ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how issues of power can complicate the relationship between personhood and literacy and examines power relations and tensions embedded in autonomous and ideological models of literacy, particularly for those from historically underrepresented groups. It provides an exploration of seeing and making visible the “who” of literacy. The chapter suggests that exploring the “who” can complicate not only how we see, but help begin to unpack power relations embedded within nuanced layers of complexities and make visible “blind spots” that have real consequences for youth as they engage in “doing literacy.” D. Bloome et al. argue that central to understanding literacy is to view it as a social practice involving people acting, reacting, and interacting around written and spoken language in a given context. One’s literacy ability can literally be used to ascribe meaning and value to bodies that are socially and historically situated.
