ERIC Number: EJ1235192
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1559-9035
EISSN: N/A
Wrestling with Competency and Everyday Literacies in School
Sherbine, Kortney
Journal of Language and Literacy Education, v15 n2 Fall 2019
In this essay, I detail the entanglements of three young Black boys -- Million Dollar Man, DJ, and Francisco -- and their interests in and experiences with WWE wrestling. Drawing on posthumanist philosophies that attend to the productive relationships between the human and more-than-human objects, I consider ethnographic data composed during a second-grade literacy workshop to describe the ways in which the boys' talk, play, embodiments, drawing, and writing created new ways for them to demonstrate competencies in school. A rhizoanalysis of field notes, audio and video recordings, and artifactual documentation demonstrates the overlapping and diverging traditional and indeterminate literacies that emerged for the boys during their play, embodiments, and teaching. I argue that broadening definitions of what counts as literacy and attention to intimate and affective literacies, often in relationship with popular culture, comprise more equitable and just considerations of whose lives and experiences matter and what becomings emerge for children in school.
Descriptors: Elementary School Students, African American Students, Males, Grade 2, Multiple Literacies, Competence, Play, Human Body, Popular Culture, Ethnography, Affective Behavior
Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia. 315 Aderhold Hall, Athens, GA 30602. Tel: 706-542-7866; Fax: 706-542-3817; e-mail: jolle@uga.edu; Web site: http://jolle.coe.uga.edu
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Education; Early Childhood Education; Grade 2; Primary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A