Chapter 2: Reading as Emancipation: Using the Literacy as Access Framework to Ensure Cultural Competency in Educators

At the 2013 National Reading Recovery and K–6 Classroom Literacy Conference, the lead author was asked to present a session titled Literacy as Access: Understanding Cultural Competency. This session was a part of the administrative strand and the purpose was to provide literacy leaders (administrators, lead teachers, literacy coaches) theoretical and applied information pertaining to diversity, equity, social justice, and inclusion through a literacy lens. The aspiration was that this presentation would enable literacy leaders to better incorporate tenets of cultural competency into their literacy programs, preschool programs, and literacy interventions in their school contexts. The session was crafted as a replicable professional development opportunity that could be rolled out by literacy leaders to their local constituency.