Participation, Hybridity, and Carnival: A Situated Analysis of a Dynamic Literacy Practice in a Primary-Grade English Immersion Class

Abstract

This article examines native Spanish-speaking students’ participation in a dynamic literacy practice in a primary-grade English immersion class established by Proposition 227, the California voters’ initiative that mandated English-only instruction for a majority of the state's English-language learners. The article theorizes language and literacy learning as inextricably bound to classroom social structures and to the historical, cultural, and political dynamics that intertwine within them. In particular, the author elaborates three principles based on Lave and Wenger's (1991) notion of legitimate peripheral participation that enable the analysis of literacy acquisition as a process dependent on the commingling of social relations, learning resources, and evolving identities. In addition, the constructs of developmental biliteracy, hybridity, and carnival are employed to conceptualize the literacy learning, language use, confluence of home experience and school literacy, inclusive participation, shifting identity positions, and enthusiastic sociality that characterized the practice of the Daily News. © 2001, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.