Abstract
With the first issue of the 51st volume of the Journal of Literacy Research (JLR), we usher through the first set of studies that represent the next 50 years of literacy research. These studies reflect a close and careful examination of literacy as viewed through various theoretical frames and research methods. We are excited to share them with our readers.
Guided by sociolinguistic and sociocultural theories, Wright and Domke conducted a content analysis of the framework documents associated with the Next Generation Science Standards and the C3 Framework for Social Studies for Grades K-5. In their research, Wright and Domke explored how the documents describe (a) the role of language and literacy in disciplinary learning and (b) the expectations for disciplinary language and literacy learning for children in elementary grades. The authors discuss their findings in light of the affordances of disciplinary engagement to the language and literacy development of children in elementary grades. They call on the field to consider both the significant changes that must occur in classrooms to enact such practices and how literacy education might support those changes.
In the second article, Black and Alexander explore the ways in which representations of autism in fanfiction can serve to disrupt normative discourses surrounding autism. The research team engaged in several cycles of analytic coding to examine a particular set of fictional texts posted on a popular fanfiction website. Their work suggests that fanfiction may be a way for fans (in this case, of Harry Potter stories) to demonstrate agency in refocalizing discourse around autism. One of the many reasons this article is important is because it challenges the field to consider ways in which fanfiction might become an integral part of writing in classroom spaces.
In the third piece, Whittingham argues for the integration of social geography into geosemiotics to expand ways of thinking about research on literacy instruction in early childhood classrooms. Whittingham demonstrates how this combination would look as she unpacks, makes visible, and discusses social productions of space in one example classroom. This piece is valuable because it provides literacy researchers and literacy teachers with a way of understanding power(s)-in-place, the origins of power, and the implications of the presence of power in the daily lives of teachers and young children.
In their work in transliteracies, Pacheco, Daniel, Pray, and Jiménez explored the ways in which one third-grade teacher leveraged resources coded in Spanish, Arabic, and English to shape participation in classroom literacy events. Through naturalistic inquiry, the authors highlight the ways in which this teacher created opportunities to negotiate goals, tools, and power relationships with her children. This study demonstrates how a monolingual teacher creates translingual spaces in an English-centric context and the ways in which attention to power shapes translingual interactions. The authors conclude with a call for more nuanced research on the ways in which transliteracy practices are shaped and how nonlinguistic resources can be used in linguistically complex classrooms.
Guided by mediated discourse analysis, Buchholz examined the ways in which a written rulebook, introduced by one child into a revered playground game, transformed the nexus of the game. In this ethnographic study, Buchholz documented the series of events that unfolded across the playground, classroom, and students’ homes. These events forced children to consider a range of complex questions in relation to orality, textuality, history/tradition, and authorship within their historically situated game. Although not necessarily focused on instruction, this study offers important insight into how the introduction of textual production creates opportunities for children as they negotiate how to sustain their collective brand of literacy.
Finally, in the Insights column, Cervetti reflects on the 50 years of contributions to research on comprehension made by P. David Pearson. In the column, Cervetti draws on key themes of Pearson’s work related to the nature, instruction, and assessment of comprehension; teacher learning and comprehension; and the texts and contexts of comprehension. Although limited by space, Cervetti succinctly summarizes the immeasurable foundations to comprehension made by Pearson over the course of his career.
To close, we are pleased to present these studies to our readers. And, to remind you: If you are not following JLR on social media, please do so. You can find JLR on Facebook and Twitter (both @JLiteracyRes), and you can view our video abstracts on the Literacy Research Association’s YouTube channel (LiteracyResearch).