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"Papen, Uta"
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Literacy Research and Its Relationship with Policy: What and Who Informs Policy and Why Is Some Research Ignored?
Socio-cultural and practice-based approaches to literacy, associated with the (New) Literacy Studies, having emerged in the 1980s, nowadays are an established research field. Based on in-depth research, in many contexts and countries, the (New) Literacy Studies has much to offer to teachers and policymakers. And yet this impressive body of work has had little impact on policy. Taking as my example England, I ask what research has shaped policy in the past 30 years and why socio-cultural and practice-based studies have been ignored. Thus, I address the question of where the field has been and where it should go to from the point of view of its relationship with policy. My focus is on the initial teaching of literacy in primary (elementary) schools. I discuss three factors which I believe contribute to our struggles to influence policy: the policy environment itself and how it has changed; the wider economy of literacy research and what knowledge counts in the interface between research and policy; and, finally, the role of the media and public discourse in the relationship between research and policy. I end with questions about what we may have missed and where the field might want to go.
Journal Article
Literacy, learning and health : a social practices view of health literacy
In this article, the author uses a social practices view of literacy to challenge dominant conceptions of health literacy. Health literacy is frequently defined as an abstract skill that can be measured through individual performance tests. The concept of health literacy as a skill neglects the contextual nature of reading and writing in health care settings. It risks ignoring the many ways in which patients access and comprehend health information, make sense of their experience and the resources they draw on. The article presents findings from a study of forty five literacy and ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) students' health-related reading and writing practices in the northwest of England. The author suggests that health literacy needs to be understood as a situated social practice and that it is a shared resource frequently achieved collectively by groups of people, for example families. The author concludes with some reflections on the implications of this research for adult education practice. [Author abstract]
Journal Article
Signs in cities: the discursive production and commodification of urban spaces
The analysis of signs in cities is known as research into ‘linguistic landscapes’. Following Jaworski and Thurlow (2010), this paper focuses on ‘semiotic’ not linguistic landscapes. I argue that visual images and visual aspects of writing such as font or colour are essential for the meanings conveyed on signs. As an example, I examine the semiotic landscape of parts of Prenzlauer Berg, a neighbourhood of the former East Berlin. Neglected in the 1980s, after reunification, this originally working class area became middle class and trendy, popular for its shops, cafes and arts culture. Using multimodal and ethnographic methods, my paper reveals the important role commercial signs and street art play in the discursive re-construction of this gentrified neighbourhood. Both contribute to the area’s commercialization and aestheticization. My paper also illustrates how semiotic landscapes contribute to placemaking and the commodification of urban spaces. The combination of multimodal analysis with interviews with sign authors allowed for insights into the reasons specific semiotic choices were made, adding to our understanding of discourse production by revealing intended meanings which were not identifiable based on text analysis alone.
Journal Article
Youth Workers as Literacy Mediators: Supporting Young People's Learning About Institutional Literacy Practices
This article examines the role of youth workers as literacy mediators: people who help others with written texts. Drawing on a secondary analysis of data from a qualitative study conducted in Quebec, Canada, the authors discuss situations in which staff from a community‐based organization helped young people with written texts, such as bureaucratic letters and forms. Such institutional literacy practices were found to be stressful and difficult but were crucial for the young people's ability to access resources and opportunities. Literacy mediation, contrary to what other studies have shown, offers important opportunities for literacy learning. The youth workers were able to counter the negative emotions that dominant literacy practices often provoked and, in so doing, helped young people develop greater confidence and ability to deal with such literacy practices in a more informed and empowered way.
Journal Article
Creativity in everyday literacy practices : the contribution of an ethnographic approach
In this article the authors explore creativity in everyday literacies. They argue that much creativity can be found in the seemingly mundane and repetitive acts of text production and text use that are part of everyday life and work. Such creativity can only be identified, however, by looking beyond the texts themselves and examining the practices of making and engaging with texts. Once conventional text-based notions of creativity, which focus on aesthetic features of language, are left aside, creativity can be understood as a 'popular' and 'ubiquitous' event. To support the authors' argument, they give examples from two different contexts: research on literacy in a parish community in the North-West of England and a study of literacy in relation to community-based tourism in Namibia. [Author abstract]
Journal Article
Pregnancy starts with a literacy event: Pregnancy and antenatal care as textually mediated experiences
As a literacy researcher my academic attention is usually focused on how other people use reading and writing in their everyday lives. In this article, for the first time I turn my researcher's gaze onto myself. I present a portion of my autoethnography which aimed to document my becoming a mother as a 'textually mediated' experience. I discuss three aspects of this experience: 1) the role of the 'Green Notes', a personal maternity record, as an example of how the literacy practices of pregnancy and antenatal care are shaped by institutional norms and procedures; 2) the significance of my own reading and writing activities in the process of 'making sense'; and 3) the role of reading and writing in what I have called 'difficult moments'. The article concludes with a reflection on the potential of autoethnography for social sciences generally and literacy studies more particularly.
Journal Article
Tour guides, textbooks and tv's: uses and meanings of literacy in namibia
In 1990, Namibia finally achieved independence from South Africa. Much has changed in the country side this landmark event. The government has invested in a huge effort of democratisation and development. One of the mainstays of his policy is the National Literacy Programme (NLPN). A decade later, literacy has also undergone important changes. Recent debates have produced a new understanding of literacy that looks at reading and writing not so much as a technical skill, but as a social practice. The 'New Literary Studies', to which this study makes a contribution, are at the forefront of this new scholarly orientation. This dissertation deals with uses and meanings of literacy in various contexts of everyday life and work in Namibia. It encompasses different sets of literacy practices, like having a bank account, buying goods on credit or being a learner in the NLPN. A core section of the thesis concentrates on reading and writing in the economically increasingly important tourism industry. Using an ethnographic approach combined with discourse analysis, the study explores how local people 'take hold' of dominant literacy practices and engage with various forms of power engendered in institutional uses of language and literacy. For a theoretical framework I use Foucault's notion of discourse, as it applies to literacy's relationship with power via knowledge, identity and governance. This study shows that in many contexts of everyday life in Namibia, literacy serves to support and extend institutional practices and forms of power. Yet at the same time it is used by local communities as an important individual and communal resource. In order to access resources and opportunities, learners in the NPLN, tour guides, cleaners and craft vendors build strategic alliances with the dominant institutions of society and seek access to powerful literacy practices.
Dissertation