Mothering and Literacies





Price: $34.99

Page Count: 304

Publication Date: May 2013

ISBN: 978-1-927335-14-7

“As the scholars in Mothering and Literacies demonstrate, our parenting is better—as is our scholarship—when we are attentive to the varying forms communication takes. This is a book that asks us to consider the many ways in which mothering and literacy are intertwined, and it offers both support and a host of good ideas.” —Alison Piepmeier, College of Charleston,Women’s and Gender Studies  

“The overlaps between mothering and literacy are numerous and complex. This innovative work brings together new perspectives to deepen our under- standing of mothering, literacy, and the spaces in between. Highly recommended reading for students and scholars of many fields.
—Catherine Mutti-Driscoll, University of Washington–Seattle

“Mothering and Literacies is a compelling collection of chapters that utilize a wide-ranging set of lenses through which literacy and mothering are rep- resented and problematized in both local and global contexts. Through the telling of their individual stories, women scholars in the collection contribute to larger contested stories of race, gender, sexuality, class, region, nation, and language as these intersect—sometimes collide with—how literacy has been historically conceptualized. Interdisciplinary and accessible, this unique collection invites readers to challenge historical and contemporary notions of what mothering means in the contested space of literacy practices, and it provides up-to-date analyses of digital literacies and literacy practices in global contexts.
—Nichole A. Guillory, Kennesaw State University, Bagwell College of Educa- tion, Georgia

Introduction - Linda Shuford Evans and Amanda B. Richey

PART 1: LITERACIES OF PREGNANCY, BIRTHING, AND ADOPTION
High-Risk Pregnancy - Miriamne Krummel

Loving Mothers: International Guatemalan Adoption and Digital Literacies - Laura Newhart

‘We Can Get Old or We Can Get Dead’: Celebrating 15 years of the Midwifery Coalition of Nova Scotia’s Newsletter - Erin Hemmens

PART 2: LITERACIES AND SCHOOLING
Advising for Inequity: Literacy Advice to Mothers - Suzanne Smythe

Reclaiming Literacy: A Kindergartner Teaches her Mom to Read - Jill Bryant

’You are your Child’s First Teacher’: The Construction of Maternal Subjectivity in Family Literacy Programs - Stacey Crooks

PART 3: MOTHERING AND LITERACIES IN CROSS-CULTURAL CONTEXTS
’My Girls are Going to Make it in the Future’: Intertwined Discourses of Mothering, Literacy, and Desire - Blaire Toso

From Traditional to Transmedia Storytelling: Constructing and Deconstructing Motherhood Across Cultural Contexts - Elizabeth Trejos-Castillo

Rethinking Literacy Research/Training with Marginalized Mujeres - Cinthya Saavedra

Literacy and Motherhood Abroad: The Case of Japanese Overseas Mothers - Masako Kato

PART 4: PUBLIC DISCOURSES AND LITERACIES OF MOTHERHOOD
Hidebound Prohibitions and Electronic Literacies: Separate Spheres Ideology and the Surveillance of Mommy Blogs - Beth Howells

King Solomon’s Semiotic Chains/Inner Division and the Literacy of Motherhood - Teresa Winterhalter

‘What’s a Mom to Do?’: Negotiating Public Health Literacies Through the Traffic Between Motherhood and Mothering in School-Based HPV Vaccination Programming - Michelle Wyndham-West

Mothers-For-Natural-Hair: The Afro-Cyberella’s Social Media Guide to Afrocentric Hair - Lauren Cross

PART FIVE: MOTHERING AND VISUAL LITERACIES
Social Representations of Motherhood Through the Practice of Art Journaling - Jessica Gullion and Ariel Cooksey

Visual Literacies of Mothering - Rachel Epp Buller

Amanda Richey is an assistant professor of TESOL at Kennesaw State Uiversity in Georgia. Amanda earned her Ph.D. from Tennessee Technological University in Exceptional Learning and Literacy. Before her doctoral studies, she worked as a freelance writer, EFL teacher, and a health volunteer for the Peace Corps in Morocco. Her research and publications are focused on issues of gender and literacy, representations of Islam in education, and multicultural education. As a mother of two small children, Amanda has learned firsthand how the blurring of mothering and literacy opens up spaces for the reconfiguration of both.

Linda Shuford Evans is an assistant professor of TESOL teacher education at Kennesaw State University. Linda’s interest in literacy was kindled as she studied for her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Elementary Bilingual Education at Boston University, culminating in a master’s thesis on teaching language through storytelling. She earned her doctorate in Literacy and Language Arts at the University of South Florida and engaged in literacy education through her work as a teacher educator of foreign languages and English as a second language; her research on language acquisition, reading, and giftedness; and her workshops for teachers on bilingualism, biliteracy and dual language education. The literacy work which made her rethink everything she knew and believed, however, came with the births of her children Abby and Zach over 20 years ago, and that rethinking continues today