This article is a synthesis of early literacy research organized according to critical lessons that delineate our shared knowledge base that we name a ‘transactional perspective on early literacy development.’ The critical lessons are grouped into three sets to present the continuum of methodological stances that interpretive researchers take as they design and carry out early literacy studies. This synthesis is particularly timely now – as children and teachers in classrooms around the world struggle to maintain control over literacy learning and teaching within narrow governmental agendas and mandates. Given current governmental agendas (i.e. No Child Left Behind in the USA, the National Literacy Strategy in the UK, among many), it is critical to remember that we share a robust theory, a transactional view of early literacy development that explains how young children come to be literate members of society.

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This article presents a detailed case study analysis of oral and written language expressed by Jacqueline Meyer, a teacher of elementary English Language Learners (ELL), as she struggled to navigate the current political terrain with her students. Ms. Meyer's district adopted commercial materials and increased the amount and substance of testing for her students, thereby increasing the likelihood that her students would be viewed from a deficit point of view. Ms. Meyer was selected for an in-depth case study because in her words we heard the history of ELL marginalization and the local and federal mandates of NCLB that challenged the core of her beliefs, but we also saw her struggle to maintain her own (and her students') identities. Content, rhetorical, and critical discourse analyses of her talk revealed her teaching identity as a theoretician who speaks with an "art-full" and strategic voice. The rhetorical analysis illuminated Ms. Meyer's skill with persuasive language that evoked emotion, and the critical discourse analysis illuminated her ability to strategically use language to shift power and positioning. Together, these tools enabled us to see how she effectively used language to improvise a persuasive and poetic argument and to operate strategically in challenging times.

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