Changing literacies.

Changing literacies. Changing literacies (Changing Education Series, edited by AndyHargreaves Andrew Hargreaves (13 February 1951) is the Thomas More Brennan Chair in Education at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. The mission of the Chair is to promote social justice and connect theory and practice in education. and Ivor Goodson) Colin Lankshear Colin Lankshear is Professor of Literacy and Technologies in James Cook University and internationally acclaimed scholar in new information technologies.He has worked several years at Auckland University and lived also in Mexico doing freelance work for Central Queensland , with James Paul This article is about the American conductor. For the British officer of arms, see James Balfour Paul.James Paul (born 1940 in Forest Grove, Oregon, U.S.) is an American conductor. He studied voice at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Gee, Michele Knobel and ChrisSearle Buckingham: Open University Press. ISBN ISBNabbr.International Standard Book NumberISBNInternational Standard Book NumberISBNn abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m0 335 19636 5 (pb.), 0335 196373 (hb.). The range of recent books devoted to literacy is quite remarkable,pointing to a considerable upsurge of research and scholarly interestboth in the nature of literacy and in its teaching. Even the interest in`literacy' as distinct from `language' or perhaps`reading' and `writing' is historically quite recent. When,for example, I worked for the then Curriculum Development Centre in the1970s, I was responsible for a national Language Development Project(LDP LDP - Linux Documentation Project ), which brought together task forces working in language educationin all Australian states and territories. At that stage, the variousstate curriculum guidelines, like the publications of the LDP itself,regularly talked of `language' and `language development', but`literacy' as a term was not regularly in use. It has in fact beenonly in about the last decade that literacy has become a significanttheme in linguistic and educational publications, variously devoted tounderstanding the nature of literate as opposed to spoken language, andto exploring the functions and responsibilities of literacy teaching.Among the diverse range of scholarly approaches adopted towards literacyand its teaching has been the recognition, in the words of RosieWickert's adult literacy study (1989) that there is no singlemeasure of what constitutes literacy performance. There is in fact, soincreasing numbers of scholars affirm, no singular measure In mathematics, two positive (or signed or complex) measures μ and ν defined on a measurable space (Ω, Σ) are called singular if there exist two disjoint sets A and B in Σ whose union is Ω such that μ of literacy;rather, there are many literacies. I have made something of a point of stressing the convergence ofscholarly opinion about the many literacies available. It is ironicthat, in a period of history in which scholars point to the diversity offorms of literacy, government authorities in Australia, the UnitedKingdom and the United States of America UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The name of this country. The United States, now thirty-one in number, are Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, , are striving towards adoptingvarious `literacy benchmarks' which purport to establishappropriate levels of literacy performance for various levels ofschooling. In Australia, the federal Minister of Employment, Educationand Youth Affairs has declared that, unless state ministers adopt theliteracy benchmarks being developed, he will actually withdraw fundsfrom state educational budgets. Literacy is again a hot politicalpotato, and although a great deal of energy goes into declaring the needto re-establish standards in literacy, the fruits of scholarship thatmight inform discussions of literacy education are frequentlyoverlooked. This new volume by Lankshear makes a useful contribution tocontemporary discussion of literacy and literacy education, and itdeserves wide reading. The strength of the book is not so much that itbreaks new ground theoretically, as that it pursues some importanttheoretical issues to do with literacy in relevant and practical ways.The book's major theoretical framework derives from the work ofGee, with his now familiar distinction between `Discourse' (definedby Gee here as `"a way of being together in the world" forhumans, their ways of thinking and feeling', p. xv) and`discourse' which simply refers to `stretches of language'.Participation in a Discourse is a necessary aspect of participation insocial life as we know it Life As We Know It is an American television drama on the ABC network during the 2004-2005 season. It was created by Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah. The series was based on the novel Doing It by British writer Melvin Burgess. , shaping and shaped by sociocultural so��ci��o��cul��tur��al?adj.Of or involving both social and cultural factors.soci��o��cul processesof many kinds. Lankshear begins by exploring the nature of culture and the role oflanguage as a critical element in its creation and maintenance. Languageis a `necessary precondition' for culture, a `medium' ofculture and a `broker' of cultural process. Discussion of thediversity of cultural processes, even within the same society, leadsLankshear to go on to argue the diversity of literacies that diverseculture processes are made possible by, and that they facilitate. A subsequent chapter, co-written with Gee, explores the nature ofliteracy in the contemporary `fast capitalist texts' of the latetwentieth century economy, whose Discourses and discourses appear tooffer a new work order of partnership in meaningful work for many. Theyquestion the thrust of such texts, in particular the notions of`empowerment' often falsely trapped in the `fast capitalisttexts', and go on to argue for a critical literacy Critical literacy is an instructional approach that advocates the adoption of critical perspectives toward text. Critical literacy encourages readers to actively analyze texts and it offers strategies for uncovering underlying messages. pedagogy, and acritical theory more generally, that will invite `enactiveprojects' of persons in reflection and action in their world. The experiences of the fast capitalist world are then sharplyjuxtaposed jux��ta��pose?tr.v. jux��ta��posed, jux��ta��pos��ing, jux��ta��pos��esTo place side by side, especially for comparison or contrast. with those of the third world, represented here mainly fromthe experiences of Nicaragua, where Lankshear has spent a lot of time,involved in various local literacy projects. Literacy, he concludes, isnot necessarily a means of economic advance, as the account of events inNicaragua makes clear, principally because the bigger global economy inwhich Nicaragua is necessarily implicated im��pli��cate?tr.v. im��pli��cat��ed, im��pli��cat��ing, im��pli��cates1. To involve or connect intimately or incriminatingly: evidence that implicates others in the plot.2. did not make advance possible. Two later chapters, co-written with Michele Knobel, take thediscussion in another direction by exploring literacy in the electronicage. I found useful both the discussion of the types of literatepractices that information technology makes possible, and the range of`snapshots' of children of different ages engaged in socialpractices mediated by electronic technologies. These are of practicalrelevance, suggesting possibilities for their own work to teachers whoread the book. Chris Searle's afterword af��ter��word?n.See epilogue. and Lankshear's own sentimentsin his last chapter are cautiously optimistic op��ti��mist?n.1. One who usually expects a favorable outcome.2. A believer in philosophical optimism.op about the possibilities ofa critical literacy pedagogy that will produce the kind of activeengagement that Gee and Lankshear call for in their chapter. Lankshearin particular has no illusions about the challenge, nor does he pretendthat schools can change the whole world order. But the responsibility isours to try to foster critical practices in education, with a view tobringing greater social justice for all. Reference Wickert, R. (1989). No single measure: A national policy onlanguages initiative. Sydney: Department of Employment, Education andTraining. Frances Christie University of Melbourne AsiaWeek is now discontinued. Comments:In 2006, Times Higher Education Supplement ranked the University of Melbourne 22nd in the world. Because of the drop in ranking, University of Melbourne is currently behind four Asian universities - Beijing University,