While many Latino families in the United States are defined in schools and in popular discourse by their alleged deficits and constraints (Flores 2005; Villenas and Deyhle 1999), there is substantial research that frames them as active agents who seize opportunities, make choices, and access resources to resist the poverty and racism many confront (Arzubiaga et al. 2000; GarcĂa and GarcĂa 2012; Nieto 2012). For some families, religion can support agency and provide spiritual, human, and skill- and knowledge-based resources.
This chapter will examine some ways that one Latino familyâliving in the Midwest and belonging to a Spanish-speaking, Pentecostal church 1 âdrew on religious and secular texts in Spanish and English in interactions at home that integrated literacy teaching and learning with religious lessons and school events. The protagonist was Benny Santos, 2 a six-year-old bilingual Puerto Rican, who used these texts to enrich his emerging bilingualism and biliteracy, often with the expert mediation of his grandmother, Nydia. Syncretizing a range of resources and privileging none, they co-constructed literacy and moral learning. For Benny and his grandmother, the languages, texts, and practices formed a single rich reserve of resources that they drew on to enact their religious beliefs, communicate, construct meaning, and resist their constraints jointly and with expertise.
Concepts Guiding the Investigation
The data I discuss here were drawn from an investigation into the literacy lives of two six-year-old first graders, Benny and another boy, Miguel, at home and in school and community settings (Volk 2011). This work was guided by a critical sociocultural perspective that frames human activity as situated in social and historical contexts and reveals issues of power and privilege. Constraining social forces are addressed, as well as participantsâ agency (Lewis et al. 2007). Investigations of literacy from this perspective often explore multiple literacies, the diverse meaning-making practices that people construct in the contexts of their lives (Li 2008). Recent research urges that such studies be multi-sited, describing literacies âthat flow in and out of context[s]â (Pahl and Burnett 2013, 7) conceived as linked, permeable, and dynamic locations.
My work on syncretism, much of it with colleagues (Gregory et al. 2013; Volk 2013), also provided guidance. Grounded in anthropology, syncretism refers to the process of social, cultural, and cognitive transformation as people blend resources from distinct contexts and create new forms and practices. This highlights agency and creativity as people bring diverse elements together, sometimes harmoniously and sometimes in contradictory ways.
The research on Latino families was also relevant. While some educational materials propagate a deficit perspective, framing Latino families as deviations from a White, English-speaking norm, there is substantial research describing familiesâ strengths, funds of knowledge, and support for childrenâs school learning (GarcĂa and GarcĂa 2012; GonzĂĄlez et al. 2005; Olivos et al. 2011; Zentella 2005). Writing about Latino families, Arzubiaga et al. (2000) argue that they âcan and do make choices that often maximize the resources available to them despite their ecological constraintsâ (94â95).
Some research has closely analyzed the literacy teaching strategies used by Latino families (Janes and Kermani 2001; Moreno and Cisneros-Cohernour 1998; Reese and Gallimore 2000). This work suggests that Latino parents tend to teach as they were taught, focusing on letter naming and sounds, emphasizing repetition, memorization, and decoding accuracy rather than meaning. Research on teaching practices with diverse families in several different religions (Kapitzke 1995; McMillon and Edwards 2004; Moore 2011) has found an emphasis on the same strategies. In addition, Kapitzke (1995), in her study of literacy in an Adventist church, noted a contradiction between church teachings emphasizing personal engagement with texts and adultsâ assertion of a âprivileged and authorisedâ meaning for children to accept (253).
Methods for Data Collection and Analysis
To understand the childrenâs literacy lives, I used ethnographic methods to study literacy as a sociocultural practice (Barton et al. 2000). Data were collected for one year using participant observation in the classroom, homes, and community, as well as interviews with the teacher, parents, and community members. I conducted audio recordings between January and June during monthly visits to the homes, and the parents completed network maps indicating the people who mediated their childâs developing literacy and the community locations where they practiced literacy.
Two cultural insiders, both Puerto Rican and one the classroom teacher, participated in the analysis of selected data excerpts with me and the studyâs consultant. (I am a White, Spanish-speaking teacher educator who has lived in Latin America, and the consultant, an education professional and researcher, is originally from Argentina. We both have worked and conducted research in the cityâs Puerto Rican community.) The memoirs of Latina writers (Alvarez, cited in McClellen 2000; Ortiz Cofer 1990) added to our understandings of the data, as did the insights of Puerto Rican and Mexican-American research assistants.
To analyze the participantsâ construction of literacy, I drew on the tenets of linguistic ethnography, which asserts that âclose analysis of situated language use can provide both fundamental and distinctive insights into the mechanisms and dynamics of social and cultural production in everyday activityâ (Rampton et al. 2004, 2). To do so I used a multilayered process (Gregory and Williams 1998) to embed the language use of Benny and his grandmother (inner layer) in literacy events (middle layer), which are embedded in social and historical contexts (outer layer). Consistent with a critical perspective, the identification of themes synthesized my perspectives, the participantsâ, and those of cultural insiders (Anderson 1989; Orellana 2007). For this chapter, I provide information on Bennyâs school, home, and church contexts, analyze one literacy event during which Benny read from a Spanish Bible, and discuss elements of all three layers.
The Broader Contexts
The Latino community in the city where Benny lives has grown rapidly, increasing by 13.8% between 2000 and 2010 (Gratereaux 2013). Latinos represented 10% of the cityâs total population by 2010 (U.S. Census 2010) and are now, at 17%, the largest so-called minority group in the United States (Krogstad 2014). As of August 2014, the cityâs school district provided services to 3,091 children identified as English Language Learners, who made up 8% of enrollment. Of those, 75% were speakers of Spanish as a home language, and 44% of the Spanish speakers were Puerto Rican (Multilingual Multicultural Education Office, Midwest City School District, email to author).
The Latino community in this city and across the country is characterized by the phenomenon of âProtestantizationâ (Pantoja 2001, 168). A report by the Pew Research Center (2014) notes that in 2013, 24% of Latino adults were former Catholics and had become evangelical Protestants or unaffiliated. Specifically, 55% of adult Latinos in the United States were Catholic, down from 67% in 2010, and 22% were Protestant, up eight percentage points. Of those who identified as Protestant, 16% were evangelical, up from 12% in the same three years.
The Pentecostal Movement has been described as âthe single-most significant development in twentieth-century Christianityâ (Reid 1990, 885). Pentecostals are evangelical Protestants who believe that the Bible is the literal word of God and that the personal experience of being saved through acceptance of and communication with the Holy Spirit is central. As a consequence of the former belief, Bible reading is an important element of church services and a frequent at-home activity. The director of Bennyâs churchâs religious school explained: Participation and oral expression through personal testimonies about times when Jesus has answered prayers reflect the second belief and are common elements of church services, as is repetitive and collective oral prayer and singing (Reid 1990). For exampl...