Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T20:50:09.765Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

What Is Literacy for? A Critical Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

William P. Bintz*
Affiliation:
Language Education Department, School of Education, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana USA 47401
Get access

Extract

Last year I was a Visiting Lecturer in the Aboriginal Studies Program at Armidale C.A.E. Before lectures began, I was invited by the College to a dinner honoring recently graduated Aboriginal students. At that dinner a number of graduates were introduced and invited to comment about their experiences in tertiary education. As each graduate spoke, it became apparent that many had shared similar experiences. For instance, many confided that they were initially very apprehensive about enrolling in formal schooling. Their apprehension was due to a sense of self-doubt as to whether they were willing to make the necessary sacrifices, as well as to a shared premonition that, as one student commented, “for most Aboriginal people, going through formal schooling is like taking a journey into the unknown.”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Angus, L.B. 1986: Developments in ethnographic research in education: From interpretive to critical ethnography. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 20: 1.Google Scholar
Anyon, J., 1981: Social class and school knowledge. Curriculum Inquiry, 11: 1.Google Scholar
Apple, M, 1979: Ideology and Curriculum. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Ashcroft, L, 1986: Defusing ‘Empowering’: The what and the why. Language Art.Google Scholar
Ayers, W., 1986: About teaching and teachers. Harvard Educational Review, 56: 1, February.Google Scholar
Bizzell, P., 1988: Arguing about literacy. College English 50: 2.Google Scholar
Boomer, G., 1982: Some features of a universal programme for literacy: A modest proposal.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P., and Passeron, J.C. 1977: Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Bowles, S and Gintis, H., 1977: Schooling in Capitalist America. New York; Basic Books.Google Scholar
Cazden, C., 1987January: The myth of autonomous text. Paper presented at the Third International Conference on Thinkin, Hawaii.Google Scholar
Cummins, J., 1986: Empowering minority students: a framework for intervention. Harvard Educational Review, 56: 1.Google Scholar
Delpit, L.D., 1988: The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people’s children. The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people’s children. Harvard Educational Review, 58: 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyson, A.H., 1984: Learning to write/learning to do at school: Emergent writers’ interpretations of school literacy tasks. Research in the Teaching of English, Vol.18.Google Scholar
Elbow, P.Writing Without Teachers.Google Scholar
Entwhistle, H., 1986: Antonio Gramsci and the school as hegemonic. Educational Theory, 28: 1.Google Scholar
Facey, A.B. 1981: A Fortunate Life. Australia; Penguin Books Ltd.Google Scholar
Fernandes, J.V., 1988: From the theories of social and cultural reproduction to the theory of resistance. British Journal of Sociology, 9:2.Google Scholar
Freeman, E.B. and Tobie, S., 1986: The social meaning of literacy: Writing instruction and the community. Language Arts.Google Scholar
Freire, P., 1987: Letter to North-American teachers. In Shor, I. (Ed.): Freire for the Classroom: A Sourcebook for Liberatory Teaching. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Freire, P., 1985: Reading the world and reading the word: an interview with Paulo Freire. Language Arts, 62:1 January.Google Scholar
Freire, P., 1970: Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York, Herder and Herder.Google Scholar
Geertz, C., 1975: Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory for culture. In Geertz:, C.Interpretation of Cultures. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Giroux, H.A., 1983: Theories of reproduction and resistance in the new sociology of education: A critical analysis. Harvard Educational Review, 53:3, August.Google Scholar
Gramsci, A. 1971: Selections from Prison Notebooks. Hoare, Quintin and Geoffrey Smith, New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Harste, J., Woodward, V. and Burke, C., 1985: Language Stories and Literacy Lessons. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Harste, J., Cairney, T. and Pierce, K., 1985: The Authoring Cycle: A Viewing Guide. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Heath, S.B., 1980: The functions and uses of literacy. Communication.Google Scholar
LaBrecque, R. 1986: The correspondence theory. Educational Theor.Google Scholar
Luke, A. 1988: The non-neutrality of literacy instruction: a critical introduction. Australian Jnl of Reading, 11:2, June.Google Scholar
Maeroff, G. 1988: Blueprint for empowering teachers. Phe Delta Kappan, March.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl, Theses on Feuerbach, pp.365367.Google Scholar
McLeod, A, 1986: Critical literacy: taking control of our own lives. Language Arts, 63:1, January.Google Scholar
Neisser, U. 1976: Cognition and Reality. New York, Freeman.Google Scholar
Reynolds, D., 1980–81: The naturalistic method of educational and social research - A Marxist critique. Interchange, 11:4.Google Scholar
Shor, I. 1980: Critical Teaching and Everyday Life. Boston: South End Press.Google Scholar
Short, K., Harste, J., and Burke, C., 1988: Creating Classrooms for Authors. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Simon, R.I., 1986 Empowerment as a pedagogy of possibility. Language Arts.Google Scholar
Snow, C., 1983: Literacy and language: Relationships during the preschool years. Harvard Educational Review, Vol.53.Google Scholar
Tunnell, D.R., 1978: An analysis of Bowles's and Gintis’s thesis that schools reproduce economic inequality. Educational Theory, Fall.Google Scholar
Tway, E., 1987: The Resource Centre: Literacies. Language Arts 64:6. October.Google Scholar
Walker, Kath 1964: We Are Going. Brisbane, Jacaranda Press.Google Scholar
Wells, G., 1987: Apprenticeship in literacy. Interchange 18,1/2, Spring/Summer.Google Scholar
Yonemura, M., 1986: Reflections on teacher empowerment and teacher education. Harvard Educational Review, 56:4.Google Scholar
Young, M.F.D. and Whitty, G, 1977: Society, State and Schooling. Ringmer: Falmer Press.Google Scholar
Young, M.F.D., 1977: Knowledge and. Control: New Directions for the Sociology of Education. Longdon: Macmillan.Google Scholar