Contents
Foreword Delicia Tiera Greene ?ix
Acknowledgments ?xi
Introduction ?1
Our Purpose ?1
Structure of the Book ?3
Who We Are ?4
1. ?A Need for Advocacy-Focused Literacy Educators ?7
A Reckoning ?7
The Teacher Education Gap ?11
Teacher Development: Building Commitments and Competencies ?13
Connecting Equity, Literacy, and Language in a Landscape of Practice ?17
Conclusion ?20
2. ?Understanding Ourselves and Others ?21
Developing a Critical Awareness of Race ?21
A Pathway to Understanding ?25
Stumbling and Getting Back Up Again ?27
Developing a Critical Awareness of Culture ?29
Developing a Critical Awareness of Intersectionality ?33
Conclusion ?35
3. ?Inequities in Schools and Classrooms ?36
Pushing Kids Out of School ?37
Limitations of Literacy Curricula and Assessment ?40
Literacy Teaching Routines and Structures ?44
Deficit Descriptions and Approaches ?46
Conclusion ?49
4. ?Racism in Schools and Society ?51
The Invention of Race: A Brief History ?51
The Impact of Racial Categorizations ?53
Misinterpreting Critical Race Theory and the Need to Address Racism in School ?57
Literacy Educator Activism: Noticing, Questioning, Challenging ?61
Conclusion ?63
5. ?Many Literacies and Languages ?65
Rethinking Perspectives About Literacy and Language ?65
Autonomous and Ideological Conceptions of Literacy Revisited ?67
A Bit of History: The Heath Study ?68
Critiquing the ?Word Gap? Research ?70
Englishes, Raciolinguistics, and Code-Meshing ?71
Multilingualism, Dynamic Bilingualism, and Translanguaging ?75
Conclusion ?77
6. ?Toward Culturally Centered Teaching ?79
Meet Cecilia ?80
Meet Andrea ?84
Examining Teachers and Teaching Through Advocacy-Focused Frameworks ?88
Seeing Teachers Within and Beyond Frameworks ?93
Conclusion ?94
7. ?Toward Critical Teaching ?95
Critical Literacy: Questioning Texts and the World ?96
Meet Jennifer ?99
Revisiting Andrea ?101
Youth and Educator Activism ?103
Revisiting Cecilia ?103
Meet Burton ?104
Connecting With Established Organizations ?106
Conclusion ?108
8. ?Pathways Toward Advocacy-Focused Teaching ?110
Noticing Inequities and Envisioning Change ?110
Noticing Inequities and Forging Change ?113
Meet Kristin ?114
Next Steps ?118
Your Path Begins With You ?118
Envision and Forge Change ?120
Putting It All Together ?124
References ?127
Index ?139
About the Authors ?145
