ABSTRACT
Sociocultural frameworks have been popular for at least four decades in literacy research and pedagogy (e.g. Au, 1980; Dyson, 1993; Gee, 2000; Gutiérrez, 2008; Heath, 1983; Purcell-Gates, 1997, Street, 1984). They have also become increasingly prevalent in framing research questions and explanations for literacy learning and instruction (e.g., Green & Bloome, 1997; Heath, 1991; Lewis, Enciso, & Moje, 2007; Rueda, 2011). These frameworks are influenced largely by the writing of Lev Vygotsky (e.g., Thought and Language, 1986; Mind in Society, 1978), as well as work in sociolinguistics, anthropology, and critical theory. They stand in contrast to more traditional frameworks for explaining reading processes, assessment, and instruction, within the broader field of literacy, which derive from psychology and are aligned with experimental research. Specifically, the more traditional frameworks draw from cognitive, linguistic, and psycholinguistic views of reading processes with the end goal of developing better models of assessment and teaching.
