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Using inclusion, high demands and high expectations to resist the deficit syndrome: a study of eight Grade three classes overachieving in reading
Author(s) -
Damber Ulla
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
literacy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1741-4369
pISSN - 1741-4350
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-4369.2009.00503.x
Subject(s) - inclusion (mineral) , psychology , reading (process) , literacy , narrative , mathematics education , blindness , pedagogy , multiculturalism , resistance (ecology) , social psychology , linguistics , medicine , philosophy , ecology , optometry , biology
The main objective of this study was to explore how teachers and classroom factors contribute to students' successful literacy learning. Eight Grade three classes, achieving at higher levels than expected with regard to socio‐economic background and language factors, were identified in a multicultural Stockholm district and statistically described. In‐depth interviews were performed to add the teachers' voices in order to get fuller descriptions of classroom life about literature‐based work and the creation of an inclusive classroom climate. The teachers' narratives illustrate how resistance to the deficit syndrome and avoidance of colour blindness were enacted in the classrooms and contributed to create positive conditions for literacy learning. The results indicated inclusion, high demands and high expectations as key concepts depicting these classrooms. The findings are discussed in relation to Vygotsky's theories, Bernstein's code theory, and critical language theory.