Reading and Writing Teenage Motherhood: Changing Literacy Practices and Developing Identities

When Elaine, a high school student and teenage mother, learned of her pregnancy, she transferred to an alternative public high school with a child care facility and parenting classes and began focusing on her future. Her actions and words above illustrate one of many ways that her literacy practices changed after having a child. She began to read and write to her son. She suggests that a change has occurred in her identity. She dedicated her schooling to cultivating a professional career.