Building literacy Building literacy education education

for the futurefor the future“an historical conception of the

world that understands movement and change, and that appreciates

the sum of effort and sacrifice which the present has cost the past and

which the future is costing the present”

(Gramsci, 1971, p. 34)

Peter FreebodyPeter FreebodyFaculty of Education and Social Work

The University of SydneyWollongong Summer School, January 2008

My aimsMy aims• Need to theorise the future explicitly

• Need to see the future of ‘literacy education’ as part of broader patterns of social and institutional futures

• Need to have a ‘moral analysis’ of the future …

– including technologies, languages, ideologies of equity and excellence, …

Kress (2003) on four domains of high-speed Kress (2003) on four domains of high-speed change that should preoccupy educatorschange that should preoccupy educators

• economic structures and opportunities in an information-driven economy

• the forms and modalities of communication - a move away from the dominance of written language toward the use of image

• social structures and relations of social power, the reworking of new socio-economic hierarchies, and

• the technologies of communication- a move away from the single dominance of paper-texts toward digital-screen-texts.

The three OECD scenarios for The three OECD scenarios for the global future of schoolsthe global future of schools

1. 1. Attempting to maintain the status quoAttempting to maintain the status quo"Bureaucratic School Systems Continue“"Bureaucratic School Systems Continue“

2. 2. Diverse, dynamic schooling following Diverse, dynamic schooling following deep reformsdeep reforms (“re-schooling”) (“re-schooling”)

i) "Schools as Focused Learning i) "Schools as Focused Learning Organisations“Organisations“

ii) "Schools as Core Social Centres" ii) "Schools as Core Social Centres"

3. 3. Pursuit of alternatives as systems Pursuit of alternatives as systems disband / disintegratedisband / disintegrate (“de-schooling”) (“de-schooling”)

i) "Extending the Market Model" i) "Extending the Market Model" ii) “Learning Networks and the Network ii) “Learning Networks and the Network

Society“Society“iii) "Teacher Exodus and System Meltdown”iii) "Teacher Exodus and System Meltdown”

Warschauer (2007, p. 41)

The future of learning is digital … What constitutes learning in the 21st century will be contested terrain as our society strives towards post-industrial forms of knowledge acquisition and production without having yet overcome the educational contradictions and failings of the industrial age.

“What do you get when you install computers in a

dysfunctional school? A dysfunctional school with

computers.”

What are some of those ”contradictions What are some of those ”contradictions and failings” that hold us back?and failings” that hold us back?

• Our definitions and debates about “literacy

• “Our attitudes about “under-performing” student, families and schools

• Our blind-spots about classroom participation structures

• Our magical beliefs about technology and learning

Defining LiteracyDefining Literacy? ? Setting limits around our imaginationSetting limits around our imagination

Literacy is the flexible and sustainable mastery of a repertoire of practices with the texts of traditional and new communications technologies via spoken language, print and multi-media. (Luke, Freebody & Land, 2000)

Beyond the old debates Beyond the old debates Exhibit I: Xue and Meisels (2004)Exhibit I: Xue and Meisels (2004)

• effects of different forms of early literacy instruction

• phonics instruction vs ‘integrated language arts’ instruction

• hierarchical linear modelling on longitudinal cognitive and literacy data

• 609 kindergarten children, drawn from 2690 classrooms and 788 schools

and they found…and they found…

• code and meaning-centred approaches were evident together in teachers’ practices, very few teachers drawing specifically from only one

• different approaches made different contributions to students’ literacy development

• but students’ achievement was highest when teachers explicitly incorporated the two techniques together in balanced and responsive ways.

Why?Why?Exhibit II: Scott Paris (2005) on Exhibit II: Scott Paris (2005) on

constrained skill setsconstrained skill sets• They are learned (virtually)

completely by (virtually) everyone over a relative short period of time (e.g., alphabetic knowledge, phonemic awareness, etc VERSUS comprehension, vocabulary, genre control, etc)

• acquisition follows an “S”-shaped curve (roughly 3.6-8 years)

•standard parametric statistical procedures are not valid and can only appear valid for the short acquisition phase

Paris concluded: • “unconstrained skills such as vocabulary and

comprehension develop before, during, and after constrained skills are mastered so there is no evidence to warrant instructional priority of constrained skills over unconstrained skills.” (p. 200)

• “(the) risk is that policy-makers and the public may equate success on constrained skills with reading proficiency. This would create a minimum competency approach to reading assessment that does not adequately assess children’s emerging use and control of literacy.” (p. 201)

Exhibit III: CIERA’s 10 research-based Exhibit III: CIERA’s 10 research-based principles (& see CSR):principles (& see CSR):

1. Purposeful, explicit teaching

2. Classroom interactions that support the understanding of specific texts

3. Start before children read conventionally

4. Teach the skills and strategies used by expert readers

5. Analyse each text you wish to use to determine its appropriateness for particular students and strategies

… … CIERA’s comprehension teaching CIERA’s comprehension teaching principles continuedprinciples continued

6. Build on knowledge, vocabulary and advanced language development

7. Routinely use texts from across all genres and school subjects

8. Focus on engagement and motivation

9. Use assessments that are explicitly targeted at informing instruction and monitoring students’ progress.

10. Provide ongoing teacher learning

““Under-performing” students, Under-performing” students, families and communitiesfamilies and communities

• McGaw (2007) PISA 2003: “Australia as a high-performance, low-equity” literacy education system

• The durability of correlations between SES and literacy achievements

• The ongoing need for focus on indigenous students’ achievements

• the need to theorise these issues: the “unready student”, the “unready school”, the “actively disadvantaging school”

The attitudinal settingThe attitudinal settingfrom Freebody Forrest and Gunn 2001

• SES as highly ‘generative’ category• Exonerating ourselves from the SES cycle• Especially via “the culture of families”• Material resources often related to cultural

and intellectual resources requisite for success in school

“... I suppose the money's not there to get them interested in books”

“…there isn't the money to be spent on what you would call a normal upbringing”

The interactional settingThe interactional setting from Freebody Ludwig and Gunn 1995

• The rapidity of classroom life

• The shower of questions

• One gets it right, and on we go

• The mystery of purpose

• The assumption of optimal parents, houses, rooms, and time availability

• The increasing fragmentation of curricular experience

An e.g. of research on ‘beating the An e.g. of research on ‘beating the odds’ in literacy learning – Langer 2001odds’ in literacy learning – Langer 2001

• five-year longitudinal study • What features of instruction make a difference

in student learning, as demonstrated in high-stakes reading and writing tests?

• 44 teachers, 88 classes, 2640 students, 528 additional ‘student informants’ drawn from 25 schools

Main findings? Main findings? schools that beat the schools that beat the odds …odds …

• systematically used a range of instruction (so-called “teacher- and student-focused”) rather than being dominated by one approach to literacy education

• undertook regular assessments that were explicitly integrated into ongoing goals, curriculum activities, and lessons structures

• made overt cumulative connections between knowledge and skills across multiple curriculum areas – “connectedness and continuity in learning”

• engaged students in interactive learning to develop depth and complexity of understanding in literacy, rather than relying heavily on students’ working alone

Reviewing the research on the Reviewing the research on the Internet and schooling (1997-2003)Internet and schooling (1997-2003)

• “Students often have difficulty locating relevant and useful information, and often lack skills in exploring websites, resulting in a focus on trying to find one answer to their question.”

• “Students rarely look at the reliability or authority of the information they locate and use.”

• “The vast amount of information on the web results in access to information, but skills to decipher, weigh up, analyze, and compare that information with other sources is lacking in the research literature.”

Kuiper, Volman, and Terwel (2005)

Our mono-lingual theories and Our mono-lingual theories and research on and literacyresearch on and literacy

• There are over 100 migrant / community languages and ~ 90 Indigenous Australian languages spoken in Australia

• Most readers and writers of English will soon not have English as L1

• For the most part little research capitalises on the distinctive purchase on teaching and learning to read and write English in school that is offered by the increasing numbers of young students for whom English is just one of their languages (Bernhardt, 2003)  

The significance of the criticalThe significance of the critical• The cautionary tale of

Guttenberg and Ramus (Ong, 1958, 1983)

• The down side of New Times: the inadequacy of commonsense as a life resource

• Preparing students to structure their opportunities in the Misinformation Age?

Glyn Davis, Vice-Chancellor, University of Melbourne,Australia Day Speech, 2007, Parliament House, Victoria

“Who are the Australian Heroes?”“Who are the Australian Heroes?”School teachers – “the unacknowledged legislators of every generation, unlikely candidates who get little recognition for their contribution … people who find themselves regularly pilloried in public discussion, despite their importance in our Australian story”“next time a public speaker takes a cheap shot at school teachers, reflect for a moment on just how much our political system, our way of associating, our peaceful streets and national consensus about the norms of public life, are learned from teachers”

The inadequacy of the individual The inadequacy of the individual teacherteacher

• We influence students individually and collectively • They go through our schools moving from one

teacher to another• Therefore we have both individual and collective

responsibilities – including a responsibility to act as a ‘professional collective’

From Anyon on schools, From Anyon on schools, interagency advocacy, the current interagency advocacy, the current

political settingpolitical setting

“education policy cannot remain education policy cannot remain closeted in schools, classrooms, and closeted in schools, classrooms, and educational bureaucracies. It must educational bureaucracies. It must join the world of communities, join the world of communities, families, and students; it must families, and students; it must advocate for them and emerge from advocate for them and emerge from their urgent realities.”their urgent realities.” (2005: 199)

Anyon, J. (2005). Radical possibilities: Public policy, urban education, and a new social movement. London: Routledge.Bernhardt, E. (2003). Challenges to reading research from a multilingual world. Reading Research Quarterly, 38, 112– 117.Freebody, P., Forrest, T., & Gunn, S. (2001). Accounting and silencing in interviews: Smooth running through “the problem of schooling the disadvantaged” In P. Freebody, S. Muspratt, & B. Dwyer (Eds.) Difference, silence, and textual practice. NJ: Hampton. Freebody, P. & Luke, A. (1990). "Literacies" programmes: Debates and demands in cultural context. Prospect, 11, 7-16. Gramsci, A. (1971). “On Education”, in Selections from the Prison Notebooks. (trans by Q. Hoare and G. Smith) NY: International Publishers Kuiper, E., Volman, M., & Terwel, J. (2005). The web as an information resource in K–12 education: strategies for supporting students in searching and processing information. Review of Educational Research, 75, 285-328. Langer, J. (2001). Beating the odds: teaching middle and high school students to read and write well. American Educational Research Journal, 38, 837–880.Luke, A., Freebody, P. & Land, R. (2000). Literate futures: Review of literacy education. Brisbane, Queensland: Education Queensland.McGaw, B. (2007b). Why literacy matters to the community. Plenary, Literacy Summit, Hobart, June. OECD Futures For Schooling www.oecd.org/document/42/0,2340,en_2649_34521_35413930_1_1_1_1,00.html (retrieved 020907) Ong, W. (1958/1983). Ramus: Method, and the decay of dialogue. NY: Methuen.Ong, W. (2002). An Ong Reader: Challenges for further inquiry. NJ: Hampton.Warschauer, M. (2007). The paradoxical future of digital learning . Learning Inquiry, 1, 41-49.