The Effects of Time on Student Success

September 7, 2010

Catherine Compton-Lilly offers a new case study that explores time as a context in which a low-income, African American boy defines  himself as a particular type of student and literate person and was ultimately relegated to a particular school trajectory.  This Working Paper argues that time is a critical dimension of the contexts in which people make sense of their worlds and themselves. Compton-Lilly examines how students are situated within time in terms of the amount, degree, and types of changes that are expected or conceivable; the degree to which students can affect or are affected by schooling; the effect of actual and historicized worlds on schooling; and the role of critique and humor in making sense of literacy, schooling, and selves. The study explores meanings related to literacy, retention, compensatory education, and the pace of instruction. See WCER Working Paper No. 2010-11.