BOOK REVIEW

Purcell-Gates, Victoria (1995). Other people's words: The cycle of low literacy. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Sumru Akcan University of Arizona

Other people's words: The cycle of low literacy explores the literacy experiences of a low socioeconomic minority population in the United States: White, urban Appalachian people. Purcell-Gates presents a qualitative case study that examines a mother's (Jenny) and her son's (Donny) literacy learning. The author is both a teacher of Jenny and Donny and the principal investigator in this study. The data for her study comes from field notes, audio-recordings, structured and semi-structured interviews with Jenny and also with Donny's classroom teacher. The author's goal is to inform educators about the values and beliefs of the Appalachian people toward literacy learning and then show the experiences of Jenny and Donny when they have to read and write in schools where the curriculum is designed for children from mainstream, middle class, literate homes.

This book criticizes professional and public attitudes and beliefs directed toward minority people and illustrates how they are seen as deficient in terms of their cognitive abilities, their dialect, their parenting skills, and the value they give to education. One of the main issues discussed in the book is the sociocultural theory of learning, the perspective the author takes in conducting her research. According to this theory, all learners are the members of a defined culture, and their culture determines the way they interpret information around them (Purcell-Gates, 1995). The author further asserts that there is a necessity for understanding the cultural contexts of learners and learning the way they process and interpret the world. The primary and secondary cultural discontinuity approach posits that minority clashes with majority culture schools are not matters of deficit, but of difference (Jacob & Jordan, 1993). Since learning takes place in a social context, there is a need to understand learners' different identities (i.e., ethnicity, family education history, and socioeconomic status) and the processes of their learning in order to access equal educational opportunity.

According to the "autonomous" model of literacy, literacy is seen as a universal set of discrete cognitive skills which can be learned independently from specific contexts or cultural frameworks (Street, 1984). Street also maintains that the autonomous model promotes and justifies the hegemony of certain cultural communities by giving their literacy practices priority . Purcell-Gates states that "if you are a child born into a family that is not middle class and educated, your chances of achieving a literacy level equal to that of another child born into such a family are low" (pp. 179-180). This is the contradiction in Purcell-Gates's work: while she advocates a sociocultural theory of literacy learning, she simultaneously seems to embrace the autonomous model of literacy because she identifies being literate as a kind of personal attribute; one is either literate or illiterate according to a measurable criterion (Street, 1984). This criterion for Purcell-Gates is "Western literacy and mainstream literacy pedagogy," and it is challenging to advocate Western literacy theory and mainstream literacy pedagogy in a multicultural country, like the United States. In her book, Purcell-Gates views Jenny and Donny as nonliterate and helps them adapt to the dominant culture and the mainstream classes. Although she enlightens her audience about the cultural differences of the Appalachian people, she is focusing on the autonomous model of literacy by preparing Donny for the curriculum of the mainstream classes.

Another significant issue in the book is the discussion of "emergent literacy" and the impact of emergent literacy on Donny's literacy experience. The author explains how Donny's parents' "non-literacy" plays a crucial role in Donny's difficulties at school. As stated by the author, emergent literacy claims that young children develop their reading and writing skills concurrently and interrelatedly through experiences, activities, and their interactions with their peers and adults during their daily lives. This process begins long before children receive formal literacy instruction at school. As the children learn the oral language through verbal interaction, they will also learn about written language as they develop in a literate society (Purcell-Gates, 1995). The importance of emergent literacy for the development of children's literacy skills during their pre-instruction years is undeniable. Children will learn the forms and the functions of written and spoken language as they encounter them in their daily lives. On the other hand, the author says that learning the functions of reading and writing where print (newspapers, books, or encyclopedias) is unavailable in a home environment is difficult for the young children who are growing up in that nonliterate environment. In other words, Purcell-Gates shows that "emergent literacy" does not exist for Donny because there is no purpose to engage in print-rich environment in his home setting.

What is striking in the book are Jenny's efforts to become literate, her enthusiasm to help her children be literate, and her struggles between the prejudice and the stereotypes toward her culture from the school administration. The author criticizes the negative attitudes of teachers and school administrators toward the minority children and their families. It is a fact that poverty is an important factor in the failures of the Appalachian children, yet the schools are also responsible for the failures of these children. According to social reproduction theory, schools contribute to the reproduction of inequality by supporting the culture of dominant classes, and at the same time, devaluing the culture of the lower classes (Jacob & Jordan, 1993). Donny's school contributed to the reproduction of inequality by ignoring his cultural identity and his educational needs, and by letting him fail in front of his peers.

Another criticism is directed toward the skills-based instruction at the school curriculum in which a child learns to read and write separately and to practice these individual skills for mastery. The author thinks that language should not be isolated from its functions. In other words, language learning needs to be used for meaningful and authentic functions. The author further mentions that the components of language, such as syntax, semantics, and pragmatics are learned during the authentic use of language, whereas in skills-based instruction, there is an emphasis on `form' rather than `function,' and children read and write from materials prepared to teach sequenced skills. These materials are not written to accomplish the authentic functions of print (i.e., children's literature, informational notices, or written directions for games). In her book, the author advocates holistic, child-centered, and integrated language learning methodologies. Although Purcell-Gates criticizes skills-based instruction, she focuses mainly on letter-sound correspondence in her teaching, which leads a skills-based reading in her instructions with Donny. As Goodman, Smith, Meredith, & Goodman (1987) mention, the four language skills, listening, speaking, reading, and writing are not product-oriented practices; they are processes of making meaning in a language learning setting. Goodman, et al. (1987) think that language learning must occur in meaningful contexts and the language skills should be taught integratively. They should not be seen as product-oriented practice exercises.

The author also touches on the issue of the school district's "whole class" teaching philosophy which refers to the progress made by everyone at the same time. How can we expect students to progress at the same time? Goodman, et al. (1987) state that language learning is a developmental process which occurs over a period of time and children need time to internalize the learning process. It is apparent that the rate of each child's learning process will be different from one another. So, how can it be expected that the children progress at the same rate? If some children are behind the rest of the class, then how will the school meet the needs of these children? These are the questions that school administrators need to think about when they are designing their educational policies. The school's whole class teaching philosophy and its focus on the skills-based instruction are some of the methodological issues that foster the poor performance of the minority children.

In conclusion, the author accomplishes her goal successfully by informing educators about the reasons for the failures of the minority parents and children in their literacy development and sheds light on the important issues such as the differences between communities, the school curriculum, and the nature and the quality of instruction at the school settings. These issues are effectively brought to the reader's attention by using vivid scenes from Jenny and Donny's lives. I conclude with a quote from the author: "Our curriculums and educational plans must allow access to literacy for every single learner, regardless of social class, minority status, and parental education" (p. 191).

References

Goodman, S. K., Smith, E. B., Meredith, R. & Goodman, Y. M. (1987). Language and thinking in school: A whole-language curriculum. New York: Richard C. Owen Publishers, Inc.

Jacob, E. & Jordan, C. (Eds.). (1993). Minority education: Anthropological perspectives. New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation.

Street, B. (1984). Literacy in theory and practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.