Possibilities for pedagogy in Further Education: Harnessing the abundance of literacy

In this report, it is argued that the most salient factor in the contemporary communicative landscape is the sheer abundance and diversity of possibilities for literacy, and that the extent and nature of students' communicative resources is a central issue in education. The text outlines the conceptual underpinnings of the Literacies for Learning in Further Education project in a social view of literacy, and the associated research design, methodology and analytical framework. It elaborates on the notion of the abundance of literacies in students' everyday lives, and on the potential for harnessing these as resources for the enhancement of learning. It provides case studies of changes in practice that have been undertaken by further education staff in order to draw upon students' everyday literacy practices on Travel and Tourism and Multimedia courses. It ends with some of the broad implications for conceptualising learning that arise from researching through the lens of literacy practices

Teaching University Students to Read and Write

Recent government initiatives have required universities to include specific literacy and numeracy targets for the students. The authors – both members of the English discipline at Charles Sturt University – were invited to develop and run a two-semester program for all students studying to become early childhood, primary, and secondary teachers. This article outlines the nature of the two subjects which comprise the program: the first focused on reading and comprehension, the second on writing and composition. These subjects were conceived from collegial dialogues between academics in education and the humanities, and then developed from these different assumptions and starting points. Over the last five years, the shared experiences of teaching these prospective teachers has grown into a strongly coherent first year of study. This article seeks the describe the experiences of teaching literacy to first-year education students, and it is by turns hypothesising and speculative, reflective and qualitative, in its approach. In the process, this article offers colleagues across the country a reflection on the hypotheses of literacy education, some new ideas for teaching literacy, and some optimism for the future of the teaching profession, and the dignity of those who aspire to be a part of it

Informal Education. Sociocultural Expression. and Symbolic Meaning in Popular Immigration Music Text

One February morning as I noted the events of the primary school talent show, a sixth-grade boy belted out this song made popular in two countries by the Mexican rock group, Los Bukis. It was 1987, and I was doing fieldwork in a rural Mexican immigrant-sending community I call San Felipe, for an ethnography of families and their children who emigrated from Mexico to the United States[2

The 'memoir problem', revisited.

The ‘memoir problem’ revisited “That you had parents and a childhood does not of itself qualify you to write a memoir”. Neil Gunzlinger, book reviewer for the New York Times, griped in a review of yet another confessional memoir. It’s true; suddenly everyone is writing memoir, even people who only ever wrote fiction, rock music or poetry, or never wrote before. I even find myself writing memoir, but mining some of my own fictional writing for triggers and nudges, delving into old poems for clues and lines of inquiry. After all, the memory does not always linger on. Now, since revisiting this autobiographical writing as a resource for chapters of my Creative Nonfiction PhD thesis, a food memoir, in this paper I’ll discuss attempts made to fictionalise the ‘true’ events of the stories, and the uses made of them, to revitalise memoir. I also reflect on the work of controversial memoirist Karl Ove Knausgaard, whose six-volume work, ‘My struggle’, has offended members of his extended family, critics and purists, or simply bored many readers with the impossibly detailed accounts of his life, to ask again of memoir, “Should it be artful or truthful?

The creative potential of metaphorical writing in the literacy classroom

Creativity is difficult to define and a universal definition remains elusive. However, common words associated with creativity affirm that it concerns novelty and originality, hallmarks of many great and enduring texts. Students can also be encouraged to surface original ideas through constructing their own creative texts. This article outlines such a project that focuses on metaphorical writing with students in the primary school setting. When teachers foster creativity in the literacy classroom, they provide openended lessons, encourage variety and innovation, and allow time to play with ideas. Engaging students in writing their own metaphorical texts is one way in which students can generate novel responses and multiple interpretations as outlined in this paper. The students’ texts reveal unique voices that range from the playful to the dramatic in their creative exploration of what it means to be human. The potential of such writing for engaging students is discussed alongside the value of metaphorical writing for encouraging emotional exploration, imagination and sheer enjoyment