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.
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.
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.
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].
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.
Transformation and Empowerment through Education challenges the normalisation of Western discourses as the optimal choice for empowering education. The book aims to reconstruct our relationship with education and employs contemporary theories in order to understand some of the most persistent phenomena in contemporary education and its role in our lives. Written by professionals with experience of a wide range of academic and institutional conventions and traditions, and from diverse ethnocultural backgrounds, this book effectively presents a global perspective on educational practices, both inside and outside the classroom. The range of topics covered includes equity, access, inclusivity, social justice, leadership and the internationalisation of teaching. This book, based on empirical studies using key methodologies, is ideal for academics and postgraduate researchers interested in critical pedagogy, educational studies and educational linguistics, as well as educators and policymakers around the world.
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.
Winner of the SAGE/ILTA Award for Best Book on Language Testing 2009 This volume focuses on the social aspects of language testing, including assessment of socially situated language use and societal consequences of language tests. The authors argue that traditional approaches to ensuring social fairness in tests go some way to addressing social concerns, but a broader perspective is necessary to examine the functions of tests on a societal scale. Considers these issues in relation to language assessment in oral proficiency interviews, and to the assessment of second language pragmatics. Argues that traditional approaches to ensuring social fairness in tests go some way to addressing social concerns, but a broader perspective is necessary if we are to fully understand the social dimension of language assessment.
The Routledge International Companion to Education addresses the key issues underpinning the rethinking and restructuring of education at the beginning of the new millennium. The volume contains over fifty major contributions exploring a wide range of issues, including: * philosophy of education * the economics and resourcing of education * testing and assessment: current issues and future prospects * standards * multiculturalism * anti-racism * computers in classrooms * mother tongue education * civics and moral education. Each chapter gives a contemporary account of developments in the field, and looks to the future and the directions that new activity and inquiry are likely to take. All the chapters are written from an international perspective.
Providing an overview of contemporary research into early childhood literacy, this handbook deals with subjects related to nature, function and use of literacy and the development, learning and teaching of literacy in early childhood.
