Stories from Inequity to Justice in Literacy Education

Challenging the assumption that access to technology is pervasive and globally balanced, this book explores the real and potential limitations placed on young people's literacy education by their limited access to technology and digital resources. Drawing on research studies from around the globe, Stories from Inequity to Justice in Literacy Education identifies social, economic, racial, political and geographical factors which can limit populations' access to technology, and outlines the negative impact this can have on literacy attainment. Reflecting macro, meso and micro inequities, chapters highlight complex issues surrounding the productive use of technology and the mobilization of multimodal texts for academic performance and illustrate how digital divides might be remedied to resolve inequities in learning environments and beyond. Contesting the digital divides which are implicitly embedded in aspects of everyday life and learning, this text will be of great interest to researchers and post-graduate academics in the field of literacy education.

Jennifer Rowsell is the Canada Research Chair in Multiliteracies at Brock University, Canada. Ernest Morrell is the Coyle Professor of Literacy Education and the Director of the Notre Dame Center for Literacy Education at the University of Notre Dame, USA.

Chapter 1 - Introduction: Moving stories of inequity to stories of justice Jennifer Rowsell, University of Bristol, UK & Ernest Morrell, University of Notre Dame, USA Section 1: Macro perspectives: Big gaps, divides, and inequities Chapter 2 - Searching for mermaids: Access, capital and the digital divide in a rural South African Primary School Kerryn Dixon, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa Chapter 3 - Divided digital practices: A story from Indigenous Australia Inge Kral, The Australian National University, Australia Chapter 4 - Storylines: Young people playing into change in agricultural colleges in Rural Ethiopia to address sexual and gender based violence Hani Sadati, Claudia Mitchell & Lisa Starr, McGill University, Canada Section 2: Meso perspectives: Making it work on the margins Chapter 5 - Reframing the digital in literacy: Youth, arts, and misperceptions Mia Perry, University of Glasgow, UK, Diane R. Collier, Brock University, Canada & Jennifer Rowsell, University of Bristol, UK Chapter 6 - The potential of participatory literacies to challenge digital (civic) divides Nicole Mirra, Rutgers University, USA & Antero Garcia, Stanford University, USA Chapter 7 - Youth people's media use and social participation in Hong Kong: A perspective of digital use divide Alice Y. L. Lee, Hong Kong Baptist University, China & Klavier J. Wang, The Education University of Hong Kong, China Chapter 8 - From mothballed to meaningfully-used technology in Urban Catholic Schools Nate Wills, University of Notre Dame, USA Section 3: Micro perspectives: Race and social class digital divides in communities Chapter 9 - Social class, literacies, and digital wastelands: Technological artifacts in a network of relations Stephanie Jones & Jaye Johnson Thiel, University of Georgia, USA Chapter 10 - Values, neoliberalism, and the digital divide: Nonwhite media makers and the production of meaning Zithri Saleem & Negin Dahya, University of Washington, USA Chapter 11 - Making it work in the Global South: Stories of digital divides in a Brazilian context Cristiane Manzan Perine, Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil & Jennifer Rowsell, University of Bristol, UK Afterword