Hi all
I'm only now catching up on the 200+ some messages I had unread from  
this listserv. I'm usually more up-to-date -- but it's been a wildly  
busy 2 months...

Anyway, if it's not too late....I like to recommend that we call this  
list "Praxis for Literacies."

As defined in "Breaking Free," edited by Pepi Leistyna, et.al.:  
"Praxis is the relationship between theoretical understanding and  
critique of society (that is, its historical, ideological,  
sociopolitical, and economic influences and structures) and action  
that seeks to transform individuals and their environment....[it is]  
a dialectical movement that goes from action to reflection and from  
reflection upon action to a new action." (p. 342)

Many of us will recognize this from its Freirean roots -- and will  
understand it in a context of seeking to use literacy/education to  
transform the inequities and injustices that exist in our programs,  
communities, regions, countries. In this way, we can discuss the  
intersections of our diversities. And, for many of us, praxis implies  
what I believe this list wants to do -- which is to understand how  
both learners and teachers are disadvantaged and marginalized by  
systematized oppressions and privileges. This word does assume a  
certain progressive/deconstructionist stance (for those of you who  
prefer to use that sort of language). For the rest of us, praxis  
means education for social change.

By using a word such as praxis, we can discuss race/ethnicity,  
language/culture, gender/women, class/poverty, age, (dis)ability,  
sexuality, and other diversities without "othering" ourselves or the  
listserv. We can have powerful discussions (like those that have been  
happening) without losing vision. And we can take into consideration  
that these issues are extremely complex and interconnected and cannot  
be encased only in words such as race, class, gender. Literacies  
means that we can understand education in a broader holistic sense,  
not merely in the functionalities of reading, writing, and arithmetic.

And thanks to those who have spoken highly of WE LEARN. The call for  
Proposals for the March 2008 conference is now ready and I will post  
it in a separate email later today. You will see that the theme for  
the upcoming conference extends the discussion already happening on  
this list.

Mev



Mev Miller, Ed.D., Director

WE LEARN
Women Expanding: Literacy Education Action Resource Network
www.litwomen.org/welearn.html

182 Riverside Ave.
Cranston, RI 02910
401-383-4374
welearn at litwomen.org


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