Sharing Stories, Linking Lives: Literacy Practices Among ... - CPLS

Perry Sudanese Refugees
literacy instruction. There is growing evidence of the effectiveness of including this sort of
authentic text in literacy instruction as well as authentic purposes for reading and/or writing them
(Purcell-Gates, Degener, & Jacobson, 2002; Duke, Purcell-Gates, Hall & Tower, 2003; Purcell-
Gates, Jacobson, & Degener, in press).
Language Issues Shape Print Literacy Practices for Sudanese Refugees
Language, Literacy, Religion, and School Intertwined into a Whole
The boundaries between language, literacy, religion and schooling are blurred among the
southern Sudanese refugee community. In many cases, religion determined opportunities for
schooling for refugees, which in turn determined the languages and literacies refugees learned
and practiced. For example, Ezra explained that “my academic work is all in English, because I
started my education in English. But, I’m a teacher for Dinka, so if I’m teaching in the church,
then I use Dinka.”
Religion and schooling were clearly linked for Sudanese in Africa. Historically, schools
in southern Sudan were built and run by Christian missions (Deng, 1995), and “southerners saw
the Christian mission as a source of literacy” (p. 207). Christian missions not only taught English
to the southern Sudanese, but they also provided the only opportunities for southern Sudanese to
become literate in their local languages. Public schools throughout the Sudan promoted Islam
and taught Arabic. Religion, therefore, often determined whether or not one could attend school,
because Christian students were reluctant to attend the Islamized public schools. Religion also
determined which language one learned, since public Islamic schools taught Arabic and
Christian schools taught English and local languages. As Ezra explained,
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