Exploring Literacies

Theory, Research and Practice

Helen de Silva Joyce, Susan Feez

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781137319036
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teacher Training

This book is a guide to current research and debate in the field of literacies practice and education. It provides both an historical and lifespan view of the field as well as an overview of research methodologies with first-hand examples from a range of researchers involved in literacy research.

Part I

Literacies Education: The Landscapes of Literacy Studies

Introduction

In this opening part of the book the field of literacy studies is surveyed from several standpoints. First, it is explored from an historical perspective to consider changing views about what it means to be literate over time, in different contexts and for different groups of people. The field as a whole is then examined to take into account influences from other discipline areas, and key sociocultural concepts that have emerged from research, for example, literacy domains, practices and events, and common misunderstandings are identified and re-interpreted. Key terms such as illiteracy, literacy, literacies, multiliteracies and numeracy are introduced and explained, as well as overlaps between these concepts and ways they are integrated within the field. Readers are encouraged to reassess their current ideas and concepts in relation to various aspects of literacy and literacy teaching, and to extend their interpretations of current debates and research evidence.

In Chapter 1 a range of views not only about literacy, but also numeracy, are explored using an historical lens, as well as in terms of the influence of research across disciplines and social and economic agendas, which, in turn, have influenced educational approaches to teaching literacy and numeracy. Changing views about how literacy and numeracy should be taught are also examined. This is important because contrasting pedagogical approaches developed for different times and contexts continue to have their advocates, which leads to recurring ‘literacy wars’ (Snyder 2008). Regularly, often on the basis of contested evidence, politicians, the media and public administrators claim there is a literacy crisis, and promote superficial solutions to an inadequately articulated problem. As the exploration in Chapter 1 confirms, Graff’s (2001: 3) statement still resonates: ‘[a]s a student of literacy for over two decades, I cannot recall a time when literacy was not in a crisis’.

That literacy wars and crises can be so easily and regularly reignited in the public mind, no matter how disingenuously, is a reflection of how dependent post-industrial societies have become on literacy and numeracy to mediate all aspects of life, and how easily the community can be alarmed if access to this resource appears to be under threat. While literacy has been aligned with knowledge and power for millennia, access to literacy and the chance of a reasonable quality of life are becoming increasingly enmeshed for all levels of society. Fifty years ago, even in industrialised societies, people with low levels of literacy or with no literacy at all, could carve out dignified lives, but this possibility is receding at an accelerating rate for people in all parts of the world. An open question remains about what kinds of literacy, or configurations of different types of literacies, will be most highly valued as the 21st century unfolds. A re-examination of literacy and numeracy pedagogy, across the last century and into the early years of the 21st century, can provide a way of addressing the inevitable question of whether it is possible to deal with the ‘enduring problems in literacy education, themselves a legacy of its history and of a time-honoured tendency to create false dichotomies or dualisms where none really exist’ (Christie 2010a: 9). While the funding and resources available for addressing these enduring problems appear to be shrinking, there is no doubt of the expanding role played by literacy and numeracy in ‘learning, in promoting personal development, in fostering self-expression and self-esteem’ as well as ‘conferring skills that build employability’ (Christie & Simpson 2010: 4).

Chapter 2 offers a selective review of some of the many debates that have been generated by the study of literacy and literacy development over time and in different societies. Reviewing historical and cross-cultural perspectives and recurring themes is central to challenging fixed ideas about literacy and about becoming literate, as it enables us to see that studies of literacy are themselves products of specific times and places. As societies, cultures and technologies change, literacy and numeracy and what it means to be literate and numerate need to be re-evaluated. This chapter also examines systems of organised knowledge across academic disciplines, and how these are built through particular genres and language features, as revealed by literacy research. Understanding differences across academic discourses is crucial if literacy educators are to successfully apprentice students into the discourses of the academic disciplines that are key to achievement in educational contexts and subsequently in the world of work and social engagement.

1

Literacy: A Field of Evolving Terms, Definitions and Educational Approaches

Everyone has an opinion about literacy. When differing opinions about literacy are represented as conflicts in the media, through print and online newspaper articles and editorials, talk-back radio and online spaces, the spectre of a literacy crisis is raised, ‘usually … in relation to socio-economic change of some kind’ (Snyder 2008: 7). While commentary is sought from politicians, employer groups, teachers, teacher unions, experts and parents, rarely, if ever, are students consulted. Everyone who believes there is a literacy crisis can give an example of the crisis in action: young people glued to their various electronic devices using text language instead of correct language; the young woman at the local store who can’t add up the prices on a few groceries, young employees who can’t follow written instructions and schools that fail to teach grammar or that teach a grammar parents don’t recognise.

Reasoned debate seems impossible when the loudest voices are aligned with the political stance of powerful media outlets and vested interests who want to redefine ‘professional educators and students as consumers’ (Luke 2004, 2011). Those who wish to voice alternative views, even when based on considered and extensive research, are often accused of undermining educational traditions designed to build literacy and numeracy skills that will enable students to obtain employment and contribute to the national economy.

Quotes

Although no one has died in these wars … there have been casualties. The persistent denigration of literacy teachers by the conservative critics in the media has damaged the morale of those charged with the responsibility of educating the next generation of citizens. Hardworking and underpaid, without the social regard they deserve, literacy teachers have been bewildered, but also angered … Moreover the collateral damage for the students in the classrooms of these battle-weary teachers and their confused parents cannot be underestimated

(Snyder 2008: 9)

Clearly, debates around literacy education have concerned much more than matters of classroom method or remediation strategies. These debates have dealt with the nature and consequences of an individual’s or a collective’s becoming literate, and, moreover, with the consequences of becoming literate in particular ways. That is, we can insert into debates a concept of literacy that entails a set of individual and social resources that enable certain kinds of practices, events and organisational arrangements, rather than a single trait that is either possessed or not, or that is possessed in some quantity.

(Freebody 2007: 15)

What it means to be literate, how literacy is defined and how best to teach literacy is difficult to determine because the answers to these questions have altered through history, are shifting in the present and will continue to change into the future. The term literacy is used as a label for a valuable ‘set of behaviours’ (Wignell n.d: 5) that enable people to learn and to participate in a range of social contexts, but as a concept it is complex to grasp and, as with all complex concepts, is reinvented in response to the context in which it is used, changing global and social structures, advancing technologies and individual aspirations. However, if the term literacy remains so value-laden for so many and at the same time is subjected to limited and limiting characterisations, then educators and community members are less likely to reconcile disparate views about literacy and its consequences. It is hoped that this book will assist readers to participate in considered and productive debates about literacy that account for its complexity and the multiple ways it can be developed.

Defining literacy

The terms literacy and illiteracy have shifted in meaning over the years. Traditionally literacy was, and still is in most dictionaries, defined as ‘the ability to read and write’, and illiteracy was defined as ‘the lack of ability to read and write’.¹ However, now the term literacy has a number of definitions and has come to be associated with ‘effective participation of any kind in social processes’ (Halliday 2007/1996: 98), so that we refer to financial literacy, health literacy, media literacy and even emotional literacy (Steiner and Perry 1997). But as Halliday goes on to say ‘[t]he problem is that if we call all these things literacy, then we shall have to find another term for what we called literacy before’.

In this book we begin by adopting the following definition of literacy, proposed by UNESCO (2004), as the:

ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society.

This definition of literacy is then expanded to account for the shift over recent decades from paper-based to digital technologies as captured in the concept of multiliteracies, which means understanding ‘how different modalities separately and interactively construct different dimensions of meaning’ in texts (Unsworth 2001: 10). We also consider what it means to be numerate in the contemporary world, that is, having ‘the ability to effectively use the mathematics required to meet the general demands of life at home and at work, and for participation in community and civic life’ (NSW Department of Education and Communities 2013: 1).

Socially oriented research has revealed that different social contexts make different literacy and numeracy demands on people. Consequently people who are literate in some contexts may not be literate in others, and even people who are otherwise highly literate may have problems with some literacy tasks (see for example, research by Fawns outlined in Chapter 6). This has complicated what is meant by illiteracy, with many policy statements now concerned with levels of functional literacy and illiteracy in society. So while illiteracy is the total inability to participate in the literacy practices of the society, being functionally illiterate means being unable to use literacy skills to manage everyday social and work tasks.

In describing functional literacy, some assessment and educational programmes have focused on the literacy tasks people encounter in daily life, identifying three types of literacy (as defined by the National Assessment of Adult Literacy 2003 below):²

1. Prose literacy – the ability to search, comprehend and use continuous texts such as news stories, brochures and instructional materials.

2. Document literacy – the ability to search, comprehend and use non-continuous texts in various formats such as application forms, payroll forms, train timetables, maps, tables and labels.

3. Quantitative literacy – the ability to perform quantitative tasks such as computational tasks or recognising and using mathematical information embedded in printed texts.

It was assumed that dividing the literacy tasks in adult contexts into these three categories would result in a more fine-tuned assessment of adult literacy skills. Results of these assessments are compared across countries. For example, the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey, an international study, found that in New Zealand between 1996 and 2006 there were significant improvements in prose and document literacy over those years. In a national report, measures of document literacy, prose literacy and numeracy were compared with those of Australia, the United States and Canada (Education Counts).³ International assessment studies, surveys and comparisons feed into continuing literacy debates in various OECD countries. Comparisons with other countries, such as the one above, are often used as an incentive to improve literacy levels within a country with the implication that particular country should be at the top of the scale.

Quote

The meaning of the term ‘literacy’ appears to live something of a dichotomous existence. While superficially it is a word widely understood and used by the public, ‘literacy’ lives a double life as the subject of intense academic debate that aims to attach a concrete definition to what is a complex, dynamic and often mercurial concept … Scholars have used the term ‘literate’ to describe, not only the autonomous skills characterised as formin...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• General Editors’ Preface
• Part I Literacies Education: The Landscapes of Literacy Studies Introduction
• Part II Lifespan Literacies Introduction
• Part III Literacy Research: A Continuing Project Introduction
• Notes
• References
• Index