Self-Determination and Cultural Empowerment: Reader Histories Reveal Learning and Adaptation Strategies

This article explores the issues of cultural transmission and discontinuity, as well as the implications of culturally based assumptions and attitudes and their potential influence in schools. Through interviews based upon questions specifically related to literacy and literacy acquisition conducted with five seventh-grade students and one eighth-grade student who were perceived to have achieved various levels of success or failure in school-related tasks, insights about student learning and adaptation strategies are revealed which may have pedagogical implications for educators. Arguments are made that adjustments in culturally based assumptions and attitudes by members of the community and the school may influence the academic success or failure of our children.