Disrupting Storylines: A Case Study of One Adolescent’s Identity, Agency, and Positioning During Literacy Tutoring

ABSTRACT

Despite evidence that youths’ literacy practices and identities are important contributors to literacy learning, studies of secondary literacy instruction often focus on understanding classroom storylines from the perspectives of teachers and schools. The purpose of this case study was to examine how one youth, Leo, shaped the storyline of his one-on-one literacy tutorials by attending to his deviations from his tutor’s storyline. Framed by theories of identity, agency, and positioning, findings indicate that deviations were acts of agency that manifested as collaborative authoring or improvisation and provided insights about Leo as a reader, writer, and person. Findings highlight the situated and collaborative nature of meaning-making and the importance of theoretically grounded literacy instruction that attends to how students negotiate their positions in relation to teachers’ storylines.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescent literacy
• collaborative learning
• qualitative research
• comprehension

Acknowledgments

We thank Leo for his insights and honesty and Tierney Miller for her research assistance. We also thank our colleagues, Drs. Laura Jiménez and Evelyn Ford-Connors; the Literacy Research and Instruction editorial team; and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this article.