Digital literacy practices and their layered multiplicity

Success in educational programmes often depends on learners being able to negotiate and manage a variety of digital literacy practices commensurate with the literacy demands of their course. This paper reports on preliminary findings of a multi-method PhD study which examines the digital literacy practices arising when an adult learner in a UK college completes writing assignments for her course. It explores whether she uses digital tools agentively and decisively in her personal life, in order to transform her classroom practice. Data show that mobilising personal digital literacy practices into classroom-based literacy events allows learners to successfully make the link between their own everyday digital literacy practices and the requirements of their course. It is argued that a “social practice” approach to digital literacies, along with actor-network theory sensibilities, allows researchers to observe the sensitivity of classroom-based digital literacy events to the layered multiplicity of their contexts.     

Changing discourses: Literacy and development in Nepal

Literacy policy and programming in developing countries continues to be influenced by the assumption that without literacy, an adult is unable to function on an equal basis in society and that an individual can be easily categorised as either literate or illiterate. Although this has led to prioritisation of primary schooling over adult literacy in many national government and donor agency budgets, there has recently been a movement away from regarding adult literacy as only ‘second chance schooling’ to explore how literacy programmes can build on participants’ existing practices. In the context of these changes in international policy discourses, this article analyses how literacy and development policy and programming in Nepal has changed over the past decade. Drawing on interviews with policy makers, trainers and literacy facilitators conducted in the 1990s and 2007, the author explores the shifts taking place. The structure of literacy programmes (including links with formal schooling), literacy materials, language of instruction and concepts of ‘post literacy’ were influenced by political events during this period as well as by donor agency discourses. Findings from the Nepal case have implications for the international policy discourse, such as the need to problematise the term ‘political’ to consider the intended and unintended consequences of literacy interventions.     

Adult education and indigenous people: Addressing gender in policy and practice

Adult education programmes developed for or by indigenous communities rarely seem to have addressed gender inequalities. Yet, compared to mainstream adult educational interventions promoting instrumental approaches to ‘functional literacy’, such programmes often appear highly politicised, starting from a standpoint of promoting indigenous peoples’ rights. We look at the reasons for the absence of gender analysis from policy and research on indigenous adult education and highlight key issues within indigenous adult education, when viewed from a gendered perspective, particularly language, assessment, learning structures and programme objectives. Drawing on case studies of indigenous adult education programmes in South and South-East Asia, we emphasise the need for participatory, non-hierarchical processes in adult education that can provide legitimate space for multiple voices within indigenous groups, without enhancing the sense of marginalisation. The principles underlying indigenous adult education programmes can help planners to challenge and respond to gender inequalities.     

Winners and Losers' in the Development of Home-School Literacy Partnerships: An Analysis of Discourses of Power

In the past decade, family literacy has been the focus of considerable research. This work has suggested multiple understandings of involvement, and that many schools tend to work within a definition of parent involvement that does little more than seek to conform parents and their children to the literacy practices of schools. This paper reports research that has considered how parents take strategic action on their own and their children's behalf to increase their educational opportunities. It looks closely at the ways relationships between families and schools are constructed, and presents two ‘telling cases’ of families' responses to school literacy practices assigned for work at home. In doing so, it attempts to bring voices from Australia to the dialogue on ways of viewing parental involvement. It does this from a community centred perspective with the focus on the process of constructing shared meanings and understandings. The research examines the specific literacy practices that are honoured and dishonoured in the name of ‘parent involvement’. In doing so, the paper attempts to make visible the potential ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ in the development of home-school literacy partnerships.     

Global transformation and the search for a new educational design

This paper reports on an investigation of collaboration between schools and adult education providers in relation to some case-study examples of ‘parent education’ and ‘family literacy’ programmes. It examines how these organizations' different conceptions of their purposes and their under-pinning values can lead to different outcomes particularly in relation to their conceptualization of the role of the ‘parent’. It argues that schoolteachers and adult education staff come from distinct cultures and have different ideas about education and learning. They have, however, distinctive and complementary roles to play in promoting learning and education and creating a fairer social order. Using a parent centred, dialogic approach positions parents as people with an important contribution to make rather than as ‘problems’ that need to change to the school's way of seeing things. The paper suggests that whilst learning alone cannot abolish inequality and social divisions it can make a real contribution to combating them, not least by tackling the ways in which social exclusion is reinforced through the very processes and outcomes of education and training. If parents can be helped to challenge deficit views of the culture of their homes and communities then a small step has been taken in enabling their voices to be heard in the learning of their children and in their own educational development. For this to happen, however, some of the control that professionals have imposed on schooling for so long will have to be released and parents would need to be regarded as people with important contributions to make as collaborating educational partners.     

Through a gender lens: explaining North‐Eastern Thai women’s participation in adult literacy education

This ethnographic study employs a gender perspective to understand the motivations of eight women literacy learners participating in a village‐based functional literacy programme in rural North‐eastern Thailand. Field research took place over six months of periodic residence in a North‐eastern Thai village, and involved participant observation, individual interviews and informal focus groups. An analysis of the women’s reproductive, productive and community roles, and their practical and strategic gender needs (Moser ) is used to frame findings on the women’s participation in the literacy programme. In brief, although the women valued educational programmes that reduced the burden of their reproductive labour, offered income‐generating opportunities in their productive roles and supported their leadership roles in the community, the village literacy programme had limited effect in addressing these practical gender needs. However, because a patriarchal ideology and Buddhist institutions had denied the women access to schooling as children, they now saw the literacy programme as both a symbolic return to school and a collective women’s space to advocate for more desirable adult educational programmes. In these ways, the programme addressed their strategic gender needs. The study argues that a gender lens is critical in explaining women’s participation in literacy programmes and in designing literacy education for development.     

Building on existing informal learning in Traveller communities through family literacy programmes: an Irish case study

Focusing on Ireland, this paper explores the potential role family literacy programmes can play in influencing educational attainment and in fostering positive attitudes towards formal learning in Traveller families. It is often claimed that members of the Traveller community tend to undervalue learning; that they are uninterested in their children's education and perceive it holds little relevance to adult life. However, research shows that significant forms of learning do take place within the family, for example, skills-based work-related learning. Further, there is evidence to suggest that some Traveller parents believe there is value in educating their children and there is a growing recognition, especially by mothers, that children need to achieve academically, particularly where there are concerns that migrant workers are accessing the jobs, Travellers have traditionally performed. Drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and field, the author argues that family literacy programmes can potentially offer an alternative space in which to engage Travellers in formal education and that such engagement has the potential to impact positively on the academic attainment and achievement of Traveller children by helping mothers recognise, and build on, the informal learning in which they are already engaged.     

Effects of a positive youth development approach to literacy through young adult literature in the secondary remedial reading class: an action research study

The purpose of this action research study was to determine if a bibliotological approach to literacy with at-risk students met the educational expectations of a remedial reading course while simultaneously accelerating literacy practices and promoting positive youth development. Twenty-four tenth grade students enrolled in a remedial reading course in the southwestern USA participated in a nine-week instructional design that utilized young adult literature as a medium through which to practice literacy skills and strategies while exploring positive youth development simultaneously. Measurement protocols included diagnostic assessments of reading, surveys, Likert-scale inventories, and journals as a way of eliciting students’ voices. Data was analyzed through paired t-tests, Bonferroni Correlation, and typological and inductive coding. Through this approach, all students experienced an increase in self-efficacy, which led to positive youth development and growth in literacy proficiency and practices. Suggestions for future research include the study of this approach in multiple remedial contexts, with multiple young adult texts, and for greater lengths of time. Additionally, a follow-up inquiry to determine potential lasting impact is warranted.     

Assessing the impact of women's literacies in Bangladesh: An ethnographic inquiry

The paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork in the north-west of Bangladesh. It explores conceptual and methodological issues involved in assessing the impact of adult literacy acquisition on social development. The paper compares ethnographic perspectives on literacy within the ‘New Literacy Studies’, and the conceptual framework provided by the ‘Livelihoods Approach’. In terms of women's literacy, the paper argues that instead of seeing the process as one of ‘skills’ acquisition, impact assessment should also examine processes of negotiation and resistance over new gender roles and identities. The risk and vulnerability associated with subaltern literacy practices, and women's literacy in particular, mean that such practices often remain hidden, and are conducted surreptitiously. Such a perspective has implications in terms of how we understand literacy, and the methods employed in impact assessment. These issues are examined in relation to both secular and religious (Koranic) literacies.     

(Un)veiling Desire: Re-defining relationships between gendered adult education subjects and adult education programmes

This paper challenges constructions of the ‘gendered illiterate Indian villager’ as a homogenous group of people who are empowered through acquiring literacy. I strive to displace homogeneous representations of gendered ‘illiterate’ subjects through ethnographic accounts of diverse people's realities in different villages in Bihar, India. I argue that the circumstance under which a relationship between gendered adult education subjects and adult education programmes gets constructed impinges on notions of: norms, interpreting and translating Others, networks and empowerment within and outside the context of adult education programmes.     

The Dominant Tradition in Adult Literacy – A Comparative Study of National Literacy Programmes in Botswana and Zimbabwe

The article highlights the renewed significance of adult literacy for international and national educational policy as a result of the World Educational Forum in 2000, at which a new vision of literacy was advocated. The difference between the new and old paradigms of adult literacy is considered. The article argues that the traditional approach which has dominated the international discourse on adult literacy has profoundly influenced national decisions. This influence is illustrated through a comparative analysis of national adult literacy programmes in Botswana and Zimbabwe. The programmes exhibit a high degree of similarity despite differences in the national contexts. The analysis shows that the traditional approach has been relatively ineffective in improving adult literacy levels. However, proposals for change influenced by the new paradigm have not been taken into account. Thus the examples of Botswana and Zimbabwe indicate the difficulty in displacing the dominant tradition in adult literacy at the level of national policy-making.     

The Dominant Tradition in Adult Literacy – A Comparative Study of National Literacy Programmes in Botswana and Zimbabwe

The article highlights the renewed significance of adult literacy for international and national educational policy as a result of the World Educational Forum in 2000, at which a new vision of literacy was advocated. The difference between the new and old paradigms of adult literacy is considered. The article argues that the traditional approach which has dominated the international discourse on adult literacy has profoundly influenced national decisions. This influence is illustrated through a comparative analysis of national adult literacy programmes in Botswana and Zimbabwe. The programmes exhibit a high degree of similarity despite differences in the national contexts. The analysis shows that the traditional approach has been relatively ineffective in improving adult literacy levels. However, proposals for change influenced by the new paradigm have not been taken into account. Thus the examples of Botswana and Zimbabwe indicate the difficulty in displacing the dominant tradition in adult literacy at the level of national policy-making.     

Fathers' involvement in young children's literacy development: Implications for family literacy programmes

Relatively few studies of family literacy programmes have investigated parents' experiences and whilst a number of such programmes have been specifically aimed at fathers, little is known about the involvement of fathers in programmes which target both mothers and fathers. This article reports fathers' involvement in a family literacy programme and their home literacy practices with their young children. The article provides a definition of family literacy and describes the context of the study, which was carried out in socio‐economically disadvantaged communities in a northern English city. Fathers' participation in their children's literacy was investigated through interviews at the beginning and end of the programme (n = 85) and home visit records made by teachers throughout the programme. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of these data indicate that, while fathers' participation in the family literacy programme was not easily visible, almost all fathers were involved to some extent in home literacy events with their children. During the programme, teachers shared information about literacy activities and the importance of children having opportunities to share literacy activities with their parents. Data indicate that fathers who were not mentioned by mothers as having been involved in their children's literacy were significantly more likely to be on a low income than those who were reported as being engaged with their children in home literacy activities. Fathers in the study were involved in providing literacy opportunities, showing recognition of their children's achievements, interacting with their children around literacy and being a model of a literacy user. Although involved in all four of these key roles, fathers tended to be less involved in providing literacy opportunities than mothers. While fathers and sons engaged in what might be described as traditionally ‘masculine’ literacy activities, fathers were more often reported to be involved with their children in less obviously gendered home literacy activities. The article concludes with discussion of implications for involving fathers in future family literacy programmes.     

Challenging ideological environments: international teachers’ experiences in an outside-of-country teacher training programme

Teacher training for developing nation contexts is often conducted in short, intensive inside and outside-of-country programmes. Concerns have been raised in relation to the uncritical take-up of the western-centric material provided by these programmes, which are usually funded by national and international government organizations. This paper explores an approach used in an outside-of-country teacher training programme funded by an Australian government grant. The research focused on teacher trainers from the Monastic education system and their reflections on whether critical literacy approaches could be incorporated into curriculum in Myanmar. It used a Bakhtinian framework to analyse the teacher trainers’ ideological environments and their hybridizations of critical literacy discourses for their own contexts. It was found that while the teacher trainers were passionate about the worth of developing critical literacy skills for their teachers and pupils, they struggled with a range of constraints that existed for them within their country. The research illustrated the importance of providing spaces for participants in programmes such as these to critically reflect on the relevance of non-government organization (NGO) and international non-government organization (INGO) training programmes, especially in light of the multiple challenges that are a part of their everyday lives.     

Reflecting Reflective Practice

This paper demystifies reflective practice on teaching by focusing on the idea of reflection itself and how it has been conceived by two philosophers, Plato and Irigaray. It argues that reflective practice has become a standardized method of defining the teacher in teacher education and teacher accreditation systems. It explores how practices of reflection themselves can suggest ways out of dictated pathways of reflection in teaching. Drawing on Luce Irigaray's and Plato's ideas on reflection, the paper includes a critical overview of how reflective practice can contradict its own aims and become non‐reflective, shutting off possibilities for transformations and educational differences that it has set out to achieve. Keeping up the deconstructive mood, the paper draws on Irigaray's re‐reading of Plato's parable of the cave to argue that reflective teaching that merely reflects phallogocentric educational systems and that attempts to universally reproduce standardized forms of reflective practice can never be conducive to the diversification of educational spaces.

The paper seeks to re‐think Plato's idea of reflection as mere copying and takes up Irigaray's strategic mimesis to explore ways through which reflective practice can regain its critical edge and reactivate teachers' reflective voices. It argues for the repetition of the practice of reflection by drawing on a feminist critique that challenges phallogocentric reflective tendencies in education and for mimetic strategies that engender difference.     

Reconceptualising critical digital literacy

While it has proved a useful concept during the past 20 years, the notion of ‘critical digital literacy’ requires rethinking in light of the fast-changing nature of young people's digital practices. This paper contrasts long-established notions of ‘critical digital literacy’ (based primarily around the critical consumption of digital forms) with the recent turn towards ‘digital design literacy’ (based around the production of digital forms). In doing so, three challenges emerge for the continued relevance of critical digital literacy: (1) the challenge of critiquing the ideological concerns with the digital without alienating the individual's personal affective response; (2) connecting collective concerns to do with social and educational inequalities to individual practices; and (3) cultivating a critical disposition in a context in which technical proficiency is prioritised. The paper then concludes by suggesting a model of ‘critical digital design’, offering a framework that might bridge the divide between critical literacy models and the more recent design-based literacy models.     

Transformative and emancipatory literacy to empower

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on sociological and critical educational frames, particularly Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence, in order to contest the dominant model of literacy education that is driven by the premise of a ‘knowledge economy’. Instead it foregrounds the political, social, and economic factors that marginalise learners. Data from two projects: an ethnographic study in a Further Education (FE) College in England and a study of community-based literacy programmes in Scotland, are probed to show how literacy classes can offer spaces to challenge symbolic violence and facilitate learners to reclaim identities of success. These changes are illustrated from the learners’ views of the contrasts between their experiences of school education and literacy programmes that use transformative and emancipatory approaches. Our research demonstrates how critical education can open up spaces for a more equitable approach based on the co-production of knowledge. It is argued that making changes to policy and practice could inform and shape the literacy curriculum and its pedagogy if adult literacy can disentangle itself from instrumental approaches driven by neoliberal fusion and instead create critical space for contextualised and emancipatory learning.     

Undermining the very democracy we seek to create: discussion practices in adult education and the dangers of repressive tolerance

Discussion has long held an honored place in the pantheon of lionized adult education practices. One of the most frequently venerated aspects of discussion is opening up conversation to include the widest possible diversity of perspectives and intellectual traditions. This democratic attempt to be open and inclusive is held to represent what is best about adult education—its humanistic concern to have all voices heard, all experiences analyzed, and all viewpoints honored. Herbert Marcuse's concept of repressive tolerance stands directly against these sentiments. Marcuse argues that an alternative idea, concept or text can be inserted into a discussion of familiar, mainstream materials in such a way that serves only to underscore the normality of the center while positioning the alternatives as exotic others. This paper explores how this process occurs and suggests how it might be countered.     

Socio‐psychological factors in electronic networking

In this paper we examine contrasting concepts of literacy in relation to the rehabilitation of offenders under supervision by the probation service. One approach, derived from a linguistic or code-based perspective, delimits literacy to acquiring minimal routines and procedures to function in mainstream society in order to avoid further failure. Critical literacy, in contrast, derived from a socio-cultural perspective, highlights the importance of acquiring literacy as an active, context-grounded process, through which individuals take personal control for accessing wider social, educational and economic opportunities. Arguably, literacy is a fundamental component of any rehabilitation process for offenders and there is evidence that involvement in literacy programmes reduces recidivism, enables offenders to achieve better family relationships, higher levels of self-control and self-esteem, whilst also promoting a sense of social responsibility and inclusion in society. Data are reported from a survey conducted in England and Wales as part of a Home Office commissioned research project which surveyed literacy provision in 53 out of the 55 probation services, with 13 of these subjectedto more intensiveresearch through site visits.The paper focuses on how probation services perceive the literacy needs of offenders under supervision, and how this informs processes of assessment and intervention, including priorities given to literacy work. The objective of the research was to recommend practices, procedures or partnerships which allow for an effective response to offenders' literacy needs within the service's statutory role. The findings indicate that the provision of literacy assessment and support is unsystematic, with very wide variations in practice nationally, both between and within services. Conflicting perspectives are highlighted on how literacy should be defined and taught, which in turn reflect underlying ambivalence about the role of probation officers as either punitive or preventative. Recommendations are made for policy development and changes in probation service practice.     

Re-Envisioning Language,Literacy, and the Immigrant Subject in New Mediascapes

This article explores how networked electronic communications have given rise to new social spaces, linguistic and semiotic practices, and ways of fashioning the self beyond the national context for immigrant youths in the United States. This article presents 2 case studies of immigrant students' communicative practices on the Internet: 1 involving a diasporic chat space and another related to the creation of global anime multimedia. Analysis of discourse, interviews, and observational data show that, within these transnational social spaces, the young immigrants created new learning experiences, competences, and representations of linguistic and cultural identities in the use of language and literacy. This evidence of changing language and literacy practices in the context of globalised communications call for a re-evaluation of the predominantly monolingual, monocultural, and nation-centric views of the adaptation and educational trajectory of immigrant students.