Week 11: Lit Review - Danielle I.

Ghiso, M., Campano, G., & Simon, R. (2013). Grassroots Inquiry: Reconsidering the Location of Innovation. Language Arts, 91(2), 105-112.

In the article, Grassroots Inquiry: Reconsidering the Location of Innovation, Maria Ghiso, Gerald Campano, Rob Simon, discuss restructuring the concept of literacy and how to make a community competent in literacy.  The article analyzes the following questions:  Where do new ideas come from?  How can people change communities?  What roles can teachers and family members play?  The writers feel that all of these questions can be answered by using a grassroots approach to innovation in the classroom.

The article states, “In the field of literacy, the evolving nature of texts and practices to include multiple modes, media, and forms of interaction, coupled with the increasing diversity of student populations, has challenged educators and researchers to rethink school practices in ways that are more attuned to this multiplicity.”  This is particularly relevant to the communities we are studying in class as most of them have varied socioeconomic statuses and cultural difference.  The article emphasizes the importance of the idea that there are various forms of literary competency and schools as institutions need to uses these variations to their advantage. It says, “Literacy itself is not an autonomous technology that invariably leads to progress. Rather, there are multiple literacies related to issues of power, identity, and ideology that must be investigated in their local contexts.”

The article then goes on to define grassroots problem solving as such, “Problem posing and problem solving—processes that seek to make visible power dynamics and address inequitable conditions. In this sense, grassroots innovations are not discrete “fixes” but ongoing commitments to a broader vision of educational justice.” They also say that the fundamental belief of grassroots problem solving is that teaching and learning is best achieved through community input and needs to be relevant to the context of the community.

            The article also emphasizes that integration is not as important as acceptance.  The authors argue that it is less important for immigrants to be integrated into white culture and more important for those in the community to accept the unique qualities these immigrants have to offer.

            This article was particularly relevant to my studies in Lemay.  Lemay has a large Bosnian population and the two people I interviewed within the district (one the ELL director and one, the college counselor) said that fostering the inherently good qualities that cultural differences bring is imperative to the success of the Lemay community.  The ELL director also said that it is important to recognize that academic language is not the same for all cultures and it is important to recognize that different cultural competencies can impact the abilities of students to perform.