New literacies & criticality

BEd Year 2 Teaching and Learning New Literacies

Session 4

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

Liberal Studies classroom activity

“Write your definition of success in the tulip below.”