UKLA 45th International Conference 2009

Do come to the 45th United Kingdom Literacy Association International Conference being held at the University of Greenwich in their historic buildings. 10th - 12th July 2009

You can find all the information about how to book a place here http://www.ukla.org/site/conferences/event/the_45th_ukla_international_conference/

Keynote speakers confirmed so far:
Robin Alexander, Cambridge University

Courtney Cazden, Harvard University

Malorie Blackman, Author

Teresa Cremin, The Open University

Jonathan Douglas, Director, National Literacy Trust

Angela Thomas, University of Sydney

Sarah McIntyre, Petr Horacek, and David Roberts - Illustrators and artists

Sats, Education and Consciousness

As the National Sats in primary schools comes to an end for another year, I have been wondering about what teachers actually think of the practices and processes involved in preparing children to sit an examination at such relatively young ages. Is there a 'hegemony' of practice in primary schools which has made these processes appear 'natural' and unquestionable as the means to assess children?

"Gramsci used the term hegemony to denote the predominance of one social class over others (e.g. bourgeois hegemony). This represents not only political and economic control, but also the ability of the dominant class to project its own way of seeing the world so that those who are subordinated by it accept it as 'common sense' and 'natural'. Commentators stress that this involves willing and active consent. Common sense, suggests Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, is 'the way a subordinate class lives its subordination' (cited in Alvarado & Boyd-Barrett 1992: 51)" (Chandler 2000:1 http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism10.html).

Does this make teachers (and teacher educators) believe that grading children with a National Curriculum level and sub-level is in some way a reliable and responsible way of articulating a child's intellectual development? Has this become part of the professional consciousness of teachers? I'm not convinced at all. Just as I question Gramsci's conception of 'hegemony' as a way to explain what he saw as the lack of class-consciousness and will to fight back against the exploitation of capitalism - even when the inequality of society is obvious - I also question those who have this view of teachers' professional consciousness and their knowledge of schooling and learning.

Right Honourable Friends

“The public mood in Britain this week has been beyond extraordinary. The only analogy that springs to mind is with the hysteria that took hold following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, 12 years ago.
“Then, the British turned on the royal family for its refusal to join in the display of emotional incontinence that they thought ought to characterise grief. The crowds assembled outside Westminster Abbey for the funeral were so worked up that if Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, had ended his eulogy with a call to arms, I am convinced they would have marched behind him to overthrow the monarchy.” (Financial Times, 16-17 May)

Write Away Conference: Something Old, Something New

Friday 22nd May at the Institute of Education in London - superb children's literature conference. Go to the 'Write Away' web site for more info. http://www.writeaway.org.uk/ and a booking form.

Congratulations to MA Literacy and Learning Graduates

Congratulations to all those Masters in Literacy and Learning Students who graduated this week and last week in Rochester and Canterbury Cathedrals. I'm just sorry I could not get to the Rochester ceremony.

Congratulations to all the tutors who guided those hard-working teachers to reach this achievement. It is so heartening to know that that there are teachers in schools who have thought hard, researched and written about education at this level. Long may it last!

Pedagogy as Gift/Meetings with Minds

I'll start this blog with some thoughts about Literacy on the left and then move on to report on a good day on Tuesday 12th May

The book Pierre Bourdieu and Literacy Education edited by Albright and Luke (pictured) is 'so right' for my thinking about my book I'm writing called Literacy on the left. I'm very interested by left thinking educationalists', like Allan Luke, views on how to overcome patterns of underachievement amongst the working class whilst operating within a capitalist society that, from a 'left' perspective, has interests in the social reporoduction of inequality. I'm interested to explore to what extend they can be seen to be or not to be part of a 'reformist discourse', as I'm calling it.

Luke's chapter called 'Pedagogy as Gift' is intriguing in Luke's attempt to reconcile the dilemma by drawing on Bourdieu's discussion of pre-capitalist approaches to pedagogy. Pedagogy as gift is decribed thus:

"..a practice normatively expected and reflexively constructed in reciprocal acts and exchanges with elders. I speak not of an ideal literacy event - but rather of a literacy that is insured and assured by contract between elders and youths, families and schools, cultures and civic societies, by a moment of "positive reciprocity" (polanyi, 1944) in the dialectics of cultural gifting" (2009:81)

I am getting the feeling that Luke's views can be associated with post-mordernist perspectives. This chapter is also really interesting, in the way he describes different models of literacy education that attempt to overcome the dilemma faced by all teachers in teaching working class and subordinated groups in the present socio-economic order.

I spoke to Michael Rosen last night before his inaugral lecture as visiting Professor at Birkbeck College. He offered to meet me and talk about my book and the place of his father, Harold, (and Michael) in an analysis of 'literacy on the left' - wonderful!

I was also a judge of the CLPE (formally Signal) poetry prize yesterday afternoon with the poet Jackie Kay. Margeret Meek Spencer was chairing the discussion. Afterwards, on our way to the lecture, I chatted to her about her memories of Basil Bernstein. It was a very good day...

Derby

I'm in Derby. Just for tonight...don't ask. Home Thursday.

Understanding Reading Development

I'm writing a book on Phonics with Kathy Goouch. Below are some thoughts and observations about the nature of learning language both written and oral. Do these observations make us think about how we 'teach' about language - including learning to read?

“Though we share the same earth with millions of kinds of living creatures, we also live in a world that no other species has access to. We inhabit a world full of abstractions, impossibilities, and paradoxes...We tell stories about our real experiences and invent stories about imagined ones, and even make use of these stories to organise our lives. In a real sense, we live our lives in this shared virtual world. And slowly, over the millennia, we have come to realise that no other species on earth seems able to follow us into this miraculous place” (Deacon, 1997:22)

The unique way that human language can represent the world – objects, events and relationships – facilitates an infinite variety of representations and a powerful means of predicting, organising memories and planning actions (Deacon 1997). This form of representation of the world shapes our thinking and the ways with which we know our world. Our acquisition and our uses of language are natural, honed by thousands of years of evolution, and are inseparable from our intelligence. As teachers, our understanding of general human abilities and the awe inspiring phenomena of human intelligence and mental capability will direct our approach to curricula and pedagogy. As we begin to realise our role as mediators of a culture and nurturers of young minds we recognise that teaching has no place for amateurs or ill-informed technicians; it is a position for fully informed, creative professionals.

The linguist Chomsky (1972) puzzled over how children as young as four seem implicitly to know an enormous amount about complex grammatical rules and their application, without any kind of teaching – indeed this form of knowledge is arguably far too complex for children to learn in any formal way. Chomsky argues that a child’s incredible feat of learning results from some kind of ‘innate competence’.

Goodman (1996) contends that written language is learned later in life, after oral language, but is in no way less natural than oral language acquisition. Both, he argues
“develop out of the need of humans to think symbolically and to communicate in a growing range of contexts and functions, as individuals and as societies. Written language is an extension of human language development that occurs when it’s needed: when face-to-face and here-and-now language is no longer sufficient.” (p. 177-125)