of literacy for English language arts learning and understanding. How young people enact literacies in their bicultural lives and understand literary traditions today reveals their own interests in democracy, equity, and opportunity. Moreover, the rites they perform often recover buried histories, mirrors, and stories similar to the pre-Columbian scribes whose intellectual legacy is relevant in the twenty-first century. R. Joseph Rodríguez illustrates how adolescents experience scribal identities and language pluralism that sustains their cultural knowledge as they make meaning and enact literacies with diverse audiences in civic and schooling communities.
Enacting Adolescent Literacies across Communities is an engaging and informative book. Rodríguez’s detailed ethnography-based literacy portraits are inspiring. Educators may feel invigorated to foster or nurture adolescent literacies and youth scribal identities. Some readers may also find the theoretical snippets helpful to comprehend Rodríguez’s work, which can in turn illustrate his theoretical framework and his research approach. Plus, researchers may appreciate the transparency of Rodríguez’s research methods. Simply put, almost any reader involved in adolescent literacies can find something of interest in the book.... Rodríguez’s book whispers lessons of hope; it encourages us to engage in socially responsible literacies for and by Latinos.