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Social orientations to literacy
• The New Literacy Studies (Gee 1996, Street 1995 and others)
• Literacy as a social practice, not simply a technical and neutral skill
Literacy is embedded in Discourses, i.e. socially recognised ways of using language, thinking and acting in the world (Gee,1996)
Literacies, Multiliteracies, New LiteraciesCritical literacy
‘Traditional’ orientations to literacy
Single (print-based) modalityEmphasis on decoding and comprehension
(rather than critical analysis) Emphasis on one, single ‘correct’ readingView of the reader as passive receptacle
rather than active agentNotions of language as potentially objective
Activity: Objective language? The following two texts are taken from news articles,
written in the context of the closure of Hong Kong primary schools due to budgetary pressures:
How do the language choices work to construct particular meanings?
What are other possibilities for talking/writing about these topics?
“Can you stand idly by while Comrade Li takes a bloody axe to the sole source of social and economic advancement for our community’s isolated and underprivileged, our poor and our needy?”
“The rationalization of primary schools leads to short-term disruption but long term benefits.”
Social & historical antecedents
Social change & upheaval Awareness of oppression/suppression of groups and
minorities (e.g. women, ethnic groups) Changing economic patterns (the ‘knowledge economy’,
globalization, casualization of work) Technological innovations
New forms of information production Increased access to information
The combined effect of these changes resulted in: Concern about mass ‘indoctrination’ (Frankfurt school) Challenging (hitherto) dominant truths (Feminism,
Postcolonialism) Questioning ‘truth’ per se (Poststructuralism)
Key critical ‘social’ concepts
Ideology (Marx, Althusser)
Discourse (Foucault, Gee)
Power (Foucault)
Key concepts: Ideology
Ideologies purport to be the ‘natural’ order of things, or ‘commonsense’: “It’s well known that…” “Of course, we all recognize that..” “Nobody would dispute the fact that…”
Ideologies involve the “recognition of legitimacy through misrecognition of arbitrariness”.
(Bourdieu, 1977, p. 168)
Key concepts: Discourse
Discourse refers to “ways of behaving , interacting, valuing, thinking, believing, speaking, reading, and writing…ways of being in the world…forms of life.”
Gee, 1996, p. viii
“Discourse is a practice not just of representing the world, but of signifying the world, constituting and constructing the world in meaning.” Fairclough, 1992, p. 64
Key concepts: ‘Discourse’
Discourses are meaningful & recognizable ways of organizing meaning
Discourses both represent and constitute (produce) ‘reality’ at multiple levels: Knowledge Identities Social relations (including relations of power)
Discourses are multiple and overlapping, existing in relation to other discourses
Discourses may complement, compete, or contradict each other
Key concepts: Power
A Foucauldian view of power (1977, 1978, 1980) Involves a set of relations rather than a possession Circulates throughout society rather than being a system of
domination of the ‘powerless’ by the ‘powerful’ Is productive rather than merely repressive Has no ultimate origin or source Always entails resistance Is interconnected with knowledge in discourse
Critical literacy assumptions
Texts are made and read in particular cultural, historical, and political contexts that condition what meanings can be made. (Mission and Morgan, 2005:15)
There is no clear divide between facts & values
Language-as-discourse and ‘reality’ are mutually constitutive. (Language doesn’t merely reflect ‘reality’ but also shapes reality)
All text participants are ‘positioned’ within discourses
Critical literacy practices
Readers adopt a “resistant reading” positions and challenge meanings and messages in texts
Writers can create and circulate texts which counter, challenge, resist dominant discourses
Critical text users take up a social justice agenda, challenging racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, exploitation, poverty, environmental destruction, coercive relations of power (Cummins, 1996)
Four Resources model of literacy (Freebody and Luke 1990)
Code breakingDecoding written language and other multimodal elements
Text participatingUnderstanding the text, comprehending its meaning.
Text usingKnowing how this text is used in context. Understanding how the text features relate to its social function.
Text analysingUnderstanding the Discourses, ideologies and power relations in texts. Taking action to resist, challenge or interrupt texts
Critical strategies
Analysis: deconstruct, interrupt, disrupt, challenge
Counter-posing alternatives
Irony, satire
Emotion / outrage
New literacies: Culture jamming
Challenges mainstream cultural institutions, particularly consumer culture, corporate greed
Multimodal, new media texts
‘memes’ e.g. texts which go ‘viral’
Activity Look at the two letters in the SCMP about native
English speaking teachers What ideologies or ‘common sense’
assumptions are expressed in these texts? What discourses are being drawn upon in this
text? What kinds of oppositions (e.g. good/bad)
structure the arguments of this text? How might these oppositions be challenged or broken down?
How does power operate in this text?
Critical textual analysis of SCMP letters
Dark Ages vs modern, trained Highly regulated, internationally
recognised Gifted professionals Get by with native proficiency Regional accent vs Queen’s
English Exposure Authentic, useful Valid… if the first language is
English
positive images of English teaching
professional up to date legitimate backpackers vs qualified
professionals Accent and social class Professional ELT
discourse Native speaker model and
dominance
Critical analysis of SCMP letters
Birmingham factory worker, Irish farm labourer
Standard English Understood all over
the world/ not be understood
Low level teachers Strong regional accent Teaching prof easy to
enter
Accent and social class
Regional = working class
Myth of “Standard English”
Risk/ caution Regional accents =
low level teachers Regional accents =
low level profession
Critical analysis: A classroom activity
Look at this teachers’ worksheet and instructions
Consider the context in which this worksheet was used
How do ideology, discourses and power operate in this text?
Is the students’ response a critical one?
Activity: Critical textual analyses
Task 1
In groups of 3: critically analyse one text
Write your analysis on the wiki page
Task 2
Create a critical multimodal text which challenges, resists or interrupts a dominant discourse in the text you analysed
http://bedyear4newliteracies.wikispaces.com/
Critical analyses of everyday texts
What is the text type, social purpose, creator/producer and audience?
How do the different modes employed contribute to the meanings that are being made?
What discourses, ideologies and power relations are expressed in the text?
Ideologies: assumptions about/ representations of the social world
Discourses: knowledge, identities, social relations
Power: truth claims and assumptions, silences and gaps, inconsistencies
How can these be resisted or challenged? For what social ends or consequences?
References
Althusser, L. (1971). Ideology and ideological state apparatus. In L. Althusser (Ed.), Lenin and philosophy and other essays by Louis Althusser (pp. 127-188). London: Monthly Review Press.
Cummins, J. (1996). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society. Ontario: California Association of Bilingual Education.
Dimitriadis, G., & Kamberelis, G. (2006). Theory for education. New York: Routledge.
Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press.
Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish. London: Penguin.Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge. Brighton: Harvester.Freebody, P., & Luke, A. (1990). 'Literacies' programs: Debates and
demands in cultural context. Prospect, 5(3), 7-16.Gee, J.P. (1996). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses.
London: Falmer