In this week’s reading, we got exposed to the idea of the literacy narrative. The Literacy Narrative can be thought of as a students relationship with literacy and education as a whole. The story one tells themselves about education, and whether one is aware of it or not, this literacy narrative has deep, far reaching impacts on any given individual.

One article attempts to convey this by prompting us to question; why did we want to become writing mentors in the first place, to think about the teachers we had growing up and what qualities they may have had that made them great. As Katherine Saint Germain pointed out in her comment in Perusal, different things can mean different things to different people. We learn that apart of the job is asking questions in order to understand a student’s objectives, literacy narrative and potential difficulties a student may face when writing, such as language barriers or technical issues.

We learnt about metacognition as a tool for understanding one’s own Literacy Narrative, how said narrative impacts a student, a student’s will to write or even a student’s perception of writing itself.

In my opinion, Imperialism or Epistemic Violence is to be avoided as a writing mentor. Respecting the will of the writer in question is important and offering personal opinion with regard to student writing, should be done with this in mind.

PHI 103 taught me that I could, hypothetically, encourage the ‘intellectually lazy’ student into counterbalancing that vice into its corresponding virtue, but that will take time. Why? Bonding happens through personal disclosure; and this would be like therapizing the students. How can I influence someone so fundamentally, otherwise? In my opinion, Conflicts relating to identity is entirely possible when endeavoring to influence someone in ways that potentially effect identity. I’m not really a Psychologist, but Seeing the source of logical fallacies is way different from correcting them in people that present them. But apparently, that’s not far from what we are learning now. Metacognition is endeavoring to go through the process of analyzing intellectual vice and virtue by yourself, but while being a writing mentor you kind of assist in triggering metacognition in others as well.

Incentivizing metacognition is difficult, but I believe existing social systems can be co-opted into doing so. As I was telling Naomi Dubovis & Bella Mendez, Money is incentive enough for me! Blogs, Newsletters, YouTube channels, books, documentaries, Fanfic; pick one. As writing mentors, we should all endeavor to create work that can provoke metacognition. Maybe people do need to start creating websites again? YouTube is overflowing with such work, even though it may not always be easy to find.

In one reading we learn about the “Literacy Myth” which refers to the idea that higher literacy rates result in lesser poverty and more favorable economic conditions in every possible context. The problem, in my opinion, is that Literacy and Morality aren’t necessarily correlated. Therefore, focusing on literacy alone may never result in any of these things. In other words, morality is relative to the culture in question, so focusing on literacy in any other context, where high literacy isn’t already seen as morally superior, can even be counter-productive to the social order of said context. I think it is important to note that Civil rights, and the sense of morality which fuel them, are cultivated in parallel with increases in literacy. In some cultures, today however, slavery is still a thing, women don’t get to go to school and religious education is more important than physics or philosophy. These societies work because they have no choice but to. They have differing senses of morality, the people don’t have any other choice but to have children, put them to work out of necessity, and pray those children perpetuate this cycle which also keep the wheels of the economy turning. The idea that the people in this context are more or less miserable or well off is dependent on your own literacy narrative.

References:

• Galen Barry (03 Jul 2024): Epistemic alienation, Inquiry, DOI: 10.1080/0020174X.2024.2373238 | To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2024.2373238
• Social Philosophy: Epistemic Injustice – Attic Philosophy – https://youtu.be/dFOxRomd_RQ?si=Ou845ja7M33GmRfQ 
  “Suppose you have knowledge you can share, but because of who you are or who you are perceived as, (black minority or uneducated) you won’t be treated with any kind of ethos and as a result and your contributions will be met with  dismissal”
• Epistemic Freedom – GCSMUS – https://youtu.be/oZuroY00JUM?si=OcKOaRKZih47mngJ
• Existential Vacuum, Viktor Frankl – The Existential Vacuum – https://youtu.be/Fxg72exHRbE?si=BwnA-vqcQ4stSQlk
• Cognitive dissonance – Cognitive Dissonance Theory: A Crash Course – Andy Luttrell – https://youtu.be/9Y17YaZRRvY?si=VsGJuNwx7nY2qgbL
• Alberts, J. K., Nakayama, T. K., & Martin, J. N. (2023). Human communication in society (6th ed.). Pearson. Chapters 9-1, 9-2, 9-3, 9-4, 9-5, 9-6 “-The Textbook”
• Alberts, J. (n.d.). Interpersonal communication. [Video]. Wistia. https://asuonline.wistia.com/medias/vxki9pb97s
• Howard, J. G. (2023). Fostering reflection and empathy: Narratives as pedagogical tools in writing consultation preparation, https://doi.org/10.37514/WLN-J.2023.48.1.02
• Graff, H. J., & Duffy, J. (2017). Literacy myths. In : https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312629686, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02321-2_4-1
• Fitzgerald, L., & Ianetta, M. (Year). Chapter 3: Revision. In Oxford Guide for Writing Tutors (pp. xx–xx). Oxford University Press.
• ENG 484 & ENG 584 – Perusall selection by John Buckley, Spring (C) 2025, Arizona State University.

2^nd Draft

Bryson’s article, “The literacy myth in the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives”, addresses The idea that “literacy” always equals “opportunity” .

References:

• Bryson, K. (2012). The literacy myth in the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives. Computers and Composition, 29(3), 254–268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2012.06.001

References:

• Graff, H. J., & Duffy, J. (2017). Literacy myths. In : https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312629686, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02321-2_4-1

Reference:

• Howard, J. G. (n.d.). Fostering reflection and empathy: Narratives as pedagogical tools in writing consultation preparation. Converse University.