“Gimme Room”: School Resistance, Attitude, and Access to Literacy

The research presented in this paper demonstrates some ways in which a group of urban black elementary school students were denied full access to literacy based on teacher assessments of their “attitude” (i.e., social interactions which communicated their alignment with regard to the prevailing ethos of the school). Although all the children observed over the three-year period displayed extensive literacy and language skills in peer and nonschool contexts, only some were admitted to the special academic programs and higher-track classes which maximized opportunities for literacy success. Despite the presence and demonstration of literacy competence, many of these children were not ever seen as possessing such skills due to the fact that performances of their competencies were contextualized and embedded in attitudinal displays that were considered inappropriate. Thus, the underlying process involved seemed not to be the acquisition of literacy, implying a growing set of reading and writing skills. It appeared instead to be an exchange of appropriate attitudes for what can more accurately be described as an admission to literacy, a gatekeeping enterprise. A major concern for the children was not so much the problem of skill acquisition—but a problem of acquiring access to contexts where opportunities for literacy acquisition were maximized.