Rebecca Lorimer Leonard recently published an article with Caroline Gear titled "Curriculum Case Study: Teaching Driving Literacies in a Community Language School" in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. This case study describes the dynamics of a literacy curriculum that was collaboratively designed at a community language school. The curriculum teaches participants how to get a driver’s license in Massachusetts, focusing on the English language literacies necessary for passing the written and road tests. This case study describes the curriculum’s context, framework, and goals, and then details how the curriculum was designed and experienced by its students and teachers. Participants’ insights show that literacies as seemingly incidental as those required for driving can be deeply meaningful, requiring attention to how literacy is experienced by bodies, in motion.
Earlier this year, Lorimer Leonard also published a chapter titled, “Locating Linguistic Justice in Language Identity Surveys" in the edited collection Linguistic Justice on Campus: Pedagogy and Advocacy for Multilingual Students. This book supports writing educators on college campuses to work towards linguistic equity and social justice for multilingual students. It demonstrates how recent advances in theories on language, literacy, and race can be translated into pedagogical and administrative practice in a variety of contexts within US higher educational institutions. The chapters are split across three thematic sections: translingual and anti-discriminatory pedagogy and practices; professional development and administrative work; and advocacy in the writing center. The book offers practice-based examples which aim to counter linguistic racism and promote language pluralism in and out of classrooms, including: teacher training, creating pedagogical spaces for multilingual students to negotiate language standards, and enacting anti-racist and translingual pedagogies across disciplines and in writing centers.
For more information about Lorimer Leonard's work, please see her faculty page.