literacy, identity work and stories in the lives of families residing

201 Pages·2016·2.94 MB·English

University of Iowa
Iowa Research Online
Theses and Dissertations
Spring 2013
"Get up and get on": literacy, identity work and stories in the lives
of families residing at a homeless shelter
Mary Margaret Jacobs
University of Iowa
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd
Part of the Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons
Copyright 2013 Mary Margaret Jacobs
This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2529
Recommended Citation
Jacobs, Mary Margaret. ""Get up and get on": literacy, identity work and stories in the lives of families
residing at a homeless shelter." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2013.
https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.eo9tawly
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd
Part of the Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons
“GET UP AND GET ON”: LITERACY, IDENTITY WORK AND STORIES IN THE
LIVES OF FAMILIES RESIDING AT A HOMELESS SHELTER

by
Mary Margaret Jacobs

An Abstract
Of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree
in Teaching and Learning (Language, Literacy and Culture)
in the Graduate College of
The University of Iowa

May 2013

Thesis Supervisor: Professor Kathryn F. Whitmore
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ABSTRACT
In this qualitative research study, I examine the literacy practices of five
families who resided in a homeless shelter and the larger social, cultural,
institutional and historical contexts of their lives. I frame the study around
sociocultural perspectives of literacy with attention to the complexity of literacy as
it is taken up for fulfilling cultural and social goals within families, neighborhoods,
and communities. Rejected in this study is the notion that literacy is the silver bullet
for overcoming the stark inequalities represented in U.S. society. Rather, literacy is
complicated through the lens of sponsorship (Brandt, 2001) to suggest the
differential access people have to literacy, the power sponsors have to sanction
particular forms of literacy that are not necessarily powerful for the people they
claim to support, and the schools and marketplace that may dismiss existing
literacies that families use in their everyday lives.
To illustrate the complexity of the lives of my participants before they
arrived at the shelter, during their stay at the shelter, and as they transitioned from
the shelter, I employed the following methods: ethnographic methods to collect data
of participant observation and interview; dialogical narrative analysis (Frank, 2012)
to examine the stories revealed in the interviews with parents and what the stories
communicated about the individual participants as they engaged in narrative
identifying (Frank, 2010); the theoretical construct of capital “D” Discourses (Gee,
2005) to examine the identity work parents engaged in as they took up overlapping
Discourses that allowed them to challenge deficit myths surrounding homelessness,
life in their former neighborhoods and sometimes their race, ethnicity or class
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background; and counterportraits (Meyer, 2010) to challenge or interrogate the
official portrait of homelessness that relies on statistics and too commonly focuses
on deficits attributed to families living in poverty rather than challenges associated
with inequality.
The counterportraits that evolved from this study complicate the official
portrait of homelessness and its relationship to literacy and poverty. The data show
that the families in the study engaged in wide-ranging literacy practices for multiple
purposes: economic, social and cultural. They believed in the promise of an
education to secure a good job and a permanent home, and they aspired for their
children to have better educational and life opportunities than they had growing up.
Despite their attempts to assimilate and their resistance to the deficit perspectives
that surrounded them and their families, the parents in the study did not benefit in
significant ways, but continually struggled against the official portrait. The data
suggest that the official portrait of homelessness is largely dismissive of the social
problems associated with stark inequality in U.S. society (Wilkinson & Pickett,
2009). Complicating the role of literacy within this larger context of inequality is
necessary to understand the wide gulf between the official portrait and the
counterportraits presented in this report.
Abstract Approved: ____________________________________
Thesis Supervisor

____________________________________
Title and Department

____________________________________
Date
“GET UP AND GET ON”: LITERACY, IDENTITY WORK AND STORIES IN THE
LIVES OF FAMILIES RESIDING AT A HOMELESS SHELTER

by
Mary Margaret Jacobs

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree
in Teaching and Learning (Language, Literacy and Culture)
in the Graduate College of
The University of Iowa

May 2013

Thesis Supervisor: Professor Kathryn F. Whitmore
Copyright by

MARY MARGARET JACOBS

2013

All Rights Reserved
Graduate College
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa

CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL

___________________________

PH.D. THESIS

_____________

This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of

Mary Margaret Jacobs

has been approved by the Examining Committee
for the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy
degree in Teaching and Learning (Language, Literacy and Culture)
at the May 2013 graduation.

Thesis Committee: ________________________________
Kathryn Whitmore, Thesis Supervisor

_________________________________
William Liu

_________________________________
Renita Schmidt

__________________________________
Linda Fielding

__________________________________
Christine Moroye
To Melody, Sandy, Shana, Kendra, Julissa and William,
and their children

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It’s not a secret.
It’s a testimony.
It’s a story.
It’s going to help somebody else.

-Melody

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was completed amongst the hustle and bustle of family life and a
teaching career. Except for the day a crawdad was transported from a large plastic
bag full of water to the aquarium near my desk with limited success, research and
writing seemed to flow rather seamlessly with the daily routines of my life. This can
be attributed to how blessed I was in my scholarly audience and in the strong
network of colleagues, friends, and family who supported me in this endeavor.
First, thank you to Dr. Kathryn Whitmore, my advisor, professor and writing
teacher. You showed me that I had come full circle to study what I was most
passionate about. I have a great appreciation for your high expectations and caring
disposition as my mentor. Even during a big transition in your life, you still found
the time and energy for me.
Thank you to the other members of my committee. Dr. Christine Moroye,
your early mentorship influenced my notions of social and environmental justice in
educational research. Dr. Linda Fielding, you have demonstrated for me the lasting
impact of genuine relationships in teaching and learning. Dr. Renita Schmidt, you
engaged me in critical conversations around this work, pushing me to capture the
official portrait of homelessness in the context of schools. Dr. William Ming Liu,
your guidance of my proposal for family programming at the shelter and of my
understanding of the complexity of homelessness was invaluable to this research.
Your example of civic engagement inspires me to improve upon the family art and
story hour at the shelter beyond the scope of this study.
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