Literacy As Social Practice To Aid In Teaching Education Essay

Literacy As Social Practice To Aid In Teaching Education tasteThe world has changed profoundly over the last two decades, and many of our longstanding touchs about literacy claim to be challenged. As a result, the commentary of literacy is uncomplete a singular or universal unrivaled, and it is often delineate in contradictory government agencys. It is recognised that the article of faith and learning of literacy is a major province of the tames. While some children have some knowledge of literacy acquired before globe schooling, all will pauperization the opportunities for learning to read and write that school provides. The term literacy has often been associated with the knowledge and writing stage of learning and it is no surprise that the way the community thinks how literacy is learned in schools can discover vastly different viewpoints. It is important to none that the way in which it is defined will shape the kinds of policies and approaches to educational a ctivity and learning that be adopted by the field of education.Olsons definition focuses on literacy as a cognitive put, which is needed for work, education and well-disposed interaction. This view prevails that literacy is a simple, learned cognitive scientific discipline that one learns to read and write just as one learns to waive a ball, ride a bicycle or make a cake. It is clearly perceived, once the skill has been mastered. Street (1985) refers this view of literacy as the self-governing literacy where those who master this skill can use it to advantage of influence and prestige.In contrast, Street contemp refreshing-fangleds that literacy should have a more societal focus, such as the assumption of it contri evidentlying knowledge according to accessible- pagan contexts. He defines this alternative nonion as ideological literacy which refers to the friendly conceptions and uses of literacy. This viewpoint suggests that literacy is an aspect of defining poser of society. Street (1997) extents this notion by arguing that literacy not only varies with affectionate context and with cultural norms and discourses, but that its uses and gists argon embedded in dealings of power. This suggests that literacy is what society achieves, and society is, to some extent, what literacy contributes to it.Furthermore, an other(a) view of literacy is that of critical literacy that is apprised by the work of Paulo Freire (1972), who conceptualizes literacy not as reading the word but as reading the world. This advocates the emphasis of the empowering role that literacy can and should play in reshaping the way in which one lives and works. Wallace (2001) explains that the empowering potential of literacy is articulated in variation ways to encourage late literates to use literacy as a sum for educational change and for the literate person to reflect on what is unconventional in their world and use the enabling power of literacy to change that world .Furthermore, Wallace views this potential as a means to reshape approaches to English language teaching, not just for first language learners, but for the majority of users of English who are countenance language English speakers. She proposes that the variety of labels given to English in its worldwide role be replaced by what she calls literate English, one with which it is not a reduced or simplified model of English which restricts confabulation to basic patterns of interaction, but a globular English that should be dilate to serve global needs. Luke and Carrington (2002) discuss this further with the notion of literacy as cultural capital by suggesting how to construct a literacy education that addresses new scotch and cultural formations providing our students with the ability to think critically and globally in a world that, increasingly, will require a politically and fondly mobile citizen (NOTE, 2007).Models of LiteracyIn the minds of many in the community, an impor tant function of schooling is that it teaches literacy with the teaching of literacy this is often held to be the most important thing that schooling provides. As a result, literacy remains high on the educational and political agenda at national and international levels and continues to be contested and debated. There appears to be three main models of literary which have implications for policy-making, teaching and learning autonomous, friendly and critical literacy.The first is the cognitive or autonomous model, which has dominated educational policy for the last two decades especially in the UK with the introduction of the subject area Curriculum which then was preceded by the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) in the late 90s. Both of which attempted to transform literacy teaching in the primary and lowly school. Goodwyn and Findlay (2003) are encouraged by the aim of the NLS to demystify subject teaching and to involve all subject specialist in helping pupils perish literate within each subject. However, the emphasis on the autonomous literacy model is a failure to acknowledge the ever changing nature of literacy. This skills-based view of a universal or aptitude represents the sum of literacy in name of limited mental operations. Therefore, if we view literacy teaching and learning as a matter of mastering certain important, but essentially basic technical foul skills in control of such things as the spelling and writing system, and perhaps how to shape simple scripted sentences. Literacy passs a relatively simple and simple(a) matter, learned in the early years and then used and reused in whatever ways appear appropriate. According to Street (1995), such traditional definitions of literacy are based an autonomous model, autonomous because it is extracted from its genial, cultural, and historical context. When treated as a technical skill or mental operation fencesitter of social context, literacy is associated with outlets that have no relati on to the social situations in which it is embedded. In addition, Street (1995) explains, it gives limited attention to social structures within which the concepts and specific cultures are forms. Therefore, in an autonomous model, literacy is separated from its social context and considered an independent protean making it possible to associate literacy with symbolic elements such as progress, social mobility and economic stability (Gee, 1996). In our society, the benefits for being literate has get byn on mythic qualities as Street suggests this literacy myth raises false expectations for those who do be amount literate in comparison to the illiterate who are branded as too lazy or, even worse unable to learn. This situation enables governance to shift focus away from social problems onto individual shortcoming (Street, 1996)The second model of literacy is one that avoids the pitfalls of the literacy myth by capturing the complexity of literacy normals in the social contexts t hat make them centreful. Street (1996) calls this an ideological model of literary, which concentrates on the social practices of reading and writing and the ideological and culturally embedded nature of these practices. In addition, the ideological model maintains a wariness of claims for literacy and distinguishes between these claims and the actual significance of literacy for the plenty involved. Literacy in the ideological model looks beyond a technical definition of literacy to consider literacy practices. Rather than limiting literacy to events that involve reading and writing, Street broadens the area to literacy practices which take into account the behaviour and the social and cultural conceptualizations that give meaning to the uses of reading and writing. This concept of literacy practices gets us away from the literacy myth by re-inserting social and cultural context and arguing that whatever benefits come from literacy also come from the contexts in which it is embe dded.The third model critical literacy is one that as Wallace (2001) explains is efficacious to the extent that it offers a vantage point from which to survey other literacies. like the ideological model, critical literacy is understood as social action through with(predicate) language use that develops us as agents inside a bigger culture. However, it takes us beyond this in providing an active, challenging approach to reading and textual practice by the analysis and critique of the relationship among texts, language, power, social groups and social practice. It shows us ways of looking at written, visual, communicate, multimedia and performance texts to unbelief and challenge the attitudes, values and beliefs that lie beneath the surface. It has been suggested that critical literacy links with our advanced(a) lifestyles of a rapidly changing globalised world. Changing societal structures, increasing social and cultural diversity and the marketing of ideas and products throu gh multimedia mean that we need to think about literacy for lifelong learning in new ways. The way that information is received today hadnt been invented twenty years ago. The world is fair increasingly accessible because of instantaneous communications the corpus of print belles-lettres is expanding almost exponentially because of the number of works either being written in English not just by authors from United States or the British Commonwealth but by major authors outside these regions. The consequence is that the technology is not only bringing global English (Wallace, 2004) into occasional contact, the nature of digital communication is aiding in the demise of a exemplar English. Instant messaging, text messaging, and other technological forms of communication are creating new writing practices that often undermine traditional, standard English for the sake of faster, more effective communication. English is becoming more complex than ever, and our students will need to b e flexible and efficient users of a vast array of discourses that disjointed, drill-oriented grammar lessons simply will not teach. We need to be able to make meaning from the array of multimedia, complex visual imagery, music and sound, even virtual worlds that exhibit us each day in addition to written and spoken words. Changes in society are occurring so rapidly that we need to take time to think about whether they will have positive or negative effects upon our ways of living.ConclusionLonsdale et al (2004) imply that the meaning of literacy has changed over time from an elementary decoding of words to a ikon of more complex and diverse skills and understandings. There is a need for these changes to be understood, against a background of economic, social, political and cultural. Literacy as a social practice should be considered in context, rather than the convention of literacy as an individual, cognitive skill. The new skills are premised on the idea that much higher order skills such as critical thinking are now needed by all students. Goodwyn et al (2003) suggest that students once needed literacy to be told what to do now they need it to know what to do without being told.Street (1985) implies that ideologic literacy requires that we view literacy as much more than the ability to decipher or encode messages on paper. We have to view literacy in the dynamic contexts of politics, social change, culture, education, religion, philosophy, confrontation, and even war. Practitioners of critical literacy have forcefully made the point that literacy is a mechanism of political control as well as a tool for liberation. These views of literacy are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they represent points on a continuum between action and system. At one extreme, autonomous literacy is viewed as something isolated from everything else, as a personal skill or characteristic. At the other extreme, it is seen almost as a primal element in the body structure of reali ty. (SIL, 1999)The teaching of critical thinking plays a central role in the teaching of critical literacy. As the world becomes more complex, increasingly flattened, and, one might argue, ever more interesting and challenging, our students mustiness be alert to enter it as competent, thoughtful, and agentive readers and communicators. In order to prepare them effectively, we as literacy educators must make changes to literacy curricula that traditionally view knowledge making and communication as straightforward, text-based, and individualized, a perspective that was only appropriate before the recent salvo in communicative technologies and resulting economic, social, and cultural realities. To prepare students who can be active and effective world citizens able to make thoughtful decisions and solve global problems, we must first help them to be critical, meta-aware thinkers and communicators. (NOTE, 2007)A consequence of these views of literacy has been that specialists in the field have become more aware that literacy, in twain theory and practice, is more than a simple technical skill. Literacy, by itself, does not lead to health, wealth, happiness, and national development. Literacy is but one element in the development process. The other elements must be included if developmental aspirations are to be attained. (SIL, 1999)Word count 2063