Narratives of Race, Gender, and Power in Family Literacy Classrooms for Refugee Women With Interrupted Formal Schooling

Abstract

In this paper, we seek to open up, for public reflection, some questions we have encountered surrounding race, gender, and power in classrooms for adults learning additional languages in contexts of migration. These learners are emergent readers, who are women, who have experienced interruptions in school-based learning. Through three reflective narratives of teaching in U.S.-based adult English family literacy classrooms for students with interrupted formal education (SIFE), we hope to lay open some of our current questions and dilemmas, as well as inspire broader discussions surrounding these critical issues in SIFE teaching and learning contexts.