“I’m a Figure-Outer!”: Connecting Through Self-Narratives of Competence in a Community of Literacy-Learners
Abstract
This dissertation applies qualitative methods through intrinsic case study design to explore how one emerging literacy learner’s self-narrative of literacy competence manifested in a literacy-learning community. Drawing on multiple data collection and analysis methods, this dissertation investigates how a school-aged child with a history of literacy struggles used her self-narrative statements to position her identity within a 6-week summer literacy project. Findings revealed that the participant used self-narrative statements strategically to carry out different connecting mechanisms for the purposes of demonstrating competence or saving face in literacy contexts, ultimately demonstrating her prioritization of connection. The child’s orientation towards connection is visible across literacy contexts, patterns of self-narrative statements, and time in the literacy program. Ultimately, her prioritization of connection illustrates how language and literacy functioned as social tools through which she co-constructed her identity as a literacy-learner and achieved social connection.