Literate in many tongues: an exploration of the textual practices in the lives of Yemeni women

This life history study explores the textual practices of four Yemeni women from Northtown, a town in the North of England. The study takes a social and ideological view of literacy, one that regards literacy as a social practice occurring within 'webs of people and institutions' (Barton, Hamilton and Ivanic, 2000:14). It explores the ways in which literacy and language practices are linked to the womens' lives, social worlds and to their narratives. I have used life history methods that draw from feminism, critical theory, post-modernism and post-colonialism to co-construct the informants' stories. This investigation models a research method that grows out of a feminist approach of reframing power relationships, knowledge construction and individual experiences. I have used narrative inquiry as the process for this research, to enable the distinctive voices of the women to emerge from the research data and for their individual stories to be crafted.