Literacy as Moral Obligation among African Americans in the Rural Southeast

(Hardback)

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Literacy as Moral Obligation among African Americans in the Rural Southeast provides detailed descriptions of contemporary African American experiences with literacy and education in the rural South. In doing so, this book extends current understandings of sociocultural perspectives on literacy by illustrating how literacy practice is morally valenced, embodied, and narrative in quality. Johnson Lachuk argues that meaningful and ethical literacy instruction engages with perspectives that are embedded within a social and cultural communitythat is, since literacy is linked to greater social mobility through institutional access for many persons, it is educators ethical responsibility to ensure that learners have the literacy knowledge required to do so. Recommended for scholars of literacy, education, and sociology.

Reviews

Amy Johnson Lachuks Literacy as Moral Obligation among African Americans in the Rural Southeast is literacy research at its best and most readable. She dives deep into peoples lives to uncover something many of us have forgotten: literacy as force for liberation in the face of oppression. -- James Paul Gee, Arizona State University
Amy Johnson Lachuk offers a wide-ranging critique of historical racism, schooling, and a paucity of health care and other services in a small Southern town. She frames life histories of African Americans living in Pinesville within a morally-nuanced exchange of obligations and responsive practices, and shows how despite the challenges they face, all have forged literate lives. Drawing on Bakhtinian theory, she shows how each of her research participants is answerable to others and details intricate webs of relationships among community members. This highly engaging text is a must-read for scholars of literacy, as well as those concerned with the rich history of African Americans in the South. -- Mary Louise Gomez, University of WisconsinMadison School of Education
Amy Johnson Lachuks scholarly career is festooned with scholarly awards; each recognizes the significance of her research to our knowledge about literacy within cultural and social contexts. Yet none of these awards can attest to her stature as a writer in quite the way this newest book will for her avid readers. In the same way that Amy allows personal narratives to guide her own understandings, she has woven a compelling narrative that will touch the emotions and create a new tapestry of literacy and life to challenge previously held assumptions about the lives, experiences, talents, and worthiness of rural African Americans living in the Southeast United States. It reads like a professional novel, and its main characters will remain with each reader long after theyve finished reading the last page. -- Diane DeFord, University of South Carolina

Author Bio

Amy Johnson Lachuk is associate professor of literacy education at Hunter College.