Literacy in Composition Studies Jan 2022 RSS Open Access

Brokering Community-Engaged Writing Pedagogies: Instructors Imagining and Negotiating Race, Space, and Literacy

Michael Blancato Roosevelt University ; Gavin P. Johnson Christian Brothers University ; Beverly J. Moss The Ohio State University ; Sara Wilder University of Maryland, College Park

Abstract

Although much scholarship on community-engaged pedagogies attends to student negotiations of difference, little attention has been paid to how instructors navigate difference, particularly racial difference, across classroom and community spaces. In this article, we use the concept of brokering to examine how seven different instructors of a community-engaged writing course titled “The Literacy Narratives of Black Columbus” imagined the racialized spaces of the course and facilitated engagement between students and community members in those spaces. Drawing primarily on instructor interviews, we present three approaches instructors took to imagine and facilitate student and community engagement across racialized and spatialized boundaries. We found that instructor positionality influenced how they imagined and negotiated the roles of brokers who could facilitate connections between students and community members as well as provide students with cultural knowledge necessary for navigating the course’s racialized spaces. Ultimately, we argue that instructors, particularly in predominantly white institutions, must carefully consider race, space, place, and their own positionalities when planning and implementing community-engaged pedagogies.

Journal
Literacy in Composition Studies
Published
2022-01-11
DOI
10.21623/1.9.1.3
CompPile
Open Access
OA PDF Gold
Topics
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (82) · 34 in this index

  1. Albright, Thomas, Judson L. Jefferies, and N. Michael Goecke. “A Ruckus on High Street: The Birth of Black St…
  2. Alvarez, Steven. Brokering Tareas: Mexican Immigrant Families Translanguaging Homework Literacies. SUNY P, 2017.
     ↗
  3. Blancato, Michael, Gavin P. Johnson, Beverly J. Moss, and Sara Wilder. “The Work of Boundary-Crossing in Comm…
  4. Davi et al. (2007)
    Exploring Difference in the Service-Learning Classroom: Three Teachers Write ab…
    Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric
  5. Deans, Thomas. Writing Partnerships: Service-Learning in Composition. National Council of Teachers of English…
Show all 82 →
  1. Druschke, Caroline Gottschalk, Megan Marie Bolinder, Nadya Pittendrigh, and Candice Rai. “Designing the Futur…
  2. Dunlap, Michelle, Jennifer Scoggin, Patrick Green, and Angelique Davi. “White Students’ Experiences of Privil…
  3. Espino, Michelle M., and Jenny J. Lee. “Understanding Resistance: Reflections on Race and Privilege through S…
     ↗
  4. Green (2003)
    Difficult Stories: Service-Learning, Race, Class, and Whiteness
    College Composition and Communication
  5. Holmes, Ashley J. Public Pedagogy in Composition Studies. National Council of Teachers of English, 2016.
  6. Kinloch, Valerie. Harlem on Our Minds: Place, Race, and the Literacies of Urban Youth. Teachers College Press…
  7. Kinloch (2009)
    Suspicious Spatial Distinctions: Literacy Research With Students Across School …
    Written Communication
  8. Kynard (2013)
    Literacy/Literacies Studies and the Still-Dominant White Center
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  9. Leander, Kevin M., and Margaret Sheehy, editors. Spatializing Literacy Research and Practice. Peter Lang, 2004.
  10. Leon, Kendall, Laurie A. Pinkert, and Kathryn Trauth Taylor. “Developing Accounts of Instructor Learning: Rec…
  11. Lum, Belinda C., and Michelle M. Jacob. “University-Community Engagement, Axes of Difference & Dismantling Ra…
  12. McKittrick, Katherine. Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle. U of Minnesota P, 2006.
  13. Morton, Keith. “The Irony of Service: Charity, Project, and Social Change in Service-Learning.” Michigan Jour…
  14. “Our Mission.” Department of African American Studies Community Extension Center, https://aaascec.osu.edu/abo…
  15. Pritchard, Eric Darnell. Fashioning Lives: Black Queers and the Politics of Literacy. Southern Illinois UP, 2017.
  16. Selfe, Cynthia L., and H. Lewis Ulman. “Black Narratives Matter: Pairing Service-Learning with Archival Resea…
  17. Shah, Rachael W. Rewriting Partnerships: Community Perspectives on Community-Based Learning. UP of Colorado, 2020.
     ↗
  18. Sheehy, Margaret. “Between a Thick and a Thin Place: Changing Literacy Practices.” Spatializing Literacy Rese…
  19. Espino, Michelle M., and Jenny J. Lee. “Understanding Resistance: Reflections on Race and Privilege through…
     ↗
  20. Kinloch (2009)
    Suspicious Spatial Distinctions: Literacy Research With Students Across School …
    Written Communication
  21. Kynard (2013)
    Literacy/Literacies Studies and the Still-Dominant White Center
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  22. Espino, Michelle M., and Jenny J. Lee. “Understanding Resistance: Reflections on Race and Privilege through…
     ↗
  23. Kinloch (2009)
    Suspicious Spatial Distinctions: Literacy Research With Students Across School …
    Written Communication
  24. Kynard (2013)
    Literacy/Literacies Studies and the Still-Dominant White Center
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  25. Espino, Michelle M., and Jenny J. Lee. “Understanding Resistance: Reflections on Race and Privilege through…
     ↗
  26. Kinloch (2009)
    Suspicious Spatial Distinctions: Literacy Research With Students Across School …
    Written Communication
  27. Kynard (2013)
    Literacy/Literacies Studies and the Still-Dominant White Center
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  28. Espino, Michelle M., and Jenny J. Lee. “Understanding Resistance: Reflections on Race and Privilege through…
     ↗
  29. Kinloch (2009)
    Suspicious Spatial Distinctions: Literacy Research With Students Across School …
    Written Communication
  30. Kynard (2013)
    Literacy/Literacies Studies and the Still-Dominant White Center
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  31. Espino, Michelle M., and Jenny J. Lee. “Understanding Resistance: Reflections on Race and Privilege through…
     ↗
  32. Kinloch (2009)
    Suspicious Spatial Distinctions: Literacy Research With Students Across School …
    Written Communication
  33. Kynard (2013)
    Literacy/Literacies Studies and the Still-Dominant White Center
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  34. Espino, Michelle M., and Jenny J. Lee. “Understanding Resistance: Reflections on Race and Privilege through…
     ↗
  35. Kinloch (2009)
    Suspicious Spatial Distinctions: Literacy Research With Students Across School …
    Written Communication
  36. Kynard (2013)
    Literacy/Literacies Studies and the Still-Dominant White Center
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  37. Espino, Michelle M., and Jenny J. Lee. “Understanding Resistance: Reflections on Race and Privilege through…
     ↗
  38. Kinloch (2009)
    Suspicious Spatial Distinctions: Literacy Research With Students Across School …
    Written Communication
  39. Kynard (2013)
    Literacy/Literacies Studies and the Still-Dominant White Center
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  40. Espino, Michelle M., and Jenny J. Lee. “Understanding Resistance: Reflections on Race and Privilege through…
     ↗
  41. Kinloch (2009)
    Suspicious Spatial Distinctions: Literacy Research With Students Across School …
    Written Communication
  42. Kynard (2013)
    Literacy/Literacies Studies and the Still-Dominant White Center
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  43. Espino, Michelle M., and Jenny J. Lee. “Understanding Resistance: Reflections on Race and Privilege through…
     ↗
  44. Kinloch (2009)
    Suspicious Spatial Distinctions: Literacy Research With Students Across School …
    Written Communication
  45. Kynard (2013)
    Literacy/Literacies Studies and the Still-Dominant White Center
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  46. Espino, Michelle M., and Jenny J. Lee. “Understanding Resistance: Reflections on Race and Privilege through…
     ↗
  47. Kinloch (2009)
    Suspicious Spatial Distinctions: Literacy Research With Students Across School …
    Written Communication
  48. Kynard (2013)
    Literacy/Literacies Studies and the Still-Dominant White Center
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  49. Espino, Michelle M., and Jenny J. Lee. “Understanding Resistance: Reflections on Race and Privilege through…
     ↗
  50. Kinloch (2009)
    Suspicious Spatial Distinctions: Literacy Research With Students Across School …
    Written Communication
  51. Kynard (2013)
    Literacy/Literacies Studies and the Still-Dominant White Center
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  52. Espino, Michelle M., and Jenny J. Lee. “Understanding Resistance: Reflections on Race and Privilege through…
     ↗
  53. Kinloch (2009)
    Suspicious Spatial Distinctions: Literacy Research With Students Across School …
    Written Communication
  54. Kynard (2013)
    Literacy/Literacies Studies and the Still-Dominant White Center
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  55. Albright, Thomas, Judson L. Jefferies, and N. Michael Goecke. “A Ruckus on High Street: The Birth of Black S…
     ↗
  56. Alvarez, Steven.Brokering Tareas: Mexican Immigrant Families Translanguaging Homework Literacies.SUNY P, 2017.
     ↗
  57. Blancato, Michael, Gavin P. Johnson, Beverly J. Moss, and Sara Wilder. “The Work of Boundary-Crossing in Com…
     ↗
  58. Davi et al. (2007)
    Exploring Difference in the Service-Learning Classroom: Three Teachers Write ab…
    Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric
  59. Deans, Thomas.Writing Partnerships: Service-Learning in Composition. National Council of Teachers of Englis…
     ↗
  60. Druschke et al. (2015)
    Designing the Future: Assessing Long-Term Impact of Service-Learning on Graduat…
    Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric
  61. Dunlap, Michelle, Jennifer Scoggin, Patrick Green, and Angelique Davi. “White Students’ Experiences of Priv…
     ↗
  62. Espino, Michelle M., and Jenny J. Lee. “Understanding Resistance: Reflections on Race and Privilege through…
     ↗
  63. Green (2003)
    Difficult Stories: Service-Learning, Race, Class, and Whiteness
    College Composition and Communication
  64. Holmes, Ashley J.Public Pedagogy in Composition Studies. National Council of Teachers of English, 2016.
     ↗
  65. Kinloch, Valerie.Harlem on Our Minds: Place, Race, and the Literacies of Urban Youth. Teachers College Press…
     ↗
  66. Kinloch (2009)
    Suspicious Spatial Distinctions: Literacy Research With Students Across School …
    Written Communication
  67. Kynard (2013)
    Literacy/Literacies Studies and the Still-Dominant White Center
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  68. Leander, Kevin M., and Margaret Sheehy, editors.Spatializing Literacy Research and Practice. Peter Lang, 2004.
     ↗
  69. Leon et al. (2017)
    Developing Accounts of Instructor Learning: Recognizing the Impacts of Service-…
    Composition Studies
  70. Lum, Belinda C., and Michelle M. Jacob. “University-Community Engagement, Axes of Difference & Dismantling R…
     ↗
  71. McKittrick, Katherine.Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle.U of Minnesota P, 2006.
     ↗
  72. Morton, Keith. “The Irony of Service: Charity, Project, and Social Change in Service-Learning.”Michigan Jour…
     ↗
  73. “Our Mission.” Department of African American Studies Community Extension Center,https://aaascec.osu.edu/abo…
     ↗
  74. Pritchard, Eric Darnell.Fashioning Lives: Black Queers and the Politics of Literacy. Southern Illinois UP, 2017.
     ↗
  75. Selfe, Cynthia L., and H. Lewis Ulman. “Black Narratives Matter: Pairing Service-Learning with Archival Res…
     ↗
  76. Shah, Rachael W.Rewriting Partnerships: Community Perspectives on Community-Based Learning. UP of Colorado, 2020.
     ↗
  77. Sheehy, Margaret. “Between a Thick and a Thin Place: Changing Literacy Practices.”Spatializing Literacy Rese…
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 0 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related articles

  1. Pedagogy Oct 2025
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy advanced composition creative writing writing across the curriculum graduate education two-year college service learning teacher development technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions archival research multimodality artificial intelligence literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies literary studies editorial matter
  2. Pedagogy Oct 2024
    Contributors ↗
    rhetorical criticism first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing writing across the curriculum graduate education two-year college service learning teacher development revision argument collaborative writing assessment writing program administration multimodality multilingual writers literacy studies race and writing disability studies community literacy editorial matter
  3. Community Literacy Journal Feb 2021
    A Writing Retreat at the Intersection of WAC and Civic Engagement ↗
    Catherine Savini
    genre theory writing pedagogy writing across the curriculum service learning professional writing literacy studies race and writing
  4. Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric Apr 2011
    African American Students Learn by Serving the African American Community: A Jackson State University Example of “Challenging Minds and Changing Lives” ↗
    Preselfannie E. Whitfield McDaniels; Kashelia J. Harrion; Rochelle Smith Glenn; Gisele Nicole Gentry
    writing pedagogy curriculum design service learning literacy studies race and writing community literacy
  5. Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric Sep 2009
    Composing Cultural Diversity and Civic Literacy: English Language Learners as Service Providers ↗
    Adrian J. Wurr
    first-year composition writing pedagogy service learning multilingual writers literacy studies race and writing