While reading through a couple literacy narratives posted to Rising Cairn this one caught my eye first. This narrative “Education in Africa” by Cassie Waters brought light to one of the questions I made in a previous assignment. The question I stated was based off of the Alexander reading from when she talks about how “English indicated achievement and accomplsihment and was a means to power and advancement” (610), this quote relates to my question of can someone in a non-dominant discourse master literacy? Will reading her assignment I thought yes, someone in a non dominant discourse can master literacy. This is because the African American children she talked about showed that even though they didn’t have what Waters had at home they were still learning.They were learning from what they had such as limit resourses, or more often then not through teamwork. This lead to another question of can someone that hasn’t obviously mastered a discourse yet because they are still in the elementary level education be a sponsor? In Waters literacy narrative she explains that these children did teach her something even though they were younger and not as wise. They not only taught her about their culture, but they also taught her to value an education. After Waters met these kids she said herself “Ever since I came back I have looked at education in a different way and see it as a privilage that I should be taking full advantage of” (4). The children were able to show in there non-dominant discourse that hasn’t even been fully mastered that they are still managing to master or accomplish most aspects of english, so she should be able to do the same thing. They will one day master literacy through the many advancements they made throughout their education.
collreadwrit2e
