The Social Construction of Literacy in the Primary School


Book Description

Primary teacher reference book which considers literacy in the primary school. Defines literacy and the influence of educators' decisions and outlines various community and cultural resources which shape what children bring to the classroom. Also looks at how children perceive the possibilities and potentials of literacy and discusses the possibilities for teaching children a critical social literacy. Includes a bibliography.




The Social Construction of Literacy


Book Description

Literacy - the ability to produce and interpret written text - has long been viewed as the basis of all school achievement; a measure of success that defines both an 'educated' person, and an educable one. In this volume, a team of leading experts raise questions central to the acquisition of literacy. Why do children with similar classroom experiences show different levels of educational achievement? And why do these differences in literacy, and ultimately employability, persist? By looking critically at the western view of a 'literate' person, the authors present a perspective on literary acquisition, viewing it as a socially constructed skill, whereby children must acquire discourse strategies that are socially 'approved'. This extensively-revised second edition contains an updated introduction and bibliography. This volume will continue to have far-reaching implications for educational theory and practice.







Literacy Learning and Teaching


Book Description

This book deals with the detailed planning of classroom work with children's literature and factual texts in curriculum areas such as science and social studies in the infant and primary school. It derives from recent work on the social construction of literacy and the application of systemic functional linguistics to the development of strategies for improving children's understandings of how texts work. It will allow teachers to intervene authoritatively in the selection of factual and and fictional texts for classroom use, and to design learning experiences that will help children to understand how meanings are constructed by the linguistic form of such texts.




The University of Google


Book Description

Looking at schools and universities, it is difficult to pinpoint when education, teaching and learning started to haemorrhage purpose, aspiration and function. Libraries and librarians have been starved of funding. Teachers cram their curriculum with 'skill development' and 'generic competencies' because knowledge, creativity and originality are too expensive to provide to unmotivated students and parents obsessed with league tables, not learning. Meanwhile, the internet offers a glut of information on everything-under-the-sun, a mere mouse-click away. Bored surfers fill their cursors and minds with irrelevancies. We lose the capacity to sift, discard and judge. Information is no longer for social good, but for sale. Tara Brabazon argues that this information fetish has been profoundly damaging to our learning institutions and to the ambitions of our students and educators. In The University of Google she projects a defiant and passionate vision of education as a pathway to renewal, where research is based on searching and students are on a journey through knowledge, rather than consumers in the shopping centre of cheap ideas. Angry, humorous and practical in equal measure, The University of Google is based on real teaching experience and on years of engaged and sometimes exasperated reflection on it. It is far from a luddite critique of the information age. Tara Brabazon celebrates the possibilities of digital platforms in education, but deplores the consequences of placing funding on technology and not teachers. In doing so, she opens a new debate on how to make our educational system both productive and provocative in the (post-) information age.




Literacies of Design


Book Description

Though engineering design can tackle the world’s most pressing challenges, engineering-related courses and experiences are often alienating, especially to people from minoritized groups. Literacies of Design: Studies of Equity and Imagination in Engineering and Making covers the latest pedagogical theories—as well as case studies and practical tips—to support diverse people in identifying problems and designing solutions through engineering and making. Engineers tackle a range of problems, big and small, from climate change to viral transmission to improved handrails for persons with disabilities. Inclusion and equity efforts include not only preparing the next generation of engineers and makers, but also creating and fostering spaces where youth can express their ideas and bring forth their whole selves. This book offers theories and real-life examples for educators and practitioners at every level, from K–12 through higher education and beyond.




Mathematics Education within the Postmodern


Book Description

This timely and accessible book presents a challenge to accepted wisdoms about both the nature of mathematics and of education. The authors of this groundbreaking volume bring to bear on this intersection a postmodern sensibility that engages with the grand narratives of mathematics education. Thus they provide a key resource for rethinking theory and practice in mathematics education. Each of the chapters develops important insights for mathematics education from mainly French intellectuals of the past: Foucault, Lacan, Lyotard, Deleuze. Each chapter addresses issues relevant to mathematics education, researching and teaching mathematics.




Deconstructing Social and Cultural Meanings


Book Description

This book provides a model and study guide for students undertaking educational and other social science research. It demonstrates the use of the postmodern constructs of positioning, discursive strategies and agency in order to explain their meanings and the interpretive processes involved in their application. The research base of the book examines issues of access and equity in the historical and cultural construction of numerate identities for one group of preservice teachers. [Back cover].




Foundations of Multiliteracies


Book Description

Using the concept of multiliteracies and multimodality, this book provides foundation knowledge about the new and continuously changing literacies of the 21st century. It details the five semiotic systems (linguistic, visual, auditory, gestural and spatial) and how they contribute to the reading and writing of increasingly complex and dynamic texts that are delivered by live, paper or digital technologies. One of the main tenets of the book is that social, cultural and technological developments will continue to give rise to changing literate practices around texts and communication, requiring a rethinking of classroom practices that are employed in the teaching of literacy. Therefore, the role of talk, together with traditional lesson structures, is examined and the concept of dialogic talk is introduced as a way of moving towards an effective pedagogy for the teaching and learning of multiliteracies and multimodality. The book also demonstrates that children’s literature can provide a bridge between old and new literacies and be an effective vehicle for introducing the five semiotic systems to all age groups. Comprehensive and accessible, this book addresses the issue of translating complex theories, research and concepts into effective practice, by providing the reader with four avenues for reflecting upon and implementing the ideas it contains: Reflection Strategies that enable the reader to gauge their understanding of key concepts; Theory into Practice tasks that enable the trialling of specific theoretical concepts in the classroom; Auditing instruments provide specific tasks related to assessment of student performance and evaluation of teacher pedagogy; QR codes immediately link the reader to multimodal texts and further references that illustrate and enhance the concepts being developed.




Literacy Theories for the Digital Age


Book Description

Winner of the 2017 Edward Fry Book Award from the Literacy Research Association. Literacy Theories for the Digital Age insightfully brings together six essential approaches to literacy research and educational practice. The book provides powerful and accessible theories for readers, including Socio-cultural, Critical, Multimodal, Socio-spatial, Socio-material and Sensory Literacies. The brand new Sensory Literacies approach is an original and visionary contribution to the field, coupled with a provocative foreword from leading sensory anthropologist David Howes. This dynamic collection explores a legacy of literacy research while showing the relationships between each paradigm, highlighting their complementarity and distinctions. This highly relevant compendium will inspire researchers and teachers to explore new frontiers of thought and practice in times of diversity and technological change.