To explore directions in and issues of language and discourse practices literacy, learning processes, and social contexts through studies grounded in sociocultural, constructivist and constructionist perspectives.

Dear LSP family,

One of the first tasks you have when you become chair of this SIG is to write a welcome message to the community. I’m sure writing such a message would be somewhat daunting at any time, but crafting a message of “welcome” feels particularly challenging at this moment in history, where many of our beloved communities and institutions are under attack. 

The forces against justice, equity, and democracy feel nearly impossible to resist, leaving me with moments where I wonder whether there is anything I can do. This can feel especially true when using discourse analysis and other micro-analytic methodologies that many of us in this SIG draw on in our scholarship. After a morning digging into a few sentences of data, it can be easy to raise our head to look around and wonder how this work can possibly make a difference. 

The good news is that this isn’t a new question. Many of our SIG’s forebearers and founders have wrestled with this issue, and we can learn from their struggles. Lately, I have particularly found myself coming back to Fred Erickson’s (2004) Talk and Social Theory, which reminds us that: "Persons do make history...The social situation is the local construction zone for the making of history" (p. 159). Through our analyses, we can make visible not only how our oppressive present has been constructed but also to locate moments that can move us towards a more just future. 

I also want to say a genuine thank you to Michiko Hikida, who has served as Chair for the past two years and in SIG leadership for the past eight (!!) years. One of my first encounters with this SIG was a fortuitous pairing with Michiko as my mentor in the LSP Mentoring Session back in 2017. I feel genuinely lucky that Michiko has become both a close collaborator and a good friend. 

At this year’s SIG Business Meeting, Michiko prompted us to consider the role each of us can play in creating a more just future. Through Deepa Iyer’s (2017) social change ecosystem framework, Michiko prompted us to consider the diverse ways in which each of us can participate in this work. As Iyer’s work shows, we need disrupters and frontline responders, but we also need storytellers, caregivers, and builders. What roles will you take up in your scholarship and in your world beyond that work? 

Perhaps the answers to this question will guide the future work you contribute to this community. Our shared sociocultural, constructivist, and constructionist perspectives allow us to understand that all communities are co-constructed. With this in mind, I invite you to consider how you want to shape this community. One important example of this co-construction is our conference program. Put simply: it is your proposals that shape what the LSP program looks like. What are the insights from your scholarship you want to share? 

I leave you with a quote from scholar and activist Mike Davis, shared in an interview shortly before his death in 2022. These words line the top of the dry erase board in my office, reassuring me in moments of despair. I hope they do the same for you: 

What keeps us going, ultimately, is our love for each other, and our refusal to bow our heads, to accept the verdict, however all-powerful it seems. It’s what ordinary people have to do. You have to love each other. You have to defend each other. You have to fight.

With love,

Laura Taylor