Computers and Composition Digital Press2011TextStories that Speak to Us: Exhibits from the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives

Abstract | The authors consider how DALN literacy narratives of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing contributors portray situated knowledge, and how these perspectives can facilitate collaborative inquiry that enhances public understanding of what it means to be a Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing literacy learner. These narratives can inform deliberations about how public policy can be more responsive to Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing learners. The narratives also underscore the importance of rhetorical listening, which can help to navigate the complexities of postmodern identity politics. To this end, the authors analyze and apply contemporary scholars’ recommendations for promoting open, inclusive dialogue in which participants value one another’s perspectives. Paying close attention to the details of critical incidents in people’s lives can lead to shared commitments that result in informed, effective public policy, especially policy dealing with access. Focusing on DALN interviews with Jane Fernandes, Christopher Driscoll, and Warren Francis, the authors analyze the critical incidents that these narratives reveal, as well as ways in which they can promote collaborative critical inquiry. The chapter concludes with some activities and assignments that teachers can use to encourage collaborative inquiry and rhetorical listening.

About the Curators | Jennifer Clifton is an assistant professor at the University of Missouri. Her dissertation project, “Prioritizing Phronesis: Theorizing Change, Taking Action, Inventing Possibilities with the Sudanese Diaspora in Phoenix,” tests what rhetoric is good for here and now—particularly under conditions of stress as neo-capitalism bumps up against other social and economic systems and is a call to rhetorical action that weaves together two claims for English studies: (1) in order to confront the issues that confront our communities, English classrooms need to be deliberative spaces that construct dialogue across difference; and (2) to effect change and do meaningful cultural work, English classrooms need to help young people become rhetorically savvy border dwellers by helping them develop a well-tooled “trickster consciousness.”

Elenore Long is an associate professor of community literacy in the Department of English at Arizona State University. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship through Pittsburgh’s Community Literacy Center and Carnegie Mellon University, Long continued for several years to direct community-literacy initiatives with Wayne Peck and Joyce Baskins. With Linda Flower and Lorraine Higgins, she published Learning to Rival: A Literate Practice for Intercultural Inquiry. They recently published the leading article—a fifteen-year retrospective—for the inaugural issue of Community Literacy Journal. Her new book, Community Literacy and the Rhetoric of Local Publics, offers a comparative analysis of community-literacy studies that traces common values in diverse accounts of “ordinary people going public.”

Duane Roen is Professor of English at Arizona State University, where he serves as Head of Interdisciplinary and Liberal Studies in the School of Letters and Sciences, and as Assistant Vice Provost for University Academic Success Programs. He formerly served as Secretary of the Conference on College Composition and Communication and currently serves as President of the Council of Writing Program Administrators. Duane has written extensively about writing across the curriculum; writing curricula, pedagogy, and assessment; writing program administration; gender; writing family history; and collaboration, among other topics.

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Cite this Exhibit

MLA: Clifton, Jennifer, Elenore Long, and Duane Roen. “Accessing Private Knowledge for Public Conversations: Attending to Shared, Yet-to-be-Public Concerns in the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing DALN Interviews.” Stories That Speak to Us: Exhibits from the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives. Ed. H. Lewis Ulman, Scott Lloyd DeWitt, & Cynthia L. Selfe. Logan, UT: Computers and Composition Digital Press, 2013. Web.

APA: Clifton, J., Long, E., & Roen, D. (2013). Accessing Private Knowledge for Public Conversations: Attending to Shared, Yet-to-be-Public Concerns in the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing DALN Interviews. In H. L. Ulman, S. L. DeWitt, & C. L. Selfe (Eds.), Stories that Speak to Us: Exhibits from the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives. Logan, UT: Computers and Composition Digital Press.