Barriers to teachers using digital texts in literacy classrooms

In many accounts of school literacy teaching and learning, there are claims that young people's familiarity with digital texts (ICTs) could provide teachers with opportunities to plan exciting and innovative activities. It would seem, however, that despite intensive research and exemplary practices over the last 20 years, the infiltration of ICTs into literacy classrooms is not widespread. This paper reports on one study where teachers discussed, argued and thought about their uses of digital texts in their classrooms. It provides some insight into the reasons why literacy teachers do not engage with digital texts as part of their everyday literacy activities. It also shows teachers using institutional and societal discourses about the value of students' home experiences to their schooling, the production of digital texts for presentation of print‐based work and the importance of technical knowledge about computers and new technologies, to describe and in part to overcome the barriers to using new technologies in their literacy classrooms.     

Disqualified in the human race: a close reading of the autobiographies of individuals identified as autistic

Much can be learned about the experience of autism by listening to the voices of individuals so labelled. They describe their understanding of competence, living in a culture where autism is considered deviant, deficient and outside the range of ‘normal’ human experience. This paper utilises autobiographical accounts written by individuals who identify as autistic as a source of qualitative research data and specifically explores the ways in which these texts address issues of competence. Using narrative inquiry, it explores how individuals with autism, both adults and adolescents, describe their own notions of competence and, further, the instructional practices that support their ability to demonstrate their competence.     

Camus,habitat and the art of seeing

The early essays of Camus have been underexplored as educational texts. The discussion here introduces these texts for educational consideration. The analysis uncovers themes which link to existing educational research on Camus. As these are autobiographical texts they also provide new insight on the genesis of Camus’ thinking on subjects of interest to education, and Camus’ own educational journey into the absurd. The discussion here suggests the lyrical essays explore the connections between learning and the natural landscape, and as a result, they suggest a concept of education based around seeing the world a certain way; a communion with the natural world as a basis for understanding and happiness.     

Classroom literacies: young children’s explorations in meaning making in the age of the literacy hour

In this article I explore contrasting approaches to literacy and learning in Key Stage One classrooms. In particular I question whether the approach to writing composition in the NLS Framework for Teaching is consistent with what we know about children’s story telling and writing in the early years. Children are powerful thinkers who constantly strive to make meaningful and playful engagements with their social and cultural worlds, of which texts are an important part. Through composing and writing stories in school the children in this study are often exploring aspects of their identities, having fun in entering into adult and fantasy worlds, and working with their friends to create texts which place them in powerful roles.     

Mundane Autobiography: some thoughts on self‐talk in research contexts

The paper considers the status of autobiographical interview data in life history and biographical research. Interviews tend to be treated, it is suggested, as ‘sacred’ texts‐‐as contemplative and authoritative versions that are as free as possible from the biasses and desires that ordinarily animate (and ‘contaminate') personal stories and anecdotes. It is argued here that, on the contrary, interview accounts are as mundane and pragmatic as any other kind of self‐talk. People use identity for practical ends‐‐to make sense of their conduct, to establish allegiances, to justify moral positions and defend educational ideals. The paper ends by examining a fragment from an interview. Using concepts from discourse and conversation analysis it shows how a teacher, Karen, constructs a particular professional identity and thus engages in an act of mundane autobiography.     

From secondary school blues to lifelong learning? - aspects of the retrospective re-evaluation of formative educational experience by adults

An introductory section traces the connections between published autobiographical accounts of education in childhood, as seen in retrospect, and the construction of hypotheses for more formal research into the continuing influences of formative educational experience for adult learners and educationists. The reported research relates to the re-evaluation of aspects of primary and secondary schooling by 21 adults, seven each from the UK, Germany and Denmark. The results reflect a cross-cultural unanimity of perspective on certain key aspects of formative education, notably the generally positive view which subjects took of their own progress in both primary education and post-compulsory secondary education. Subjects in all three national groups independently expressed more reservations about their progress in schooling in early secondary education. The qualitative interview data failed to support the theory that educational progress in this period compromised by the intrusion of developmental factors relating to puberty and adolescence. Subjects' own accounts pointed more strongly towards interpretations relating to the management of crucial transitions in the responsibilities for academic study, from the early experience of dependency on teachers, in primary school, to the construction of independent learner goals in the later phases of secondary education in anticipation of the greater degree of autonomy required in tertiary and continuing education.     

Writing and Dialogue In,and Around,a Senior Secondary Literature Classroom

The tradition of teachers engaging in narrative-based inquiry is now well established, as is its value for creating situated knowledge about teaching. This reflexive autobiographical article weaves together narrative accounts around a senior literature classroom environment. The article features two voices: a teacher (Natalie Bellis) and a Year 12 literature student (Jessica Garcia). Through this process of narrative inquiry, the teacher reflects on her experiences of exploring literary texts with senior students within a landscape of high-stakes assessment. In this way, the teacher engages with Dorothy Smith’s notion of ‘writing the social’, by using narrative to illuminate and critically inquire into the lived experience of teaching and learning. The motif, or thread, that binds these three narrative accounts is the act of letter-writing, which serves as a metaphor for the foregrounding of the personal within a context that is shaped by external forces that can result in conformity and generality. This tension between the ‘local actualities’ of experiences and the institutional structures that govern them is theorised using de Certeau’s metaphor of the city map.     

Improving learner outcomes in lifelong education: formal pedagogies in non‐formal learning contexts?

This article explores how far research findings about successful pedagogies in formal post‐school education might be used in non‐formal learning contexts – settings where learning may not lead to formal qualifications. It does this by examining a learner outcomes model adapted from a synthesis of research into retention. The article first introduces the model. It then explores this model to identify pedagogy suitable for formal education. Next it asks whether this pedagogy may also be appropriate for use in four non‐formal learning contexts: community development; adult literacy; workplace learning; and personal interest learning. While it gives a qualified ‘yes’ to the question, it acknowledges some shortcomings in the pedagogy for non‐formal adult learning. Finally, the article attempts to address shortcomings by integrating a critical dimension into the model, suggesting that learner outcomes in formal education could also benefit from the inclusion of this critical dimension.     

The ‘good’ parent in relation to early childhood literacy: symbolic terrain and lived practice

In this paper we consider the place of early childhood literacy in the discursive construction of the identity(ies) of ‘proper’ parents. Our analysis crosses between representations of parenting in texts produced by commercial and government/public institutional interests and the self‐representations of individual parents in interviews with the researchers. The argument is made that there are commonalities and disjunctures in represented and lived parenting identities as they relate to early literacy. In commercial texts that advertise educational and other products, parents are largely absent from representations and the parent's position is one of consumer on behalf of the child. In government‐sanctioned texts, parents are very much present and are positioned as both learners about and important facilitators of early learning when they ‘interact’ with their children around language and books. The problem for which both, in their different ways, offer a solution is the “not‐yet‐ready” child precipitated into the evaluative environment of school without the initial competence seen as necessary to avoid falling behind right from the start. Both kinds of producers promise a smooth induction of children into mainstream literacy and learning practices if the ‘good parent’ plays her/his part. Finally, we use two parent cases to illustrate how parents' lived practice involves multiple discursive practices and identities as they manage young children's literacy and learning in family contexts in which they also need to negotiate relations with their partners and with paid and domestic work.     

Technology‐enhanced learning in higher education: How to enhance student engagement through blended learning

Blended learning has risen in popularity in the last two decades as it has been shown to be an effective approach for accommodating an increasingly diverse student population in higher education and enriching the learning environment by incorporating online teaching resources. Blending significant elements of the learning environment such as face‐to‐face, online and self‐paced learning leads to better student experiences and outcomes and more efficient teaching and course management practices if combined appropriately. Hence, an appropriate systematic and dynamic approach of blended learning design is crucial for a positive outcome, starting with planning for integrating blended elements into a course and creating blended activities and implementing them. Evaluating their effectiveness and knowing in which environments they work better and improving the blended activities designed from both the student’s and instructor’s perspective are critical for the next delivery of the course. This article aims to increase awareness of higher education educators about how traditional face‐to‐face learning can be transformed into blended courses so as to develop student engagement with both in‐class and online approaches, whilst being time effective for the instructor.     

‘But sir,I lied’ – the value of autobiographical discourse in the classroom

This article aims to examine the benefits of teachers using their own autobiographical writing in the classroom. It explores the blurring of truth and fiction in autobiographical writing and argues that teachers can help students if they provide students with the cloak of fiction when writing about their own lives. Furthermore, it puts forward the case that when teachers share pertinent autobiographical episodes then pupils are more willing to respond in an engaged and passionate fashion. In developing my argument, I suggest that autobiographical writing can be therapeutic in certain classroom contexts. The data sources for this article are the author's own life and two case studies: an 11‐year‐old boy, George, and a 15‐year‐old girl, Eloise, both of whom were pupils of the author and wrote autobiographically for him. The methodological approach is that of bricolage: chiefly, the article combines ethnographical observation with interviews and discourse analysis. I also examine quantitative studies which look at the therapeutic dimensions of autobiographical writing. Theoretically I draw on Friere's concept of ‘conscientization’ (Friere 1985: 49) in order to critique the ‘banking’ concept of education, which would close down opportunities for pupils to write freely about their own lives.     

Correspondence

Abstract

A profile of teacher competences is described and interrogated in the light of inherent, language‐based problematics. It is argued that such texts tend to constrain the modes and parameters within which to think about one's practice, in addition to masking possible deficiences in education systems through a pathologisation of the individual practitioner. The importance of keeping alive alternative discourses is stressed. Such discourses, it is argued, should recognise the complex idiosyncratic, contingent aspects of teaching and learning, and should include students’ reflections on their own in‐ and out‐school experiences through dialogic, autobiographical writing.     

Literacy,media and multimodality: a critical response

In recent years, literacy educators have increasingly recognised the importance of addressing a broader range of texts in the classroom. This article raises some critical concerns about a particular approach to this issue that has been widely promoted in recent years – the concept of ‘multimodality’. Multimodality theory offers a broadly semiotic approach to analysing a range of communicative forms. It has been widely taken up by literacy educators, initially at an academic level, and has begun to find its way into policy documents, teacher education and professional development and classroom practice. This article presents some criticisms, both of the theory itself and of the ways in which it has been taken up within the wider context of curriculum change. It argues that, in its popular usage, multimodality theory is being appropriated in a way that merely reinforces a long‐standing distinction between print and ‘non‐print’ texts. This contributes in particular to a continuing neglect of the specificity of moving image media – media that are central to the learning and everyday life experiences of young children. Drawing on recent classroom‐based research, the article concludes by offering some brief indications of an alternative approach to these issues.     

TRANSITION,LOSS, AND GROWTH: PROCESSES OF POSITIVE ADAPTATION

Positive adaptation to the transition events of later life is a neglected area in the literature of gerontology and educational gerontology. Drawing on the literature of social and clinical psychology, gerontology, adult development, and adult education, as well as on original research findings, this paper formulates a model for viewing the transitions and losses of the aging process as opportunities for growth and self‐enhancement. Major categories of social‐psychological transition events are reviewed; the social‐psychological resources that aging individuals bring to these events are summarized; and three processes of adaptation to transition (grieving, stress management, and learning) are discussed in terms of their relevance to the problem. The usefulness of reflective learning as an adaptive strategy particularly appropriate to the later third of life is emphasized. Implications for further research and applications to practice are presented.     

Autobiography in science education: Greater objectivity through local knowledge

In our paper we argue that (1) autobiography ought to be considered both the telling of one's story and the using of that story with others to understand and use difference productively, and (2) autobiography (as telling and interacting) dismantles the universalistic tug of science and replaces it with a push for science as local knowledge. To accomplish this dual task, we share selective autobiographical accounts of lives (autobiography as telling), and then use these accounts to have a conversation about urban science education (autobiography as interacting). Following these autobiographical accounts we then discuss how our different stories apart and together provide a greater objective insight into what it means to come-to-know science. When talking about their lives, people lie sometimes, forget a lot, exaggerate, become confused, and get things wrong. Yet, they are revealing truths. These truths don't reveal the past “as it actually was,” aspiring to a standard of objectivity. They give us instead the truths of our experiences. (Personal Narratives Group (PNG), 1989, p. 261)     

Children as citizens: literacies for social participation

The last decade has seen, in the policy arena, a broad global push for children to be treated as active participants in society rather than as the passive recipients of adult decisions and interventions. The topic of literacy learning and teaching has, however, been absent from much of the policy and literature on children's social participation. This paper is an exploratory foray into possible connections between literacy and citizenship from the perspective of young children and those responsible for their education. Drawing from both sociocultural and semiotic perspectives on literacy, this analysis crosses between institutional texts, ethnographic accounts and children's own representations of their places in the world. A hierarchical model of literacy development, which emphasises the teaching of basic decoding skills in the early years, is associated with a view of young children as future citizens rather than as active social participants. Recognising children's agency, and supporting their meaningful participation, requires literacies of social participation.     

Adult learners’ emotions in online learning

The aim of the research study reported in this article was to investigate how adult learners talk about their emotions in the context of a year‐long online course, the first online course these adults take, as part of a distance education program. The theoretical and methodological approach focused on formulating an account of how emotion discourses are used by learners, what role they play in online learning, and how they change over a one‐year period (if they do so). The findings of this study provide three insights: (1) they show how adult learners (who also happen to be novice online learners) respond emotionally and talk about their emotions in relation to online learning; (2) they call attention to the ways in which emotion talk changes from the beginning of the course to the end, always in response to specific demands and dimensions of online learning; and (3) they reveal the differential emotional responses between men and women in relation to their social and gender roles and responsibilities. Empirical and policy implications of this study are discussed at the end.