About the Book
Shortlisted for the UK Literacy Association's Academic Book Award 2021
This volume explores the literacy education master's degree program developed at Universidad de Guadalajara in Jalisco, Mexico, with the aim of addressing the nation's emerging social, economic, technological, and political needs. Developing the program required taking into account the cultural diversity, historical economic disparities, indigenous and colonial cultures, and power inequities of the Mexican nation. These conditions have produced economic structures that maintain the status quo that concentrates wealth and opportunity in the hands of the very few, creating challenges for the education and economic life for the majority of the population. The program advocates providing tools for youth to critique and change their surroundings, while also learning the codes of power that provide them a repertoire of navigational means for producing satisfying lives.
Rather than arguing that the program can be replicated or taken to scale in different contexts, the editors focus on how their process of looking inward to consider Mexican cultures enabled them to develop an appropriate educational program to address Mexico's historically low literacy rates. They show that if all teaching and learning is context-dependent, then focusing on the process of program development, rather than on the outcomes that may or may not be easily applied to other settings, is appropriate for global educators seeking to provide literacy teacher education grounded in national concerns and challenges. The volume provides a process model for developing an organic program designed to address needs in a national context, especially one grounded in both colonial and heritage cultures and one in which literacy is understood as a tool for social critique, redress, advancement, and equity.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Reinventing Teacher Education for the Mexican Context, Peter Smagorinsky (University of Georgia, USA)
Part I: The Historical Context of the Initiative
1. Literacy to Soar: The Dream of a New Mexico, Patricia Rosas Chávez (Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico)
2. Innovation from the Bottom Up: From Street Reading to a Graduate Degree Program in Literacy Studies, Yolanda Gayol Ramírez (Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico)
3. Mexico: Reading Our Times, Patricia Rosas Chávez & Yolanda Gayol Ramírez (Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico)
4. International Cooperation in the Development of Local Teacher Education Programs, Gerald Campano (University of Pennsylvania, USA) & Maria Paulo Ghiso (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA)
Part II: Social and Cognitive Issues in Literacy Education
5. Some Linguistic Considerations for Literacy Studies, Patricia Córdova Abundis (Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico)
6. Literacy and Everyday Life, Patricia Cisneros (Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico)
7. The Challenge of Literacy and Inclusion, Jose Luis Iturrioz (Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico)
8. How the Mind Engages in Literacy Development and Practice, Rodrigo Ramos (Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico)
Part III: Literacy and Stem (Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics) Education
9. How Technology Contributes to Literacy Education and Practice, Luis Alberto Gutiérrez Díaz de León (Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico)
10. Building a STEM Infrastructure for Mexico's Future Needs, Cesar Lozano (Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Mexico)
Part IV: Research and Evaluation
11. Action Research in Critical Literacy Initiatives, Cesar Correa (Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico)
12. Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives for Researching Literacy Practices, Martha Vergara Fregoso & José Antonio Méndez Sanz (Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico & Universidad de Oviedo, Spain)
Part V: Looking Back and Looking Ahead
13. Literacy as a Human Right in Mexican Education, Rita Alejandra Gracián Flores & Ericka Graciela Staufert Reyes (Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico & University of Pennsylvania, USA)
14. Conclusion: Networking Letras para Volar into the Future, Peter Smagorinsky (University of Georgia, USA) and Yolanda Gayol Ramírez (Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico)
Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
Yolanda Gayol Ramírez is a Fellow at Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, USA, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico.
Patricia Rosas Chávez is Professor and Director of Innovation and Undergraduate Studies at the Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico.
Peter Smagorinsky is Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education in the College of Education at the University of Georgia, USA, and serves as Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico.
Review :
This book reveals literacy education as grounded in individual psychological development and simultaneously in the history, cultures, languages, economics, technologies, and politics of society-with the potential of transforming both individuals and societies. The expansive, visionary program Letras para Volar sets an inspiring model for educational reform everywhere.
In this collection, we are introduced to how a master's program in Literacy Education renews literacy knowledge and practices, by prioritizing the population descending from its original peoples, with a view to achieving the dream of a “New Mexico”, free from injustice. It is an inspiration for the Global South countries.
This soaring vision of literacy education is a sober reminder of the destructive effects of coloniality, inequality, and oppressive relations of power. Alongside reclaiming the languages and multi-semiotic literacies of original peoples, it also stresses access to dominant literacies and technologies such that communities can harness them for their own purposes.
