Literacy Matters - Vol 21 - Winter 2021

Reflections of Culture: Stories as Culturally Sustaining Literacy Practice in Early Childhood by

by Crystal P. Glover Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Winthrop University

“ Storytelling is one of the oldest human art forms. Ancient cultures maintained their histories and culture of self through the stories they told and retold .” (Ladson-Billings, 2013, p. 41). Storytelling as Literacy Practice Throughout history, generations of people from societies around the world have practiced storytelling as a way to honor their heritage, uphold social practices and traditions, and socialize children into their cultures (Strekalova-Hughes &Wang, 2019). Daily social interactions within communities have served as a bedrock of culture, girding the evolution and objective of critical literacy (Gee, 1996). Children living and learning within communities are uniquely positioned to serve as reflections of culture, providing keys to the evolving, dynamic cultural ways of telling stories (Strekalova-Hughes &Wang, 2019). As children are immersed into the ways of doing and being within their cultures through storytelling, they gain agency and play significant roles in the reproduction of culture, histories, traditions, and practices (Jirata & Simonsen, 2014). In this way, storytelling is a culturally sustaining practice that centers multilingual, multicultural practices and knowledge within communities of Color. Honoring the Family Tree In our recent book, Toward Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy : Early Childhood Educators Honor Childrenwith Practices for Equity and Change (Nash, Glover, & Polson, 2020), my colleagues and I put forth a theoretical framework guided by the theories, pedagogies, sociopolitical movements, and people who have channeled the work towards humanizing and transformative policies and practices that provide equitable educational opportunities for historically marginalized populations. In the book, we present a family tree outlining our journeys as scholars committed to early childhood literacy instruction that sustains the cultural and linguistic repertoires of children of Color. Serving as the guide and narrator of our personal “stories’’as scholars of early childhood literacy education, our family tree represents the history, lineage, heritage, and legacies from which we draw as we teach, write, research, read, learn, and grow in our journey toward culturally sustaining literacy practice in early childhood education. For us, the family tree“signifies that for more than a century, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous thought pioneers have contributed to a rich expanse of literature urging us to develop educational programs, policies, and practices to create an equitable society and equitable schools”(Nash, Glover, & Polson, 2020, p. 7). We invite emerging scholars to consider the family tree model we created and tell their own stories as they critically reflect on the researchers, theorists, movements, and experiences that have shaped their theoretical outlook and worldviews on literacy teaching and learning in early childhood. In this article, I provide a brief overview

of a portion of the framework embedded within the“leaves’’of our family tree . I illustrate its impact onmy story and its influence onmy views regarding literacy instruction in the early childhood classroom. Later, I outline storytelling strategies that frame culturally sustaining practice within the context of the early childhood classroom. Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Steeped in the tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson- Billings, 1995), our theoretical family tree seeks to champion the cultural competence , critical consciousness , and academic achievement of young learners. As such, we advocate early literacy instruction that values children’s heritage and culture; prioritizes children’s intellectual growth; and promotes awareness of practices that drive injustice while supporting children in taking action against those injustices. We embrace culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris, 2012; Paris & Alim, 2014, 2017) and its “emancipatory vision of schooling that reframes the object of critique [within schools] from our children to the oppressive systems.” (Paris & Alim, 2017, p. 3). Just as culturally sustaining pedagogy builds on and “lovingly critiques” culturally relevant pedagogy, so too do we move beyond simply illuminating the ways in which the cultural and linguistic practices of communities of Color are relevant to White, mainstream literacy practices and toward literacy teaching and learning that normalizes and affirms the rich and varied ways of speaking, listening, writing and communicating that exist within historically marginalized groups.

Literacy Matters Critical Literacy Matters

Figure 1 Family Tree Framework Note. From Nash, Glover, & Polson, 2020, p. 8

Literacy Matters | Volume 21 • Winter 2021 | 7 |

CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS