Categorization in Literacy Contexts: The Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Labeling Students and Their Literacies

Abstract

A common theme in this volume is labels and the impact of categories assigned to learners in educational contexts. These labels have an effect not only on students’ literacy learning experiences but also on their lifelong humanity. Whether the label indicates “dis/ability,” “individualist,” “refugee,” or “queer,” critical literacy studies such as those detailed in this volume have implications for both the field of literacy studies and on-the-ground pedagogy and assessment practices. In “Student-Generated Questions in Literacy Learning and Assessment,” Maplethorpe, Kim, Hunte, Vincett, and Jang examine students’ questioning abilities. Their findings indicate that the quality of student-generated questions is related to reading comprehension abilities and text genre as well as affective factors including attitude toward writing and students’ own perceived understanding of the texts they read. Implications for both pedagogy and assessment are discussed. In “‘I Don’t Feel I’m Capable of More’: Affect, Literacy, Dis/ability,” Bacon, Rolim, and Humaidan draw on case study data to examine the literacy trajectory of an individual with entangled identities. The authors examine the long-term effects of labeling and categorizing learners in the name of literacy education without attending to the human consequences of these practices. As they argue, affect theories, new materialism, and critical dis/ability studies serve as powerful tools for (re)framing research to reveal injustices that should not be overlooked. Drawing on this analysis, it is easy to see how this call to reframe data could similarly be used to interrogate labels related to race, refugee status, gender, and sexuality. In “Neoliberal Logics: An Analysis of Texas STAAR Exam Writing Prompts,” Jacobson and Bach apply critical discourse analysis to writing prompts used on statewide writing tests in Texas. They find that market-oriented, dominant discourses permeate the tests. Students are prompted to adopt perspectives that reinforce individualism and self-reliance over collective responses that prioritize social justice and deep understandings of genuine multiculturalism. The authors call for critical pedagogies that allow teachers and students to resist dominant discourses and the effects of these labels and discourses in academic settings. In “Afghan Refugee Children’s Literacy in a First-Asylum Country,” Sadiq takes on the understudied area of refugee students in first-asylum countries. He calls for literacy educators to better understand the ramifications of living in permanent resettlement locations. Often literacy practices in first-asylum countries are confined to homes and include reading and writing in multiple languages. Storytelling and religious Editorial