CREAL's March colloquium event. Family Literacy Community of Practice: Community Mapping and Critical Teacher Inquiry" by Dr. Ordonez

1. F A M I L Y L I T E R A C Y C O M M U N I T Y O F P R A C T I C E :
C O M M U N I T Y M A P P I N G A N D C R I T I C A L
T E A C H E R I N Q U I R Y
M A R C H 4 , 2 0 1 5
ROSARIO ORDONEZ-JASIS
DEPARTMENT OF LITERACY AND
READING
CSU FULLERTON

2. PURPOSE
• This study focused on the development and
evolution of teachers’ enacted theories about how
family and community-based literacies support
literacy learning and engagement within schools.
• It investigated how involvement in a Family Literacy
Community of Practice (CoP) shapes and/or
supports teacher inquiry on family and community
literacy(ies).

3. CONTEXT: CONNECTING WORLDS OF
STUDENTS IN AND OUT OF SCHOOL
“We’ve been going out into the community and
interviewing parents and just finding out about their
perceptions about their children…to find out what
assets they have in the community. And then also
we’ve been trying to find ways to connect with the
community and to bring the children’s worlds into the
classroom as well as take our world outside and
connect with the parents.”
(Frank, 6th grade teacher, follow-up interview 5/2014)

4. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Three Lines of Research
1. Literacy Engagement:
• Connecting students’ interest and recognizing
them as holding useful knowledge builds
engagement, comprehension, and motivation
(Guthrie & Wigfield, 2009; Ivey, 2010).
• Engagement as intricately tied to social contexts
(Brozo & Mayville, 2012)
• Connecting new literacy practices with existing
socio-cultural literacy knowledge helps transfer
expertise and builds positive literate identities
(Jimenez, 2004; Moll & Gonzales, 2004).

5. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2. Teacher Critical Inquiry
• Observing/documenting “funds of
knowledge” helps educators situate
literacy and better understand the diverse
ways literacy is experienced (Moll, 2010)
• Enhanced responsiveness to students’
literacy growth and curriculum relevance
(Genishi & Dyson, 2009)

6. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
3. Communities of Practice
• Common interest, shared inquiry,
individual and collective expertise
(Wenger, 1999)
• Educators with “interest, passion, or need
to commit to learning with and from each
other to become more effective in their
practice” (Ball Foundation, 2009)
• Spaces for inquiry, reflection, and
interrogation

7. METHODS
• Teacher action research project (Lytle &
Cochran-Smith, 1992).
• Communities as settings for study and critical analysis
• Data emerges from a larger multi-year
longitudinal study
• 5 years: 2009-2014
• Ten K-12 Latino teachers
• Mid-sized diverse urban district
• Members of a teacher-led Family Literacy
Community of Practice (CoP)

8. DATA SOURCES
Year 1: Analytic memos; audiotaped meetings; document,
field notes and artifact analysis
Year 2: Classroom observations; interviews, videotape of
classroom practice and retreat/interviews; audiotaped
design, meetings; emails; questionnaires
Year 3: Emails archived; design notes facilitator training;
audiotaped design team mtgs; CoP written reflections
Year 4: Focus group interviews; surveys; audiotaped design
team calls; student interview; artifact collection, fieldnotes,
design team interviews
Year 5: Interviews with design team, district leaders,
document analysis, targeted follow-up interviews

9. GUIDING RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• What are the CoP’s theories about the role of
family and community literacy on students’
in-school literacy learning?
• To what extent do those theories change
through participation in collaborative,
systematic inquiry into community/family
literacy(ies)?

10. DATA AND INTERPRETATIONS: LITERACY
LEARNING IS ROOTED IN COMMUNITY
1. Collaborative culture: Confianza
2. Sustained attention to a focused line of
inquiry
3. Co-created shared understandings of
“literacies not readily seen”
4. Commitment to action: Grounding findings
in student learning/communities in
classrooms

11. 1. COLLABORATIVE CULTURE:
CONFIANZA
• Shared agreements and norms
• Careful planning
• Design team

12. 2. SUSTAINED ATTENTION TO A
FOCUSED LINE OF INQUIRY: INDIVIDUAL
AND COLLECTIVE UNDERSTANDINGS
“Working in a community of practice has changed
me. Learning from my peers, collaborating with my
peers….it’s that collective piece that was most
powerful for me….we bring it all together and we find
the theme in all of our learnings.”
(Antonio, 6th grade teacher, interview, May 2011).
“I’m also beginning to see it as making these ideas
actionable through inquiry…You must participate
actively and that’s how your perspective changes.
That’s how you make the connections. That’s how you
tap into the world. That’s how you get to know your
community.”
(Roberta, Bilingual teacher, written reflections, Oct.
2010).

13. Community Mapping Process
1. Goals, timeline, tasks 6. Write field notes
2. Gather demographic
information
Assess needs/concerns
7. Survey or interview parents
and/or community members
3. Scout geographical location 8. Tabulate/synthesize
“findings”
4. Identify places to visit and
community informants to
interview
9. Records reflections
5. Collect artifacts,
photograph/ videotape
10. Debrief
SUSTAINED INQUIRY TIED TO PROCESSES AND
TOOLS ASSOCIATED WITH COMMUNITY
MAPPING

14. 3. UNLOCKING “LITERACIES NOT READILY
SEEN”

15. 4. CRITICAL QUESTIONING AND
COMMITMENT TO ACTION
“We bring in separate curriculums and stories and we
set the tone. And when I say we, I mean “we” as a
whole not just the teachers in the classroom but as a
district and state. We don’t stop to think about (how)
everybody’s language and everybody’s cultural
experiences are important. And why is this more
important than this? So if we have that political power
to set what’s important then we need to make sure
that we’re making those choices with a lot of
knowledge of understanding of our cultural
community that we’re working in.”
(Rosa, 3rd grade teacher, CoP meeting, Jan. 2012).

16. GROUNDING CM “FINDINGS” IN
STUDENT LEARNING: COMMUNITIES IN
THE CLASSROOM

17. • CoPs spaces to intentionally and systematically
problematize whose language and cultural
experiences count and whose do not;
• Sustained inquiry – with clear processes and support
– allowed for effective use of evidence.
• Incorporating community-based cultural and
linguistic practices into literacy curriculum is
enhanced by collaborations with other teachers and
families
• CM as an inquiry-based method for uncovering
students’ cultural, linguistic and community spheres.
Offers the potential to shift perspectives about the
literacy knowledge and expertise that are relevant
and connected to the school curriculum
IMPLICATIONS