The Trouble with Local Literacies

I'm not sure if I am the only one, but I am having a hard time engaging with Local Literacies by Barton and Hamilton. I've tried starting at different places in the text so I could get a "footing," but the only chapters I've found even slightly engaging are the four chapters that chronicle the experiences of four different members of the study. Perhaps these are more narrative in nature? Maybe I'm expecting some sort of "story line" to emerge and that isn't what I should expect from an ethnography? I've most enjoyed reading this as a sort of cultural voyeur. I found it interesting that the USA, Canada and Australia all undertook major studies into reading difficulties/ illiteracy far before the UK did in 1990 (p163). And while there were some places that I could use context clues to figure words or expressions out with which I was unfamiliar (bin collectors and school-leavers) there were others where my limited background knowledge impeded my comprehension. I decided to take to the web and was helped somewhat (see below). Also, when I read about Shirley's struggles with her son's school, I had a hard time understanding how government run schools were structured. I think she mentions writing to one of the commissioners? Is this like a school board member? I'm just not sure I see as many connections between this study and my lines of inquiry, so perhaps that is why I'm having such a hard time with this. Are there some sort of "big ideas" that we are supposed to be walking away from this book with that I am missing? It seems to me that a lot of what I've read thus far in Part III is just logical. Maybe this is because I was a part of the National Writing Project - a group that "takes teachers where they are" as writers and celebrates our writing histories? I don't know, but I'm interested in hearing everyone else's responses.


I thought I'd try to get some background knowledge using the internet and found these sites interesting, though I still have a lot of questions:


Lancaster
I thought this site, on the Lancaster City Council, was quite interesting.  It really makes you realize just how much has changed since this study was conducted - and it really doesn't feel as if it were that long ago!

Poll Tax
A great site for Anglophiles or a lovely chronology of the history of the UK.  Apparently the poll tax issue coincided with the end of Margaret Thatcher's leadership?

This site helped me to understand that a poll tax regressive and thus is always going to have a greater impact on the economically disadvantaged.  It also helped me to connect how poll taxes were also used in the United States.

And for when you just don't have a clue what a word means, no matter the context:
This is a great site that "translates" British English to American English created by a school.  Just fun to read!