The appearance of literacy in new communicative practices: interrogating the politics of noticing

ABSTRACT

This conceptual article examines how ready-made assumptions about literacy both frame and limit understandings of new communicative practices in educational contexts. Proposing a tripartite heuristic that interrogates the appearance of literacy in terms of emergence, semblance and performance, it uses stories from a study of touchscreen tablets in one early years setting to illustrate the social-material arrangements associated with moments when tablets became texts to be looked at, shared or made. The authors argue that a sociomaterial sensibility can not only sensitise researchers to new communicative practices, but also to the ways in which sociomaterial arrangements help to construct habits of noticing often active in accounts of literacy practice and research. It is their contention that exploring the relations between emergence, semblance and performance is particularly valuable at a time when conceptualisations of literacy are being challenged in response to diversifying communicative practices.     

De-coding or de-colonising the technocratic university? Rural students’ digital transitions to South African higher education

ABSTRACT

Despite wide-ranging policies and practices intended to address historical inequalities in South African higher education, and calls for decolonisation to include more local relevance, little attention has been paid to the experiences of rural students, especially their digital participation once at university. Previous research has highlighted limitations in technological access in rural areas and the importance of mobile phones for transitions. Whilst universities offer wide-ranging digital support, there remains a tendency towards universalist mechanisms. Drawing on a longitudinal study across three universities, and employing Holland’s theory of figured worlds, we highlight rural students’ experiences of digital transitions across different cultural worlds, prior to university and once they arrive, including the bewildering technocratic systems and practices and resulting conflicts and positionings encountered. We show how students improvise to decode the digital university and figure out new practices. Decolonisation of universities involves rethinking the ‘technocratic consciousness’ (both colonialist and neoliberal) and its apparatus including digital systems and structures. For rural students to become successful digital practitioners in higher education, universities should acknowledge prior digital experience and forms of knowledge and focus on expanding individual and collective agency in supporting transitions, as mechanisms for shaping a decolonised digital education.     

从"时代的意义"到"刚道的人格型"--"战国策派"文化反思

战国策派 ,抗战语境中的文化流派。借助“历史形态学”提供的历史观和方法论 ,该派认为 ,西方文化的根本精神是以“地缘国家”为归属 ,“个性焕发”、“国命整合”为基本内容的民族主义。改造中国文化 ,就在于吸收浮士德无限进取的精神 ,呼唤英雄主义 ,改造国民性。笔者提炼了该派学说的基本理念 ,认为其学术性格中对“时代的意义”的强烈关注 ,以及广阔视野的“理想主义”值得学界重视。     

"归田"实无奈 "猛志"难释怀--对陶渊明"归隐"的再思索

东晋时期的文学家陶渊明在大多数人的心目中往往被视为中国隐士的代表人物.但实际上,陶渊明并不是真正的"隐士",他只是迫不得已而"归田",其内心深处渴望建功立业的人生追求至死也没有泯灭.     

Classroom learning experiences and students’ perceptions of quality of school life

It is generally believed that classroom learning experiences very much influence students’ academic development. However, relatively little is known about whether classroom learning experiences have much effect on students’ affective and social development. In this study, we argued for the importance of learning experiences on students’ affective and social development. From research on Accelerated Schools Project and active learning, we conceptualised Positive Learning Experiences, Teacher Support in Learning, and Active Learning Experiences as three components of learning experiences and developed relevant measures to tap these learning experiences. Using research data from a large-scale student survey in Hong Kong (N = 19,477), we examined the construct validity of learning experiences and quality of school life. Confirmatory factor analysis provided very strong support for the measures and the underlying constructs that they tap. In two-way analysis of variance, the effects of gender and school level (secondary versus primary) on learning experiences and quality of school life were examined. Significant gender and school-level main effects, as well as gender by school-level interaction effects, were found for students’ ratings of their learning experiences and quality of school life. Female students gave more favourable ratings than male students, and primary students gave more favourable ratings than secondary students. In addition, gender differences in these ratings in secondary schools were relatively smaller than in primary schools. In subsequent multilevel modelling, learning experiences were strong predictors of quality of school life after controlling for the effects of gender, school level and average school achievement. These findings provide strong empirical support for the significance of classroom learning experiences for students’ social and affective development.

Performing support in higher education: negotiating conflicting agendas in academic language and learning advisory work

ABSTRACT

This article critically explores neoliberal administrative priorities and the ways in which they shape and constrain academic language and learning (ALL) advisory practice in the Australian higher education sector. Drawing on semi-structured interview data collected from in-service ALL advisors working in Australian universities, we highlight a disjuncture between the participants’ understandings of effective practice and the institutional framing of ALL advisory work as a mechanism to improve accessibility of higher study and retention of diversifying student cohorts. The data indicate the potential for institutional priorities to generate dilemmas in advisors’ daily practice as they are tasked with performing support via formats considered antithetical to meeting students’ needs and fostering productive approaches to study. Under these circumstances, participants characterised collaboration between advisors and content specialists in the pursuit of more embedded approaches as dependent on individual endeavours and stymied by a lack of institutional support. We call for renewed consideration of the formats and affordances with which advisors work in order to better align ALL advisory practice with the holistic development of students’ academic literacy skills.     

Developing Visual Creative Literacies Through Integrating Art-Based Inquiry

Abstract

Visual literacy and the ability to think creatively are critical skills requisite to full participation and communication in the twenty-first century. Learning experiences that integrate studio-based inquiry and other academic concepts can develop discipline skills as well as communication skills of deciphering visual cues and de/re-constructing visual metaphor. This article provides a theoretical overview of meaningful art integrated inquiry, offering examples of science, technology and math integration with studio technique, materials and processes. Further, an argument is presented for the need for all teachers to engage in art-based practices to further develop their own skills and conceptual frameworks.     

Mind the gap: Investigating test literacy and classroom literacy

Focusing on the 2006 examination paper on Richard III , this article starts by examining the assumptions about reading Shakespeare that inform the Key Stage 3 national tests for 14-year-olds in England. It then analyses one student's response to the test, contrasting this performance with evidence drawn from classroom observation and digital video data.     

On-line Literature: The Challenge of Integrating Web-based Materials

This classroom research discusses the challenges of integrating face-to-face interactions with the use of on-line resources in secondary English classrooms. Examining the lesson plans of pre-service and early career teachers in the US, I found that the uses of on-line resources were frequently neither coherent nor consistent with the goals and objectives teachers had planned for their lessons. As well, on-line resources rarely furthered teachers’ attempts to support students’ analytical or close reading of literary texts, but instead were used primarily to foster student engagement with the literature. Although on-line literature resources provide almost unimaginable possibilities for enriching classrooms, teachers must learn to identify and clarify their objectives for reading, and they must distinguish their objectives from those of website developers and sponsors. If we want on-line resources to transform our classrooms, then we must be willing and able to transform those materials, to translate them for our students through developing robust questions that will guide their viewings and readings. Additionally, we must acknowledge that on-line contexts may themselves change reading behaviours, and that when using the World-Wide Web, our local contexts matter greatly.