Literacy and Advocacy in Adolescent Family, Gang, School, and Juvenile Court Communities: Crip 4 Life

by Smith, Debra; Whitmore, Kathryn F.

• ISBN13: 9780805855982
• ISBN10: 080585598X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-11-11
• Publisher: Lawrence Erlbau

Summary

The goal of this book is to encourage educators and researchers to understand the complexities of adolescent gang members' lives in order to rethink their assumptions about these students in school. The particular objective is to situate four gang members as literate, caring students from loving families whose identities and literacy keep them on the margins of school. The research described in this book suggests that advocacy is a particularly effective form of critical ethnography. Smith and Whitmore argue that until schools, as communities of practice, enable children and adolescents to retain identities from the communities in which they are full community members, frightening numbers of students are destined to fail. The stories of four Mexican American male adolescents, who were active members of a gang and Smith's students in an alternative high school program, portray the complicated, multiple worlds in which these boys live. As sons and teenage parents they live in a family community; as CRIP members they live in a gang community; as "at risk" students, drop-outs, and graduates they live in a school community, and as a result of their illegal activities they live in the juvenile court community. The authors theorize about the boys' literacy in each of their communities. Literacy is viewed as ideological, related to power, and embedded in a sociocultural context. Vivid examples of conversation, art, tagging, rap, poetry, and other language and literacy events bring the narratives to life in figures and photographs in all the chapters. Readers will find this book engaging and readable, yet thought provoking and challenging. Audiences for Literacy and Advocacy in Adolescent Family, Gang, School, and Juvenile Count Communities include education researchers, professionals, and students in the areas of middle/high school education, at-risk adolescent psychology, and alternative community programs--specifically those interested in literacy education, sociocultural theory, and popular culture.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	xi
Foreword	xiii
Denny Taylor
Preface	xix
Organization of the Book	xxi
Helpful Tools	xxiii
A Note to Readers	xxiv
Acknowledgments	xxv
Introducing the Characters: Lil Boy Blue, Smurf, Juice, Lil Garfield, and Debbie	1	(16)
Lil Boy Blue: ``My teenage life is quiet, average. I'm a Crip''	2	(1)
Smurf: ``I'm ... from dat insane wicced ass westside Manzanita Lynch Mob Crip''	3	(1)
Juice: ``If you're a gangster they really don't want you for school.''	4	(1)
Lil Garfield: ``I would love to be a rapper''	5	(1)
The Family Community	6	(1)
The Gang Community	7	(1)
The School Community	8	(3)
The Juvenile Court Community	11	(1)
We Became Co--Researchers: ``We've got your back, Miss.''	12	(4)
The Characters	16	(1)
Family Community: Mi Familia	17	(22)
Generations of the Family Community	17	(1)
Lil Boy Blue and Smurf's Parents and Grandparents	18	(8)
Juice and Lil Garfield's Mom and Grandparents	26	(8)
The Boys' Own Families	34	(3)
The Family Community	37	(2)
Gang Community: ``West Up Cuzz''	39	(31)
A Glimpse into the Gang Community	39	(4)
Heartaches	43	(5)
Brothers to Brothers	48	(4)
The Gang Community Collides with the Family Community	52	(1)
Literacy in the Gang Community	53	(15)
The Gang Community	68	(2)
School Community, Part One (I): ``They don't want us here.''	70	(24)
The Early School Years	71	(5)
High School Experience: The Trouble Begins	76	(11)
Literacy in the School Community (1)	87	(2)
The School Community (I)	89	(5)
School Community, Part Two (II): ``This is our school.''	94	(23)
Joining Nuestra Casa	95	(7)
The Boys' Views of School	102	(10)
Literacy in the School Community (II)	112	(1)
The School Community (II)	113	(4)
Juvenile Court Community: ``In and out of juvie''	117	(16)
Entering the Juvenile Court Community	118	(8)
Literacy in The Juvenile Court Community	126	(4)
The Juvenile Court Community	130	(3)
Images of Gangs in the Media and Research Literature	133	(18)
Deficit Images in the Research Literature	135	(2)
Complex Images in the Research Literature	137	(7)
Images From Research on Gang Literacy	144	(3)
Images From Gang Members	147	(2)
Images of Gangs	149	(2)
Living on the Boundaries of School: Advocacy and Research	151	(14)
What Is Advocacy?	151	(2)
Advocacy and Research	153	(2)
Advocating in the School Community (I): The Impossible Dream	155	(3)
Graduation Promises in the School Community	158	(2)
Advocating in the Juvenile Court Community	160	(1)
Living on the Boundaries of School	161	(2)
Advocacy as a Form of Critical Ethnography	163	(2)
Literacy in Communities of Success and Failure	165	(22)
Clubs, Communities, and Identities	166	(4)
School Failure: Constructed Identity	170	(4)
Literacy: Identities Built, Destroyed, Fabricated	174	(1)
Gang Members' Perceptions of Their Own Literacies	175	(3)
Literacy: Membership Denied	178	(3)
The ``Caring'' Teacher Versus Teacher as Advocate	181	(6)
Appendix A: Timeline	187	(1)
Appendix B: Family Trees	188	(1)
Appendix C: Glossary of Gang Terminology as Used by Lil Boy Blue, Smurf, Juice, and Lil Garfield	189	(2)
Appendix D: Smurf and Sad Boy's Story	191	(4)
References	195	(4)
Author Index	199	(2)
Subject Index	201