Religious Literacy as Resource: Can LDS Beliefs and Literacy Practices Facilitate the Transition from High School to College? Chris Parsons University of Michigan Joint Ph.D Program in English and Education

Gee’s (1998) Primary and Secondary Discourses Primary: "the one we first use to make sense of the world and interact with others" (55). Family discourse. Secondary: "involves social institutions beyond the family" and includes places like "schools, workplaces, stores, government offices, businesses, churches.” They “build on, and extend, the uses of language we acquired as part of our primary discourse, and they may be more or less compatible with the primary discourses of different social groups” (56).

“It is, of course, a great advantage when the secondary discourse is compatible with your primary one” (6). “Literacy is control of secondary uses of language (i.e., uses of language in secondary discourses)” (6). both from “What is Literacy?”

Guiding Questions In what ways might religious discourses be a resource to students learning academic discourses in a school environment like, for example, a college writing classroom? And how might religious denominations be variously compatible with literacy practices within academic discourse? How can we describe the relationship between secondary discourses in terms of facilitating the learning of literacy practices?

National Survey of Youth and Religion, 2002-2003 National, random digit-dial telephone survey of U.S. households with at least 1 teenager aged 13-17. 3,290 respondents for a 50 minute survey from July 2002 – March 2003. Christian Smith (2005) analyzes data in Soul Searching in which he calls the NSYR “the largest, most comprehensive and detailed study of American teenage religion and spirituality conducted to date.”

Religious Affiliations of U.S. Adolescents, Ages 13-17 (Smith, 2005) Teen Religious Affiliation Percent of Teens Surveyed Protestant 52 Catholic 23 Not Religious 16 Two Different Faiths 2.8 Latter-day Saint 2.5 Jewish 1.5 Muslim 0.5

Belief Similarity of Adolescents to Their Mothers and Fathers: Very Similar (Smith, 2005) Percent “Very Similar” to Mother Percent “Very Similar” to Father Latter-day Saint 73 75 Conservative Protestant 48 42 Jewish 41 38 Black Protestant 39 32 Mainline Protestant 36 30 Roman Catholic 33 31 Religious Teens Overall

Adolescents’ Importance of Religious Faith in Shaping Daily Life (Smith, 2005) Percent Who Answered “Extremely Important” LDS 43 Black Protestant 31 Conservative Protestant 29 Mainline Protestant 20 Roman Catholic 10 Jewish 8

Adolescents Who Have…(Smith, 2005) Read a devotional, religious, or spiritual book other than the scriptures. Spoken publicly about own faith in a religious service or meeting. Taught a Sunday School or religious education class. LDS 68 65 42 Conservative Protestant 45 28 Black Protestant 29 34 22 Mainline Protestant 33 26 Roman Catholic 20 15 Jewish 21 16

Religious Adolescents Expressing Faith at School “a lot” and “none” (Smith, 2005) Percent expressing faith “a lot” at school. Percent expressing faith “none” at school. LDS 23 10 Conservative Protestant 15 Black Protestant 20 Mainline Protestant 11 24 Roman Catholic 6 33 Jewish 12 47

Tentative Conclusion #1 (on school) LDS students’ denominationally specific religious discourse practices align especially well with school-based literacy discourse practices. Students of faith from different religious traditions might be more or less willing to draw on the resources of religious literacy practices in school.

Tentative Conclusion #2 (on Gee) Given Gee’s definition of primary and secondary discourse and concomitant effects on literacy, data about LDS adolescents’ high levels of religiosity: a) supports Gee’s claim that similarity between an older discourse and a newer discourse has the potential to make learning the newer discourse easier. b) complicates Gee’s categorization of religious discourse as a predominantly secondary discourse. For many LDS teens, religious discourse is both a primary and secondary discourse.

Further Questions (Quantitative) Quantitative research that studies the relationship of student religiosity (both generally and separated by denomination) and different aspects of student achievement, especially on literacy- based achievement.

Further Questions (Qualitative) Qualitative, ethnographic research that asks questions about how religious- and school-based discourses react when explicitly brought together. How would the risks and rewards of drawing on religious literacy affect the transfer of putatively transferable skills? How might we disentangle ideas about home / cultural literacy (as primary discourse) from religious literacy practices students learn as adolescents (as secondary discourse)? How might Rumsey’s (2009) notion of heritage literacy with its language of “adoption, adaptation, and alienation” be useful in describing how students of faith use (and/or don’t) the literacy practices from their religious traditions in school?

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