ABSTRACT
Chapter 2, “Curriculum, Literacy, and Learning for School-Age Mothers,” articulates the theoretical framing for the book. This chapter presents an in-depth portrait of both research sites, Eastview School for Pregnant and Parenting Teens and Westside Alternative Center. This chapter articulates a sociocultural approach to literacy and language, forefronting the situational and contextual qualities of curriculum, literacy, and learning. The two research sites are described in order to understand the curricular decisions made for this particular population of students. Sociocultural understandings of curriculum, literacy, and learning stress literacy practices and events as situated and contextual, yet also emphasize the interrelationships local processes have with forces that may be characterized macro-level, or societal-level, forces. This chapter focuses on the interaction between macro and micro and invites the study of teaching and learning as dialogic processes.
