Tuesday, 18 December 2012

Viewpoint number 2: Ideological Literacy


In contrast to Autonomous Literacy, Ideological literacy appears to 'stand up for the little guy'.  By this, I mean that some of the community-based origins of literacy teaching and practice as a collaborative venture appear to inform this approach. This is a simplistic way of looking at it I agree, but broadly; take a look at these ideas and tell me what you think about them:

·      A student’s Literacies accompany the student as he or she arrives at the classroom, these have evolved as a series of situated events in their lives.

·      The codes and methods of everyday literacies differ widely from academic conventions and codes.

·      The student’s ability to be critical, or analytical are not linked to, or dependent on, their academic literacies, academic abilities, or levels.

·      Background, culture, race and ethnicity all feature in a person’s Literacy identity – some require more support than others to negotiate new kinds of literacy.

·      By assuming that literacy is a set of skills that can be taught we create false expectations that a student may by-pass knowledge and learning in order to ‘qualify’ as a success.

·      Literacy acquisition does not replace learning outcomes, or does it imply that a new reader can suddenly transfer new skills to new situations.

·      The role of the educator is to engage in a fluid evolving discourse about how we express ourselves, rather than reproducing what we are expected to express.

·      Students are in a relationship with their literacies and require time to transition and adapt to new codes and languages (such as academic literacy)  the time allocation for this is not finite, however ‘academic success’ may measured alongside, rather than against  this.

Therefore, educators may hold views about Literacy that reflect their general philosophical views about education. Such pedagogical approaches might coincide with, and reinforce our views about Literacy. 

What do you think?

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