The CEA Forum

Winter/Spring 2007: 36.1

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Book Review:

Donna Dunbar-Odom. Defying the Odds: Class and the Pursuit of Higher Literacy. New York: State U of New York P, 2007.

By Deborah McLeod, University of South Florida

Students from working-class backgrounds often face challenges in the pursuit of higher literacy that differ from those of their middle-class counterparts. Donna Dunbar-Odom addresses these challenges in her second book, Defying the Odds: Class and the Pursuit of Higher Literacy, by examining the literacy narratives of writers from working-class backgrounds in an effort to uncover the motivations that lead some disadvantaged learners to success. The work includes thoughtful analyses of these narratives, supported with class and literacy studies by philosophers, anthropologists, and educators.

Although educators can learn much about the relation of class to literacy in Defying the Odds, the text's confusing organization often prevents its author from making significant connections between the many class issues raised. Several items—such as the role of families in suppressing literacy skills, the inadequacies of current educational systems, the use of literature as escape, and the author's own motivations for writing the book—appear repeatedly in successive chapters. By grouping these topics more cohesively, Dunbar-Odom could delineate her argument more clearly.

Connecting disparate elements in the text would also help readers better appreciate the author's focus. Near the beginning of her opening chapter Dunbar-Odom states her purpose: “My concern in writing this book is [. . .] with the why of literate behavior—specifically, why do some of us pursue higher literacy with almost single-minded devotion” (3). Despite the lack of encouragement she received—“Too much reading was not ‘good' for me” (3)—Dunbar-Odom, like other successful working-class learners, remained passionate about pursing higher literacy, and she believes that understanding the roots of that passion can help teachers motivate students similar to herself (16). Her examples then illustrate that the “best indicator of a working-class student's likelihood of academic success may be his or her dissatisfaction with his or her working-class lives or families” (113). Teachers can assist students, she concludes, by finding ways in the classroom “to capture and provide a sense of invitation and community” (129).

The opening chapter, “Situating Literacy,” covers a number of the difficult issues that surround class and literacy. Dunbar-Odom moves through discussions of cultural expectations about literacy, the working-class student's need to cross class barriers in order to be educated, society's lack of appreciation for the power of class, the roles of schools and families in maintaining limiting social structures, the lack of student self-awareness regarding class, and the varied reasons that working-class students seek higher literacy skills. Amid these discussions, however, Dunbar-Odom almost buries a central point: that literacy narratives can reveal the working-class student's motivations for higher literacy. Much of the material in the remaining chapters focuses on these narratives; thus, this initial argument provides a basis for the study.

In the second chapter, “Boundaries and Memories: Literacy Narrative as Genre,” Dunbar-Odom points out the ways that authors build narratives and notes that writers often share their personal stories because they fail to find their own experiences “reflected in what they read and see” (24). The chapter includes insightful readings of literacy narratives by Frederick Douglass, Mike Rose, and Richard Rodriguez. Dunbar-Odom describes Douglass' powerful realization that literacy “forever unfit him to be a slave” (qtd. in Dunbar-Odom 27). She highlights Rose's understanding of “reading as escape” (an issue she returns to in the next chapter), “the roles teachers can play” (a point related to her discussion of sponsors in Chapter Three), and “the effects assumptions have on students” (31) (an area she explores more fully in Chapter Four). She also notes how Rodriguez's experiences illustrate the ways in which education can alienate students from their families (a topic further discussed in Chapters Three and Five).

In Chapter Three—“Identity, Class, and Higher Literacy: Theories of Literacy, Ways of Knowing”—Dunbar-Odom examines Shirley Brice Heath's ethnographic comparison of white and black working-class communities, which concludes that class plays a larger role in literacy acquisition than race, and Deborah Brandt's work on the key role of sponsors, those who assist or suppress literacy. Following these studies, Dunbar-Odom relates her own experience—as someone for whom reading became not pleasure but “survival, [. . .] escape from a flawed childhood” (50)—to those of Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Rick Bragg. Dunbar-Odom then explores why many working-class students dislike academic writing—the language teachers require may repudiate the student's home culture—and calls for a “radical self-awareness” (57) among educators about the values they are promoting.

One of the strongest sections of Defying the Odds is Chapter Four, “Metaphors We Write By.” Dunbar-Odom explains her own practice of having both teaching assistants and students create literacy narratives, and she notes the disparities in attitudes between the two groups that the narratives reveal. In addition to writing narratives, Dunbar-Odom has assistants and students develop metaphors for literacy to uncover assumptions held by both groups. Her perceptive analysis of Michael Radford's film Il Postino (1994), as a literacy narrative that uses seduction as its metaphor, provides a stark contrast to the students' comparisons, which relate learning to solving puzzles or even taking medicine.

In Chapter Five—“On the Bias: Literacies, Lived, Written, and Owned”—Dunbar-Odom returns to the theme of reading as escape and points out that this escape can become a barrier between the newly educated student and the language and culture of his or her uneducated family. Through much of this chapter, Dunbar-Odom weaves her own experiences into those of her narrators. She also reiterates her objection to state-mandated tests, noting the irony of questions about recycling posed to two students who came from neighborhoods that lacked regular garbage service.

Dunbar-Odom's concluding chapter departs from a focus on the working-class to discuss the general decline of serious reading in American culture. She draws lessons from the success of Oprah Winfrey's book club, nothing that the club “both models reading and offers a sense of community” to its members (117), as well as providing constant encouragement and supporting material to help readers master difficult texts.

Defying the Odds is a highly personal project for its author. The work includes many of Dunbar-Odom's own experiences, both as a working-class student and as a composition teacher. Although her background is certainly relevant, her perspective occasionally undermines her argument. Dunbar-Odom's dismay at instructors who fail to understand a student's family-related absences, and criticism—such as “I am always shocked when colleagues do not speak to or know the names of the custodians” (95)—could alienate many of the middle-class teachers that she most wants to reach. Despite these comments and the book's awkward organization, Defying the Odds offers an insightful look at the struggles of lower-class students and encourages its readers to find ways to overcome the barriers that prevent too many of these students from achieving higher literacy.

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