In this essay, I detail the entanglements of three young Black boys - Million Dollar Man, DJ, and Francisco - and their interests in and experiences with WWE wrestling. Drawing on posthumanist philosophies that attend to the productive relationships between the human and more-than-human objects, I consider ethnographic data composed during a second-grade literacy workshop to describe the ways in which the boys' talk, play, embodiments, drawing, and writing created new ways for them to demonstrate competencies in school. A rhizoanalysis of field notes, audio and video recordings, and artifactual documentation demonstrates the overlapping and diverging traditional and indeterminate literacies that emerged for the boys during their play, embodiments, and teaching. I argue that boradening definitions of what counts as literacy and attention to intimate and affective literacies, often in relationship with popular culture, comprise more equitable and just considerations of whose lives and experiences matter and what becomings emerge for children in school.
Article
Wrestling with Competency and Everyday Literacies in School
Journal of Language & Literacy Education
Document Type
Article
Publisher
University of Georgia * College of Education
Publication Date
1-1-2019
Disciplines
Abstract
Citation Information
Sherbine, K. (2019). Wrestling with competency and everyday literacies in school. Journal of Language & Literacy Education, 15(2), 1-22. (h-index: 17)