‘In the hands of the Receivers’: The Politics of Literacy in The Savage by David Almond and Dave McKean

David Almond and Dave McKean??s The Savage is a hybrid prose and graphic novel which tells the story of one young man??s maturation through literacy. The protagonist learns to deal with the death of his father and his own ??savage?? self by writing a graphic novel. This article reads The Savage in the context of earlier, ??Northern?? literacy narratives??particularly Tony Harrison??s poem ??Them & [uz]?? and Barry Hines?? Kes??through the discourse of neoliberalism and the notion of the reluctant boy reader. It is suggested that Almond and McKean are influenced by currently dominant ideologies of gender and literacy.     

Literacy,subjectivity and the gender divide: ‘the freedom of writing implies the freedom of the citizen’ (Sartre, 1948)

The aim of the research project was to explore new ways in which we might evaluate boys’ and girls’ engagement and ‘performance’ in English at Key Stage 3. This paper draws on recent theories regarding literacy, identity and gender and includes an analysis of short stories written by boys and girls aged 12‐ to 13‐years‐old. An exploration of literacy, which relates here to the pupils’ treatment of theme, style and structure, will develop further an understanding of their ability to access the imagination and express original creative ideas. This discussion suggests ways to develop the teaching of creative writing and explores to what extent reading pupils’ narrative fiction might reveal their cultural literacy.     

Teaching the unknowable Other: humanism of the Other by E. Lévinas and pedagogy of responsivity

In this paper, the author investigates what kind of challenges contemporary pedagogy has confronted, focusing on the question of knowability of radical otherness of the educated and the makability of the human being through education. Starting from two different narratives reflecting on their personal educational relationships and their identity as an educator, the author sketches the contrasting development in the history of pedagogy from Comenius via Kant and Buber and expands on the pedagogical reception of the philosophy of the Other by Lévinas. Differing from the ego- and subject-centeredness of modern pedagogy, Lévinas proposes a rather humble concept of a subject who is always and already responsive to and responsible for the Other. Based on this contrast, the author suggests that modern educators can be freed from an all-knowing and almighty complex and get to a more sympathetic, sensitive, and ethical dimension for their pedagogical practice.     

Curriculum Study and the Freedom of the Teacher‐‐II: Comments on the address given by Mr. D. H. Morrell

Data derived from systematic observation of pupils and teachers in 32 junior classrooms are used to consider the relationship between the teaching methods employed by teachers and the proportion of class time pupils spend engaged on curriculum tasks. Correlations between levels of whole‐class, group and individual interactions and the proportions of lesson time pupils spend working directly on curriculum tasks show that classrooms which have higher levels of whole‐class interaction have considerably higher levels of pupil time on task than classrooms with lower levels of whole‐class interactions. Further analysis shows that this association cannot be accounted for simply by pupils spending more time on task during class lessons. In particular, higher levels of whole‐class interaction are associated with pupils spending a higher proportion of time on task during periods of individual activity as well as at other times.     

Curriculum Study and the Freedom of the Teacher‐‐III: Comments on the address given by Mr. D. H. Morrell

This paper presents results from the Assessment of Performance Unit (APU) science surveys which relate directly to Northern Ireland and shows that both the performance on the APU tests and uptake of science subjects for 15‐year‐old pupils from Northern Ireland was worse than those of their English contemporaries. These differences were present throughout the ability range for boys and are extremely large for those pupils studying less than eight O‐levels (i.e. mainly those pupils attending secondary intermediate schools in Northern Ireland).     

Curriculum Study and the Freedom of the Teacher‐‐IV: Comments on the address given by Mr. D. H. Morrell

Letter grades in marking have to be converted to a numerical scale before they can be added or averaged, and the conversion may introduce error in the final total. The use of the stanine scale to control some (but not all) of these sources of error, is described, together with a simple graphical conversion procedure.     

Reason,revelation and reform: Thomas Dick of Methven and the ‘Improvement of Society by the Diffusion of Knowledge‘

I. [A] host of new educational devices ranging from lantern lectures to the Mechanics’ Institutes set up in many towns propagated the ideology essential to the creation of that new and viable class society which was progressively ousting the old aristocratic ethos. Thomas Dick of Methven, Secession clergyman, popular author, pioneer of Mechanics’ Institutes, saint and astronomer, summed up in himself many of the strengths of the new society.? ¹B. Lenman, Integration, Enlightenment and Industrialization: Scotland 1746‐1832 (The New History of Scotland, VI, London, 1981), 167.      

Teachers’ Values and the Literacy Hour

The article reports on an enquiry into teachers’ values and beliefs about literacy. The teachers work in the schools of members participating in an action research project on improving literacy in the primary school. The enquiry was one of the first tasks the project undertook. Its purpose was to enable teachers to articulate their own values and to examine these alongside aspects of the proposed literacy hour within the context of the overall national literacy strategy. As schools implement the literacy hour, the project plans to examine critically the extent to which teachers’ own values and valued practices can operate alongside the requirements of the literacy hour. It will also critically examine those values themselves to see if they change in the light of the experience of the literacy hour. There are some marked differences between the teachers’ views and those embedded within the national literacy strategy. The article discusses some potential practical implications which may arise for teachers and children from these differences. Some commonality between the teachers’ views and the national literacy strategy are also highlighted. It is not the intention of the research project to shape a consensus on values. Rather, one of its purposes is to create a context in which teachers and teacher researchers can engage actively and critically in implementing the national strategy, rather than seeing themselves as passive agents. The debate within the project about values differences is intended to contribute to this purpose

     

Examining the Relations of the Home Literacy Environments of Families of Low SES with Children’s Early Literacy Skills

This study examined variability of the home literacy environment (HLE) using multiple measures among families of low SES. The relations of the measures to each other and to children’s early oral language skills and print knowledge were reported. Considerable variability of the self-reported HLE items and the Children’s Title Checklist (CTC) but low correlations were found among items. Children’s expressive language skills were predicted by the CTC. The number of storybooks in the home predicted variance within children’s receptive vocabulary. Concepts about Print (CAP) scores were predicted by the primary caregivers’ frequency of shared reading and the age when parents began reading to children. Children’s letter name scores were not associated with any of the HLE measures in this study. The research provides additional information about the HLE within the homes of low SES using multiple measures and how they relate differentially to children’s early language and literacy skills.     

Editorial Introduction Literacy in the Age of Information: Knowledge,Power or Domination?

International Review of Education -     

Assessment of Early Developing Phonological Awareness Skills: A Comparison of the Preschool Individual Growth and Development Indicators and the Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening–PreK

Research Findings: Assessing the development of early literacy skills is necessary in order to identify children with delays, provide appropriate intervention, and monitor progress. The purpose of the current study was to compare the data obtained from 2 curriculum-based assessments of phonological awareness skills in a sample of low-income, urban preschoolers. Participants included 227 children from Head Start and other community-based preschool classrooms located in a midwestern city. The Preschool Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs) and the Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening–PreK (PALS-PreK) were administered in the fall and spring of the year. Results suggested that the PALS-PreK was more advantageous than the IGDIs in terms of providing meaningful data for this group of children. The IGDIs appeared to be more appropriate for developmentally advanced preschoolers in this population. Practice or Policy: There remains a critical need for assessments of emergent literacy that are appropriate for diverse groups of preschool children and can feasibly be used for monitoring development.     

Accelerating the College and Career Readiness of Diverse K–5 Literacy Learners

Given the increasing demand for a well-educated American workforce, college and career readiness has become a significant educational priority. New educational initiatives, including the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, are being developed and implemented to prepare students for success in postsecondary education and the workplace. In this article, we discuss how college and career readiness standards have transformed expectations for literacy instruction in K–5 classrooms, especially for students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Given that students of color have been historically underserved in schools, we contend that these children need more equitable and enriched opportunities to learn academic literacies, content knowledge, and communication skills to achieve their future college aspirations and career goals. To that end, we offer key principles (i.e., community-oriented classrooms, close reading of complex texts, content-rich inquiry, and cultural connectedness) that elementary educators can use to design engaging learning environments and robust literacy lessons that advance the college and career readiness of all students.     

Why Is Health Literacy Related to Health? An Exploration Among U.S. National Assessment of Adult Literacy Participants 40 Years of Age and Older

Health literacy has emerged as an important factor related to health in older persons. The reason for the link between health literacy and health outcomes is not clear. Possible explanations include common relations among income, education, access to health care, health-promotion behaviors, frequency of reading, and perceptual impairments. In this study we investigate the relation of health literacy to self-reported health status and explore the impact of these explanatory variables on this relation in persons aged 40 years and older who participated in the 2003 U.S. National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL). Using regression models, we evaluated the impact of potential explanatory variables on the relation of health literacy to self-reported health status. Regression models confirmed previously-observed relations of health literacy, age, income, and education to health. The inclusion of income and education significantly decreased the relation of health literacy to health. While other variables, such as health maintenance and preventive health behaviors, were significantly related to health, they did not change the relation of health literacy to health. Even after taking multiple explanatory variables into account, the relation between health literacy and health status remained significant, suggesting that they alone do not completely account for the observed relation. Some other factor or combination of factors may account for the relation of health literacy to health.     

Literacy,competence and meaning‐making: a human sciences approach

This semiotically informed article problematizes the concept of literacy as an aesthetic activity rather than reading skills and offers strategies for assessing young readers’ understanding of fictional texts. Although not based on empirical research, the essay refers to and theorizes from extensive field studies of children’s responses to literature. The concept of the implied reader, derived from reception theories, is employed to explore the skills demanded in order to make meaning from fictional texts. The essay presents a number of interpretative codes, including anticipatory, narrative, hermeneutic, semic, symbolic and referential. The implication of these codes is investigated in their relevance for texts specifically addressed to young readers. The article argues that literary competence is an essential component of a child’s intellectual growth that should be trained and encouraged, and that the acknowledgement of this competence it is of overall importance for educational research as well as for practitioners.