Producing Good Citizens excavates the historical trajectories of immigration and economic uncertainty by arguing that citizenship has long been yoked to literacy. Wan posits that literacy learning holds curative and corrective power to ameliorate anxieties over citizenship in the face of immigration and imperialism. Turning to the early twentieth century, she impressively deconstructs citizenship’s assumed place in
education by complicating seemingly stable definitions of citizenship that permeate throughout institutional and instructional settings. While scholars have acknowledged literacy’s involvement in immigration testing and voting rights, Wan’s text rightfully submits that the attainment and recognition of citizenship happens through the habits and processes implicated in literacy learning through various educative spaces. Such spaces imagine conflicting definitions of the citizen, and when seen together, she successfully shows that literacy and citizenship strive to sanction some individuals over others.
A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric