1st Edition

Exploring and Expanding Literacy Histories of the United States A Spotlight on Under-Recognized Histories

Edited By Samuel DeJulio, Leah Durán Copyright 2025
170 Pages 17 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

170 Pages 17 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

170 Pages 17 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Exploring and Expanding Literacy Histories of the United States brings together new scholarship and critical perspectives hitherto missing from dominant narratives to offer a racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse record of the history of American reading instruction. This book addresses the many important developments in the history of literacy in the United States that occurred... Read more

Chapter 1         

Introduction to Literacy Histories in the United States

Samuel DeJulio and Leah Durán

 

Chapter 2         

Mesoamerican Literacies: Ancient Writing Systems and Contemporary Possibilities

Robert T. Jiménez and Patrick H. Smith

 

Chapter 3         

“Reading, and, Possibly, Writing”: Revisiting the History of the Williamsburg Bray School in Eighteenth-Century Virginia

Antonio T. Bly, Nicole Brown, and Julie Richter

 

Chapter 4         

Hawaiians’ Phenomenal Rise to Literacy in the Early 19th Century: A Historical Elision

John Kalei Laimana Jr.

 

Chapter 5         

Uyaqum Igai, an Indigenous Yugtun Writing System: What Was and What Might Have Been

Phyllis Morrow, Casey Jack, Montana Murphy and Joevahnta Usugan-Weddington

 

Chapter 6         

La Batalla por el Idioma: Literacy Education and Puerto Rico’s Battle for Linguistic Self-Governance After the U.S. Occupation (19001949)

Margarita Rivera Santiago

 

Chapter 7         

“Our Parents Believed that We Should Learn Spanish the Right Way”: Spanish Literacy as Resistance and Ideological Negotiation at Las Escuelitas

Enrique David Degollado

 

Chapter 8         

Sustaining the Struggle: Literacy Sponsorship, Voting Rights, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Jaclyn Hilberg

 

Chapter 9         

Conclusion

Leah Durán and Samuel DeJulio

Biography

Samuel DeJulio is an Assistant Professor of Literacy Education in the department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His work is focused primarily on literacy teacher preparation and historical literacy research.

Leah Durán is an Associate Professor of Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies at the University of Arizona. A former bilingual teacher, her scholarship sits at the intersection of bilingual education, (bi)literacy, and early childhood education.