What Counts as Literacy in the Polytechnic Hispanic Serving Institution? Culturally Sustaining Frameworks for Writing Assignments, Assessment, and Language Use

Authors

Lisa Tremain, Cal Poly HumboldtFollow
Jill Anderson, Cal Poly HumboldtFollow
Beth Eschenbach, Cal Poly HumboldtFollow
Nicolette Amann, Cal Poly HumboldtFollow
Kerry Marsden, Cal Poly HumboldtFollow

Abstract

This article theorizes and describes classroom pedagogies that support the development of students’ disciplinary literacies through culturally sustaining, socially just approaches. Drawing primarily from the framework of culturally sustaining pedagogies (CSP) (Paris, 2012; Alim, Paris & Wong, 2020), the authors suggest strategies for writing assignment and assessment designs that support students’ multilingual and multiliterate ways of knowing. These strategies intentionally invite and integrate students’ multiple ways of knowing and being in and outside of the polytechnic HSI. They also ask instructors to decenter the ways that whiteness operates in their curricula and programs. The authors conclude the article by arguing that culturally sustaining approaches must be part of how instructors think about disciplinary literacy development in the HSI polytechnic context.

Recommended Citation

Tremain, Lisa, Jill Anderson, Beth Eschenbach, Nicolette Amann, and Kerry Marsden. 2023. "What Counts as Literacy in the Polytechnic Hispanic Serving Institution? Culturally Sustaining Frameworks for Writing Assignments, Assessment, and Language Use." Humboldt Journal of Social Relations 1 (45): 120-135. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55671/0160-4341.1171