Crossing Boundaries

In her new book, Valerie Kinloch, award-winning author of Harlem on Our Minds, sheds light on the ways urban youth engage in "meaning-making" experiences as a way to assert critical, creative, and highly sophisticated perspectives on teaching, learning, and survival. Kinloch rejects deficit models that have traditionally defined the literacy abilities of students of color, especially African American and Latino/a youth. In contrast, she "crosses boundaries" to listen to the voices of students attending high school in New York City's Harlem community. In Crossing Boundaries, Kinloch uses a critical teacher-researcher lens to propose new directions for youth literacies and achievements. The text features examples of classroom engagements, student writings and presentations, discussions of texts and current events, and conversations on skills, process, achievement, and underachievement.

Valerie Kinloch is associate professor in literacy studies at The Ohio State University. In addition to her other books, she has recently published Urban Literacies: Critical Perspectives on Language, Learning, and Community and Harlem on Our Minds: Place, Race, and the Literacies of Urban Youth.