This article introduces "La Escuelita," an after-school health literacy program for youth and families that currently meets in a community center one mile from a port of entry into El Paso, Texas. Through weekly activities that include mediums like art, community-based mapping, and collaborative cooking, participants at "La…

Organizations like the John Reed Clubs and the WPA Federal Writers' Project, as well as publications like "The New Masses" can be seen as "literacy sponsors" of the U.S. literary left in the 1930s, particularly the young, the working class, and African American writers. The vibrant, inclusionary, activist, literary culture of…

A case study of a graduate-level community literacy seminar that involved a tutoring project with adult digital literacy learners, this essay illustrates the value of community outreach and service-learning for graduate students in writing studies. Presenting multiple perspectives through critical reflection, student authors describe how their…

This case study investigates Carolyn, an effective volunteer ESL and literacy instructor of adult African refugees, in order to understand both what it means to be a qualified instructor, and also how community-based volunteer instructors may become more qualified. The study's findings suggest that Carolyn's qualifications are a combination of…

Considering the situated complexities and competing interest of exploitation and hope inherent in community literacy work, this article examines the ways that the Community Arts Program (CAP) at California State Prison-Sacramento complicates and also reifies archetypal grand literacy narratives and considers the place of such narratives within a…

This study investigates how literacy was constructed at an adult literacy organization's volunteer tutor-training program. By drawing on qualitative analysis of training texts used during training, such as training evaluations, and data gathered from interviews with experienced tutors, it is possible to identify the assumptions about literacy…

Drawing on interview data regarding literacy practices done in tandem with housework, this article presents an array of recipe uses among retirement-age women. Given their backgrounds as professionals who come of age during second-wave feminism, the women see little value in "domestic" practices such as cooking literacies (Barton & Hamilton).…

The purpose of this study was to explore one South Korean mother's literacy practices after she had migrated to Canada for the purpose of overseeing her children's education. Using a case study method, we focused on language, media, domains, and purposes of literacy practices in Korea and Canada. Data were obtained through two semi-structured…

An overview of the history of the Federal Writers' Project, hitting on critical reference points for our vision of what the project might look like today: the 1930s' FWP's cross-disciplinary integration of literature and history; the rejection of strict divisions between high and low culture; and the bottom-up approach to history that had begun…

Little known about the now celebrated 1912 Bread and Roses strike is that prominent Progressive-era reformers condemned the strikers as "uncivil" and "violent." An examination of Bread and Roses' controversies reveals how a ruling class enlists middle-class sentiments to oppose social-justice arguments and defend a civil…

In working class education, one of the primary goals in addition to basic literacy was the formulation of class-based interpretations of society. In the late 19th and early 20th century, as literacy programs began to filter into the lives of proletariat, an attempt to expand the definition of literacy past basic reading and writing skills…

Objective: This project examined health literacy efforts among adult basic education providers in Central Texas. Methods: A survey was conducted with all adult literacy providers in Central Texas (N = 58). Results: Most programs provide health-related information. Literacy programs see needs for helping students communicate with doctors, filling…

Illiteracy is a huge problem, socially, economically and educationally. This study of the history and current practices of American public libraries examines their role in supporting the development of human literate abilities and in helping all Americans to be critically literate in order to participate fully and successfully in our society. This…

This study uses fieldwork to investigate the sponsorship of legal literacy within a court mediation program. This examination of institutional involvement in literacy sponsorship demonstrates the ideological nature of literacy by showing the importance of context, investigating literacy-based relationships, and uncovering the intertwined nature of…