Service-Learning Literacies: Lessons Learned from Middle School Youth Steven Michael Hart University of South Florida
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University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2005 Service-learning literacies: Lessons learned from middle school youth Steven Michael Hart University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Hart, Steven Michael, "Service-learning literacies: Lessons learned from middle school youth" (2005). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/2919 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Service-Learning Literacies: Lessons Learned from Middle School Youth by Steven Michael Hart A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Childhood Education College of Education University of South Florida Co-Major Professor: James R. King, Ed.D. Co-Major Professor: Susan Homan, Ph.D. Deirdre Cobb-Roberts, Ph.D. Janna Jones, Ph.D. Date of Approval: October 21, 2005 Keywords: literacy, youth culture, community service © Copyright 2005, Steven M. Hart DEDICATION To my mother and father, Connie and Gary, my lovely wife-to-be, Laura, and to the youth whose voices still go unheard ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to recognize those who have made this dissertation possible. First, I would like to thank the “Breakfast Club” youth and the Explorers Club teachers for allowing me to share in their lives and listen to their stories. Without their voices this project would not have been possible. I thank my committee for their professional expertise in guiding this scholarly pursuit. Each of your voices, Deirdre, Jana, Jim, and Susan, can be found woven throughout this work. I am especially thankful for Susan Homan and Jim King, my USF parents, for the support and guidance to make the good times of my doctoral experience exciting and the distressing times bearable. It has been a long journey! I thank my family and friends for the unconditional support and encouragement that forced me to stay motivated. I particularly thank my mother and father, Connie and Gary, for listening to my woes, providing advice, and keeping a strong faith in my abilities to reach this goal. Additionally, I thank Laura, my fiancée, for her enthusiasm about my work, for allowing me to share my thoughts at all hours of the night, and for reading multiple chapter drafts with a critical eye. Love is a wonderful thing. Lastly, I thank Lexi, my lovely and loyal dog, for taking me on all of those late- night walks to clear my head and organize my thoughts and for the company at the breaking moments of dawn. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ v ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 Construction of Youth in Crisis Discourse ............................................................. 2 Addressing the Youth Crisis through Education .................................................... 4 Youth as Resources..................................................................................... 5 Youth as Deficient ...................................................................................... 6 A Counter-Discourse of Literacy............................................................................ 7 Statement of the Problem........................................................................................ 9 Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................. 10 Significance of the Study...................................................................................... 11 Research Questions............................................................................................... 13 Definition of Terms............................................................................................... 13 Limitations of the Study........................................................................................ 15 Summary............................................................................................................... 16 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................... 17 Overview............................................................................................................... 17 Theoretical Framework......................................................................................... 18 Sociocultural Theory of Learning............................................................. 18 Situated Cognition ........................................................................ 20 Communities of Practice............................................................... 21 Discourse Theory...................................................................................... 23 Framing Adolescent Studies ..................................................................... 26 Age and Stage Theories ................................................................ 26 Youth Cultural Studies.................................................................. 28 Literate Youth Discourses..................................................................................... 30 School-Based Literate Youth Discourses ................................................. 30 Adolescents as Deficient Readers................................................. 31 Adolescents as Disengaged Readers............................................. 34 Literate Youth Discourses in Social Spheres............................................ 38 Social Literacy Practices............................................................... 41 Adolescent Social Literacy Practices............................................ 43 Adolescent Multimedia Literacy Practices ................................... 45 i School Versus Social Literacy Practices................................................... 47 New Literacy Studies................................................................................ 48 Critical Pedagogy and Multiple Literacies ................................... 49 Bridging Adolescent Social Literacies with Academic Literacies.................................................................. 52 Service-Learning as a Pedagogy of Engagement.................................................. 63 Foundations of Service-Learning.............................................................. 63 Service-Learning Enacted K-12................................................................ 65 Potential for Literacy Engagement ........................................................... 67 Emergence of New Literate Youth Discourses............................. 70 Summary............................................................................................................... 74 CHAPTER 3 METHOD ................................................................................................... 77 Research Design.................................................................................................... 78 Ethnographic Methods.............................................................................. 78 Critical Ethnography..................................................................... 80 Case Study Methodology.......................................................................... 84 Research Procedures ............................................................................................. 85 Participants................................................................................................ 85 Purposive Sampling ...................................................................... 86 Data Collection Procedures....................................................................... 88 Researcher/Participant/Observer................................................... 89 Data Sources ......................................................................................................... 92 Researcher Sources ................................................................................... 93 Ethnographic Field notes .............................................................. 93 Researcher’s Reflective Journal.................................................... 94 Home/Family Interview................................................................ 95 Student Generated Data Sources............................................................... 96 Visual Data.................................................................................... 96 Student Interviews ........................................................................ 98 Student Co-Researcher Individual Interviews ............................ 100 Student Co-Researcher Journals ................................................. 101 Teacher Sources...................................................................................... 102 Data Analysis...................................................................................................... 103 Observational Data.................................................................................