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Why Johnny Can Never, Ever Read: The Perpetual Literacy Crisis and Student Identity
Author(s) -
Williams Bronwyn T.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of adolescent and adult literacy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.73
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1936-2706
pISSN - 1081-3004
DOI - 10.1598/jaal.51.2.8
Subject(s) - literacy , reading (process) , identity crisis , identity (music) , perception , psychology , critical literacy , sociology , pedagogy , social psychology , political science , aesthetics , law , art , personality , neuroscience
Alarms about a “literacy crisis” among young people have been sounded on a regular basis for more than a century. Yet as each generation of students matures, it is able to accomplish the reading and writing tasks necessary for society to continue. Perhaps then, rather than sounding more alarms, it is time to consider what anxieties, particularly economic anxieties, drive the perpetual literacy crisis. We should consider how these anxieties influence our perceptions of student identities and how best to respond in the classroom.