Dangling Literate Identities in Imagined Futures

Abstract

Using data from a 4-year longitudinal ethnography in a multiage classroom, this study followed one “struggling” reader/writer from his first day of kindergarten into first grade in order to explore how time shapes young children’s beliefs about reading and writing as well as constructions of literate identities. Using mediated discourse analysis (MDA) and timescale analysis to unpack the social interactions in this rich case, I consider the social construction of temporality in this classroom and, more specifically, the juxtaposition of diverse productions of time across sites of engagement. Findings suggest that the spatiotemporal matrix grounding classroom literacy interactions is neither static nor predetermined; it is produced within intersecting discourses, historical bodies, and artifacts that children and adults draw on during a moment of interaction. Significantly, rethinking the spatiotemporal matrix in schools offers possibilities for reclaiming the “struggling” child’s literate identities.